Nearly £20k in debt, time to tackle it...

clumsychaos

It's pay day today. It's also bonus month which nets me an extra £360 after deductions. This is going to be used to pay off a chunk of the Argos card as the interest free period (used to buy a new washing machine when ours broke down last year) runs out end of April on some of the balance.

I also sold company shares that released today that will get me another couple of hundred pound, but I'm undecided what to do with the money, put it in the emergency fund or throw it on a card.

clumsychaos

Argos card paid. Now just left with £229.99 which is interest and payment free until 22nd December. Will get back to making small payments off this over the next few months to clear the card.

Put together a little spreadsheet on Google Drive with monthly outgoings so I can manage my account for paying the bills and work out what is left over from my wages. At the moment I am left with £151 after all the bills are paid. We also managed to save about £100 from last month so this will be used to pay off some more on the cards and put some away in the emergency fund. Getting closer to that £1000 target!

clumsychaos

Just discovered after checking my Noodle credit report that the amount on my Nationwide credit card is actually £1000 less than I thought! If only that was the case on all my other cards!

wishus

Subscribed, Mr. Chaos!

Good luck with your journey.

clumsychaos

wishus wrote: »

Subscribed, Mr. Chaos!

Good luck with your journey.

Thank you. Here's hoping it is a good one!

clumsychaos

Today I decided I should chase up about my car insurance renewal, seeing as it is due in 15 days and I've not had a renewal letter yet. Turns out it hasn't even been raised, let alone sent to me.

The chap on the phone looked in to it for me and told me my renewal would be £47 a month, for 11 payments. This is nearly £10 a month more than i'm paying now! He then recalculated it for me based on today and it came down to £40 a month. He said he'll send this one to me and if i'm happy with it, it will auto-renew (hate this).

Anyway, straight away I jumped on a comparison site, and low and behold, my own insurance company will insure me for a mere £25 a month. Always makes my blood boil that instead of being rewarded for loyalty, you are punished. My insurance company are always the cheapest on the market for me when I go searching for new quotes.

Anyway, i'm going to ring them and get them to match that price. It doesn't say anywhere that I can't leave my current policy and start a new one anywhere that I could find in my Ts & Cs, so that's my angle to get them to match it.

clumsychaos

Sorted out car insurance. They were happy to match my online quote with them, so this year I will be paying just £27 a month, down from £38 a month previously.

Going to look at gas and electric in the coming days. Current deal ends in May and at least at that point there will be no exit fees to pay.

in_need_of_direction

You seem to be making good inroads especially having had to deal with unexpected expenses. Stick with it.

clumsychaos

Received some bad news today that will seriously dent any debt clearing hopes for a while, and will make everyday life that bit harder.

The wife's company has changed it's policy on how it deals with sickness during pregnancy since she was last pregnant, to basically follow their current sickness policy. This basically means she is entitled to 4 weeks at full pay (already had this) and then dropping on the SSP for 28 weeks. We don't know when she will be ready to go back to work and given that she has been off for about 8 weeks now and is signed off for at least another 2 weeks, we're looking at her having 22 weeks of SSP remaining.

The biggest hit is that her 4 weekly pay has dropped from £529 to just £355, leaving us down by £174. We can get by on this as we are still within budget but it leaves very little spare money to pay back any debts, make any savings, or deal with any unforeseen expenses. It also means that we'll have very little to be able to do any leisure activities, and with two young boys that's a tough one to deal with, especially with summer approaching.

She is now upset and stressed by this, worrying about how we will cope, and that is the last thing she needs while trying to recover from a serious illness. I do what I can to alleviate the pressure but even I'm now struggling with how to mange this.

twiggy86

Congratulations on the baby news! However, sorry your wife is so poorly, hope she feels better soon.

Look for the positives, you've made some great savings since you started so if you hadn't made them the drop in pay would have more of an impact.