2008 Goals (part 2)

Well I have received my last pay cheque for the year, which I can't bank until Friday so it will not clear until the end of next week. But I will not repeat myself on that topic.
My employer was really lovely and got me out of paying any tax on my Christmas bonus and then rounded my pay cheque up by £75.00 which was even better.
So my end of year figures look like this:

December 2007 (November)
Credit Card 1 £0.00 (£611.21)
Credit Card 2 £3861.41 (£3897.35)
Credit Card 3 £701.00 (£724.13)
Flexiloan £4545.37 (£4645.16)
Bank Loan £3454.47 (£3838.30)
Bank Overdraft £49.18 (£100.00)

Total Debt £12,611.43 (£13,816.15)

My finances haven't been looking this good for more than a year, in fact this time last year my debt balance was £15,692.84. This figure didn't include my tax bill which was due at the end of January and for which I had not saved for, so wasn't paid off until August. By which time my July payment was due and well you can see the deadly little cycle this creates. This time I am prepared and have monies set aside in a high interest saving account. So will be able to pay January's payment in full!

The two rules I break when it comes to paying off my debt are:

Saving . I am determined to clear my debt's and have money in the bank afterwards. After reading the Richest Man In Babylon, I am personally sure this is the right thing to do for myself. You can call it an emergence fund if you want but I see it as a long term saving plan.
Giving. This is something which is part of who I am - I give to two main charities and even when my debts were at the £20,000.00 mark, I knew that those monthly payments would not be stopped for anything. If any thing I would like to increase my giving to 10% of my earnings. But this will have to wait until I am debt free.

If I was to stop both my saving and giving I could clear my debts by the end of this year with out a problem but I have decided I would rather go over a few extra months and extend my DFD to early 2009.