Your Debt Diary

Your Debt Diary – Single Gal Debt Free

December 19, 2018

When I first began following the Debt Free Community on Instagram I was drawn in by the stories everyone would share about their debt free journeys. I find it fascinating to read about the progress others are making and also reassuring to know that I am not the only one in my position.

Your Debt Diary is a guest blog series by money bloggers and members of the debt free community for My Debt Diary. Each week someone new will share their debt story. This week Amia from @singlegaldebtfree shares the beginning of her debt free journey and her plans for the next five years and she works towards becoming debt free.

What stage are you at in your debt free journey right now?

I am still right at the beginning of my debt free journey. I officially started in June 2018 with my first goal so save a mini emergency fund of $1000. I had never saved $1000 at one time for anything before that in my entire life, and it amazes me now looking back. I currently have $104,513.93 in debt, and pre-debt free journey in May 2018 when I first started really looking into fixing my money issues I was hovering between $107-108,000.

I started this journey because at the beginning of this year I realised, I’m 28 now and would like to buy a home in the next few years. I started doing research on buying homes and how much you would need to save for down payments, closing costs, pricing for appliances…and then I stopped. I was looking at homes that were very low priced and very much not what I would want if I bought a home because of my debt payments.

I added up the numbers for the first time all together and realised I was sitting with six figures of debt and I practically already owned a house in debt. I decided then that I needed to figure out how to become debt free and then revisit home ownership.

What is your debt total?

My current total is sitting at $104,513.93. I am what the debt free community group on Instagram call #teamsmallshovel. I am single so my debt payments are smaller and progress is slower than some, but I’m still making progress!

What is your “why”?

My why is a few things, but it can all be lumped into freedom. I want to be able to purchase a home, travel (something I haven’t done much because of money), the ability to change jobs if I’d like, the freedom to help others in need, to have the security of a large amount of savings, and upping my retirement investing.

Are you following a specific plan or method?

I follow a mix of plans. I mainly follow Dave Ramsey and Anna Newell Jones. Dave Ramsey is so controversial but his general method of attacking one debt at a time with the debt snowball is just a great concept for me. I understand that mathematically it would make more sense to do interest, but I like having the small, more frequent victories along the way. I also haven’t stopped my retirement, and once I’m done paying off my credit cards, I will keep one open to put a small recurring charge on monthly to keep my credit score up.

Anna Newell Jones wrote a book called The Spender’s Guide to Debt-Free Living: How a Spending Fast Helped Me Get from Broke to Badass in Record Time, and she has a similar payoff process, hers is just called the “Debt Hit List” versus a snowball, but her idea of having a spending fast or diet (no frivolous spending days, months, years) is something I have used because it makes you so much more aware of where you’re blowing your budget.

I also really like learning new tips and tricks from the debt free community on Instagram. Seeing everyone’s victories and their honest setbacks is really motivating because you realise you’re not alone, even if you don’t have anyone to talk to about your debt in person.

What challenges have you faced along the way?

Learning to say no has been the biggest challenge for me. As a young single person, so many activities with friends revolve around happy hours, spontaneous dinners, special events at $30 a pop. So far, I’ve cut back significantly on spontaneous dinners and happy hours, and have said no to one trip to Harry Potter World (which I still cringe at thinking I said no), and I’ve tried to instead turn friend gatherings into more frugal or free ones. I’ve started hosting potlucks, wine nights, movie nights, and I’m starting a book club with friends in January.

Another challenge is getting discouraged. In September and October, I basically made a few extra payments, but zeroed them out by adding to my debt. I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere and that my six figure debt was just so overwhelming that what I was doing was ridiculous and it became “why bother” in my head. I was still looking at debt free posts and blogs and listening to podcasts, but I mentally checked out. But, I realised that freezing because of being overwhelmed wasn’t okay and wasn’t going to get me anywhere. So, I made myself smaller goals, and while I’m still updating my total debt payoff, I’m only really focusing on whichever is the group of debt that I’m paying extra towards at the moment, and right now, that is credit cards.

What are you doing to speed up the progress of your debt free journey?

I picked up a side hustle. I am a librarian, and there are such things as substitute librarians so I sub in a different library system than my full time position on weekends. I also just picked up another side hustle that I’m hoping will grow. I am trained as an archivist, so I am actually going to be processing and preserving family archives for an old coworker. Contract archival work pays well and I’m hoping that after getting this project completed in a few months and having the experience I can offer this to others.

In a non-making money way, I am trying to spend less. I give myself much less fun money than I did pre-debt free journey and I stick to it. That’s where the tracking spending and non-spending days really helps. On the days I spend I write down exactly what I spent, which I how I realised I eat out way too much.

When do you plan to become debt free?

This is a tough question. In my dream world where I hustle extremely hard, bare bones budget and all, I would love to be debt free in 4 years. More realistically, because life happens and something will break down or come up that costs a lot, I think it will actually be closer to 5. I’m going to work my hardest so that it doesn’t go over 5, and I really hope I get it to 4. Either way, I will be 32 or 33 completely debt free and I feel like that’s a win.

I’d like to thank Amia for sharing her story in today’s post. Please make sure to visit her Instagram at @singlegaldebtfree

You can read last week’s post here. If you would like to share your story with Your Debt Diary please leave a comment below with your email address or Instagram and I will get in touch. You can find me on Instagram here.

Your Debt Diary – Jodie – One Small Home

December 12, 2018

Your Debt Diary is a guest blog series by money bloggers and members of the debt free community for My Debt Diary. Each week someone new will share their debt story. This week Jodie from One Small Home shares her story of becoming debt free and the action she took to make it happen.

What stage are you at in your debt free journey right now?

I finally paid off my credit card debt last month!

What is your debt total?

It was just under £2,000.

What is your “why”?

I just decided one day it was time to get my finances in order. I’d been carrying around this credit card debt for too long, just paying the minimum payment every month. It got to the point that I couldn’t even remember what I’d bought on credit and if I thought about how much interest I’d accrued and paid – well it made me feel sick. It really was time to take my head out of the sand.

Are you following a specific plan or method?

This kind of happened around the time when I decided to have a good sort out and declutter at home. I live in a tiny flat with hardly any storage and I just had too many things that I wasn’t using. I thought I’d try to sell what I could to pay off my debt.

So, I sold a lot of things from makeup, to clothes and even some furniture and jewellery on eBay. I did try other selling sites such as Mercari and Shpock but I had far more success with eBay. I even did a couple of car boot sales with a friend – neither of us made a lot of money but we more than covered our costs, got rid of some stuff and had a laugh along the way. I did have some books, CDs and DVDs that I no longer wanted – so I sold what I could via sites such as Zeffirelli’s, Music Magpie etc.

I started following money bloggers on Instagram and learnt about side hustles such as survey sites, scanning receipts etc so I gave those a go. I’d already been using a cash back site – I just became even more vigilant about using it.

It was all quite piecemeal but every little bit seemed to help and it was so satisfying to see my debt decrease month by month.

What challenges have you faced along the way?

Quite a few things such as finding the time to declutter and list things on eBay, when sales seemed to stall. And actually the last £300 or so was paid off by cash back, I was amazed how quickly that had built up so I decided to use it to just clear the debt off once and for all.

I still have stuff to declutter so I’ve decided to try to boost my savings by continuing with the selling and the side hustles that pay ok and aren’t too onerous to do. I’ll be honest, that I do feel my finances should have been in better order by this stage in my life, but I do feel better that I’ve started to take control.

I’d like to thank Joide for sharing her story in today’s post. Please make sure to visit her Instagram at One Small Home.

Your Debt Diary – Jane Has Debt

November 28, 2018

Your Debt Diary is a guest blog series by money bloggers and members of the debt free community for My Debt Diary. Each week someone new will share their debt story. This week Jane from @janehasdebt shares their journey so far and the extraordinary challenges they have faced.

What stage are you at in your debt free journey right now?

I am stuck in a time warp. Look more like it. I have been trying to get out of debt for the past 10 years. Part of the problem is that I have ADHD – also known as not being able to rationalise anything because of getting into a space of being hyper-focused and also being impulsive. I have fortunately learned to curb everyday expenses both using personal finance tools like budgeting and using the cash envelope system. Critically stopping big purchases due to my ADHD is still a work in progress (like financing cars or buying concert tickets).

For the most part I was doing well but a few years ago life literally flipped me upside down and shook everything out of me within a year’s time. Divorce, passing of mein Kind, my own health issues, and my car was totaled at the other person’s fault. I had to draw my focus somewhere, so I went back to school by taking out student loans, I had to rent/deposit a new place, and I bought a new car to replace my just-paid-off previous now totaled car. Plunged myself into another $23,000 on top of my already 38,000 (total – $61,000).

Then I found Mr. Money Moustache blog and the forums. It was a godsend to me at the time I found it. The diversity of people available and their brilliant knowledge in personal finance saved me. I am still not in a good place with debt. But overall I am in a much better place with my finances – awesome credit score due to bills being paid on time, budget brilliantly, put 10% away in my retirement account, increased my income, increased my net worth and now craft my own cash envelopes.

What is your debt total?

Between health, education needs for my other Kind, and financing another used car (major mistake) – at my highest I have owed $81,120 (April 2018). I am now at $69,324.

What is your “why”?

The worst thing ever was not being able to take extended time off when mein Kind got sick. I didn’t have the family to help, I did not qualify for FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) and I couldn’t quit my job without sinking into homelessness. Twenty four hours a day I was working full-time, taking care of two in separate locations, attending health appointments and commuting hours at a time. I was exhausted and I was in a flurry of frustrating emotions at the lack of support every corner I turned.

I will never be in that space again.

Are you following a specific plan or method?

I try follow the Dave Ramsey baby steps 1 and 2. I keep a strong budget. Discretionary expenses are cash only (with pretty envelopes). But I don’t always have a full emergency fund. Actually it’s one of my pet peeves because I can never keep it filled up.

What challenges have you faced along the way?

Being in debt for so long…actually I have been in debt my whole adult life. But at the time of being mindful of my debt I have not been able to get my debt down! It’s so frustrating. I’m on a roller coaster without the ability to get off of it. Frankly it is tiring! The last stint was my car breaking down and deciding it was better to finance another than spend the $4,000 to fix it. That was such a bad decision.

I am kind of freaking out about my debt load because die hard planning for retirement is now coming into focus, Um, no bad nursing homes wanted nor do I want to be broke. With a problematic and expensive U.S. healthcare system, it’s a scary thought not having enough money available. Especially when I think of everything else I am concurrently financially managing and/or trying to save up for.

What are you doing to speed up the progress of your debt free journey?

The past few months I haven’t been able to snowball. The 4th quarter is when all my annual expenses come due and I didn’t have sinking funds available to cover them. So the snowball portion and payment plans covered these expenses. Fortunately, starting in 2019 my snowball will resume.

As for side hustles, it is not working out for me. I don’t much to sell off and side hustle opportunities are not coming to fruition. I plan on trying a couple of other side hustles in the new year. I’ve started saving my $5 bills to help me fund my emergency fund.

All extra money received (i.e. tax return, bonuses etc) will be thrown at paying down debt.

When do you plan to become debt free?

As long as I stay cash only with discretionary expenses and keep the credit cards out of the picture (because ADHD and CCs don’t mix), I will be debt free 4th quarter 2022. God help me.

I’d like to thank Jane for today’s post. Please make sure to visit their Instagram at @janehasdebt.

Your Debt Diary – Light at the End of the Debt Tunnel

November 21, 2018

Your Debt Diary is a guest blog series by money bloggers and members of the debt free community for My Debt Diary. Each week someone new will share their debt story. This week Amy from Light at the End of the Debt Tunnel shares her mission to become debt free by Christmas 2020.

What stage are you at in your debt free journey right now?

We have budgeted and tried to pay off debt for years – at least since 2014. Somehow, though, our debt continued to increase. We started with new focus in January this year but found the debt free community in August and are now going “gazelle intense” as the Dave Ramsey community says. We’ve finally stopped adding to our debt and are aiming to start sinking funds in January.

What is your debt total?

£12,431. All on credit cards, all (thank god) interest free at the moment.

What is your “why”?

We want to buy a house. We’d just love to own our own home. We also have a daughter and we want to stop the cycle. My parents were always in debt (still are) and constantly spent more than they had on credit cards. I don’t want my daughter to ever experience this stress.

Are you following a specific plan or method?

I take inspiration from Dave Ramsey but I haven’t followed his baby steps. We are paying our cards off in the order the 0% interest ends. We will also use the sinking funds method because a big part of our debt was car repairs and other unexpected expenses.

What challenges have you faced along the way?

Not having sinking funds has made it difficult to pay down debt. Our debt has actually gone up as well as down since August but I’m working hard on paying it down. I always used to say we didn’t have enough money to put aside for unexpected expenses but something has to change so I’m going to give it a try. Even £50 in a sinking fund will help when I need new tyres or something else!

What are you doing to speed up the progress of your debt free journey?

We plan a budget together every month to stop us having to out anything on credit. Our sinking funds will also stop our debt increasing again hopefully. I am listing lots of items for sale that we don’t need anymore, doing surveys and I’ve also recently started matched betting.

When do you plan to become debt free?

Based on our current payments, we are about 21 paydays away! Hopefully Christmas 2020 will be a debt free one! My goal is 18 months though as I’m factoring in our childcare reducing when our daughter starts school as well as my annual wage increase. I’d love to reduce that even further because the long term goal is to save for a house deposit and the thought of it being nearly two years before we can even start to save is so depressing. Here’s hoping we can be in our own home in 3-4 years time!

I’d like to thank Amy for sharing her story in today’s post. Please make sure to visit her Instagram at Light at the End of the Debt Tunnel

Your Debt Diary – The Penny Pinching Js

November 14, 2018

Your Debt Diary is a guest blog series by money bloggers and members of the debt free community for My Debt Diary. Each week someone new will share their debt story. This week The Penny Pinching Js shares their journey so far and the extraordinary challenges they have faced.

What stage are you at in your debt free journey right now?

We are in baby step 1 – snowballing our way out of debt.

What is your debt total?

Our debt total is $89k+. Mine alone is $52k and my husband’s is $37k.

What is your “why”?

To improve our credit score and save for a house without worrying about other debt.

Are you following a specific plan or method?

We follow Dave Ramsey’s steps and have taken the Financial Peace University.

What challenges have you faced along the way?

Challenges to date? Oh my, where do I begin! We are actually on attempt number two. During our first attempt I lost my husband’s car keys and used part of the emergency fund to replace them. Recently, our kiddo went into surgery so I had to exhaust my leave since I do not qualify for FMLA until December 2018 and ended up taking leave without pay for a total of 24 working hours. Our home island was hit by a super typhoon and we made the mutual choice of donating half of our emergency fund to relief efforts and using the other half to buy items for our family members still on the island. My car was in the shop for a week and with our emergency fund exhausted, I had to use a credit card that was paid off during our first attempt. That caused us to start all over again from baby step one.

What are you doing to speed up the progress of your debt free journey?

To speed up the progress I’ve been working overtime when I can. Thankfully my career pays for my commute hours so I work the usual work day and get paid for my travel to and from the work site which pushes me into 5+ overtime hours a week. My husband doesn’t have that luxury because his salary is fixed since he’s military. I have a small side hustle of teaching dance and I’ve been looking into driving for Uber and Lyft.

When do you plan to become debt free?

We have honestly not established a “debt free date” for the purpose of getting a hold on anxiety and causing meaningless tension in our marriage. We just take it month by month and apply the method we’ve learned. We’ve got a total of twelve debts since I broke the group of my student loans out to individual loans and we’ve paid off debts 1 & 2. Now onto debt 3!

I’d like to thank the Penny Pinching Js for today’s post! Please make sure to visit their Instagram at The Penny Pinching Js

Your Debt Diary – The Personal Finance Coach

November 7, 2018

Your Debt Diary is a guest blog series by money bloggers and members of the debt free community for My Debt Diary. Each week someone new will share their debt story. This week Ray from www.thepersonalfinancecoach.org shares his debt free journey so far and his mission to help others become debt free too.

What stage are you at in your debt free journey right now?

Currently I have one debt remaining, my house.

What is your debt total?

As of October 31st, 2018 the balance on my house is $309,136.28. Keep up with my Instagram account to see my progress!

What is your “why”?

My why is my family. Growing up as a child, my father worked around the clock to provide for our family and subsequently he missed out on so much. My wife and I recently had our first child and our goal is to change our family tree forever. We want to be able to live free of financial strain, make memories as a family, and give generously to those who need it the most.

Are you following a specific plan or method?

Yes, I follow and coach individuals through Dave Ramsey’s baby steps.

What challenges have you faced along the way?

Back in 2014 when we started our journey, we paid off $33k in 18 months. It was a challenge to go against the social norm of buying a house, new car, eating out, or going on vacation. We had to say no a lot to friends and family. We were made fun of, but now ironically, those same people are asking for my help. Shortly after finishing up our consumer debt, we were building our emergency fund of 3-6 months and then life happened. My wife was in and out of the hospital, and in America that is very costly. Fortunately, due to our diligence and previous behaviour, we were able to cash flow that horrendous year and really focus on her health. Now our challenge is to stay disciplined and motivated on this journey.

What are you doing to speed up the progress of your debt free journey?

After running some numbers, my wife and I decided to pay an additional monthly payment on the principal of our house which will shorten the loan by 7 years. Alongside that, any money that is leftover from our budget each month will go into a “discretionary” checking account. This discretionary fund will be reviewed together twice a year and we will decide together how to allocate the funds. Likely a majority of the fund will go towards the house, but if other things come up, we will have the option to use that fund.

When do you plan to become debt free?

Our goal is to be completely debt free by 2030. That will be paying off a $320k loan within 12 years as opposed to 30 years! It is a lofty goal, but if you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.

I’d like to thank Ray for today’s post. Please make sure to visit his blog at www.thepersonalfinancecoach.org
and on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter at @thepersonalfinancecoach

Your Debt Diary – Skinny Spending

October 31, 2018

Your Debt Diary is a guest blog series by money bloggers and members of the debt free community for My Debt Diary. Each week someone new will share their debt story. This week Melissa from www.skinnyspending.co.uk shares her debt free journey so far.

What stage are you at in your debt free journey right now?

Short term there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Long term we have a long way to go which will be clarified below!

What is your debt total?

My debt journey is a little different to most as we don’t have a mortgage (which many people exclude from their debt total), instead we have 2 x £25,000 personal loans and another £12k in payment plans for home improvements. Treating this as the equivalent of a mortgage has enabled us to more than double the size of our house, which is on a farm on acres of land, for £62,000. The house is owned by my husband’s family as it is part of the farm. It means for this amount we get to live in a large family home for a fraction of the cost of owning it ourselves. The payments will also be paid off a lot quicker than a mortgage. If the farm was ever sold we would be afforded some of the sale money to buy an equivalent house. I plan to cover the finer details of this on my blog in the near future.

I also have a credit card with approx. £3500 on it and a car loan that ends in January 2019. These are the debts I am trying to tackle short term as once they are paid off I will be around £400 a month better off.

What is your “why”?

Money was always easy come, easy go for me. I earned a decent amount so never really got into any superficial debt, however I spent money like it was going out of fashion. Then, shortly after the house extension was complete I changed jobs due to stress and then got pregnant. A 10k drop in income, maternity leave, another mouth to feed…all of a sudden money was VERY tight! Unfortunately my attitude didn’t change for a while and although I reeled in my spending and was able to save a decent amount to see me through maternity leave, I found that my budget was always out and at the end of the month I was sticking essentials such as food and groceries on my credit card. Not to mention Christmas. I was trying to keep up with my old income and failing. It was around a year ago that I realised (quite obviously) that I needed to stop spending on my credit card altogether. The loan payments are manageable, so I am focussing on getting the credit card paid off by April 2019.

Are you following a specific plan or method?

Not specifically; I am aware of the Dave Ramsey baby steps and I think the debt snowball is a good idea, however I only have my credit card and car loan (which is set payments with an early penalty fee) to tackle. Once these are paid off we can look at adding more to the loan payments. I also find the debt free community on Instagram very motivating and keeps me on track as well as ideas for earning extra cash!

What challenges have you faced along the way?

Finding the money for events such as hen parties and weddings. Like most new parents both myself and my husband have cut down significantly on nights out, we haven’t had a family holiday abroad either since extending our house 5 years ago but things like this you don’t want to miss out on. We have had 3 weddings this year!

What are you doing to speed up the progress of your debt free journey?

I have drastically cut my own spending and aim to make £300 extra per month in “side hustles” from home. I rarely buy clothes or other things for myself, I have only had one haircut this year and dye my own roots (instead of spending £100+ every 8 weeks), I switched to a sim-only plan on my phone. To make money I have started Matched Betting and selling on eBay, as well as charting my money making and saving on my blog.

When do you plan to become debt free?

Short term – my car and credit card will be paid off by April 2019. This will be an extra £400 a month! Long term, our loan payments have 7 years left currently but this extra cash could speed up the process.

I’d like to thank Melissa for today’s post. Please make sure to visit her blog at www.skinnyspending.co.uk
and on Instagram and Twitter at @skinnyspending

Your Debt Diary – The Money Freak

October 24, 2018

Your Debt Diary is a guest blog series by money bloggers and members of the debt free community for My Debt Diary. Each week someone new will share their debt story. This week Claire from The Money Freak shares the ups and down of her debt free journey as she nears the end.

What stage are you at in your debt free journey right now?

I’m currently paying off my debt. So far it’s taken me 2 years!

What is your debt total?

My debt total is now £2k. At the beginning it was £12k.

What is your why?

My 18 year old son has Autism and mental health issues. So I need to be able to support him financially, possibly for the rest of his life. I also want us all to be able to afford to enjoy life, not just survive it. As a child, I grew up in poverty and it really affected me. I do not want to continue that.

Are you following a specific plan or method?

Yes, I follow the Dave Ramsey method. I adjust it slightly to fit the U.K., as it’s a USA based plan.
Things like student loans work differently, so I don’t include them in my debt snowball. And fortunately we have much lower health care bills due to having the NHS.

What challenges have you faced along the way?

The biggest challenge has been keeping myself motivated. That’s primarily why I started my blog and Instagram account, to find like minded people. I don’t know anyone in real life who considers paying off their debt a priority. So my online support is really important to me.

What are you doing to speed up the progress of your debt free journey?

At the moment, I am concentrating on reducing food bills and keep my costs over Christmas as low as possible. I spend way too much on food, so that is my main priority.

When do you plan to become debt free?

Hopefully, all going well, I will be debt free in April 2019!

I’d like to thank Claire for today’s post. Please make sure to visit her blog at www.themoneyfreak.co.uk
and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/the_money_freak

Your Debt Diary – Laura from @ljsdebtfreejourney

October 10, 2018

Your Debt Diary is a guest blog series by money bloggers and members of the debt free community for My Debt Diary. Each week someone new will share their debt story. This week Laura from @ljsdebtfreejourney shares the ups and down of her debt free journey so far.

What stage are you at in your debt free journey right now?

I started my debt free journey in June 2018, so still relatively new. But I have learnt so much in that small amount of time

What is your debt total?

I started at £14,003 exactly, currently at around £13,800. It pains me to put it down on paper, such a massive amount of money and not much to show for it in my life!

What is your “why”?

I am a cliché, I guess I was never taught the right from wrong. My parents always had debt as long as I can remember, I never thought anything bad of it – that is until I found myself there. It all started at 18 with a store card, unlimited clothes, it felt amazing. Then came credit cards, nice car, nice holidays etc. I moved into my first rented house at 18, bought lots of house things and lived the free-spirited teenage life.

Then 3 years ago I met my partner, and for the first time in my life I didn’t want nice things anymore. I wanted to be able to see a future with my partner, our own house, a dog, children, see parts of the world. And I couldn’t see the future. All I could see was the sheer amount of money I owed and no way out. Having to spend more on cards each month, just to be able to get through the month because of how much interest I paid. Something had to change!

Are you following a specific plan or method?

I hadn’t up to now. My main focus was learning the ways, how other people were dealing with their journey. I switched most of my credit cards to 0% and took out a personal loan with the rest at a much lower rate. I seem to have adopted the Dave Ramsey plan without even realising it. I’ve already started sinking funds for things, de-cluttered the house and used earnings from surveys to start my emergency fund. This seems to be working this far so most likely the method I’ll carry on with.

What challenges have you faced along the way?

My biggest challenge has been getting my partner on board. He’s very black and white in the way he thinks, he’s never had debt, he works hard for his money but never lives beyond his means. Sometimes he doesn’t understand how I got to where I am and whilst I’m not after any sympathy, some support is needed. Over time, as I’ve learnt my ways and started to make progress he’s come on board a little more. Now I feel much more comfortable to discuss it with him and he’s been quite encouraging at times. My only other challenges are myself. Allowing that inner spender to come out and trying my best to keep her down!

What are you doing to speed up the progress of your debt free journey?

I put a lot of time and effort into the little things to help now (cashback apps, survey sites). In doing this and putting that money away, I find my salary doesn’t get dipped into anymore. This means there is more money left for snowballing on top of my minimum payments or planned spends instead of using the credit card. It really is amazing how clearer things become after a bit of organisation!

When do you plan to become debt free?

I originally said 5 years, but as the days go by I can hear that biological clock ticking away in the back of my mind – This is my motivation for doing my upmost to make this much sooner. Fingers and toes crossed, but we all know this will only go away from hard work, not luck!

I’d like to thank Laura for today’s post. Please make sure to visit her on Instagram at @ljsdebtfreejourney.

Your Debt Diary – The Navigatio

October 3, 2018

Your Debt Diary is a guest blog series by money bloggers and members of the debt free community for My Debt Diary. Each week someone new will share their debt story. This week Nele from The Navigatio talks about starting out on her debt journey after graduating from university recently.

What stage are you at in your debt free journey right now?

I’ve only just graduated university, which puts me right at the beginning of paying off my student loans. It’s scary but hopefully I can find a good way to pay it off as quickly as possible.

What is your debt total?

During my time at university, I had to take on a part time (20-30 hours) job in order to pay for rent/food because I wasn’t entitled to a maintenance loan (due to me being an immigrant). I’ve always found it a little bit annoying, cause working so many hours on top of doing a degree in your second language kinda sucks! But in hindsight I’m very glad I didn’t add maintenance loan on top of my tuition loan. Three years of university added up to 27,000 pounds – which isn’t too bad when I look at friends who have to pay back 50-60K because of their maintenance loans.

What is your “why”?

I hate the idea of owning the government money, especially because I’m an immigrant and the way people look at immigrants. Plus, I’d love to be financially comfortable/stable as soon as I possibly can! Which means, not having any debt!

Are you following a specific plan or method?

Currently I don’t have a game plan set up yet, I’m just trying to save as much money as possible. As soon as I’m back in the UK (after my big travel that I planned for graduating university) I’m going to start looking for a full-time job that hopefully allows me to start paying back my student loans slowly but steadily.

What are you doing to speed up the progress of your debt free journey?

I have been doing a lot of research on the stock market, especially on how to gain passive income over certain stocks in the form of dividend. I’ve invested a bit of my savings into that and now I simply have to wait.

Another way I’m trying to make money in order to pay back my student loans is my blog! I run a lifestyle/travel blog over at www.thenavigatio.com and all the money I make from adds, sponsorship and donations goes straight to a separate PayPal account that is purposefully made to pay off my student loans!

I’d like to thank Nele for today’s post. Please make sure to visit her blog at The Navigatio. You can also find her on Instagram at @thenavigatio and twitter at @TheNavigatio.