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 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.
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.
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