A New House For Her , A Rugby Shirt For Me

andy1886

Right another eventful fortnight but hopefully this awful year is now behind me and my luck will change for the better in 2011 . Firstly , I needed to replace a car battery . After 2 years of jump leads the car finally had enough , the battery was running at 47% and on its' last legs so £60 for a new one . At least I get an extra hour in bed now not needing to go out and connect jump leads in the dark and go for a 20 minute drive just to charge a battery !!
Next the windscreen wipers stopped working but the rear one worked . A problem with the motor I thought and another bill but after a little research on the internet I found out it is probably caused by the fuse blowing and just needs replacing . So checked this out and it was correct , all fixed now for £ 1-15 !!!:T:T:T:T
Financially I am just surviving so hopefully in January I can start saving for Aprils car bills of tax , mot , insurance and service . I just want to keep the months rolling by with my repayments reducing the balance and hopefully looking forwared to reducing my debt free day by a couple of years :beer:

andy1886

This week I have received my default notice from Egg and although it is worded in a very strong way I am going to ignore it for now and keep my CCCS payments going to them .
I have also received a letter from the CCCS regarding doing a review of my finances so I will see if I can possibly pay a little bit more each month .
I am counting down the weeks to April and not just for better weather but that is the month my car loan finishes and so there will be an extra £100 a month to throw at the CCCS , plus I need to have saved £500 for the annual bills of tax , mot , service , insurance . That is my main target for these next 3 months .

startagain_2

Just seen your diary and wanted to add my support to you. Sounds tough especially as it started out of you being a "softie" something that I have been very guilty of in the past.

Good Luck

SA

andy1886

Well surviving , just . Short hours at work but no adversities so I have kept my payments going and have just about got the car money spare for April . Only two more payments on car loan so I will redo my finances with the CCCS then and hopefully bring my end date for the dmp down from 9 years 3 months to hopefully about 5 years .
Dare I start to think about moving house in summer 2016 ?????

andy1886

On a downer this week !
Struggling on with dmp and trying to find money to pay petrol and other living expenses . Trying to look forward one month when car loan will be paid off .
Wrestling in my mind about whether to struggle on for the next 5 years and hopefully come out a lot stronger and in a happy place or whether just to sell house , pay off debts , live in rented accomodation for the rest of my working life and then face I don't know what when retirement arrives . I know deep down this is not the solution in the long term but when things get on top of me and the sleepless nights start taking their toll this is the state of mind that takes over . The good thing is I don't have the funds to put the house in a decent marketable condition nor the funds for moving expenses nor is the house likely to sell quickly so in reality it really is worth persevering and fighting on until we are in a position of strength when we are in no rush to sell but have everything else sorted .

GeorgeUK

Sorry Andy, no downers allowed.

Do you pay the car loan, or is this done though CCCS?
Just wondering if you can hold on to the extra money until a review of finances is done so you may be able to offer a few F&F settlements if you can save enough. Financial decisions should not be rushed into so please take a deep breath and think things through before jumping into anything.

You are about to be paying one less debt, but not giving yourself a pat on the back for this. You're not allowed to be so hard on yourself. Get the payment out the way, then take stock again of where you are financially and what your possible options may be.

If nothing else i would be trying to save a small amount of money for emergencies. Fuel prices are going up and the cost of living is not coming down - they can wait a while longer before you start to increase payments to the creditors.

andy1886

I am paying the loan myself but obviously I declared it to the CCCS and have agreed to a review in April due to it finishing . I see April as the first phase of my dmp with my fixed rate finishing in November 2012 the next . I thought about not increasing my dmp but my finish date will come down from 9 years to 5 if I increase it although I havenot worked out if my interest charges will start up again which will obviously affect this date .
I really want to throw every pound possible at the dmp just to pay it off and move on with life which I feel is the correct state of mind so if I have a downer I will reread this and not allow myself to think of the alternatives .
Thanks for your views anyway .

andy1886

Right this week I have the car in the garage for a service and mot which hopefully will cost £130 . The tax is due £110 both of which I have saved up . The insurance premium has arrived and is over £300 . Will spend Wednesday looking on the comparison websites to see if I can get it for £250 , only paid £238 last year so won't be renewing after an increase of £70 . I have also negotiated a better broadband , phone deal so have saved there and am only 3 weeks from having a week off and ringing CCCS to redo my budget . Hopefully I can double my payments starting in May which is my first anniversary of starting the dmp .
All in all things are looking up and I feel in control just hope the garage doesnot find any unexpected surprises re the car on Wednesday .

andy1886

Been to pick car up and due to pot holes and speed bumps it needed a new coil spring so the final bill was £200 . Now just the insurance to sort out .

andy1886

I can't find a quote for the insurance for less than £300 , in fact the renewal is just a fiver more than the best quote I've had . I am going to see if they can lower their price to match and then I will renew with them .
I've had confirmation that the car loan is paid off so today I am going to do my budget and ring up the CCCS and try to increase my payments to £300 a month and hopefully lower my debt free day from February 2020 to around April 2016 .
Once this is done I have until November 2012 until my fixed rate deal on the mortgage finishes and hopefully interest rates will still be relatively low and my monthly mortgage payments will drop and I can push on to get my debts paid off .
For once Good News Only for me at the moment plus the weather is glorious and I have a week off work .:beer: