Post wedding debt plan

HOK3Y

Hi pengwern :wave:

Just wanted to say hello and keep going. I feel exactly like you do about the frustration of not seeing it go down quickly enough. That stretch between pay days can be really motivation-busting. Right now I am focused on the 17th and my pennies coming from work so I can hammer the heck out of my cc! Just keep holding on and putting one foot in front of the other and we will get there. The only option is to get out of the debt, otherwise we're destined to pay of the rest of our lives. Onwards and upwards!

And congrats on your wedding too!

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Pengwern wrote: »

Eon also sent us a letter saying we could have a smart meter installed. Not sure if it is a good idea or not. I regularly send in meter readings so it seems like hassle for no real benefit. I guess when we all have to have them it is going to catch some people out who get estimated bills way below their actual consumption.

Hope you don't mind me intruding on your thread Pengwern but thought you might be interested in knowing about the Energy Display that comes with all our Smart Meters.

Like the meters, it's free and the display really helps people keep track of their ongoing usage. Helps with energy saving, too, as it shows the latest usage and costs in real time.

I know you let us have regular readings but Smart Meters automatically send these to us. Could save you a bit of time.

It's up to you if you want one, though. Just ignore the letter and me if you prefer to stay as you are.

Hope this is of interest. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

Pengwern

Thank you for a lovely post, I feel I have managed to survive the middle of the month so far. Food shop this week was able to be skipped as we have enough in the cupboards. Canceled experian as I did not want to pay their fee after the free trial. Told them I was disappointed as most of my information is still showing as from July! They said if I was staying and paid the monthly fee they would ensure my info was updated! I was shocked, not sure that is how it is supposed to work, a lovely 2 tier system for those that can pay and those that cannot. Paid £600 off the cc this month so down to £3,500. Hopefully I should be able to pay the same amount next month which will bring me under the £2k mark. Off on overnights with work next week so food and fuel will be reduced. I am also counting the days to my job role change at the end of the month. Gone my 80 mile daily commute and hopefully my never ending purchase of fuel.

Pengwern

It is pay day today and after 2 months of being overdrawn I should remain in the black this month. We decided to draw down the over payments on our mortgage we had made prior to the wedding. It was only £2k but it will really help sort out our wedding hangover (the debt) a little quicker. Our mortgage is only at 2.5% and it is currently sitting in an account that pays 5% interest. In my mind we are 2.5% up. So this will be stashed away until the 0% ends and we can then make the final payment. We are continuing to overpay by £50 per month but now we are starting again. Glad we did it last time as it has helped us out now.

Today is the first week of my new role. So I will only be travelling 54 miles this week. Normally I do 320 miles, I am awaiting to see what this does to my fuel bill. I have halved my fuel allocation in my budget and nominally put the other half towards the debt. If I manage to stick to this for 6months it will make a Huge difference.

Husband has just saved enough for the tax bill, so really pleased with him. He is going to continue until the tax bill arrives. Any left over we will then decide what to use it for. I will continue making savings on my and the joint account. With the aim that we will not have to use husbands savings for debt repayments and we can finally look to get our rotten wooden sash windows replaced!

Pengwern

Well not as good this month so far, have paid all I will be able to and it now stands as £3,182. Not under £2k as I would have hoped but nearly there. It was the boiler service bill that put a stop to more debt repayments. But this is after I questioned it as they charged me for 2 hours labour and he was only here for 1 hour! they did reduce the bill, but it frustrates me that they do not get it right first time. Just had to get a new home hub as broadband is not working well. keeps dropping out, they made me resign for 12months which I do not mind but they also dropped the month proce which is good. Hopefully that will arrive tomorrow.

Pengwern

still embroiled with a BT saga that would make you scream. I have now written a letter to the CEO so I hope that will sort it out. only travelled 59miles this week....... I cannot quite believe it, as my normal week for the last 5 years has been 320miles plus. Surely my fuel bill will come down. I still have half a tank so hopefully that will take me through next week as well. just fixed our electricity bill for 2 years so this will hopefully give us a small amount of protection from the expected price rises following yesterdays announcement. off to do the food shop tonight, I am now going once every two weeks. It is really making a difference to how much we spend overall. the shop tends to be a bit more expensive but not as much as we used to spend every week. now waiting patiently till next month before I can pay any more off. this is the frustrating bit for me. the only thing I can do now is spend as little as possible for the rest of the month. I do not find this half as satisfying as paying money off.

Pengwern

CC finally below the £3k mark, only by a little bit but it was great to see the new figure. Sold a few more items and money was sent straight to pay off the debts. still managing to save a lot of miles as I am not commuting on a daily basis. Food shop is also being done on a bi weekly basis which is bringing our average down. I have recorded what we spend on food for the last 3 years and so far each year we have managed to reduce the bill. I was thinking this year we would not be able to make any more savings but maybe we will. We used to hold a lot of dinner parties and I think that must have made a big impact on the food bill. now everyone has kids and we don't we tend to go and visit them so they do not have to figure out childcare.
really want to see this CC gone, hopefully only a few months left.

Pengwern

Well live is never dull. we got hit by the storm an as a result have 3 leaky chimneys and a leak in the roof. I was woken up at 5am not by the wind but by water comming through our bedroom celing. an interesting hour was then spent trying to find anything that could catch the water in the roof. Someone is comming out this week to quote for repairs. Not looking forward to that amount. Took Monday as leave and spent the day calling roofers and builders. I really hate that job, you never know if they are the good people. one wanted to come round and fix it there and then, but how did he know what needed fixing. People just do not want to spend the petrol money traveling to do quotes. I can understand it is expensive but surely as a customer you are then in their hands and they can charge what they like. Managed to also make my neices some xmas presents from some lovely fabric. £10 for 3 presents, I think that is some good money saving. I hope their parents appreciate the effort rather than us buying them plastic rubbish. Nothing more paid off the CC yet, I get paid on Thursday so then the new month can start. I am hoping another £500 should go towards it. Husband has also saved a similar amount in his savings account. He is stashing his away for the tax bill. we are hoping it will be less than he has saved, but you never know.

Chrysalis1976

Hope the repairs don't cost too much, it's frustrating looking around for builders, plumbers etc if you don't know anyone. We had quotes for tilers recently, one was good, one told me that he has d&v (yuck get out of my house), and the other one didn't turn up! Still haven't had the tiles laid on the bathroom floor, it's been 2 years since we started doing the bathroom!

What did you make for your nieces, any ideas for xmas always welcome.

C x

Pengwern

Hello, I made 3 aprons with pockets and their initials on the pockets. All are really into the bake off show so thought it appropriate. Made them quite large so they can keep them for a while. Will probably get them some cookie cutters as well but they should only cost a few pounds. The one I saw was different sized stars, you can then stack them to make a Christmas tree. Well it took us 5 years just to start the bathroom so I think 2yrs is not that long at all. We went with Lino in the end, would lovely to have had tiles but the pennies would not allow.