Anyone trying to tackle their debts this year?

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

We're making 2021 the year of hammering credit cards and a load we've had for yonks. We're petty spenders which adds up but we also moved house last year and our new house is more expensive by quite a bit (necessary though)
Does anyone want to join me on chipping away at debt however big or small?

Yes me. I need accountability. We are carrying the usual a bit over drawn (the bank told me we spend 85% of the year this way!) and a loan which was needed to get us through a job loss and serious illness phase both of which are resolved now. I need to stop drinking ans shrink too but I guess that’s for other threads!

We are accomplished petty spenders but have plenty of income from Jan onwards so are going to hammer the debt and see if it can be shifted this year.

I want to be free of credit card debt and overdraft by June. I've done the maths and it should work if I'm very careful.
I just need to stop buying things we don't need!
I haven't been out of my overdraft for about 20 years 🙈
In the same situation with having moved to a more expensive house

I'm going to pay the regular set amount on the load while I hammer into the credit card. I got it to boos my credit rating which it has done well but now it's too easy to have have it there. I've deleted it from my phone and Amazon account to make it harder to 'one click'
Then once it's dealt with I'll start adding the money I was paying onto it to the loan payment. I've downloaded a silly 'Debtris' chart which I love. I'm going to stick it on the fridge and colour in a shape for every £100 gone.

I'm doing alongside the usual losing weight, reducing stress etc etc etc. I might be hysterical at this point but something has to give!

Exactly!
Hysteria is a fine motivator!

Me, just like @Bezzi, I plan to be debt free by June. I have credit cards and a 5k loan, I made a monthly plan, I just have to make sure I follow the plan, there will be deviations but if I watch what I spend, that should help.

Me! Moving house soon (I hope) so that'll wipe out the savings we've somehow amassed and kept during lockdown.

But have a £2600 loan and £2500 credit card that I need to have gone by this time next year. Will free up £200 a month! (Or £250 p/m if you consider the payments I was making pre-covid)

Will be following this thread with interest

(Pun not intended!)

Can i join in? This post gave me a little glimmer of hope because I know its not just me. I have 5.6k debt, various different kind of debts. I aim to be paying £200 per month. The last year I’ve paid £25 here and there.

Both me and my husband are focusing on reducing our credit card debt this year. We have almost £30k between us ( a lot from paying for the IVF to have our daughter and a few other bits here and there). We really want to build an extension on our house and have just got planning permission but we want to get our debts right down before re- mortgaging to finance the extension.
If we can reduce our debts by 7-10k it will make a huge difference.

Well whilst I'm not glad to have you all here (because debts can be a bummer) I'm glad to have some company and support.
Our debts are £9k loan that we pay off at £400 a month and £7.5k credit card which I've been putting £500 a month on but the credit card is quite high interest so it didn't seem to make a huge difference.
I save £100 per month for Christmas and £100 pm for my self assessment tax bill.

I paid off all catalogues and store credit type things last year (Next, Very, Studio etc)

I have already made good progress by quelling the urge to get a take away and eating a jacket potato instead.

We're not doing a food shop as planned today because we have a freezer/fridge and cupboard full of food. We go every Friday from habit but it's not needed.

Whilst we won't be able to pay it all off this year I hope to have made a significant dent in it so we can start a decent savings pot for emergencies.

@TitsalinaBumSquash have you looked at transferring to an interest free card? Then the £500 payment will be taken from the balance and not interest.

@grumpypug - I hadn't even thought of that! I'll certainly have a look. Thank you 😊

Unfortunately due to Covid I've lost quite a lot per month financially since March and due to restrictions at work now I still can't earn what I was so didn't save anything last year and our emergency fund ended up paying for a dog vet bill,a new cooker,a new washing machine and recently a new dishwasher.
Oh and just had a £500 bill for the car so emergency fund gone and for the next four weeks about £150 disposable after all bills as long as nothing extra crops up again

We have made a final payment on something this month which will save over £100 a month and two months council tax free which is another £150 per month so that gets 500 bak into the emergency fund and then to tackle other little bills that I want to just get rid of as they all bloody add up quickly each month.

I'm going to extend the weekly shopping day by a day or so each week to try and stretch it out as we go out of habit mooch around and buy more food to ram into the freezer and cupboards with everything else.

I've made a good deal for our gas and electric direct debit for the year so that will save.

[quote TitsalinaBumSquash]@grumpypug - I hadn't even thought of that! I'll certainly have a look. Thank you 😊 [/quote]
The money saving expert forum is useful for finding the best interest free credit card options for you:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/best-0-credit-cards/

If you can get one it gives a really good window for attacking the debt.

Relievedlady - it’s hard when your income dips and when there are no easy recoveries.

When ours was suddenly reduced I started using the local market and their veg. Adding in meal planning and lots of pulses and I really made savings. Hope you have no more surprise outlays

I went part time recently because of childcare so took a loss in earnings. I also need to pay off my overdraft and will have a car bill next week also when my car is in garage to be repaired 😖happy new year... let’s hope financially it’s gets better after this

I'm in. I added up all of my debts yesterday to try to get a handle on things that had been out of control for a while and I felt sick - still do to be honest. I don't even have anything much to show for the nearly 6 figure debt. Part of me wishes I'd stayed in denial as it's just overwhelmingly

I've found a balance transfer for my CC with a 26 month window for 0% interest which is plenty of time. I filled it in and part of the process was how much head the balance and how much of it did I want to transfer, I put all of it.

It does its thing and comes back with successful application but the approved balance is less than the balance on the other credit card. ☹️
I'm not sure what happened tbh but not will have to wait until they email me the details to find out what's what.

MBNA? I had a similar situation. They are very thorough in the application, ask you to understand the terms and conditions, give them all the information, and then they give you something something completely different to what you were expecting. I got JUST the right credit limit, but twice the minimum payment I was paying on the card I transferred from. Despite asking what I can afford and what I wanted to pay per month. I was already ready to overpay.

Onlycakes...it would just have got worse. There are diff strats to manage but also thins like remortgaging can be a life line as long as you understand you have just made your debt cost you a lot more in the long term. There are diff ways of changing that though.

Thanks TS. At least I'm not adding to it I guess

That’s the first step. And that would feel worse eventually.

I've downloaded a no spend reward chart and coloured in yesterday. It's quite satisfying so that'll have to do as the dopamine hit for now

For those who cannot move card balances to Zero interest, please look up the Standing Order Trick on Credit card repayments
as it reduces the repayment term from 20 to 2 years
for no pain at all

Looked that up & it's very useful.found this at thewww.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/1987219-SPREADSHEETS-for-Debt-Control-Budgeting-Mortgages-etc same time that might help some too

Tits if you transfer as much as possible, then you can hammer the other card's remaining balance with as high repayments as you can manage. That will help at least.

I managed to pay off my overdraft during lockdown from the money I saved by working at home. Need to get onto credit card now.