A support thread for people paying off debt #2

[moneyworries9]

Hi all... hope you manage to find the thread?

The last one seemed to be such a success 😃 I will be honest and say that I haven't cleared as much as I would have liked but I know if I hadn't been on here, the debts would most likely have increased rather than decreased. I currently owe

£3,355 - loan
£1,600 - credit card

We do have some cash in our bank accounts. I'm in the process of paying for driving lessons so have about £1,000 in our current account, most of which is to cover that.

On the plus side, when I started the other thread, I had around £2,500 on my credit card and £3900 loan so I'm taking baby steps in the right direction.

The other thread was a huge source of support and motivation for me and I hope that this one will be for many others.

Feel free to give a quick summary to introduce yourself

Hi all,

Welcome to all the new people 👋🏻 I hope this thread can be as helpful to you as it has been so far to me ☺️

We are buying a car (I know I've mentioned this before). We were going to buy an Audi A4, but DH & I have always considered having a 3rd child but we haven't yet due to finances. We've set ourselves a timeframe of 2 years and if we can't afford to have another by then, we'll draw a line under it and stick with our 2 girls.

However, it dawned on me that to buy the Audi would basically put a big stumbling block in our way if we wanted to have another DD in the next 2 years. We would likely have more to repay on the loan in 2 years time than what the car would sell for which would set us back again. We have made a decision now to buy a Peugeot 5008 (7 seater) which will allow us the option of having another baby without having to sell the car. I don't know if this is a silly idea or a good one 🤷🏻‍♀️ I find all this planning for the future so difficult at times. I'm also concerned as the car it looks like we'll be buying is a 15 plate so it'll be nearly 9 years old by the time we pay off the loan. I'm worried we'll end up getting hit with loads of big repair bills before then. Then again I have no real experience to base that on because we have always had new, leased cars. Maybe I'm worrying for no reason.

Sorry for rambling. I just find large purchases like this really daunting.

So good to see some of you having success with the snowball method 😃 it seems to really work, doesn't it?

Hope you're all having a good day 😃

@TalkinPaece I work shifts so always find it hard. I will try again. I used to sell/swap my clothes but haven’t done it for a while (because I’ve been too disorganised) so maybe I’ll start with my wardrobe.

Apparently I can’t get out of the National trust until next March which is a pain but maybe I should start making the most of it and go more this year.

moneyworries
Sounds like the car you have chosen will last you a good while.
I always drive cars into the ground
(well at least until they can no longer be trusted on motorways in rush hour)
and have always bought cash.
Getting a good service garage is the true investment

Thanks Talk ☺️ and thanks for the advice re services 👍🏻

We've now put a deposit on the car. I got £350 discount simply by asking for a discount. I agreed to buy the car on the condition that some small chips on paintwork were repaired (which they agreed to do). Also, they're going to be servicing it before we collect so we won't need to do that for a year. You get 60mpg and it's only £30 to tax. I just need to pass my driving test on Tuesday so I can actually drive it 😅 I don't feel ready for the test but that's another story 😆

@talkinpeece yes, now to crack CC2 and impending loan

Hello!!
I currently have a bank loan of about £19,500 which I'm paying off monthly and had planned to overpay.
But as from this month I'm taking a drop in salary of £550. The timing couldn't be worse, but is out of my control.
So now every penny is logged and accounted for.
If only I had something substantial to show for all the money that I've frittered away in the past!!!
But no point looking back - I have to focus on the future.
Wish me luck!!!

Good luck. Stay focused. You'll be fine

Moneyworries Good Luck for your test today!!

We've also recently got a new (to us) car and understand the stress of it all!!
Lidl have got some upholstery covers with storage pockets for £3.99 atm which I just bought to put under the kids car seats.

That sounds mega stressful Jaffa but you've definitely got the right attitude. Pointless looking back!

I've got a few things on my to do list today, filurst us to reduce our overpayment on the mortgage from £100 to £20. Then to reduce the 0%CC payment from £175 to £100. That saves us £155. The new car costs £224pm and I'm going to try and reduce our food shopping bill by the difference a month.

Thanks for the good wishes. Unfortunately I failed. 7 minors and 1 major. Hopefully I'll get it next time 🙏🏼

money
When is your next one scheduled for ?

Next one is scheduled for 19th June - that was the next available test. I'm looking for cancellations though. The rubbish thing is I'll now need to spend £280 on another block of lessons and another £60ish for the test 😩 bleeding me dry but I need to stick with it. The reason i need another block of lessons is that I need to book the car out for 2.5 hours on test day and I need to work on my manoeuvres and on roundabouts before the next test. I've already spent £1,000 😩

Less lessons, more practice .... aim for an hour a day

I tried getting on DHs car insurance but we were told they couldn't insure a learner on the car because of the size of the car. I have no one else who can take me out in their car so the only practice I can get is lessons unfortunately. We get our new car on Saturday which is as big if not bigger than our current car but the engine is smaller (1.6) so I'll check if I can get on the insurance for that. Fingers crossed. Hiring a dual control car is difficult also because I don't think we're near a garage I can get one from and I also don't think I can take DD in the hired car with me driving. It's a real pain. Fingers crossed the insurance company will let me go on the insurance for the new car because that will be a big help financially.

Sorry to didn't pass moneyworries, it's such an expensive business. Fingers crossed for next time.
So my mortgage finally completed today! It's only taken 3 months!
I had the choice to have the money transferred by Bacs and that takes 3 working days or immediate bank transfer for £40!
Er, I've waited long enough, another three days won't hurt thanks! £40 to move your own money, flippin solicitors!

money
Ah, fair enough.
Had the same with my kids and my car - Direct line just laughed when I tried to insure them on it
so we had to buy a small car for them

ale
Fizzy wine when the numbers all go through

Just skimmed through previous posts. We have used the snowball method to tackle our debts. We started with 5 debts and are now down to 2. This is probably our third time tackling our debts and the first time we've made any sort of progress. It felt so good to wipe that first debt off my mental list and it felt even better to cancel that direct debit

Ooh this is great

Trying to keep accountable

We've been working hard to cut our debts so we can ttc

Credit card 1: £0 as of today!
Credit card 2: £0
Credit card 3: £1950 £50 dd coming out
Credit card 4: £58 (friend paying this back since abroad!)

Only other thing is 0% furniture loan at £40 pcm and mortgage

Bearing in mind this was £11k last May it's improving

Aiming to pay £900 if overtime comes through to start next month on a round £1k

I love this thread! It Keeps me going and gives me the drive to keep going at my goal ! Very inspiring to read the updates of posters who have managed to clear their debts. It feels like a long way for me but I'm sure I'll get there. I've started the DD trick and have given a lot more thought into my spending over the last few months which is good ! I've been avoiding this for sooo long !l

@moneyworries9 - sorry you didn't pass this time ... fingers and toes crossed for next test! Keep checking everyday for test cancellations- they tend to come up often!

checking in. So I have now paid just over £5000 of my debt since Christmas and will be able to pay another lump sum in a few weeks. I keep focusing on the amount I gave left, £6794 and know I won't be able to keep up the big lump sums as overtime is not guaranteed. No-one knows how much debt I have so just offloading here really. Hope everyone is doing ok

@coffeechoc that's an amazing amount, be proud!

coffeechoc that's amazing!! Even if you slow down on your repayments you're making great headway!!

I've paid off 1/4 of my cc bill. I won't be getting paid over the summer (teacher) so I'm not throwing all my money at the debt. I have two accounts for bills, one for monthly dd and one for expenses that are regular but not monthly - car tax, electricity etc. And I am siphoning off any extra money into a separate account so I can pay my bills over the summer. I'm hoping to find steady work in September so I'll be able to throw more money at debt then

DH hasn't mentioned a holiday away this year which is great as we can't afford it. But my mil lives abroad so it means we won't see her unless she comes to us. But even trips to family end up costing a grand between flights, car and food. It's still a holiday abroad, the only money we don't spend is accommodation so it's not a free holiday

@Delerk and @Turquoise
Thanks so much. At the beginning , I was feeling quite low at the change, then had the setback of having to pay £250 excess for an insurance claim
I've worked loads of overtime, but that's taking it's toll, so I expect it will slow up. I'd also like to go away, not for long and cheap I'm the summer hols, although not sure I should? i wouldn't be adding to debt, id just not pay off as much that month, not sure what to do

Well done coffeechoc, that's an amazing achievement. You have been so dedicated!
My money from my mortgage arrived in my account this morning - I was so excited!
I put £1000 straight into my savings as my emergency fund.
I have paid off next, very and credit card 1.
Credit card 2 will be paid off in full on Monday when I get the new bill.
Everything else will go towards credit card 3 which is on 0%.
I think it will leave a balance of about £2000.
All spare money I will now have from not servicing debts every month will go towards clearing that one too.
For the first time in forever I actually feel on control.