The Double Debt Attack by Double Trouble

Double_Trouble

I have decided to bite the bullet and write a diary as I was in the process of writing a very long musing post on the PAD thread and didn’t think it was fair to subject them to my loopy thought processes.

To introduce myself I am 50 and my OH is 61 so very late in coming to our senses. We have 4 children two 18 year old twins and two 3 year old twins hence my user name. We also foster and have a 10 month old baby at the moment and a 13 year old who comes for respite. My mum who is 93 also lives with us and DDs boyfriend seems to have taken up residence as well so a very busy mad household. Change is in the air though DS is off to University in September

The debt LBM was in July 08 been lurking on MSE for a while finally took the plunge to join in September 08 debt at LBM was £69K on CCs but it had been £89K :eek: since then I have been using all spare money to clear the CCs and all my cards except one are 0% so instead of paying £830 month in interest it is now around £30. The only exception to this was my husband has just bought a car I would have liked him to have waited until next year but in the end relented but otherwise he is fully on board and is a great husband.

My debt is going to go backwards in the next few days as I was offered a 0% card from Egg so I have had a rethink. I have taken the money to cover the shortfall in the car budget and also I was going to be short in paying off my 0% HSBC card in October. All my cards except one LOB are 0%. The plan now is to put the money for the HSBC card in my savings account so it earns interest and pay it off in October. I will then use my PAD to pay off my Halifax LOB card. I still predict that I am going to be short of paying off OH MBNA 0% card in December but will have made significant inroads into it. I expect by then to have £30k of CC debt it would have been less but as a couple we are going to have to take a £15K pay cut :rolleyes: but it will all be on 0%. As our CC debts will have reduced from £89k at their highest (pre LBM) to 30K I am fairly confident that I will be able to get some more 0% deals and plan to tart my cards whilst continuing to reduce the balances.

I have a stinking cold at the moment which has given me time to think about my debts and I have decided that I also need to look at my mortgage. If all my CCs are 0% then I need to start overpaying my mortgage at present I am only making minimum payments as I wanted to free up the extra money to get the CCs under control. I have already agreed to join Financial Bliss’ MFiT(Part 2) challenge starting on the 12 Dec 09 I had hoped to be on the final push with regard to my CCs by then but the 15K pay cut has squashed that.

About pay we get paid every 3 months which is how we got into this mess in the first place so budgeting now plays a big part in our lives. We are directors of our family company so set our own pay levels in theory but in practice of course it depends on profit like every other business we are suffering and other people going out of business owing us money has impacted too therefore the reason for the paycut which will have to be reviewed next year to see if this is sufficient or whether we have to take a further cut hopefully pay will return to pre credit crunch levels one day and then it will make life a lot easier.

To cope with this we are not sending our youngest twins to private school as we did the others and after half term they will be in a nursery at our local school. This will have to be reviewed in the future as the secondary schools in our area are not good this has been a painful decision to make but had to be done. This will make a huge difference to our budget the fees still have to be paid until July before we will feel the full effect. We have thought about moving to an area with better schools by selling our house in Lanzarote and our current home but this is on hold due to the property market.


If anyone has been mad enough to read all of this waffle you deserve a medal.


DTxx

Double_Trouble

THE PLAN
1. When Egg money arrives put money in savings for HSBC card to be paid in October.
2. The remainder will be used to plug gap in car budget.
3. When school fees end in July start paying £2k a month first off LOB card and then to savings to pay off 0% cards as they become due. In reality this will mean paying £6k at end of July and £6K at end of October when we get paid rather than £2k a month.
4. Use other spare money from budget and extra money from scratchcards, mystery shopping etc. to pay off LOB card.
5. Make sure we have 0% deals in place to BT remainder of MBNA in December and Citibank in January when current deals end.
6. In December take up the mortgage challenge and start paying £2K a month to the mortgage instead of to CCs and using extra money to continue reducing CC balances whilst still tarting. So this will mean we will pay off around £75K of our mortgage during the challenge period. Our current mortgage deal ends in Aug 2010 so will have to find a new deal that allows us to make overpayments our current mortgage only allows us to pay 10%.
7. Increase extra money by getting head around matched betting.

Also need to do
1. Complete newsletter and reports from my recent trip to Uganda
2. Sort out paperwork
3. Get tax return done
4. Get up to date on accounts that I do for local bookshop

Current Situation CCs £42638.17. £11400 to be added from Egg CC making £54K but 6K will be in CC savings so net CC debt 48K.

Mortgage as at 10 March was £207,702.15 with 190K interest only. The rest is repayment due to end in 9 years. (NB need to get this activated online so that I can keep a check on this). This is a tracker present rate 1.59% but will probably be higher when we remortgage and as there is really only one way interest rates can go now want to reduce the capital owed to compensate for future interest rate rises.

So I plan to tackle the CCs and from December the mortgage at the same time – never one to do things by halves

DT

hypno06

Nah, crap plan.

Eat chocolate and drink coffee.

That's what I do......:D

shaun40400

you expect people to read all that??

Nah, crap plan.

Eat chocolate and drink coffee.

:rotfl::rotfl:

hypno06

I've joined the MFiT challenge too - fits well for me because by that date I should have only my secured loan and my mortgage left.....

shaun40400

phew !! read it!!
ouch??
:o

Double_Trouble

hypno06 wrote: »

Nah, crap plan.

Eat chocolate and drink coffee.

That's what I do......:D

You must be psychic I am drinking a cappuccino and just finished the choccie:D

DTxx

Double_Trouble

shaun40400 wrote: »

you expect people to read all that??
:rotfl::rotfl:

Nope you would be baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarking to do that:rotfl:

DTxx

Double_Trouble

hypno06 wrote: »

I've joined the MFiT challenge too - fits well for me because by that date I should have only my secured loan and my mortgage left.....

I am glad that there will be a fellow DFW in the challenge MFWs can be a bit scary

DTxx

boredofbeingathome

Ironic really as i started out on the MFW bit, inspired by the TV show MF in two years. I find that they both seem to run hand in hand as the principles are the same as is the tenacity to clear stuff and live in that frame of mind. Minus the cc debt of course, but clearing requires a mindset.

Good luck with your journey DT.

shaun40400

have you seen who thanked you in post #2 DT

MUST BE POSH YOU!!
ALL HAIL THE KING!!

:rotfl::rotfl::cool: