FourthTimeLucky's 4th attempt to become debt free

Perpetual_Miser · 11 October 2016 at 8:07AM

Glad to see you're making progress.

Little and often really can make a huge difference. Not just in terms of getting the overall debt down, but also psychologically.

Seeing the debt reduce each month is a great feeling. I'm finding I'm already starting to see the snowball effect.

Keep going and good luck.

fourthtimelucky · 1 November 2016 at 4:52PM

After a bit of an absence I am back with a little update. Loan payment and credit card payments have been made for this month. I paid an extra £40.00 off the credit card as I had some overtime payments from work. Rather than use it to bulk up my current account I have put them to good use.

I have also devised a beast of a spreadsheet that details the separate debts and takes in to account the end of interest free periods and also any overpayments.

My outstanding loan balance is now £9,953.74 from £10,760.80 when I started my diary. It is nice to get it under the £10k mark although still a long way to go. The credit card balance is now £2,983.62 from £3,353.62 when I transferred the balance over. I guess that is another threshold now its under the £3k mark. Time to update that signature now...

fourthtimelucky · 30 November 2016 at 3:49PM

Back for a monthly update and this one contains some good news. Today is pay day so out goes my loan repayment and my £100.00 off my credit card bill. In addition to this I have paid an extra £400.00 off my credit card. I won £378.00 in the union raffle at work for the first time. I have five lines a month at the cost of £1.00 and this was my first ever win.

Rather than be tempted to keep it for Christmas or a rainy day or even treat myself to a little bit of it I instead topped it up to £400.00 and paid it off my credit card. I did regret not keeping a little aside but would have just frittered it and my Christmas plans are all budgeted.

Signature updated to show recent payments. It is nice to see a jump like that in the percentage paid off.

Perpetual_Miser · 2 December 2016 at 5:13PM

Glad to see you're making great progress.:T

Don't forget to enjoy Christmas, though, and be careful not to underestimate how expensive it can be! (speaking from experience here!).

fourthtimelucky · 4 January 2017 at 12:19PM

It has been a while but back to update my DFD.

Christmas went really well and was actually relatively frugal. I was in the surprising position of having some money left over come pay day which was nice.

I have reverted to my standard £100.00 payment from my credit card (plus £25.00 as an extra) and the contractual loan payment of £269.02. I plan to check my pennies toward to end of the month and see if I have scope to pay any more off the credit card balance.

This month's payments take the total debt under £12,000.00 which is another milestone met and the fact it is now 2017 means I will be debt free the year after next!.

fourthtimelucky · 9 January 2017 at 9:44AM

I have just checked my internet banking after the final bill for the month went out and I am in the unusual position of having a lot more money left that I am used to. I think my frugal ways are starting to pay off.

I also upgraded my phone without having to pay any more. I got a new handset and an even better tariff for the same price I was paying previously. It is relatively expensive at £37.40 a month but its an iPhone 7 with 20GB of data and I more than get my monies worth. I am on a staff tariff as a friend works for the phone company which I guess is Money Saving right?

I plan to continue with frugal January and then pay some more off my credit card balance. I was tempted to do it now but don't want to leave myself short.

It finally feels like I am getting somewhere..

fourthtimelucky · 9 January 2017 at 3:45PM

Two more bits of good news.

1 - I have sold my old mobile phone for £100.00 which will be going straight off the credit card once the money clears.

2- I have contributed to a book that was released at the weekend and will be receiving 10% of the royalties on a bi-monthly basis. I have no idea how much this will be but 72 hours after release my share stands at £18.55 which is better than a kick in the teeth.

fourthtimelucky · 12 January 2017 at 10:41AM

Looking for a quick bit of advice if anyone can help;

Now things are getting on to an even keel and I am managing my money a lot better I was toying with the idea of reducing my overdraft. It is £900 at the moment and has been since I finished university many moons ago. I haven't been in it for over a year and feel I would benefit psychologically from reducing it.

Is there anything obvious I am missing when considering this?
- will it affect my credit/show as a search?
- could it be refused and withdrawn totally?

I bank with HSBC and the process of changing it appears to be an automated process.

All advice welcome...

fourthtimelucky · 18 January 2017 at 10:57AM

I've just had a little bit of good news so thought I would share it.

I contributed toward a book that was published at the start of the year. It is selling well and looking like netting me over £100 for the first month which will go straight off my credit card balance.

It has set my mind away thinking I could write more and add to my sole self-published title to try and rake some more money in. I need to balance that with the time it will take but it is definitely something I am going to give a little more thought to.

fourthtimelucky · 31 January 2017 at 10:42AM

Pay day again and another round of payments from the ongoing debts.

These are the difficult days when the thrill of being organised and making a dent in the debt is countered by the monotony of it all and the realisation that I'm less than a fifth of the way through money wise and a quarter of the way through time wise.

I've made the standard payment of £100.00 plus an extra £50.00 off my credit card. The extra payment is from money left over in my current account at the end of January which was a pleasant surprise.

The credit card balance is currently £2,308.62 from a high of £3,352.62 which means I have now cleared over £1,000.00.

The current state of play is £11,455.30 remaining which breaks down as £2,308.62 on the 0% credit card and £9,146.68 remaining on the loan.

I am expecting the payment from my contribution to the published book sometime this month and think I will pay that off the credit card once it arrives. I am also due some back pay for some overtime at work. It has been delayed by two months which is kind of a pain but also means the figure will be higher when it does eventually arrive. I think I will throw that at the CC too in an effort to get it down ASAP.

Cheers for reading and good luck in your endeavours.

FourthTimeLucky's 4th attempt to become debt free

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