About a year ago, when we were refurbishing the house, ready to sell it. I maxed out my credit card! I then realised I would have to take a much reduced price on my house if I wanted to sell it and we calculated that we had lost 40K in equity in 2 years! We soldiered on and sold the house and were then informed by
Santander Bank, that our mortgage application was refused as we had too much personal borrowing. The mortgage refusal came in December and we approached Christmas knowing that our sale and purchase could not happen and we were in a very bad place financially. We sent off for a credit report and all told we owed almost 45K in personal loans, credit cards, car finance, home loans etc. We were always careful and were ambitious with our homes and climbed the property ladder to a four
bedroomed detached............that we could afford but only at a squeak.
My new year resolution was to pay off my debts! Today we owe 25K approx and have almost halved our debts since last Christmas. I looked every where for advice and took the advice of Suzy
Orman and Dave Ramsay, who were giving American far more radical advice than the softly softly approach of Martin Lewis, who advises a budget first and then pay the max of your debts after that! Oh no! Oh boy! I decided to pay off the max of my debts and live off what ever was left. We've bought nothing! The lights have stayed off. The tumble drier has gone, the dishwasher has been retired and we've bought no new clothes and we don't go out! Anywhere really!
I worked in the summer break, cleaning caravans. Dearly Beloved does any overtime available. I've worked as a one to one tutor, I've marked exams and we've sold anything and everything on e-bay and Amazon. Today I realised that I had been paid by
AQA and paid off the last £1300 that I owed to
Santander Bank, every penny and didn't leave myself the price of a lipstick! I also paid off the £36 we owed to
MBNA and that card has gone. Now all of Dearly
Beloved's credit cards are on 0% and now my snowball of £500 a month goes to paying off £5000 which I transferred to Virgin on 0% and that will be paid off by May 2011,
in fact by May 2011, we will only owe money towards the car and ban loan and we will be able to snowball all of our money towards them. My estimation is that we will be debt free by midnight of 2011 and will start 2012 as new people!
I always feel totally elated when I clear another debt! Today I am on top of the world! even though I've got only £133 to see me to pay day (which I've learnt is more than ample!) and my big treat today was to visit friends and their little children! (who were so entertaining) I've also had confirmed some 'home boarding' work for the summer and my first dogs arrive next
Saturday! All is very good here!
About a year ago, when we were refurbishing the house, ready to sell it. I maxed out my credit card! I then realised I would have to take a much reduced price on my house if I wanted to sell it and we calculated that we had lost 40K in equity in 2 years! We soldiered on and sold the house and were then informed by Santander Bank, that our mortgage application was refused as we had too much personal borrowing. The mortgage refusal came in December and we approached Christmas knowing that our sale and purchase could not happen and we were in a very bad place financially. We sent off for a credit report and all told we owed almost 45K in personal loans, credit cards, car finance, home loans etc. We were always careful and were ambitious with our homes and climbed the property ladder to a four bedroomed detached............that we could afford but only at a squeak.
My new year resolution was to pay off my debts! Today we owe 25K approx and have almost halved our debts since last Christmas. I looked every where for advice and took the advice of Suzy Orman and Dave Ramsay, who were giving American far more radical advice than the softly softly approach of Martin Lewis, who advises a budget first and then pay the max of your debts after that! Oh no! Oh boy! I decided to pay off the max of my debts and live off what ever was left. We've bought nothing! The lights have stayed off. The tumble drier has gone, the dishwasher has been retired and we've bought no new clothes and we don't go out! Anywhere really!
I worked in the summer break, cleaning caravans. Dearly Beloved does any overtime available. I've worked as a one to one tutor, I've marked exams and we've sold anything and everything on e-bay and Amazon. Today I realised that I had been paid by AQA and paid off the last £1300 that I owed to Santander Bank, every penny and didn't leave myself the price of a lipstick! I also paid off the £36 we owed to MBNA and that card has gone. Now all of Dearly Beloved's credit cards are on 0% and now my snowball of £500 a month goes to paying off £5000 which I transferred to Virgin on 0% and that will be paid off by May 2011, in fact by May 2011, we will only owe money towards the car and ban loan and we will be able to snowball all of our money towards them. My estimation is that we will be debt free by midnight of 2011 and will start 2012 as new people!
I always feel totally elated when I clear another debt! Today I am on top of the world! even though I've got only £133 to see me to pay day (which I've learnt is more than ample!) and my big treat today was to visit friends and their little children! (who were so entertaining) I've also had confirmed some 'home boarding' work for the summer and my first dogs arrive next Saturday! All is very good here!
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