LullaBelle's long road to being debt free!

LullaBelle

So I have 9 things listed on eBay now. Only 1 thing has a bid on it though but I have watchers on a few other things. By Friday I will have hopefully sold a few things and be on my way to making some cash for the electric bill... Here's hoping!!

Nothing else to report. This seems like a very long month! I don't get any maternity pay until the 15th July! That seems like ages away. It's tough trying to make it stretch too!

Kitten868

Hello! Congratulations on baby girl

Well I'm here too late. My best tip is to live on maternity leave pay before it hits. I've done quite well with it and now work fewer hours so I actually am paid less than maternity pay. Never thought that would work.
The other thing I would say is you have to go through all your bills and aim to get them reduced. Get your bum on comparison sites and get them all down. Particularly your mortgage! Considering your ltv its massive. You pay 4.1% when you could pay 1.34% your rate is higher then svr so go and see a broker. Paying your electric quarterly must cost more?
It can be done on a smaller income it's just tricky. And if you are really struggling just focus on it not going up rather than really paying it down. That is an improvement in itself and you need to know you're doing a good job to keep yourself motivated
Keep going xxx

LullaBelle

Hi Kitten, unfortunately I'm tied into a deal for another 2 years on our mortgage so can't do anything about that at the minute. I've reduced all our bills as much as possible I think. Our electric bill isn't too bad for 3 months, especially with me being at home all day. I should just start putting money away for it each month so I have the money ready when the bill arrives!

Sold a top on eBay last night for £10. Happy with that. I have 7 other things ending in the next few days, some with bids on them already. So I'm 1/8 of the way there for getting money for the electric.

Kitten868

I'm not criticising you at all I find it helpful when people point out stuff I havent realised. Do consider it as the fee to move might be less than the savings youd make both monthly and over the term. I do think your bill is low for the quarter.
Well done on the eBay sales xxx

LullaBelle

Hi Kitten, sorry if that came across wrong! Don't worry, i didn't think you were criticising me at all! I really do appreciate any ideas. That's a good point about the mortgage fee. I should really look into that. Could save us a few pounds!

I did my food shop today for the week. Bought enough stuff to keep me going for a while so shouldn't need to buy anymore. Bought some savings stamps while I was there so I now have £52 to use in December. Hoping to make that up to £100 before then.

LullaBelle

A few more things have sold on eBay so I now have made £35! Still have a few more things to list too. Happy enough with that! Otherwise I have really kept spending to a minimum. 10 more days until payday when I can pay more off my debts!

kindofagilr

Hey LullaBelle

Congratulations on your little girl babies are awesome.

You are doing so well to have still managed to pay some debt of while you are on SMP, it's a killer isn't it when the pay drops, are you going back to work the same hours or are you cutting your hours? I know you won't want to think about going back to work yet though lol xx

LullaBelle

Hi kindofagilr,

Thanks for the congrats. We are over the moon still! Loving being a mummy. Living on SMP is tough. I saved a bit before I started maternity leave but I'm quickly biting through it. Need to be more thrifty. I go back to work in January and I'm hoping to reduce my hours a bit. I haven't spoke to work yet but really hoping they let me! Hope you're doing ok! xx

kindofagilr

Fingers crossed your work let you reduce your hours

You are really doing so well!

I am fine, thank you xx

LullaBelle

Wow! my last post was in 2016. How has nearly 2 years passed already? As you can see from my signature, I haven't been doing so well with clearing my debt. Had my FINAL LBM last week. No more... I have had enough of living this way. so here is what has been happening:

• My Halifax card is now out of the interest free period so I have transferred that over to a Virgin card for the next 32 months.
• My Barclaycard is very nearly gone. My aim is to clear this next and hopefully have it gone in the next 2-3 months.
• Loan: So this is where we have totally messed up. The loan was originally for £9k for our car. We only had £3k left to pay on it. DH's credit cards were out of control. He had 3 that were all out of their interest free periods and his credit rating was bad so wasn't getting any offers for the amounts needed to transfer elsewhere. So we decided on a loan. We feel that it is the only way we are going to clear his cards. So today he has phoned and paid off the cards using the loan money and they are now closed. No more credit cards for him (or me once mine are paid off). So our loan consists of £13.5k to pay off DH's credit cards and £3k still outstanding on the car loan. We are hoping to try and make a few overpayments on the loan to clear it quicker
• Sofa: I am not too worried about this. It is interest free finance so it is being paid every month.

So that is where we stand at the minute. DH is up for promotion at work so here's hoping that he gets it and that will be extra money to chip away at the loan.


I'm going to try and update my diary as much as I can to keep me on track