Financial peace isn’t the acquisition of stuff. It’s learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can’t win until you do this. –Dave Ramsey

I know from my post https://elizalilysmiles.blog/2019/01/03/lets-just-be-honest-for-a-second-i-think-im-addicted-to-spending/ I mentioned that I was going to do a quarterly update, but I’ve been a bit bogged down health wise so I haven’t really been in the right mindset for it – Also with the amount of money I have to keep throwing at prescriptions it has really scuffled my budget that I had worked out. Sadness overwhelms me.

But on to the important things, How is it all going? Well truth be told it hasn’t really. Other than almost paying off my two of my low balance credit cards, I have the two ‘big ones’ to tackle and my loan, I don’t feel as if I have made much progress. The only substantial thing I think I have accomplished is balance transferring the majority of my credit card debt onto another credit card with an interest-free period. This allows me to have the breathing space to pay the debt off without the impending fear of interest creeping up on me.

Fact: A balance transfer is effectively ‘moving’ the debt to another provider which may have a lower interest rate, this means that the overall amount you pay back in interest isn’t as suffocating. Some credit card providers also give you an interest-free period in which the only amount you pay back is the money you owe. Of course this is subject to what you are offered and in the terms and conditions of the card – but for the majority as long as you are making your minimums you should benefit for the full term of the interest-free period!

It is a tad embarrassing sitting down with your parent and being 100% honest about the numbers and just seeing the pure shock mixed with disappointment on their face. Getting to this point wasn’t intentional but getting out of it is the main goal.

Personally I want to get to a stage in my life whereby I am able to do the things I enjoy without seeing how it is going to break the bank – some of the things I’m looking forward to is saving to complete some courses to gain a qualification in finance and to save for driving lessons. Story time – I did complete the majority of my driving lessons when I worked on the bar, but my instructor ‘disappeared’ before I could complete the last few hours I had paid for. Then life got in the way and tad-ah we are still not driving haha.

I’ll do another finance update in a couple of months when I have managed to tackle the next credit card – it is looking very promising to have that done within the next 3 months!

One last note, i’m still considering uploading a ‘vlog’ type video soon, but I feel like I need to look a little less bedraggled but whatever is making me sick!

Speak soon and let me know if any of you are in the process of tackling debt. I’d love to know how you are getting along!