Becoming debt free in 2018

[iammeegan]

I've decided to make a plan to become debt free in 2018.
Money and debt give me terrible anxiety which means I bury my head in the sand and it's become out of control!
So starting in the new year and I'm going to stop spending and start paying everything off.
I would love some support and people to help motivate me.
I have already worked out that I can be debt free in 14 months with some serious cut backs and forward planning.
I'm currently on mat leave but will be returning to work in March which will allow me to pay off more each month

So would anyone like to join me?

Whoop - that's another £20 paid off my credit card due to keeping the food shop under budget.
If I can keep doing that each week I'll take £1,000 off the total in a year without missing the money at all, I am also fixing payments at £180, which was this months minimum payment - thanks for the tip TalkinPeace

Just paid hopefully my last interest heavy payment off cc-0% and standing order should kick in next month!

Well done amiaweed!

AmIAWeed - well done!

I've now put both credit cards on interest free and managed to get 33 months on it.

Min payment is £85 but I will do £100 per month. I've allowed myself a little extra in my debit account to stop the need of using credit.

I've also set myself up a spreadsheet which I can use on my phone, so have budgeted outgoings for the month, including things like events I know I'm going to (motorbike thing this weekend) and then I know exactly what is left in the pot for those non planned days.

I'm going to keep all my receipts and update my s/sheet daily (couple of minutes a day) which should have the desired shock effect of seeing money dwindling and stop being so frivolous!

GinKiwi
Well done on the interest free credit cards thats my job for this evening.
I have a spreadsheet I use and when I keep it updated every weekday it does really focus your mind.

I then round my main account down but the odd pennies every day currently putting it against my credit card but will be putting it towards my holiday account.

I never knew you could pay money into your account at the post office so I've got some money from stuff I've sold on gumtree, im marching down there this afternoon to deposit it then tonight its going on my credit card so i cant spend it like i have every single other penny I've made from selling stuff!

Please can I join? Probably got a good £15k on 0% credit cards. I don't think I'll be debt free in 2018 but I could make a start?

Twinkle please do join. I'm afraid I have failed spectacularly through February to curb my spending, possibly why I've been so quiet. I do hope March will be better :/

Can I join? I’ve got £1,500 on a CC and £800 on a personal finance loan that’s due to end in Dec (not worried about the loan really tbh as I can’t pay it off early without incurring a penalty anyway so ce la vie) my CC is the one I want to clear. It did have £8,500 on it this time last year until I was v fortunate and my parents gifted me £10,000 to clear that and a £2,800 overdraft facility yhat Barclay’s started charging me £2 a day to be in!! So I cleared the overdraft and a massive chunk of the CC immediately, which I will be forever grateful to them for. (I couldn’t honestly tell you what I had even spent it on, it was just debt that I’d racked up over 10 years from living beyond my means )

Anyway, I’m now left with the above and determined to be debt free in 2018. I’m setting up a standing order for £150 a month for 10 months tomorrow so I’m hoping my CC will have completely cleared by Dec. I MUST not spend on it between now and then, I really don’t stull want to be in this situation this time next year!

Confused - cut the card up or if you really can't bear do that, stick it in some water in a tray and freeze it, and don't get it out again! I've got one CC left, it's taking a while to clear it down but I'll get there, got rid of the big overdraft anyway too. Takes time but I'm paying more attention to what I spend these days!

I try and save £250 a month and my repayments are £250 a month to clear £500 a month off the debt. All on 0%.

Get into the habit of buying everything with your debit card.
That way it is not adding to credit
but also you cannot fritter it - the way cash seems to evaporate

and then every month, download your bank statement and analyse what you have spent and what you can live without

Good advice, @talkinpeace :)

Is there room for one more? I have around £10k. I've just managed to go back to work after being out of work for 4 years being seriously ill. This week is about finding exact totals etc. Actually excited to be in a position to really start tackling this at last.

There is ALWAYS room for more people to join the gang when it comes to taking control of debt CMH123

£10k is utterly doable - if its on credit cards, do the standing order trick and it will be gone in two years

( even the FCA are now copying my idea because it works )

TalkinPeace to clear a cc debt of 10k over two years using the standing order trick, what would the monthly payment need to be?

mywayaltheway
about £5 more than you paid this month.
Fixed for every month
(caveat - pop it into the spreadsheet and see)
Seriously, its not a lot of difference to clock up amazingly fast

Is anyone still doing this?

I posted on this thread a while back but haven’t really done much since.

Last night me and OH sat down and calculated the amount of debt we are in. It’s around £21K. So we made a plan to pay it off as quickly as possible.

We worked out that we have around £900 left after paying all bills, travel to work, food shop budget of £300 (me, DH and 3-year-old DC).

Out of that £900, how much do you think would be a realistic amount to keep as family spending money? £100 a week? £50? This would also have to include things like we need a new car seat for DC so that would have to come out of this budget too.

I am about to do the standing order trick for 1 of the cards (have 3 credit cards) and will work out the standing order amounts for the other two cards once I get the next statement through.

We have started well – big food shop done yesterday and both took in lunch from home to work today. The 4-day weekend should help with saving on commuting costs too.

Hi twinkle
Lots of people will be plodding along
standing order trick - yup, get it done

what do you mean by family spending money
spending on what ?
do an exact budget and allocate every penny to a category as then you'll know rather than be guessing

I mean things like taking DS out to odd soft play, the odd meal out as a family, etc etc.

twinkle
In my budget spreadsheet (linked in the spreadsheets thread) there are categories for meals out and activities
it means you can literally identify every penny
and thus plan properly

So glad I found this thread! I have 7.5k on credit cards which i desperately want to clear this year. I dont know how realistic that is though!

Hi Pangolina
Put all the cards on the standing order trick
if you can round each up to the nearest tenner you'll clear it all in just over a year :-)

I've just switched another card from DD to SO.

Lunches packed for tomorrow. Spends have been kept to a minimum over the Easter weekend - we took DS to a cheapy cinema deal today, and made sure we had breakfast at home beforehand and came home for lunch straight after so we wouldnt be tempted to eat out!

I have just found out that I am pregnant so want to pay off as much as possible while I can.

Congrats Twinkle
and yes, keep the spending under control and then everything will come together