Keeping Motivated During Debt Free Journey

Sharon87 · 16 October 2016 at 6:34PM

Everything except £1500 is on 0%, the rest is on 4.9% now. It's hard to work out my exact debt free date, snowball calculators are useless as when a 0% deal comes to and end I transfer it and there's no snowball calculator that takes that into mind. If I pay £300/month it'll take 3.5 years to pay everything off, but that doesn't include any interest or fees, so probably a few more months, maybe 4 years. But I would like to pay more towards that when I earn a bit more - hopefully should get a pay rise next year as I move up in my career. Also a new housemate means I will pay less council tax (my current housemates's a student) so that means a bit more money towards savings or debt. Obviously if I pay more than £300/month I will be debt free sooner, so I will try and do that.

The holiday's not just for SAD, my current job is quite stressful right now and I need some time off, even just 4 days to help de-stress! I haven't had a proper holiday this year and thanks to Quidco and hotels.com it's super cheap (£192 for flights, hotel, breakfast and dinner!) The rest of the cashback will go towards savings or debt. Haven't decided how to split it yet. Holidays are the one thing I never used to do, but these days I feel I need them more, even if it's just a weekend away. I would rather spend money on a holiday than unnecessary clothes or stuff that just clutters up my room.

As for freecycle, it's a bit rubbish in my area, and it may sound snobbish I don't want someone's old book case! Other things I wouldn't mind, but I want a new bookcase and you can get them cheap. I did actually go to IKEA today to buy all the small bits to replace my housemates things she's taking. I spent a total of £28 lol! I did intend to buy either a book case or a new TV stand today, but the book case was too big for my friend's car and couldn't find a TV stand I wanted. My bookcase is too small now which is why I need to replace it, I need a tall one, it's served me well for 10 years, now it needs replacing, especially as the back is taped up to hold it together! I don't replace anything unnecessarily. only when they start falling apart or become redundant.

How much were the light alarm clocks, that was something I was thinking of getting to help me wake up in the darker mornings.

Meepmeep · 18 October 2016 at 7:27AM

Maybe you could track what your debt would be if you would have kept spending at the rate you were before your LBM? So, for eg you are not just paying £300 a month off your total debt of say £10,000 and watching it go down by that much each month - you're actually doing much better as could be each month the debt goes up by 300£ which means you're £600 better off a month.
Random figures I know, but you get the point.....

I know what you mean about motivation so many times I'd start off well but it seemed impossible - buy you can do it. And you're going to feel so bl00dy good when it's sorted!

EssexHebridean · 18 October 2016 at 10:08AM

You asked earlier in the thread about the amount you should budget for your 2018 holiday. The answer to that is the amount it will cost divided by the number of months before you go.

I think you need to make a decision on whether you want to be debt free, or whether you want to be able to carry on with your desired level of social life. I'm afraid I don't think you can have both, at least not in any sensible level of time. If you REALLY hammer your debts for a while, you can get things cleared off in a far shorter time - yes it will still take a while, sadly it takes longer to pay off debt than it does to run it up in the first place! The longer it takes to pay off, the harder it will be, and the more deprived you will start to feel. If you can make use of the LBM "burst of enthusiasm" to really get stuff cleared, the boost that seeing the numbers fall will provide will help you through.

determined_new_ms · 18 October 2016 at 10:46AM

does your holiday in 2018 have to be a once in a lifetime experience? I have been to lots of places on a budget. Went to Morocco in 2011 after clearing our debt and it cost sub £400 for flights and accommodation. If I went again I suspect accommodation would be less as last time we booked an apartment for 10 days but once there realised we would have been better to book a couple of nights and then booked into Riads while there. Going to Morocco was something I had wanted to do ever since watching Hideous Kinky when it first was released. so for me this was a dream holiday.

If you are looking for a package holiday you can always pick them up for £500 or less.

If you're thinking travelling around Asia, America, South America I agree if it were me I would wait until my debt was cleared.

I did still go on holiday's while we were paying our debt but they were always extremely frugal finds

determined_new_ms · 18 October 2016 at 10:47AM

EssexHebridean wrote: »

You asked earlier in the thread about the amount you should budget for your 2018 holiday. The answer to that is the amount it will cost divided by the number of months before you go.

I think you need to make a decision on whether you want to be debt free, or whether you want to be able to carry on with your desired level of social life. I'm afraid I don't think you can have both, at least not in any sensible level of time. If you REALLY hammer your debts for a while, you can get things cleared off in a far shorter time - yes it will still take a while, sadly it takes longer to pay off debt than it does to run it up in the first place! The longer it takes to pay off, the harder it will be, and the more deprived you will start to feel. If you can make use of the LBM "burst of enthusiasm" to really get stuff cleared, the boost that seeing the numbers fall will provide will help you through.

Just seen your sig EssexHebridean how amazing!

lazer-zxr · 19 October 2016 at 10:45AM

We've just gone off the rails.
After 18 months of minimal costs, we've booked tickets to go to the London Palladium in Feb (The Divine Comedy), hotels and trains yet to sort out.
But sod it, we deserve a break. I'll limit the whole thing to a £400 weekender.
I'll be on the straight and narrow apart from this.

What do people think of this?

[Deleted User] · 19 October 2016 at 10:58AM

Please tell us you haven't put this trip on tick?

lazer-zxr · 19 October 2016 at 11:16AM

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Please tell us you haven't put this trip on tick?

Haha no, I've learned that lesson.

I have a virtual pot within my cash account for holidays ..... tickets have been bought on debit card from there.

Hotel will be paid for from loyalty points.

Travel will be either be in the car, if I can get a work related customer visit in the area and expense the mileage, or an early booked train ticket again funded by the holiday pot.

EssexHebridean · 19 October 2016 at 11:31AM

determined_new_ms wrote: »

Just seen your sig EssexHebridean how amazing!

Thank you so much! We got the paperwork through from the bank last night confirming it all too - finally beginning to feel real!

lazer-zxr wrote: »

We've just gone off the rails.
After 18 months of minimal costs, we've booked tickets to go to the London Palladium in Feb (The Divine Comedy), hotels and trains yet to sort out.
But sod it, we deserve a break. I'll limit the whole thing to a £400 weekender.
I'll be on the straight and narrow apart from this.

What do people think of this?

I'm sure there will be plenty of opinions, but I'll limit mine to saying that it's not really the "done thing" to hijack someone else's diary thread like this.

lazer-zxr · 19 October 2016 at 11:38AM

EssexHebridean wrote: »

I'm sure there will be plenty of opinions, but I'll limit mine to saying that it's not really the "done thing" to hijack someone else's diary thread like this.

Apologies, but as I understand it,

1) This isnt a DFWB diary ... it was a question thread in the DFWB general forum.
2) The OP asked the question:

How do other people keep motivated during their debt free journey?

So I've posted what we've done as a treat during our DF journey.

So no thread Hijacked, other than your misplaced criticism Essex H. Thanks.

Keeping Motivated During Debt Free Journey

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