The amazing shrinking debt!

dreamdreamer

I've decided OH eats too much and has far too expensive tastes. I've been analysing our grocery spending. The 2 periods he's been away this year, I spent £25 a week on food. When he's here, we spend around £180 about every 10-14 days, so we'll average 12 days, meaning £450 a month instead of £100! No amount of nagging gets this down, he'll scrimp on everything else but whenever I say "just buy the bloody value chicken!" as he picks up organic ready-diced and marinated chicken (that I cook with and don't MIND dicing and marinating!) he launches into the "We work hard for our money, we don't splurge money anywhere, and I want decent food! That's my splurge!" speech.

I've given up arguing with him. I'll buy one shop a month, he buys the other 1 or 2 depending on how it falls, so it's him out of pocket, but God I miss 11p noodles...

dreamdreamer

Well, I might actually be able to get this paid on my July payday (the 25th) thanks to pulling a whopping 101.25 hours of overtime in June. Call it the final slog to the finish line! I'm not SURE I'll be able to do it because I'm not sure how much will get eaten up in tax (I'm fairly sure it'll bump me into the 40% bracket which my spreadsheets don't allow for), but if I don't get it paid off on 25th July I certainly won't have more than £200 to pay on my August payday, which should leave a good £500 to either go into savings or get SPLURGED over the bank holiday weekend (also my birthday that weekend!) on all the things I haven't had for over two years! Well, splurge maybe £100, there's no way even I could splurge £500 in a weekend lol.

The end is in sight, I can taste the victory, yipppeeee! :j:j

abba1772

thats fantastic that you'll be debt free by the end of next month......keep going you can do it x x x x

dreamdreamer

Thanks abba! I've been emotionally flagging for the last few months but I feel rejuvenated now it's so close! I've made myself a little list of the things I'm going to save for and buy when I'm debt free. It's not a huge list, it consists of:

A new garage door (ours is from 1974 and has been repaired several times by OH but is really on it's last legs)
New wardrobes for our bedroom (to replace the yummy 70's one we have)
A bloody good holiday!

dreamdreamer

Right, done some hardcore projections. Debt on 25/06 should be £1226. I have a £295 regular payment on 25/07 taking it to £945 (because of £12 interest). I've done £840 worth of overtime which I'll get on 25/07 and I have £200 spare in my budget for overpayments so could overpay £1040, but the balance will be £945 so I SHOULD be in the clear!

abba1772

well done on the calculations....i bet you have a big cheesy smile on your face lol

dreamdreamer

Loan payment has gone out today, leaving my debt at £1726. Hopefully I'll have a £400 overpayment in a couple of weeks.

I'm now 89% paid.

dreamdreamer

I think I'm going to fall around £50 short of paying this off next payday (25th July) as I forgot the whole "settlement fee" of the loan. So I'll pay it all bar about £50 on 25th July and then let my loan settle itself on August 25th with my regular payment to avoid the settlement fees. Means another month before I can call myself debt free, but I'm just going to have to be patient.

On the plus side, on 25th August I will have £500 of overtime cash, £200 of regular overpayment and £300 of loan payment and only £50 left to pay! What am I going to do with the other £950?! Oh the fun... I'm off to look at ISAs...

dreamdreamer

I am soooooooo excited. OH has booked us a trip to Chicago to celebrate my debt free status. We leave on 27th August (2 days after my DFD!) so we'll be away for my birthday. We're going to go see a baseball game on my birthday, as I'm a huuuuuge baseball fan. Bless him he's paid the flights and hotel, and got a really good deal, a 5* hotel for the week right on Michigan Ave for £400 for both of us! I've said I'll pay for the "go Chicago" tickets (very MSE of me, I've been researching the cheapest way to see everything!), the airport hotel the night before and the trains down to London. Which I can pay for within my budget. My parents are buying the baseball tix for my birthday present. Spending money will be my first month of no loans and overpayments (should be about £800-£900) which I think is a fitting blow out after 3 years of NO luxuries or holidays!

Is it August 27th yet? Is it is it is it?

dreamdreamer

Feeling a bit hacked off today, I bought the OH tickets for Lee Evans next week (he's a massive fan) months and months ago, and today, with a week to go, his work have decided to send him on a detachment next week.

I've managed to sell the tickets so I'm £60 better off this month (having paid for them back in March) but I'd turned down an overtime shift because of it so I've lost out on £100 there, and honestly I was looking forward to doing something nice with my OH. He's really disappointed which makes me feel crap too. And to top it all off it means another 2 weeks by myself.

Oh well, suppose I'll try and get some more overtime since it'll be getting paid 2 days before our Chicago trip and will mean some serious splurging.