the maccas Debt Free Diary - 20K to pay in 18 months

dreams_R_free

What a terrible dilemma for you and your OH. Very unfair of the in-laws to put you in such a difficult position. I hope your former friendly relationship doesn't break down as a result.

For what it's worth(not much:rotfl: ) I think your OH did exactly the right thing. It must really go against the grain when you are working your socks off to organise your own spending and saving and then see others not only living as if there's no tomorrow but expecting you to bail them out when it goes pear-shaped!

Incidentally, why do they need £1000 to go bankrupt? I'm confused. Legal costs I suppose, but it seems a bit steep

Keep on with your money-saving ideas. I love reading your diary and enjoy every bit of progress. Well done with all the insurance etc savings:beer: .
I love Quidco too. I wish there was something coming up for renewal soon so I could claim some more lovely cash-back but they've all been done for this year now!

Take care
Imp

themaccas

I know I thought £1000 was a bit steep as I thought it was free if you were on benefits or just under £400 each if you had to pay. They are both going to go bankrupt this time, last time fil went bankrupt on his own, they lost their house in the process, that was about 12 years ago. They have racked up another £30k worth of debt since then. I don't think they are on benefits at the moment, fil is trying to claim incapacity benefit, he has serious lung disease but is still smoking 10 cigs a day:mad: . Oh well, OH's sister and her husband have just about had enough and have given them so much money/stuff in the past including a car, that they refuse to give them a penny more. I really don't blame them, but it's difficult to talk about going on holidays and things like that to them. I hope our relationship doesn't break down with them but I am actually really pleased with OH and the way he has been honest with them.

Snaggles

Families and money really don't mix - but I think your OH has done exactly the right thing. If they had cut right back and managed to save half of it themselves then I might have had a bit more sympathy, but it doesn't sound like they are doing anything at all to try and help themselves. It must be really frustrating for you.

You really are so close to being debt free now - do you have a target date in mind?

beanielou

Pity outlaws not on IS as AFAIK peeps dont pay fee if they are.

Where are you at at the mo wth your own debt clearing?

themaccas

Our debt......well...............ok I think:o However we have had to up our borrowing because of the move. We have borrowed at 0% so now nearly all our debt is interest free, however the postal strike is not really helping as we are waiting for statements to come in. However, we have tried to pay for as much extra bits as we can from our monthly budget. Here is the latest debt:

First National sofas 0% 7 x 53.60 = £375.20
NatWest cc 0% bought a birthday present ring (£1255 before we decided to move:o = £2228
CapitalOne cc 0% £2983.62 this is the 'moving house expenses' one, we bought
furniture: £908
Water softener: £1050
Removals: £548
IKEA: £329.62
OH ebay purchase £148
all this is on the CapOne cc
Storecard APR 19%:mad: : £189 (will make this a priority to pay off next month)


So total debt now is: £5627.82:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

BUT...................before anyone tells me off, we have managed to pay off our:

1: Overdraft which climbed to a massive £1200 at the end of september
2: Paid off our Northern Rock loan £173.80
3: Paid for the following out of our monthly budgeting/ working extra hours and ebaying -
TV aerials - £237
Cleaner to clean previous MoD house - £145
Guttering repairs - £152.75
4: Paid off JohnLewis CC - £101

Can't deny I'm sad about the new debt figure, I am still confident we can pay off by March, I haven't changed the deadline and I am sure it will be achievable.

beanielou

Sure that you will acheive your target.
You are lucky that your debt in relation to income is not high.
Best of Scottish!

dreams_R_free

You'll do it, themaccas :beer:

Moving home is a massively expensive business for anyone and given all your success so far in paying off so many debts we all have faith that you'll be on target with clearing the remainder by your target date.

Just don't let OH succumb to any more pressure from his folks for that £1000:eek: 'loan' which you know they'll never pay back.

Happy debt-busting!
Imp

themaccas

I'm trying to work out a way to pay this off asap but I know I have other major expenses on the way - we need to pay school fees in December and March - about £3000 each time and our holiday needs to be paid for at the end of April which is a few thousand too. We currently have nearly £2000-£2500 spare each month towards debt/school fees/ holiday payments so *in theory* we should be able to do it as long as we don't get sidetracked. I feel more confident than ever this won't happen, I have never been more aware of our finances and we are both determined to have the money to enjoy ourselves as a family in the future.

Verbatim

I feel for you! It's SO nice when the school fees stop. It was a nightmare planning how to squirrel away the cash before the next lot came due.

Well done on getting the move organized, how to pay for it all as well as the logistics.

themaccas

I need to pull myself out of this *poor me* griping about having no money and need to get pro active again as I can't see a way in which we will manage to clear our debt by March at the moment we have:

OH salary: £2550
Me: £1750
Child Benefit: £163

Total: £4463

Outgoings including mortgage - £1225

Debt repayment

CapitalOne 0% - £100 min payment
NatWest 0% - £55 min payment
First National 0% - £53.60 til may 08

total debt payments: £208.60

Weekly budget £150 x 4 - £600 (includes food, petrol etc)

Savings for school fees and holidays - £1700

Total: £3733.60

means we should have around £700 left over but that has been taken up recently with all the extra expenses we have had to get done to our house.

Seeing it like this we will certainly be able to up our debt repayments after xmas hopefully.