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?

I think you might be onto something there, before I met my husband I was a single parent for 6 years and great at managing my pennies, 6 years with him and I've lost all sense!
There is an element of it should be easier with 2 incomes but in reality we've moved from a crap area to a really nice village with a big mortgage, we've started going on caravan holidays whereas I never had holidays before him, and now I drive and have a car which I never did before.
I did try thinking of where money has gone and realised most my reasons are ridiculous, I also panic buy on Amazons flash sales lots so I have deleted the app from my phone this morning.
Also made a meal planner for the month and got my food shop down to £60 from £100 yesterday, it helps we're doing dry January...!

That's brilliant! Meal planning has been a god send here. I always panic but when it comes to food and i always feel I need to buy more.

Deleting the app is a good idea but I would change passwords just so it's even harder to buy. I also find signing out every time helps because amazon is way to easy with its one click buy

weed
There is a plug in for most browsers that stops you checking out items from your shopping basket within 6 hours

• cannot remember the name, heard it on Radio 4 -

but the principle of separating the I want to buy something , anything from I shall spend money And once you relearn deferred gratification and the difference between want and need life will get easier. For now, delete ALL cards from ALL online accounts (including Paypal and Amazon) Set up your cookies so you have to retype the whole lot every time

Ta1kinPeace
I started drafting a reply which was 'justifying' why I couldn't do this....then realised you were right!
I have now deleted my credit card from my paypal account and Amazon. I then messaged Amazon asking if there was a way my card details can be saved for subscribe and save but not for main shopping - they have confirmed there isn't. I was all set to leave it at that and leave my debit card linked until the guy called me an inconvenience, so now i'm feeling quite anti Amazon and their so called 'convenience and customer service' and will see if I can get cat food and litter cheaper elsewhere!

The longest journey starts with the first step. You are on your way

Hope everyone is getting on ok, decided today we are cancelling our sky subscription for the foreseeable future until we get a handle on our debt. It feels great to be able to take active steps towards getting rid of that credit card!!

Confusedwife you will be surprised at how much you don't miss it. There is such a variety on programme available online now for free and freeview channel are brilliant to.

It's hard to give these things up but they are a luxury and can be lived without. Well done

Marking my place and off to do the standing order trick.

No clothes shopping in 2018 for me. I have more than enough and I don't know how much I wear/like any of it anyway.

Ive always been terrible with money but have always earned quite well so am able to balance it out. DH doesn't know about some of my cards. Time to sort it out before he has to!

Hey everyone, can I join please? I have about 15k in credit card debt. I’ve got an offer on one recently paid off for 0% till Aug, I’d then move all to one I already have that has 20 month offer (beer to clear the space off it first!).

Or Barclaycard have offered me 6.9% across lie of balance? My instinct says to do 0% move till Aug and the 0% move again for 20nths which should clear it-does that sound sensible?

The standing order is a great tip! Will do that when moved.

I have to use one cc for work expenses, I plan to change that to dd to pay full balance each month. That has historically been my downfall-pocketing paid expenses and not paying back off cc.

This is the first debt thread I’ve plucked up courage to read thank you iammeegan I feel like I am marginally more in control than previous attempts.

Hi buster, welcome so with the credits I think 0% for as long as you can and whilst on that you can pay off as much as possible on capitol. (Hope I've understood that right)

I get what you mean about the work expenses, it's all well and good saying you'll pay it back but once you have the money to spend again it's harder to convince yourself to pay it off. Setting up the dd sounds like a good idea, that way it's out of your hands and you don't have to think about it.

Hi All, cancelling sky sounds like a good step - I have been trying to think of things we can cancel but our biggest weakness is eating out, wine and giving the gardener extra hours when we are too lazy to do things like cut the grass, we do have green thumb come and treat the grass which would save £30 a month but the grass is in really poor condition due to years of neglect and I think we'd only regret not having it look nice.
My husband earns significantly more than I do and he's promised to pick up a few of the house jobs I want doing, time will tell I guess!!

AmIAWeed maybe write out a list of what needs doing, allocate specific days to do them on and at the bottom you could write in massive letter will save £xxx's and hang it up we're it came be seen everyday

Hopefully then seeing how much it will save will be a good motivator

One of our little expensive s was a window cleaner which was about £10 a month. We've started doing it ourselves and although it isn't a massive saving it's something

Thanks isammeegan I have just done-feels liberating, this is my final chance to sort out I feel. I have a plan and just need to stick to it-easy huh?!

I think I have already started to sleep better just by making a plan. I've buried my head for so long and every so often it creeps up on me and I get to the point of having panic attacks about it.
I still can face going into the bank but am making steps to improve this and facing the problem head on.

You've all kept me motivated and had some really good advice as well

Buster
If you have access to a 0% transfer, move everything you can into that account and then pay it off while you are not paying interest.
The interest is the killer - 6.9% is good, but 0% is much much better.

Window cleaner : mine comes once a month to do the outside. If I want more than that, I do it.

Lawn care : the best trick is to keep the grass half an inch longer and if you can, get a push mower (I have this one Husqvarna ) as being barrel tears the grass less.
And it costs nothing to run
And its a good workout

Ta1kinPeace The lawnmower is a sore subject! I had a nice little flymo, had it years no issues. Husband used it once, went straight over cable and was practically running out to buy a petrol thingy, all weighted that I cant use...except of course HE DOESN'T BLOODY USE IT! He started off V good in the summer, then the light faded by the time he was home at 7 and couldn't do it in the dark, then moaned his weekends were taken up mowing the grass, with it being a new home we had lots of visitors and wanted the home looking good so I'd get the gardener in to cut it prior to peoples arrivals...
I think this year I shall just leave it, the majority of the garden I can do myself but had a lot of help last year getting it under control as our house had been empty a year before we moved in and everything was overgrown and out of control. The front is immaculate when the grass is cut and I just need to get the back how I want it, I thought i'd set mini goals, like every £2k I clear on my card I'll treat myself to a tree for the back garden. Spring/Summer is definitely a killer for me as I spend all spare time pottering in the garden and garden centres

sorry to hijack, I have a slightly odd question. A couple of years ago I was made redundant, at the time I had over £900 in childcare vouchers. As a result of losing my job, we relocated and I'm now in a job I work from home and dont need childcare.
I enquired back in June about a refund on these and HR agreed, since then I have been chasing them on a monthly basis for an update and been ignored for the last 3 months...If I have in writing they will refund the money, is there anything more I can do to actually get the money? That would certainly help clear a chunk of a card

AmIAweed our HD's need to meet up and go to a flymo lesson together, like you I always cut the grass and the one time he did it he ran over a stone which shot and shattered and very large and very expensive window!! Apparently he didn't know he had to check there was nothing on the grass first

I like the idea of a treat as an incentive, from the save the change thing I'm doing I'm going to buy a new set of kitchen knives (ours were a set of 10 now I only have two left) cooking is a hobby of mine and my job. So since I'm not great at saving the idea is the longer I can save the better quality live I can get.

Maybe a heavily worded letter with a set amount of days in which to pay before seeking legal advice? If you have it in writing there is no real fight they are probably being lazy about it but maybe something like that will give them a kick up the arse

Thanks Ta1kinPeace have transfered and set up various reminders for the run out date. Will set up standing order as soon as have next payment info.

I second the push along mower tip, we also have a ridiculous mower that takes super strength to use so I went and got a rotary one from Argos-our lawn has never looked better! You can even do stripes on it

ooooh I do like a nice knife, when we got married I treated myself to a few Robert Welch ones with out gift vouchers, which whilst i'm sure they aren't chef quality beat the £10 for a billion knives in a wooden block I previously had.

I have also spent much of my day unsubscribing to emails that come through from shops advertising sales and have gone ALL day not looking on Amazon. Usually my morning routine is wake up, check emails, Amazon deal of the day followed by Facebook...each time I get the urge I look at a thread on Mumsnet until a customer calls and interrupts/helps me earn more money!

Does the S/O trick work with personal loans as well as I thought those are fixed to be cleared within a specific time period. I have a loan that I pay a fixed amount towards every month. Will there be any benefit switching that amount to S/O instead of DD.

I wouldn't bother switching to s/o for personal loans unless there isn't an option to pay extra via bank transfer.
I have a loan with my bank and I can just transfer however extra a month to it. If you don't have that capability you could set up a s/o alongside you dd to pay extra

dispensation
Yup, as meegan says, the Standing Order trick does not work on loans with a fixed repayment amount.
The magic is on the borrowing where the repayment drops by a teeny bit each month.

In general secured loans have the lowest interest rates
Unsecured the next lowest
Cards the next lowest
Overdrafts the second highest
Payday / Loan shark the extreme highest

Therefore to get debt under control you have to get interest minimised so you pay off the highest interest rate first
regardless of the balance or the term

This weekend was a disaster for spending :/
It was a relatives birthday - a big one so we all went out for a meal, the journey there has used 3/4 a tank of diesel.
The meal itself - we chose cheaper items on the menu, everyone paid their way but literally just theirs to the penny so I ended up adding extra towards a tip as the service was excellent for over 20 people.

On the journey there we stopped off - I get travel sick so we have a midway stopping point at a discount shopping centre. Before I know it son has a new coat, he did need one but then Daughter gets one, she didn't need it.
Someone else recommended a great website and I bought a few bits for daughters birthday next month.
Hair was booked in for Friday so all in all I shelled out £300 this weekend, all added on my credit card because I am about £350 short on my tax bill due 31st January and STILL have customers dragging their heels on paying late invoices
Oh and the dog escaped again from the garden, no idea where he's getting out but it makes me want to spend the £1500 on fencing...which I know I shouldnt