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.

News, Views And What About This Weather...

Well another week is almost over and we're having a wonderful weekend here in London. I was back in Richmond Park for my walk/jog around the park this morning and it was full of joggers, dog walkers, family picnics, cyclist and ramblers. Here's hoping for a glorious summer this year.
I still have £2.90 in my purse for this week which is very good going. On Friday I was meeting a friend for lunch and only had £9.60 left from my £5.00 a day plan. No credit card or debt card in my purse to fall back on, just £9.60 cash for a lunch in Richmond - not easy but I did it (with change too).
I have been reading lots of blogs this week and have taken a couple off my blog roll as they had stopped posting. And am very pleased that NCN is back giving sage advise on his weekly broadcasts. Lots of good news from PF bloggers some of whom have cleared their debt which is fab news. Cynthia and her family have cleared their debt and she has renamed her blog "The Grass is Greener". Way to go Cynthia!

A Fiver a day keeps the debt away

I am back on the £5 a day deal, after about two weeks off it and I still have £17.09 left until Sunday. So I am back on track with with this concept, which is very pleasing as it gives me a micro budget to play around with during the week. (yes I am a very sad person I know) A micro budget is very helpful to teach you to be thoughtful with your money. I say 'thoughtful' instead of 'careful' because it you really 'think' about what your going to spend your money on you will be careful with it.
Spending only £5 a day has made me change brands (for cheaper options), made me go further a field looking for the best value for money and it has taught me that I can live without having money in my purse. If you don't have it you can't spend it.
Why did I freak out if I had nothing in my purse?
I don't mean having money to pay my bills - I pay them all by direct debt or standing order. I believe the idea of always having cash in hand (or today a credit card at hand) is a modern concept. Did it worry people 50 or 60 years ago?
Was it advertising via the media that has brainwashed us to believe we need cash/credit to hand at all times just in case we see something we really, really want?
Self control is the battle we are facing in the slogg of getting out of debt - self control is not PC now days because we live in a very self absorbed society. "Self control... (if I can remember the words from the Sunday school song) .. is just controlling my self, it's listening to my heart and doing what is smart". Out of the mouths of babes huh!
Have you tried living on a micro cash budget? Give it a go.......

(and if you haven't read it yet get a copy of Kath Kelly's book and see how she lived on only £1 a day for a whole year - Kath you are my hero!)

May Update

It's quite weird to see my debt balance as less than 5k, that was usually the balance owing on one credit card. What a strange journey I have been on. Okay what is happening this month?
I plan to pay a minimum of £1,100.00 off my debt - less than I had plan at the start of last month but my holiday spending was about £500 over what I had planned.
So my snowballing card which is currently at £1,812.10 will be reduced by 1k and my second card will be down £100. So total for the end of May should be £3, 754.51 not including interest changers.
My pay days are Sundays and so the cheques don't get banked until the following Monday or Tuesday so I will not be updating my figures until the monies have been cleared though my account.
In June I should clear my snowballing card and then I will only have one card left to clear before I can say I'm "debt free".

One unexpected expense for June is my helping out some friend move house which will include me taking some time off work and probably hiring a car for a couple of days. I will have to see how much it is all going to cost me and try and keep it all to a minimum. (Try really, really hard to do that!)

In the end of July I have my next Tax payment of 2k due but I am not including that in my debt balance because it will be a new debt and not an old one.

Taking A Break

I have just come back from a weeks break in Icmeler, Turkey - where I completed my Open Water Scuba Diving course along with my godson Joel. He did beat me in the final exam by miles but I have dived off a boat and have also dived deeper than him so there!!
Poor Joel - he only just scraped in on completing his diving as the day before the final exam and the big dive off the boat he injured himself and we had to rush him into a medical clinic for stitches (no swimming for at least ten days) and if that wasn't enough he then broke his arm and spent a few hours on Monday morning having his arm reset and getting it plastered (no swimming, fencing etc. for the next six weeks at least).
Other than that it was a great holiday - really the sun shone, the water was warm and it was a very laid back holiday. I can't say enough for the medical treatment Joel received, he was in and out with his broken in less than 2 hours. The NHS could never get even close to that on it's very best day. Even when I broke my arm as a kid it took all afternoon to get the x-ray, have my arm reset and then get it plastered.
Now I have to wait for the insurance to repay me for all the cost - I haven't included it on my debt, as I hoped to have it all sorted by the end of the month. If it is not I will include the costs in a separate listing in June but really hope that, that doesn't have to happen.

What's My Score??

I have just checked out my credit score with Creditexpert.co.uk and yaaa-me!!
I have gone from 696 "Poor" in 2007, to 818 "Good" in 2008, to 969 "Excellent" in 2009.
So my credit rating is now (according to the site) above average - 71% of people have a score lower than Excellent. Wow that puts little ol' me in with the other 29%. I am well chuffed!!
According to my report I am not perfect yet as; I

"have several credit agreements and outstanding balance is high"

But as you all know (and are all doing yourselves) I am working on it give me a little more time.

The report needs a little up dating as it still shows my total debt as £6,673.00 - so really I wonder what my score would be if they took into account my current debt?

Any way I am pleased as punch and will treat myself to a further credit score when I reach my DFD and see what they have on me then.

April Update

I am getting so excited - I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (and it's green) and am counting down the weeks till I will be debt free!
We have just had the government budget and no good news there - I should be grateful the Labour government did give us a minimum wage but really other than that I have gain nothing from more that ten years of Labour government. And the credit crunch will only really affect me when (not if) my taxes or national insurance goes up. I have worked out my tax for this last year and have added it to what I need to pay by July 31 but I haven't added it to my debt total. The amount I owe is the highest amount yet - so looks enormous but I have already paid some of it and the rest will be no problem once all my month debt payments are no more.
My best friend LJ has been busy booking a holiday for me, her eldest son (my eldest godchild) and herself and we are off in just over a week. I know..... I know .... I am clearing my debt but as I have been working very hard to the last four months with out a break I could really do with one. Even if this one involves my having to study up before the trip and will have two days of attempting and hopefully passing my Open Water Scuba diving course. I will be doing this with my godson Joel (who will be turning 11 years old just after we get back) - so I really have to pass this course or I will never hear the end of it. The holiday is all paid for and the spending money is coming out of this weeks cheque. We are off to Turkey again so I am really, really looking forward to it!
Goals for next month to get my debt down to £3,200 and continue with my £5 a day budget. Beyond that I have been thinking about what happens next. I would like to take a long visit home to NZ but at this current time I don't know how wise that would be, so am having a rethink. My work is going okay and I don't want to leave my employers in the lurch, they have been asking if I had any plans of leaving as they really want me to stay. But my Mums is wanting me to come hope for a visit (and to stay!). So I will have to make some decisions! It's getting time to really work on plan "B".