A few years ago I wrote about properly starting my journey to become debt free. Since then I have managed to knock out most of the debts I had listed – but have also ended up with a few more due to a few different situations. 2017 was a crazy year for me – I had good intentions to pay off debt and stay debt free but with the birth of Olivia, death of my father and Steve being signed off work for a big chunk of the year meant finances were tight and the credit cards came out once again, just to make ends meet.
I’ve been steadily paying things off as I can, making over the minimum payments and managed to knock a few out. My credit card that I defaulted on almost four years ago has been gone for almost a year now, my Ikano loan has been paid off and so have any other smaller debts. The main things I have to get rid of now are my credit cards and my overdraft. I am currently working towards clearing one of my credit cards and after that, plan to tackle my other card and my overdraft concurrently.
The first credit card I want to pay off is currently standing at just over £900. I think this will be fairly achievable to pay off. I’m using any money I earn from surveys or prize draws as extra payments on top of my minimum payment and I am also planning on adding extra once I am sure I have enough money to pay all my monthly bills first. I am actually quite lucky this month in that I will be getting around £100 at least in survey funds which will go straight to paying this off.
I also have over £300 of cashback tracked so hopefully this will be confirmed and made payable soon and can come straight off too! I’ve also considered perhaps paying more off if regular clients give me extra work on top of the standard work they give me – I have had £90 extra from a client this month and that could make such a huge difference!
I’ll, of course, be selling anything we no longer need, aiming to increase my income and side hustling like crazy. I really want this gone by 2020 and although it will be a hard slog, I actually think it really is achievable!
Once that one is gone, I am hoping to target the other and the overdraft at the same time. As I currently use the overdraft on my main current account, I am hoping to save up chunks of money and then reduce my overdraft limit, by that amount, keeping on doing it until it is clear. This is the largest amount I have to clear so I am hoping doing it this way will be more achievable – by putting it straight in my current account and not reducing the limit, it will be far too tempting to spend. I still hope to clear more than the minimum on my other credit card each month using the ways I mentioned above.
This is probably quite a ramble but I find I hold myself more accountable if I have things written down. I am hoping to be completely debt free by mid 2020. It will be a hard graft but I think I can do it if I really put the effort in. Wish me luck!
Sounds like you’ve got strategies in place to achieve your plan of being debt free. I wish you the best and hope you are successful.
What a great approach you have, and it is a great challenge to rise to and you will learn so much about you along the way! Wish you all the best!
You can do it, Bex! Just imagine how happy and free you will be after you pay it all. Good luck x
You have done so well, and you really sound like you are on track to getting debt free – brilliant! I have started writing down what I spend in a week, and it makes me think twice which has really helped me 😀
This post has inspired me to see that there’ll be light at the end of the tunnel for my own debt. Thanks for the inspo and good luck with your credit card xxx
It’s sounds like you are super organized about the whole thing. Going in with a plan is half the battle won already. I hope that it works out and it’s all cleared off soon.
Sounds like you know exactly what you need to do and you are definitely heading in the right directions lovely 🙂
It has taken me years, but I am also nearly debt free (apart from the mortgage). It has been hard going to redundancies etc but we are looking forward to not having to pay so much out in the future
I got in to a lot of debt, mainly d to my husband. But I didn’t know what to do. I took out and IVA and it has been such a relief of my shoulders. I just have to pay one payment a month and in 5 years I will be completely debt free!
Good luck with becoming debt free – it took my folks 7 years after a failed business to pay everything off! Takes hard work and determination x
I wish you lots of luck. I have a small debt that I am hoping to clear next year.