unsure what to do

haras_nosirrah

Hello all

Have a bit of a dilema and not sure what is the best course of action

I have been paying £650 a month off my debts since January and have made real headway into my card debt and have also paid my dad back (that was the most important thing to me)

I am pregnant and go on maternity leave in october so I will get my last half decent paycheck in December as I get paid in arrears. My company has no enhanced maternity so will be going down to around £500 a month after that.

By this point I should be down to £4500 on credit cards however I won't be able to maintain this while on maternity leave for obvious reasons

We have bought all the baby stuff and so not much left to do there - been buying a little a month so it wasn't going on credit cards.

The dilema I have is that I will be getting a 3k bonus in Sept and in Dec a monthly saver I pay £250 a month into will pay out thereby giving me circa £6k which will really help us get through the next year (I am the main income earner so me being off will lose us about 2/3 of our income)

Should I clear the cards with this 6k or put it into the bank for next year and hope I can balance transfer when the M&S and Barclays 0% finish?

Some stats

Post office - will be gone in the next two months (0% finishes in Nov 2012)
M&S - 0% finishes in feb 2013. Should be able to get this down to circa £2,600 by Dec
Barclaycard - 0% finishes in july 2013.

Thanks

unimaginative_user_name

Congratulations on the baby!

If you income is about to drop the last thing you want is to be paying interest on credit card debt as you'd be spending money with nothing to show for it.

I would put the 6k in the highest interest paying easy access account you can find in case you are unable to find another 0% deal as you will then have the funds to clear the debts before interest kicks in. If you can get a new deal you'll have your 6k for emergencies and as a buffer so you can keep paying your mortgage/ rent, council tax and other priority debts.

Babies can be expensive but there are tricks to cut costs. Don't buy expensive nappies until you have tried the supermarket ones. You could even try reusables though once you're back at work you will have less time. A friend of mine used a mixture - reusable during the day and disposable for convenience in the middle of the night. or on holiday. Babies outgrow their clothes every few months in the first year so go for second hand/eBay as by definition baby clothes are nearly new. If you have lots of friends and family you'll probably get given lots. Charity shops are a great source of toys too.

If you are up to it I would also do lots of batch-cooking for the freezer so you save yourself time in the early weeks and avoid takeaways when you're too exhausted to cook.