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I’ve spoken about my financial goals in more detail here but my main goal for 2017 is to be debt free by the end of it or as close to it as possible. Right at the end of 2016, I managed to completely wipe two and just last week I managed to wipe another. I currently have five debts I need to repay – a loan to a friend, a utility bill that spills over from when we had the massive water leak, tax credit repayment and two credit cards. I am planning to adopt the Dave Ramsay Snowball Method to get rid of these – paying off the smallest one first then using my monthly repayment amount for that one to repay the next one and so on. So my friend will be paid back first, then the utility bill, then the tax credits, then the credit cards. I will still be making my usual monthly payments to them all but just focusing more on one than the others in order to get it paid off quicker.
But how do I plan on getting debt free?
By saving more, spending less.
It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But it really is about doing both of these to really start to get things paid off. Of course, using side hustles to add to my income is another way in which I am planning to do this – with all ££ earned from these to go towards debt – but just how am I going to do this?
Save More
I am planning to save more money through a variety of ways – by skimming my bank account; by using the Chip app as recommended by Be Clever With Your Cash – I earned £10 for signing up via his link, if you sign up here via mine using the code ZUCX07, you get the choice of an extra 1% interest (up to 5%) or a tenner; by getting rid of any unnecessary outgoings and putting the money into my savings. Once a month, I will be using whatever I have saved from these avenues to put towards my debt. Whether it is £5 or £100, every little helps.
Spend Less
I’ve already managed to cut down my spending a lot – gone are the coffee shop trips down my local High Street unless I am invited out by my Mum and she’s paying (cheeky, I know); gone are the subscriptions to magazines I barely have the time to read. The main thing I still need to cut down on are takeaways as they’re just so convenient rather than cooking when you’ve a newborn and a poorly child like I’ve had this week – but I always regret it afterwards, thinking about what I could have used the money towards.
Work More
Obviously most of the time I have to wait for the work to come to me – I’ve now got a long term client who pays a decent amount each month for web content which is great – but I also need to be extremely proactive. I search social media, I check job websites, I even go on PeoplePerHour (sign up via me here) and apply for jobs on there – the jobs I have been doing recently have pushed me up in visibility and I have now secured another long term client who found me via the site and is buying bulk amounts of work.
I’m free for content writing, blogging, proofreading, blogger outreach, social media management and more. I need to do some work on my work website and promote it more to really get the work coming in. Any extra left over after my bills? Going towards debt.
Hustle, Hustle, Hustle
Finally, I’m going to side hustle like mad. But how am I going to do this?
- I’m going to check my free daily lotteries – Free Postcode Lottery.
- Complete online surveys – I’ve recently scaled down the sites I use but I still use Populus Live (I’m currently due a £50 cheque in the post), New Vista Live (ditto), Panelbase, Opinion Outpost, OpinionBar, Pinecone Research, Prolific Academic and YouGov. Some of these offer an email referral scheme so if you’re interested in signing up to Panelbase or OpinionBar under me, just let me know!
- Swagbuck it up – I’ve really got back into Swagbucks so I will be using the site to help me towards my goal. Sign up here.
- Sell, sell, sell – I will be selling unwanted items on Facebook selling groups and Shpock, perhaps even eBay. They say the average person has around £4k of stuff in their house that they could sell so I’m definitely going to try!
I’m so hoping that 2017 is my year – it is going to be a hard old slog but I’m sure I can do it! Do you have any other tips for me so that I can pay it off faster?
I found this so interesting, I’m still in debt to my dad from university and this has given me motivation to sort my shit out!
I love this post. I am in a very similar situation where I am desperate to cut my debts down and things like trips to the coffee shop just aren’t necessary but seem like a habit more than anything! Great post to read – good luck!
Em
Sounds like simple advice but actually it’s extremely useful to remind ourselves! Debt can be such a weight on our shoulders!
If you really put the time and effort into it you can save a lot of money but a lot of people just don’t have the time x
Great tips, my folks are working really hard to pay off their debts accrued while they were students, nearly there and then they will be debt free x
Best of luck to you with your repayments. Being free of debt has been amazing for us.
I’m currently on a “sell everything” phase right now. have listed my items on both ebay and depop. its addictive having to keep an eye on both platforms
I have to admit iv never been in debt and i dont plan to. With me if i dont have the money then i dont get it.
Best of luck to you.
Great post I didn’t realise there were so many free lotteries. I keep forgetting to check the free postcode one, opsy. Good luck with your goal x
I wish you the best of luck, the face book group how to reduce your supermarket shop has lots of great ideas for food outgoings 🙂 k
Best of luck with it. I’ve got debts from uni and sadly it’s not student loans so I really need to do something about them
Good luck with becoming dept free! When you don’t want to spend money on takeout, you can make multiple big dishes during the weekend for example (like a big portion of pasta one day, soup the other etc) and freeze the leftovers to use during the rest of the week. I always have some homemade chili, some veggies and some soup frozen in the fridge. When I’m low on energy I can just re-heat it, it’s healthier and cheaper than take-out or pre-heated meals from the store 🙂
YES!! So many people need to read this article. Unfortunately I was in my 30s before I started saving
Good for you on making the commitment to become debt free. Using the snowball method is highly effective but once you have cleared the debt to your friend have you considered snowballing the highest interest debt first rather than the smallest debt?
These days everyone lives off credit – it’s a kind of buy now and work out how to pay for it later society. Great that you’re looking at reducing your debt – it’ll be a massive stress reliever for you!
I’ve found this article really interesting and there are several parts of it I need to start doing. I only have one card but it’s maxed out 🙁
I am just about to sort my profile out on people per hour, I hope that helps me out a little x
Great post! I wish you all the luck with it and look forward to hearing about your progress.
Great advice I really need to try to save more myself! L x
Good luck on your goals! It’s worth all the side hustles to be a bit less worry-free in the end.
I said to myself 2017 that was to get on the straight and narrow with money. I have a credit card that is interest free that is getting paid off. I do need to be thrifty with my money and shop about a lot more! I need to try some of these.
Wow you really have a great mindset, it’s motivated me to sort out my finances!
I’m not terribly in debt but I would like to start saving for a house.
I hope you achieve what you’ve set out to do, and by the sounds of it you will!xx
I plan to be debt free by the end of this year, except for my regular credit card and mortgage. Plan to finish paying up 2 of them this month.