Debt free (well, in control)

agnes · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:26

WOOOOOOOP!

Just fancy posting this as today I now have a full grip on all of my finances, paid off a ton of stuff today to finish things off and also cancelled a ton of minor DD's that were no longer needed.

a lot of painful cancellation fees, late payment fees ect ect in the past 12 months. a lot of nights in saving pennies but my god does it feel good right now. I know what goes in and what goes out. Anything out of shape and I am on it like a fly to ****.

Not much in this thread other than 'Cool story bro' but after a financial thread I made a while back regarding a spreadsheet, I just want to wish everyone doing the same with their finances the best of luck.

It may seem like you really are in the 'doo doo' but keep at it...

I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Haha, sorry, just overly happy

radderfire · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:28

Congrats.

KaHn · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:29

Nice one

I pay off the last of my student debt this month, all 10k of it

Offshore bonus is going to good use this time instead of holidays and toys

KaHn

agnes · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:35

KaHn said:
Nice one I pay off the last of my student debt this month, all 10k of it

Offshore bonus is going to good use this time instead of holidays and toys

KaHn

Well done chap! Great feeling isn't it, so much weight off

DAIR · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:35

Good Good.

Minor DDs.... I purchased a Macbook some 3 or 4 years ago from PC world. A few years later the HDD packed in. Never got round to fixing it so sold it dirt cheap.

Just last year I noticed a DD payment being made out to a PC world. Found out I opted for the insurance. You can imagine how annoyed I was.

Cancelled now though. More pennies in the bank

Cosimo · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:36

Well done! Now keep it that way.

Art · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:38

KaHn said:
Nice one I pay off the last of my student debt this month, all 10k of it

Out of curiosity, how long has it taken you to do this?

The only debt I have at the moment is my student loan and I keep meaning to figure out the best way to get rid of it bearing in mind other things I may need the savings for.

agnes · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:38

DAIR said:
Good Good.

Minor DDs.... I purchased a Macbook some 3 or 4 years ago from PC world. A few years later the HDD packed in. Never got round to fixing it so sold it dirt cheap.

Just last year I noticed a DD payment being made out to a PC world. Found out I opted for the insurance. You can imagine how annoyed I was.

Cancelled now though. More pennies in the bank

It is indeed silly things like this, I think in total, I had around 9 minor payments spread all over the month which were always buried amongst the usual day to day purchases. Most of them 12 month subscriptions to things like magazines, discount things ect ect. They had just been renewing for ages. The total was around £130 a month coming out!!! It was relentless!

OpenToSuggestions · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:39

KaHn said:
Nice one I pay off the last of my student debt this month, all 10k of it

Offshore bonus is going to good use this time instead of holidays and toys

KaHn

I have just over 5k student loan outstanding and am unsure whether to pay it off or not (I have the money just about but it was supposed to be towards a newer car but I don't need to swap).
Do you mean you paid it off in a 10k lump sum or you paid the 10k over via PAYE?

OP: Congrats! You must feel in much better control of your life now!

Freeman · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:40

Well done!

I'm quite surprised how many people don't know what's going in and out of their account every month.
I was talking to a friend and he said he'd never done online banking!? I'd have a very difficult time following my balance if I didn't have that available to me.

Each to their own I guess, he manages somehow.

scottomus0 · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:40

no better feeling than knowing finances are in check!!

Freefaller · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:41

Congrats! I have about 6 months left and then I will be significantly better off every month! I can't wait! Took me a while to get here, but I'm getting there slowly.

It's a great feeling being in control of your finances when you have let them slip.

KaHn · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:42

mglover070588 said:
I have just over 5k student loan outstanding and am unsure whether to pay it off or not (I have the money just about but it was supposed to be towards a newer car but I don't need to swap).
Do you mean you paid it off in a 10k lump sum or you paid the 10k over via PAYE?

OP: Congrats! You must feel in much better control of your life now!

10k in a lump sum

but thats additional student debt not my student loan. That was 13k which is paid off in the same month via PAYE.

Edit - Yes I was bad with money (or still am just have more of it)

KaHn

D18241 · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:52

Freefaller said:
Congrats! I have about 6 months left and then I will be significantly better off every month! I can't wait! Took me a while to get here, but I'm getting there slowly.

It's a great feeling being in control of your finances when you have let them slip.

12months till i am sorted here but what a ***** life is getting it all sorted almost on top of stuff then i get a letter through from somthing that happend 9months ago saying i owe them 572.39 and got 7days to reply to this altho its first letter as they have sent all my others to a wrong address ah well...

agnes · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:56

I used to be soooo bad at spending money

I still stick by my 2 account system

First account is a IAS, which my employer pays my wage to. All of my DD's come out of this account. Every single one.

Second account is a Current account, a £250 SO on a monthly basis is setup from the first account. This is my spending money.

Before hand, DD's would come out of just my current account until I decided to take control about a year ago.

The best thing about this is anything coming from the second account is purely me spending money. Anything from the first is DD which has had to be setup. It allows me to clearly see what is going on. And helps me save tons of money due to me checking my balance on a night out and only seeing like £30 in the second account at the end of the month. Whilst in reality I have all my money in the first.

Also allows me to see exactly what is coming out without hitting a wall of text of micro purchases on the card.

If that makes sense?

It works!

Freefaller · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:59

D18241 said:
12months till i am sorted here but what a ***** life is getting it all sorted almost on top of stuff then i get a letter through from somthing that happend 9months ago saying i owe them 572.39 and got 7days to reply to this altho its first letter as they have sent all my others to a wrong address ah well...

Harsh!

Fingers crossed you keep on top of it.

It is hard to sacrifice things, but I still managed to go on holidays, pay the rent and the credit card and all loans. However, had to accept a lot of luxuries that I wouldn't be able to buy. It's just a question of sticking with it, and being sensible, budgetting and understanding how much money you spend and how much money you bring in every month.

atomic7431 · 6 Jan 2012 at 14:03

paying old debts off is a wonderfull feeling and we all do silly things when we were younger which have to be sorted sooner or later.
Congrats

Metalface Mark · 6 Jan 2012 at 14:10

I was about 80k in debt 3 years ago when I split with my wife, made it my mission to get debt free, ive got about 23k to go, which should be gone by December (providing i dont buy anything this year.

Its not been nice, ive paid off as much as I can each month and not bought much, but I was fed up paying £1500 a month in loans when 2/3 were old debt so i knuckled down.

Will be lovely when I can say im debt free completely.

D18241 · 6 Jan 2012 at 14:11

Freefaller said:
Harsh!

Fingers crossed you keep on top of it.

It is hard to sacrifice things, but I still managed to go on holidays, pay the rent and the credit card and all loans. However, had to accept a lot of luxuries that I wouldn't be able to buy. It's just a question of sticking with it, and being sensible, budgetting and understanding how much money you spend and how much money you bring in every month.

Harsh indeed going to ring them Monday and tell them I'll pay back at £50 till its settled see what they say. Got a question about car insurance if any one can answer it, when I took out my policy it was over 9months and the first month been like double than rest if I cancelled it within 9months do they owe me any money?

OpenToSuggestions · 6 Jan 2012 at 14:11

Metalface Mark said:
I was about 80k in debt 3 years ago when I split with my wife, made it my mission to get debt free, ive got about 23k to go, which should be gone by December (providing i dont buy anything this year.

Its not been nice, ive paid off as much as I can each month and not bought much, but I was fed up paying £1500 a month in loans when 2/3 were old debt so i knuckled down.

Will be lovely when I can say im debt free completely.

May I ask how that happened? 80 debt is such a lot!