That feeling again

beanielou

That is one amazing surplus.
Im sure you work hard but I hope you realise what a fortunate situation you are in.

andys15

Just how she wants it. It tops up her monthly money, but she said if we paid her more she would feel justified to save it and not blow it. She enjoys treating herself each month. That £100 a month will be a treat for her now forever. The £8000 we repaid, will probably never be enjoyed by her, so it makes me happy paying the rest back like this also.

Nargleblast

Andy - if you truly want to sort your debt problem out then you will do it. It will be tough but worth it in the end. Go for it, set yourselves a target date to be debt free - there is no such thing as manageable debt, (even mortgages can be a worry when interest rates rise) as none of us know what is round the corner.
Get your wife and yourself by the scruffs of the neck, sit down and do your budget together and see where you can save. And you know there are organisations like CCCS and Payplan who can give free advice on debt matters.

Buffythedebtslayer

Andy I understood so much of your posts and the responses, one of the reasons why I have never put up an SOA. I would be afraid of the answers. I also get what the posters earlier mean. Have copied some to keep me on the straight and narrow! (when I find it!)


I just wanted to say well done for sticking it out and having a budget. I think you are doing well

xx

TIME2GROWUP_2

:T:T:T Well done you.... glad you got everything sorted and had your fab holiday in florida, I did feel for you reading the replies to your original post, harsh but also some truth in amongst it. Enjoy your house, family and gran.. and start saving for that next holiday... xx

andys15

Thankyou. It might look easy that the majority of my debt is to family. I am forever grateful, but if it would have been through bank loans paying back the same amounts I would still be in a similar position. I will have over the length of the big loan saved about £3000 in interest, or £85 a month. As it turns out, my dads loan was by him selling shares, so he has actually got a much better return on his money, as I will be giving back 6%, he would have lost at present about 30%.

Verbatim

That's turned out well for Dad as you say. And for your gran if as I understand you you're committed to giving her £100 for life?

Katie-Kat-Kins

Only thing I don't get is why with your big surplus you don't work on paying off some of the debts ahead of schedule......

Or saving a lump sum so that when your fixed term comes to the end on your mortgage you can pay a chunk off when you transfer and reduce your future payments.

Final point is that you should really keep a record of what these "emergencies" are that have you dipping into that money, some of those things like repairs to the car for example should be built into your budget. Ideally most months your emergency fund will hardly be touched and should be an instant access savings account so that you have back up for big problems. I suspect that you are either classing things as emergencies that should be in your budget or you need to increase what you put in there. I'd be inclined to put your emergency money in a separate account with a half decent interest rate and preferably one where you don't have a debit card or cash card so you really have to think before you use the money.

Good luck!

mrcow

Well done - and for the update too.

It's such a long hard slog much of the time. It can seem like it goes on forever at times. Just keep with it.