My Financial Position has taken a nose dive

Bublin1

So my financial position has taken a nose dive.........

I need a new roof. I've known this for years but my roofer friend came round today to look at fixing a slipped tile right up by the chimney. He said the whole roof is soooo old, the beams are bowing and it it needs replacing asap. He can do it for about £2,800. I will need to get a loan.

On top of this I also received a letter today from tax credits informing me that I was overpaid by £2,600 and they'll be taking it out of future awards. Amazingly I will still be getting a whopping £15 a month ctc!!!

I was doing so well overpaying my debt and could see myself being debt free by christmas but it ain't gonna happen now.

With the new circumstances I'll have about £90 spare each month (I've already re-written my budget - might as well start now).

I'm a single mother of 2 and get very very little CM so this is a massive knock but I'm looking at the positives.......

I still have my £1000 emergency fund in place.

I am paying into pension (18 years so far)

My house is my investment and the roof needs to be done. Ive known it for years but now it's critical. My roof is the worst looking on the street and quite frankly an eye sore...I've always hated the way it looks. It's a 1930's ex council house and I think mine was one of the first to be purchased because the roof is old and the interior structure has barely changed unlike many of the others.

During the last 6 months I have learned alot about money saving and frugality and have cut alot of bills.

I'm going to make sure this doesn't affect the kids.....they will still get. I'll just do without and even if it's just a fiver I will continue to make overpayments.

Tixy

Does the roofer take credit cards? Could you maybe look to see if you could get a card with 0% on purchases if they do, which hopefully would be cheaper than a loan.

Will you use some of the emergency fund towards the roof?

When these situations arise at least you can think that you did already have a budget in place and have started making inroads to your debts, its a pain to have setbacks but could have been worse if you hadn't already started on your DFW journey.

Bublin1

I haven't asked him but I very much doubt he will take a card. He's coming back on Saturday for a proper price up.

I won't be using my ER Fund. I have absolutely noone else to lean on so I think it's sensible to keep it for any future hiccups. I have a car so you never know.

So I guess I will change my signature soon to £7000 in debt....boo.

-taff

Pay for it from your bank account with a temporary agreed overdraft, then transfrer that to a 0% card.
Get the card first in case.....

Bublin1

taff that is a good idea. That is a huge overdraft...I wonder if Natwest would oblige.
Would that process be a balance transfer?
I will now look into credit cards.

Cottage_Economy

I'm sorry, I wouldn't just take my friend's word for it. Get several people in to go up there and quote you for fixing the slipped tile. Say nothing about a new roof. See what they say.

He may be your friend, but he may also be having financial problems and need the money and thinks he can get it from you.

FireWyrm

Bublin1 wrote: »

taff that is a good idea. That is a huge overdraft...I wonder if Natwest would oblige.
Would that process be a balance transfer?
I will now look into credit cards.

RBS gave me a stupid overdraft of £4K not long ago...they might be in the stupid overdraft business....but of course, be aware that OD's can get called in at any time.

What you would have to do is pay off the OD with the credit card which would not be a standard balance transfer, but a money transfer instead. I only know of one provider (MBNA) who will do money transfers like that.

Tixy

As firewym says you would need a money transfer card to pay off an overdraft, and would need to pay a transfer fee which for MBNA is 5% of the balance transferred. Depending on how quick you could repay, and what APR you could get a loan at that may not be much cheaper than a loan.

Bublin1

Thanks everyone. The roof def needs doing. I've known for years and it's obvious. The council has re-roofed the council properties in my area and those roofs were in much better condition than mine.

Yes, I've seen the MBNA card. It has a 4% transfer fee. Natwest go up to about £12,000 overdraft....wow I didn't know od's went up so high.

I've also found that Zopla and the like can do 4.5% loans so it looks like I'll go with the overdraft/credit card option which I can pay off within 2 years.