A thread for people trying to pay off debt?

[moneyworries8]

Would there be any interest in this?

I'll start us off. I'm 30, a SAHM with 2DC.
Our debts are:

£4,000 loan that we've been paying off for 6 months.
£2,300 on a credit card

The debt is manageable but I've had the realisation that if something doesn't change, these figures are going to get bigger and bigger. I know it's a hard time of year to start but I don't believe in "waiting until the new year!"

We could post on here for advice/support as well as sharing our successes (and failures, but hopefully there won't be many of those) with each other. I feel like I need some people to help keep me on track.

So, is anyone interested?

just checking in tonight. finding this last bit of Jan tricky - new car tyres needed, now dipping into (agreed) overdraft and still a while to go until payday. I have however avoided the Jan sales, keeping food shopping reasonably in check and doing Standing Order payment on credit card. Moderate success.

bobinks
Late January is always a bugger
(I have DH and my tax bills to pay next week)
but well done on staying planned

Can I ask how people stay mentally (emotionally) focussed on the goal of being debt free, how you ride out the “wobbles”? I am struggling more at the moment because due to difficulties my son is having I haven’t been able to work overtime. My overtime paid for extra debt repayments and also the odd treat. Without it I am much more conscious of how my determination to be debt free within 2 years (save for mortgage) is meaning we have to be careful every day. Sometimes that feels good but other times it feels tough. Made harder by the fact the debt was due to legal bills dealing with my abusive ex (who is currently not even paying maintenance). I guess it is just getting me down a bit today!

NeverTwerk
Turn it on its head slightly.

You might take three years
but you'll do it
and the number is staying the same rather than going up

don't beat yourself up for letting the original timings slide a bit
so long as you know why you are doing this

• to give you and your son a better happier life

and THAT is the goal

enjoy your son being a kid
he'll turn into a grunting teen all too soon
go play Uno for an hour and let the world wash past

The overtime was done in the evenings as I work around school hours for that reason talk. Problem has been he has been too stressed to go to bed till 10/11 at night! I am hoping we have turned a corner though. And you have made a good point, I need to stop being so focussed on an end date. If it slips a little at least the numbers are still going down. I have halved it since a year ago so shouldn’t be too cross with myself! (That was the joy of doing lots of overtime!)

Twerk
Look at it from his POV
Mummy and daddy split up, they are angry with each other
Mummy is worried about money
mummy works in the evening or she cries
I want her in the evenings
so he wants to be the most important thing in your life

and TBH being in debt for another year
versus having a secure child
is worth it
Do not let the debt grow, but shrink it slowly.

Out of interest, do you discuss finances with him?
He may be young but there are times when treating them like adults actually reduces their stress levels ....

talk he was fine about our split (he blossomed after it) but a few months ago his dad did something pretty dreadful to him so I just had to drop all evening working / me time. Things are slowly settling for him but you are so right that it paying off debt slower is worth it to prioritise him during his crisis.

We don’t really discuss finances, although we do talk about how work pays for activities etc. We can live well but sensibly while paying off debt, the children can do their clubs and have parties etc. There just isn’t much wriggle room for extras and sometimes it feels like a slog being careful!

I try and talk to the children about money management etc and teach them healthy habits (like saving) as their dad is hopeless at stuff like that.

Talkin thanks for the pep talk , just realised I have no Council Tax to pay for next 2 months so that helps!

NeverTwerk keep going and what a for halving debt in a year. That is something to be proud of. Hope you are feeling better tonight and DC was off to sleep a little earlier.

Moneyworries

PCP is expensive and rarely does anyone come out with anything if they cancel early. There is usually a balloon payment at the end which you need to pay to keep the car which is why the monthly payment is lower than borrowing on a loan when you keep the car when the loan is repaid. I would never do PCP as it sucks you into constantly needing to take out new deals as you never have an asset to part exchange. Why such an expensive car?

Just wanted to update with where I am currently at with our finances.

Credit card balance has gone down from £2,300 to £1,370.

£4,000 loan currently has £3,700 still to be repaid. We've paid off the interest basically plus an extra £300 over the first 10 months.

So that brings out total debt to £5070.

We will be getting our new car in July and the reason we're not going for a cheaper on is that we worry that it'll be a false economy. We do long drives through the night with the kids and don't want to be breaking down mid journey. Also, we have decided not to do pcp. We will be buying a car which is 3 years old and paying it off over a 5 year loan. I will be starting working within the next year so the plan is to hugely overpay the loan once I'm earning money so that we can clear it much quicker than 5 years.

We currently lease and pay £230 per month for our lease and the loan will be £250 per month. My husband is also getting a small pay rise this month.

I don't think I'm being reckless here as it does all seem to be under control but I get such awful fears about getting into unmanageable debt which really scares me. I suppose having that fear is a good thing.

Hi there money
Sounds like you have a clear view of where you are, where you want to get to and a plan for doing it.
Well done.

Hi everyone please may I join? I have just over 9k in debt on credit cards. I have just paid one off but still have 2 cards one with 1.5k which the 0% rate will expire next month. The other has 5k on 0% until May and about 3k which I’m paying about £40 on interest monthly.

I have applied and been accepted for the Santander 0% balance transfer card so I won’t be getting charged interest. I have 1k in savings that I was scared to touch but I am going to pay it onto debt. My debt built up due to moving house whilst on mat leave and covering bills whilst on mat leave.

Also I have been buying a lot of random crap. I am going to work any available extra shifts and use that money to pay off debt. Thanks for all the advice.

Welcome glitter

Sounds like you are making progress

Could you sell any of the “random crap” and put the proceeds towards the debt?

Thanks NeverTwerk I have sorted a few bits to sell on Ebay, I used to do this regularly but have had no time recently.

I have spent a lot of money that could’ve gone towards paying off credit cards on small treats for my kids. Mostly books, small toys, dinosaur feet slippers etc. I’m going back to doing an online food shop so that I’m not wondering around the supermarket picking up random stuff we don’t need. I love reading cookbooks but have joined the library and borrowed some instead of buying.

Try local selling sites too, I sell quite a bit on a local Facebook site. Every little bit can chip away.

And yes to libraries being a good option

Can I jump on this thread? Plan is for us to be debt free 2019. Got into debt over a mixture of things such having children, moving house and being frivolous with cash!

Debts over 3 separate CC
£1050
£660
£600

Plan is to live off of one wage and use mine to pay them off in big chunks starting with the highest interest (Aqua) and to make extra cash by doing online bits.

And a 2k student over draft that im currently not stressing about/leaving till last as I’m not being charged interest yet (although it’s a matter of time) maybe see if I can raise my credit enough to get a 0% deal when the time comes.

Just to say my wage is a part time one of a few hours a week but will still make a dent! And I’ve also opened the new gov savings account for people on low income. I know some would say don’t save if in debt but it seems too good a deal to miss and £50 a month is super affordable. Plus it’s nice to have savings for the first time in my life

Sounds like you have a plan. Go for it.

I have been contacted this week by my mortgage broker to say by 2 year fixed deal is coming to an end.
I am going to try for a new deal and have asked about the possibility of adding my debt to the mortgage, is this a good idea?
When I took out my mortgage I wasn't offered a great rate as my credit score was poor thanks in the most part to stbexh and his frivolous ways.
My credit score is now good so I'm hoping I will get a much better deal.
If they could offer me a new deal with the debt in I think it would cost me far less a month.
I know it's sort of making the debt not go away but if it's in the mortgage it feels different.
I'm just thinking affordability really and quality of life right now for me and the kids.

It's certainly worth asking, but when I looked into this it turned out that if your debt is interest free they won't (or shouldn't) roll it in. I think they had a minimum amount of debt they would add, as well.

Check what the interest rate's are and if it would cost you more overall to keep paying if now or to roll it in.

Hi, I've just found this thread this morning as I'm looking at different ways to get sorted. May I join in please?

We've a total of around £27.5k debt. £6.5k credit card, £6.3k loan, £10.2k loan and £4.5k car finance.

They all get paid on time and tick by, were not treading water but I'm very uncomfortable with it, don't have lots of excess to throw at it and will be going on mat leave in a few months. We budget and live as frugally as possible but there's always those moments where one or both of us says f**k it and get a takeaway or something and before we know it all the little bits add up to what would be an interest saving small contribution to the debt. Not to mention the overdrafts that are way too easy to slide into.

I've just sold some dresses and a pair of shoes that has gotten me about £80, that will come off the smaller loan as it had the higher interest rate (will snowball all of this).
I'd like to sell my wedding dress but not having much luck there.
We've already sold a lot of things in the past when saving for things to buy when DD was born and then made conscious efforts not to buy more clutter so things to sell are few and far between.

Also reading through this thread I've looked at balance transfer cards - saw one for Barclaycard 27 months at 0%, has anyone got one and rate them? I've never banked with Barclays before but doing it would take me down to just over £2k left before the 0% expires and my current card is 17.89% also whats the likelihood they'd give me that high a limit?

Sorry that was quite long, felt good to write it down though!

I've paid of another catalogue bill 😃 I'm so pleased that I can really see the debt reducing.

My work looks like it will be drying up a bit so I'm trying to get the debts down before it does and also trying to pick up some extra bank work somewhere else in the meantime.

I've also got a £250 trip for DS2 to pay for, I've asked exp to contribute but I won't hold my breath with that! I also have a payment due in June on our annual holiday.

Hi there Woogle
Welcome to the gang.
If you can get a 0% transfer for the card, go for it,
but its definitely putting it onto a standing order
so that it vanishes in a couple of years
then you can snowball the repayment money that you were using on the card into the loans

decluttering and shopping mindfully will get you there ....

Well done Titsalina
Its all heading in the right direction.

Hello all

Just checking in. January has seemed such a long month before payday. But on a brighter note, things aren't as bad as we thought debt-wise. I think I had originally worked out our debt to be around 40,000, it is actually a little less at 36,680 (unless I'm missing something obvious).

We too have a few expensive school trips to pay for this month that I never budget for.

For us, food is one of our biggest spends so have set a weekly food budget and plan to use (I think) Ta1kin's advice about eating out of cupboards and freezer when food is gone instead of nipping to the co-op every two days to top up. Last night I made ciabatta bread rolls at a fraction of the price I usually buy at.

Anyway, keep chipping away all, plan for me is to achieve a number that starts with 35 by end of next month.