It's kind of fun to do the impossible

Sholly

Today's list

Financially

Top up shop only, NSD aside from that - Boyfriend and Littlie did this and they didn't buy a single thing that wasn't on the list ...and they went when they were hungry! #proud

With Littlie

Continue Monopoly marathon - complete, I won!

House stuff


Make chutney and flatbreads for lunch - done
Hoover stairs - not done, I had planned on doing this after my run, but I was so ill afterwards, I have no idea what happened

Looking after myself

Run 14k - Boyfriend is taking Littlie to his activity tonight so I'll hopefully get this done then - run done, managed 15k, but I felt stiff as soon as I stopped, and then felt sick. I managed a shower and about a quarter of my tea before I had to go to bed and slept for almost 12 hours. I have a half marathon in a couple of weeks so I really need to work out what went wrong yesterday


Today's list

Financially

I've had to pay a £30.10 bill, NSD aside from that

With Littlie

A chapter of Harry Potter at bedtime
See if he'll help me make scones for a picnic tomorrow

House stuff

Clean bathroom
Hoover stairs

Looking after myself

A bath to soothe sore muscles after yesterdays run

Sholly

My last list was a little while ago, but it all got done

Financially

I've had to pay a £30.10 bill, NSD aside from that

With Littlie

A chapter of Harry Potter at bedtime
See if he'll help me make scones for a picnic tomorrow

House stuff

Clean bathroom
Hoover stairs

Looking after myself

A bath to soothe sore muscles after yesterdays run

My new list:

Financially: low spend day today - I heard that our little local charity shop had some school jumpers with the school logo on so I popped in to get one 30p! Bargain. The only other spend will be swimming with Little tonight - I have a membership so just £2.40

With Littlie: swimming and a chapter of Harry Potter at bedtime if it's not too late

House stuff: hopefully, finally, I'll get to the bottom of the washing basket today

Looking after myself: 5k run, swimming and maybe even a bath later - what a treat!

Sholly

I've been trying to be really MSE recently. If I'm to be debt-free by this time next year, then I have to be.

I made a list of all of the food in the house to use all of it up before we go shopping. Unfortunately, somehow to food bill this month is £284 which is higher than normal - maybe it was the start of the month when we were away camping. No idea. Hopefully lower next month.

I've also started Christmas shopping early to spread the costs so Littlie has a few little presents, my step-mum's present is sorted and I just need something small to accompany my nephew's gifts. I'm going to spend around £20 a month over the next 3 months which will cover a lot of Christmas minus Littlie's and Boyfriend's main presents.

My car insurance is due later this month so I have this in my calendar to sort out after "credit card cut off" day. I'd love to get this lower than £300. I also need to check when my service is due. I'm pretty sure this is also the end of this month. Humpf I need to live on beans on toast.

Sholly

Autumn is here! The season of blankets, hot chocolate and Halloween! I run through the woodland near our house a lot and it's lovely running through crunchy leaves and seeing how it all looks so different every time I go out.


Littlie and Boyfriend's Christmas presents have been purchased and are currently hidden in our spare bedroom. I have spent £136.54 on Littlie so far for Christmas, but his Christmas list is under construction and looks to include about £100 worth of things...goodness! I have told him that Santa can't always get him everything on his list so he's going to write it in priority order! Normally I'm asked by loads of family members what he wants so I'll be able to use that list then. Boyfriend and I have a £100 limit on Christmas presents - I have spent £70 so far so just £30 left to spend there...I need an essential item for his main present so I will shop around for a good deal. £36.54 spent on other family members and approximately £60 of presents left to get, although one of them is just a cheque so that won't come out of my bank until after Christmas. The cheque is a tricky one, actually. It's for my step-brother who I haven't seen for a couple of years. He's really lovely but the gift giving is definitely very one-way for both Christmas and birthdays, but I've always given him something and didn't really expect anything back as he is a lot younger than me and a student, but a "thank you" would be appreciated - sometimes the cheques aren't cashed for a few months. But still tricky as I don't really feel like I can miss him out. The other £40 is for a present for my Dad - hard to buy for, but I'll find him something.


Car insurance (£280) and service (£175) both sorted - a very expensive month. I also have my sister's wedding shortly but my bridesmaid dress is MASSIVE and there is no contribution from them to get it altered so I will have to pay for that. Hmm.


The important bit


Current debt: £13,156


Something I need to work out: this debt is split over 3 credit cards, all 0%. Priority list is as follows:


CC1: £3,004. End of 0% April 18, due to be paid off Jan 18
CC2: £4,875. End of 0% Aug 18, due to be paid off April 18
CC3: £5,277. End of 0% Aug 18, due to be paid off July 18


I also have a Tesco CC which I use day-to-day for clubcard points but this is paid off in full every month.


I am due to re-mortgage both my BTL and my main mortgage at the end of March 2018 so CC1 will be paid off and closed by then but, is it worth transferring CC2 to CC3 so from an application point of view, I only have one CC with debt and one which is paid off every month? (I have enough available credit to do this, current fee is 4% so I'd have to wait to see if I get an BT offer - I'm not paying 4%!). Also, I will be starting the re-mortgage process in January, but my debt will be paid off 6 months later, so when they ask what my monthly credit card commitments are, do they take that into account? Or do I tell them what my minimum payments are and say that I do always overpay? A lot to look into - any advice appreciated!


Sholly x

Sholly

This month has been a whirlwind. Boyfriend and I have separated. I made the decision in the end as he never would have, even though he was miserable. Anyway, things are very amicable and Littlie has taken it well (hopefully this will continue) - I think he can see that we'll be happier just being friends. So this will mean big changes for my finances. I am buying Boyfriend (let's now make him "ex-Boyfriend") out of the house and will need to give him around £60,000 (this is scary!) which I'm planning to try and get from my mortgage. We're tied in until April so we'll live together until then and I'll remortgage on my own. This will be a gigantic squeeze on my money but it's do-able. So for the next few months I need to be exceedingly strict. Unfortunately there are so many birthdays at this time of year and Christmas but as long as I can keep other spends to a minimum, it'll be fine.

As far as my debt goes, ex-Boyfriend and I had some money in a savings scheme so we've cancelled that and I'm now just waiting for it to drop into the current account along with some shares so this will mean £2,151 to put towards one of my credit cards. I also have £350 in savings which I shouldn't use, but they were for flights that won't be happening anytime soon (I cannot afford the rest of the holiday!) so if I pay this off my debt, I'll be able to clear that card this month which will leave me with just over £9k in debt over two 0% credit cards. I will need to pay back the £350 into my savings but this can be done once the debt has gone. I don't think I'll be able to pay off one of the other cards before the end of the 0% but it will be under £1000 to transfer to a new deal and I can sort that out after the remortgage.

It's funny how a few weeks can change everything.

Sholly x

Silence101

Sorry to hear that. I hope you manage to sort out the remortgage as you plan.
Could you have a small budget for birthdays and Christmas? Like £5/person (that's what we do for extended family for Christmas) It still adds up but is much more manageable.

Sholly

Silence101 wrote: »

Sorry to hear that. I hope you manage to sort out the remortgage as you plan.
Could you have a small budget for birthdays and Christmas? Like £5/person (that's what we do for extended family for Christmas) It still adds up but is much more manageable.

Morning Silence,

Thank you. The remortgage is worrying me sightly but I am doing everything that I can to make it easier so I'll just have to cross my fingers after that! The birthdays that are coming up are ex-Boyfriends family so I don't have to buy the presents, but I've committed to going out for a meal to celebrate. They're all lovely so I'm really keen to maintain good relationships with them so I'm going to go this year - it'll probably be the last year that I'm invited! My nephew's birthdays are in December but we only send cards for birthdays, for their Christmas presents I buy really far in advance so that I can get good deals! I've actually almost finished my Christmas shopping this year and it does save a lot of money. For the remaining presents, I have £30 of Amazon vouchers and a £25 Next voucher so they will be spent! I think I can do it all for quite a low cost, I'm definitely being very mindful of cost this year.

Sholly x

Sholly

Just a quick update of the debt before the New Year...
My figures from the 5th of Jan 2017 were £20,132.46.
Today, my debt stands at £6,000. I'm pretty happy with that reduction and it feels amazing that tomorrow will be the start of the year in which I finally become debt free. I'm aiming for Littlie's birthday in June.

The remortgage for the flat is in progress and, if it all goes through okay, it will reduce the interest side of my payment by £66 per month. I've yet to start the remortgage for the house and it is causing me quite a bit of stress so I will start that next week.

I hope everyone has a lovely New Year.

Sholly x

Sholly

Almost three years since I last posted!! Things didn't go as planned with the remortgage, although the way that it did work out was actually financially better. I took as much as I could out of the house to pay off my ex, but I was left with a £36k shortfall. Luckily, I had this available on credit cards so used 0% money transfers and paid him that way. Obviously, this meant that debt free was a long way off again, but it cost me far less in the long run. I also bought another BTL since I last posted so this, plus buying ex out, means that I am still in debt. But, finally, I'm in the last few months and it will be paid off in February next year. So, as my original dream was to take my son on safari, I have been planning, but of course this is the worst time to be financially ready for our celebration holiday! Although I've found the flights, accommodation, transfers etc, I've asked a travel agent to give me a price too as they have a cancellation option until 6 weeks beforehand which will give me peace of mind that if we're still in the pandemic, I can cancel. My difficulty now, is spending money! I've been in debt for years and years, so going from having a little spare money, to quite a lot feels odd! When I was planning the holiday, I priced for business class flights for the way back as it's overnight and I don't sleep on planes normally so having a bed is total luxury...but that doesn't seem normal to my frugal brain! As I'm used to not having the money anyway, maybe a few more months of feeling like I still don't have any, will be worth it. My debt has definitely been a journey! It's been up and down and something always got in the way. Financially, I'm a different person. I have gone from having to put every big bill on a credit card, with no way to pay it off, to having emergency fund, all of my annual bills saved monthly so there are no big surprises and 2 properties that provide income. I've listened, researched and learnt. I'm proud of what I've achieved so far, but this is it now...5 MONTHS TO GO!!

Sholly

The facts and figures:
Current debt: £21,063.47
Savings: £14,002.00
Deficit: £7,061.47

My debts are all on 0% credit cards, so I pay just over the minimums to the cards every month, and save the rest (£1,683) into my savings account (most of this is gaining a staggering 1% in interest 😂 but I have a regular saver getting 2.75% - it's a shame I can't move it all into that one). When the 0% comes to end, I transfer money out of my savings account, and pay the credit card off.

Credit card 1: £7,369.49 0% until December 2020. I have enough saved to pay this off.

Credit card 2: £8,940 0% until May 2021. I would have had enough to pay this off by payday at the end of October, but I have some roof repairs that need doing shortly, so I will use some savings. This means I will have enough to pay this off by the end of November 2020.

Credit card 3: £4,753.98 0% until January 2022. I will have enough to pay this off by payday February 2020 (this date is after the roof repairs have been taken into account). At this point, I will consider myself debt-free (or maybe that should be debt-neutral), but I will likely keep the CC3 balance and pay the minimums until January 2022 otherwise I will lose a year of interest on my savings. I am disciplined enough to do this.