How I'm taking control of my £164,893 debt

gingernutbizkit

hi all,

Returned from holiday and found that I have been underpaid this month due to an 'error'. I think it's about £200 :mad:

Paid £150 off my overdraft and made my standard payments for my loans/mortgage.

Should be able to pay some more off soon

gingernutbizkit

Disaster has striken. I received a letter yesterday about my Student loan. When I went to uni my fees and loans were suppose to be paid by my church (I was studying to be a vicar!). I left the course early after 'choosing to engage in an unholy lifestyle'!!!!! According to my loan statement they have not been making any payments and I owe an extra £7675.93. :eek:

My positive attitude is starting to slip......

gallygirl

gingernutbizkit wrote: »

I left the course early after 'choosing to engage in an unholy lifestyle'!!!!!

Well, obviously this is a big blow debt wise - but please - TELL US MORE :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

thriftylass

gingernutbizkit wrote: »

...

Carrottopsuk - as my ISA pays a higher rate of interest than my debts cost me it is not worth paying off my debts with the money in my ISA - at least I think that's right.

I agree with carrottopsuk, paying of debts first (even if some of yours only have interest close to ISA) is always advisable, even if the monitary difference isn't that big. For peace of mind and simply to reduce the debt load, rather then dragging them all out over the years.

gingernutbizkit

gallygirl wrote: »

Well, obviously this is a big blow debt wise - but please - TELL US MORE :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

LOL not quite as exciting as you might think!

gingernutbizkit

So excited about the reduction in interest rate...... hope my lender passes it on. Even 1% will mean a saving of £120 pcm

gingernutbizkit

I'm sooooo excited!!

I have just checked on my mortgage lenders website and they have said that from 1st December they will be reducing our mortgage interest by the full 1.5% :j :j :j

I estimate that from the two rate drops I have saved £250 pcm. I intend to add this money to our NR loan which should really help to speed up the repayments.

Off to my snowball to see what I can save! :beer:

gingernutbizkit

Realised that I need to refocus and get to grips with my spending so that I can put some more of my hard earned income into my debts. I'm aiming that before the end of 2009 the only dent I have left is my mortgage (which is enough!). The money I'm sacing in mortgage interest should really help with this.

Some other goals for me:

* Only £150 to spend on groceries before the end of the year - it would be nice to think I could get xmas food/drink for that too but it will need a lot of planning and I'll have to be very strict

* Shop around for my motor insurance due in two days

* Start to look now for our march hol so we can get a good deal.

Ging x

gingernutbizkit

Hi all,

Did shop around for a good motor insurance deal and managed to knock £50 off and also went through quidco

Still haven't booked hol for march which I need to as I have to find cover for my job. Decided to stick to the faithful canary islands.... now just need to look for a deal.

Rate cuts has reduced my mortgage by £234.67 which I am very happy about. After this month I will start to put that towards my debts.

Sadly, think I will be over budget on xmas this year - holding my hands up and excepting total responsibility . In my defence it is the first year we will have children in the house and it is so hard not to spoil them.

Ging x

gingernutbizkit

hmmmm.

Christmas has made quite an impact financially, and not in a good way either.
The New Year could be difficult too. We've still a lot to do on the house and it's not going to be cheap.

That said, my goal is to pay off all non-mortgage debt by the end of 2009. That's approx £14500!!!! This will be a really tall order as we certainly don't have this kind of money lying around (mores the pity!).

Off to create a plan of action for paying this off whilst doing up the house and also having a life!