I Hope I Never

UNDER 3K ALERT UNDER 3K ALERT UNDER 3K ALERT

Yes I am under 3k and also down to one credit card, so until it is cleared everything is going onto my final card. It is really amazing that after two long years I am down to only one debt account. Once that 3k is gone all my debt will be new - it's not stuff I have been carry around for years and paying lots of interest on, my only interest now is to keep out of debt.

However if I don't sound too enthusiast about all of this, it's because I know that at the end of July I have a large tax bill due. According to my calculations, I should have to pay £1,927.24 to Her Majesties Revenue and Customs - I don't think I am incorrect in my figures. So in August I will have to add this to my debt total. But as I have already said this will be new debt not old, so I shouldn't feel so bad I guess.

I have revamped my budget again to include my tax payments, something I had been doing last year before I went on holiday but then stopped and used the monies to pay off my debt. Compared to most people my budget is tiny (really, really tiny) i.e. I don't have a car or a mortgage nor do I pay rent and I don't have to worry about food or any household bills (power, gas, etc.). Once I have cleared my last years tax bill and am all up to date on my current tax bills I will have to take another look at my budget and make some major decisions on what I want to do next with my life.

Also I am hoping to receive a cheque on Friday from the insurance company relating to my holiday in Turkey last month. So it will be great to clear that off my credit account.

I hope I never have to deal with long term debt again.

All In A Year

My blog is 2 years old!!!!

When I started my blog, I was sure I'd be out of debt within 18 month or 20 months tops! By the end of the first year I knew that, that wasn't going to happen. Life happens - you don't always know what is around the corner and you can only plan for what you know. Also, it is a learning skill to get out of debt, you don't need to learn to get into debt but getting out is a major change of lifestyle which you must work at.
At the start of June last year I owed £12, 671.77 and I am now down to £3,764.50 at the start of this month. To get passed that £10k figure was such a relief. Now that I am down to the last few thousand I really just want it gone - that monkey on the back of my finances that stopped me doing anything with my finances. Not so long to go now and it will be gone - I can't wait!
I have been reading posts that people have made about keeping your credit card accounts open once you have cleared them. Cutting up the cards etc. so that you don't use them but keeping them open to help your credit rating. Now the information is mostly from the States and I don't know if it is the same here in the UK or in other Commonwealth countries?
The other side of the argument is the Dave Ramsey approach of getting rid of all your credit cards and only having debt cards. That sounds a little scary, especially after my trip to Turkey were I needed emergency credit in a hurry. An emergency fund of £1,000.00 wouldn't have cut it!

Have you cleared your debt? What did you do?

In Regards To Myself.....

Have you noticed? I have been refreshing my blog (a little) - adding some more info and have now included some saving goals. Saturday marks my 2nd year of my blog and I am closer to my goal that ever before and I really believe that without my blogging about my debt I don't think I would have gotten this far. Reading other peoples posts about getting out of debt has been a great help in giving me new views on budgets (yes Super Careo - the dreaded "b" word), spending, saving, snowballing, snowflaking and so much more. To all the blogger's I have on my blog roll - thank you! Even if you don't know it, your blogs have been a great help to me and that is why I have included them on my blog.

With regards to my saving goals I have been re-reading Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps and well yes, I have been doing doing step 2 before step 1 but we are all different and what works for me may not work for you. I never know, when sites or blogger's talk in US dollars, if I should convert that to pounds sterling or just treat the dollar as a pound. Does anyone else have this problem in the UK?

Well my Emergency Fund goal is currently £1,200 but I hope to increase it some time in the future. My Building Fund goal is just a figure I pick out of the air, once I have cleared my debt and my taxes I can really work on what I want to do for this goal and how achievable it will be.

On my £5 a day last week was not a good week and I went over my plan for the week by about £30 but this week I am back on track.

June Update

The 13th of June will mark my second year of the "getting out of debt slogg", which I had originally planned to have achieve by October 2008. Obviously I didn't reach my goal but I figure you have to aim for something and now two whole years later I am so much closer to my ultimate goal of being "debt free".
In June 2007 I was £20,056.05 in debt, all of it being unsecured debt, credit card, loans and tax's bills. I have now paid off £16,291.55 in the two years I have been blogging and am down to the final £3, 764.50. All going well I should be debt free by the 16th of August, however debt free may be relative as I will still be paying off my 2008-09 Tax bill which comes due on the 31st of July and will not be cleared until about September I guess. Either way though by mid August I will have no more credit card debt or loan debt, which is what I have been dealing with for the last forever.
I still haven't heard from the insurance company regarding my refund of my godson's medical charges while we where were on holiday in Turkey. I am owed about £3,000.00 so as you can image I would like the monies sooner rather that later. I haven't added this to my figures and don't really want to as I will be getting payment eventually.
My goal for June is to pay £800.00 to clear my snowball credit card and then £300.00 off my other card. This will mean I will only have one card left to payoff.
At the beginning of June:
Three years ago I owed £8,037.44
Two years ago I owed £16,169.04
One year ago I owed £12,671.77
This year I owe £ 3,764.50 ....... and I will owe £ 2,664.50 by the end of the month.