3 kids, 2 chickens, 4 debts...

robberbutton

We've paid off the first debt! :j

In the end we didn't do anything other than make the minimum repayments each month, but it is v pleasing, and now we can move that £50 onto the car loan to pay that off more quickly without noticing. We have also been paying my parents back a small amount regularly.

I should change the title of the thread - we now have 4 kids, 2 chickens and 3 debts Not bad going. Oh, and as of today 1 allotment!

We got some extra child benefit with baby no.4 which helps. But really the BEST thing I have done is each week sit down and write out what has been spent on the card and bank account. Just knowing where it's going helps. I use the Pocketmoney app for keeping track of everything, which I would recommend. I'm better at menu planning now which cuts down the amount of take aways.

elantan

You really are doing well so far congratulations, and congratulations on the new addition as well

Is the student loan payment directly from your oh's wage? I'm just wondering If you could pay less to that and maybe put it towards your parents ? I know they are interest free am the student loan is charging you interest so it makes more sense to pay that first but I also note that owing your parents seems to bother you a bit more

Could you also maybe cut your tithe in half for a year or so? I'm assuming ( possibly wrongly ) that its for religious purposes if so I'm sure your god wouldn't mind going without your full tithe for a short while whilst you sort yourselves out ... If its the religion I'm thinking of ( although I could be very wrong) then god certainly wouldn't mind and would rather you looked after your own for a while

cte1111

Have you thought about how you are going to repay the capital on your mortgage? Interest only is a potential headache in the future. Surely it would be better to move some money across from charity to a repayment mortgage, keeping a roof over your head has to come first.

robberbutton

Thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately elantan the student loan is being paid off from OH's salary, so I don't think we have much control over it, aside from paying in extra.

cte1111 that's a really good point. We're going to try and go interest free for two more years (due to remortgage in a couple of months) but of course all the news is about how banks are cutting right back on these. The good thing is that we have under 60% LTV which might help.

Otherwise, plans for paying off the mortgage include getting a v low interest fix (have seen under 2%), cutting back even more on spending, OH getting a payrise (hopefully on the cards), transferring roll-over money from loans to mortgage, me getting a part time job if needed...

elantan

Darn I was hoping they were voluntary contributions ...
Oh well onwards and upwards

Anything else you can think of ?

robberbutton

Things are still going well, I think. We managed to get one of the cheap 5 year fixes on our mortgage, so low payments until 2018. We're on track for paying off all our loans (car, student, parents) by Sept 2017 (and hopefully DH will get a new job, so it might even be before then). That will give us at least another £500 a month to put towards the mortgage, so can then start paying that off chunk by chunk.

I did well on the grocery challenge this month, mostly by 1) cancelling the veg box, 2) menu planning and buying only for those meals, and 3) searching for budget and vegetarian recipes (especially from A Girl Called Jack). Unfortunately the money saved is going straight towards Christmas rather than loans, but it's better than nothing :T

robberbutton

New Thread Title: 5 children, no chickens (stupid fox), 3 guinea pigs and 1 debt!

Update: car paid off, student loan paid off (hooray!). Husband has a new job, which is great. It's meant we've lost the Child Benefit payments (not an insignificant sum with 5 kids), but he does get a company car so no need to worry about Road Tax, Insurance etc for the moment.

We've changed the mortgage - it's now repayment rather than interest only, plus we borrowed some extra so we could get the loft converted. Repayments have more than doubled, so the car and student loan money is now going towards that rather than paying my parents back. We are still making monthly payments to them, and also putting some aside for savings for the first time ever (aside from the £1000 Emergency Fund).

I'm still writing down what we spend every day, which is my no. 1 tip for staying on top of things. Other sites I've found helpful (aside from this one of course!):

https://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/
http://funcheaporfree.com/2012/10/the-7-bank-accounts-every-family-should/
http://thepeacefulmom.com/2012/02/21/living-on-less-than-28000-a-year-managing-the-money/

robberbutton

Still chipping away at our last debt (£8,500/£20,000 paid off so far). The company car turned out to be not as much of a money saver as we thought, because we didn't realise we would have to pay an extra £150 a month tax! D'oh. Still nice to have a new car though, and we probably are still saving money with not having to pay insurance/tax etc, and it's v economical with the diesel.

I've just completed DH's first ever tax return to pay back the child benefit money. That was fun, especially when I got the numbers wrong and it came back that we owed an extra £11,000! :eek: Fortunately found the error, after a small heart attack.

The main thing that has been brilliant, life-changing almost, is that since July I've been using YNAB for our finances. It's by far the best finance software I've come across since starting to get a handle on things in 2012. I would recommend it for anyone, plus it's free if you're a student. There's a free trial, then it might work out cheaper to buy it from Steam, or wait for one of their sales.

http://www.youneedabudget.com/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/227320/