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

gingernutbizkit

So, it's the start of Feb and I thought I should write an update of my finances. I sat down early Jan and wrote a budget plan with clear savings for xmas, hols etc etc I need to revisit this soon as it may need tweaking a bit now that I have been monitoring January's spending.

My debt for january were as follows:
Car loan payment - £416.66
Northern Rock payment - £407.63
Morgage (from interest on repayment money in ISA account) - £219.85

total January payments: £1044.14
Remaining money need to meet the challenge of paying £15000 this year: £13955.86

Most of this money this month has come from the fact that in the last year my mortgage payment have come down £500 pcm but also writing a budget and then recording my spending has helped to see where we're going over. I've started adding items for ebay so that should generate a little income.

Ging x

Blackruby

Good luck, ging! Wish I'd popped on before christmas to say to use ebay for christmas presents. I got everyone decent stuff from there and it only cost just under £40 including p+p and coz it was money I had already made selling things, it's like I had christmas for free. Ebay rules, definitely. My parents are marketeers but have recently changed the type of stall they do, so they've given me the stuff they used to sell for ebay (unfortunately, at the moment, I feel like hell and don't want to do ebay stuff).

barrys-lass

Hi there
I know you dont want to use your ISA money to pay off your debts but i think it would be a good idea to re think this. You could pay off a big chunk of debt with this and when you are back in the black start saving again.

Good luck

gingernutbizkit

thanks for your comments guys,

Barry-Lass - My ISA rate is fixed @6.2% at present and so I earn more in interest than I pay on debts. Until this rate changes it is not worth me using the money to pay off my loans..... I imagine it will change soon though

Off to relook at finances.......

gingernutbizkit

Just made an order online with a butchers. Trying to buy meat without getting our usual tasteless rubbish from the supermarkets. I bought the following for £77 and will try to stretch it out as far as I possibly.... any ideas appreciated!
2x large chicken
24 sausages
8 chicken breasts
10 chicken legs
4 gammon steaks
leg of lamb
pork belly joint
pack of bacon
turkey joint

Going to menu plan now and look forward to my free item. Meat arrives on saturday and I'll have chance then to assess the quality and whether this is worth continuing to do.
Anyone think makro might be worthwhile for my dry goods?

Ging x

gallygirl

gingernutbizkit wrote: »

Just made an order online with a butchers. Trying to buy meat without getting our usual tasteless rubbish from the supermarkets. I bought the following for £77 and will try to stretch it out as far as I possibly.... any ideas appreciated!
2x large chicken
24 sausages
8 chicken breasts
10 chicken legs
4 gammon steaks
leg of lamb
pork belly joint
pack of bacon
turkey joint

Going to menu plan now and look forward to my free item. Meat arrives on saturday and I'll have chance then to assess the quality and whether this is worth continuing to do.
Anyone think makro might be worthwhile for my dry goods?

Ging x

Personally I've never found Macro that cheap. For pasta I use Asdas v large bags and for rice I try to get from an Asian shop (is that OK to say or will the BBC come and sack me )

gingernutbizkit

gallygirl wrote: »

Personally I've never found Macro that cheap. For pasta I use Asdas v large bags and for rice I try to get from an Asian shop (is that OK to say or will the BBC come and sack me )

LOL :rotfl: We have a large Asian community 10 mile from us and I'd never thought of having a look to see if there's a shop there. Nearest Asda is a 40 min drive so not a very economical shop for us.

I've spent some time planing my meals and I'm sorted for the rest of the month. Also splashed out and bought myself a Panasonic Breadmaker after following the advice of others on here. Used to have a breadmaker and used it a lot but it wasn't very good really.

Disasterous day financially...... my son managed to lock us all out in the snow and I had to break our front door and now have to buy a replacement. :mad: Then tried to make some muffins only to find out that my oven had broken and had to go out and spend £250 on a new one :eek:

Good job my new budget allows for some emergencies!!!

gingernutbizkit

February's Debt Payments (so far??)


My debt for Feb were as follows:
Car loan payment - £416.66
Northern Rock payment - £407.63
Lloyds Overdraft - £100

total Feb payments: £924.29
Remaining money need to meet the challenge of paying £15000 this year: £13031.57

gingernutbizkit

Just bought our new bedroom furniture and came in under our budget of £2000!!!

The bed cost us £535 but was on sale having been reduced from £1800

We had a quote for bedroom furniture for £3500 fitted. We shopped around and found something simular in Littlewoods that bought the cost down to £1200. We then found (evenetually) the same range in Marshall Lake for £900 plus will get 6% if it clears through quidco.

That's a total saving of £3865 plus quidco money :j :j :j

Spendaholic_Chick

Wow, you're doing great! I almost had a heart attack when I saw your thread title,until I realised that included mortgage debt!!

Keep up the good work,this is a good read:T