Earthmother's Diary

SarahNeedle1872

earthmother wrote: »

Here's a conundrum (and a long word for a Saturday morning, lol) -

Hubby and I have both had good Quidco payouts this month (winging their way to our accounts as we speak) - they total approximately £110, which is enough to pay off the next creditor (Simply Be, who wasn't due to go until November), and would save about £30 interest in the process.

But, on the other hand, do I instead, leave Simply Be to run as originally planned and bank the money?

£110 would be a welcome addition to the cash funds, as between now and the end of the summer holidays, hubby needs new glasses (we get NHS costs, but he needs hypoallergenic frames, so we still have to budget for them), our Motability car is up for renewal (going for a grant, but still need to keep a lump sum of some sort available for associated expenses and downpayment contribution), and of course there is the summer holidays itself, and the kitting out of son no.2 ready for his start at school in September.

Paying off the Simply Be only adds 4 minimum payments (£40) to the pot in the same time frame (the rest of the debt going after September in the original plan).


Which would you do?

From how I have read this post, u can either put the £110 Quidco money in the acc now, or put in £40pm over the next 4 months (£160).... I personally would pay off Simply Be and then bank the 4 x £40....

HTH

Sarah x

earthmother

Sarah - it's £40 in total (£10 a month which would have been the SB minimum payment). Keeping the Quidco cash in the bank gives us more disposable money for the other expenses, but overall costs us £30 in SB interest and the feelgood factor of having cleared another debt.

I don't know - I've been fiddling with the books all morning - we could 'cope' without the Quidco money (after all, I never budgetted it inot the calculations in the first place), but it would be so much easier to have it to hand considering what's coming up.


Argh!! Round and round she goes, where she stops ... Lol!

SarahNeedle1872

earthmother wrote: »

Sarah - it's £40 in total (£10 a month which would have been the SB minimum payment). Keeping the Quidco cash in the bank gives us more disposable money for the other expenses, but overall costs us £30 in SB interest and the feelgood factor of having cleared another debt.

I don't know - I've been fiddling with the books all morning - we could 'cope' without the Quidco money (after all, I never budgetted it inot the calculations in the first place), but it would be so much easier to have it to hand considering what's coming up.


Argh!! Round and round she goes, where she stops ... Lol!

I see, that makes a bit of a difference then! Could u maybe do half and half? Say pay £50 to SB then stash the rest just in case?

earthmother

That might be the way to go - I'l have another juggle and see if it makes any significant difference to the SB DFD

boredofbeingathome

I have just had a quick read of your diary and well done for everything so far. i think as a boost pay it off, once its done-its done, but i know where you are coming from having an extra stash just in case. Me personally i know it would get spent on other things- so i would bite the bullet. decisions, decisions eh!

earthmother

Well, after all my to-ing and fro-ing over the Quidco money, it sort of got decided for me - hubby needs his glasses sooner rather than later, so there it goes.

I did manage to get my once a year haircut (bargain at £12) out of it too though, so I feel a bit better in myself for that - amazing what effect loosing 12" can have :eek:



Anyway - I must be doing something right financially as a visa debit card dropped through the door this morning for my Lloyds basic account. Will just have to try and remember the PIN now :rolleyes:


Also got the Simply Be statement through at the weekend - they must think I'm daft increasing the credit limit from about £250 to £1000 :eek: Just proves I'm right in making that one my next target

earthmother

Just a quick post as I'm updating my sig

Overall debt as at 15 Feb was £14,700

New overall debt as at 1st April - £13,667.74

Getting there



And a little bit of sunshine was thrown to us yesterday - we're in the process of a Motability grant application - were expecting to have to pay a contribution of around £500, but were told that based on our income it should actually be nearer the £200 mark.

I've scrimped and shuffled the finances so much this year to try to free up the money, it's one heck of a relief as I really wasn't sure I'd make it in time (mid June). I'm not redoing any of the budgeting until we have it in writing though - just in case.

earthmother

:eek: and :mad: and :wall: and _pale_

Just had the Eon bill for last quarter - the winter usage (cue 40s horror movie scream). We have been sending £111 a month, as that's what they said would keep us on break even - but this bill has a debit balance of over £200, so they just upped it.

They wanted £187 - I managed to get it down to £164, but even that's going to be a push.

That wipes out all the extra creditor payments I had planned for the next 6 months, and the winnings on Saturdays Grand National (used the free betfair bet), and potentially a couple of summer days out too


Things were looking up last week - just can't win right now

earthmother

I think we're going on a DMP


The power bill, added to the general cost of living rising, and a couple of mistakes in my budgeting, have really thrown my snowballing plan out of the window.

I've done a new SOA, and it says we are almost £250 a month short. I could cover it when it was in double figures, but now we're into the hundreds, it's just not happening. There's less than £50 we could trim from that, and we wouldn't be able to sustain that long term, so not really a good move to do it at all - I'd rather have that money in the bank, and throw it at the creditors every few months if we don't use it.

Anyway - new SOA on its way for those who might have some thoughts

elantan

oh earth mother that is a shame you have been doing so well recently as well