To pay off my own debts on mat leave?

[PhoebeGeebee]

Due to go on mat leave in December. I'll get six weeks at 90% then down to stat. I've been a bit anal about spreadsheets and savings and making sure we'll have enough to cover us each month. We have, not massively but enough for the odd treat and that's without dipping into savings.

However, I realised the other day that I'd calculated my take home wrong and forgot to add my stat mat payments. Taking this into account leaves us about £500 a month better off. I could put that into our savings, or we could just fritter it away OR I could pay off an old credit card that I've just been making minimum payments on. It would only take 4/5 months to totally pay off, and when I go back to work, I know I'll not be able to make huge payments to get it down.

So, bearing in mind that I'll be responsible for making sure we stick to a budget and don't go over every month, would I be unreasonable to use my own 'wages' to pay off my own debt and not use it for the family?

(We have no other debt btw)

I pay £250 a month in petrol so our spare cash each is fairly equal.

I make that about 1600 miles at 30 mpg (very roughly)

£60 (roughly) a week. 100 miles a day.

Yep, that's including the petrol savings.

I make that about 1600 miles at 30 mpg (very roughly)

shock horror- some people do drive more than a few miles a day to work.

50 miles each way isn't uncommon and that would be 2,000 miles in a 4 week month.

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Pay off the debt but don't do it behind your DHs back. That would be an odd and sneak thing to do. You are having a baby with the guy and should be be able to trust one another.

Does your DH know about the debt?

He knows I have a credit card, not sure he knows the balance. I will tell him. Like I said, I genuinely don't think he'd have an issue because in the end I'll be debt free, have a better credit rating and it'll be one less thing to pay out post mat leave ending. I will also look at doing the saving and repaying the other way round, which would mean having to tell him as I'd be contributing less to the savings pot for a few months (reckon I could have it paid off in three months).

The reason I haven't whacked a load of money behind it til now is that I recently had a decent pay rise but it coincided with an unexpected fine. That is paid off this month so I'll be back to a decent level of disposable income again!

Pay your debts first. Then get some savings behind you. So many people wouldn't make their next mortgage or rental payment if they were suddenly unemployed. What's the interest rate on the card?

Mummy - we have a decent pot of savings but are just about to use most of them to get a new (desperately needed) kitchen. That's the reason I'm so twitchy about building the savings back up as soon as possible.

The cc is 0%.

I agree with others pay debt off..Paying the minimum is ridiculously low..If you can't bring yourself to pay all saving s then at least do half your savings.. Interest rates are so low saving at a later date will make no difference.

def pay off debts first.

And great so you're good at saving as a team. Paying half and saving half as Sharon suggested is a good compromise. If push comes to shove and something awful happens, there will always be another 0% deal. And one thing I would hate is to see all my savings going to pay off the card once it goes onto the standard 20pc or something - I'm assuming the rate will change st some stage.

Could you save half and pay half off the cc? Seeing as that £250 would normally have been going on petrol, you'll still be able to build up the savings and don't need to worry about any interest on the cc.