Hi I'm new here :wave:

thriftyandfabulous

Thanks Megano, I'll be following your diary too .

Had a productive morning and went on a bit of a cleaning spree. Now waiting for my shopping to arrive. Not very MSE as its from wait rose but I had a £20 off voucher so that's why. That will come off next weeks shopping budget so I'll assess what I've got/need by making a meal plan and update later with the exact cost. I'm going to do shopping/fuel budgets weekly until February to get an idea of my spending then I'll revert to monthly when I've cracked this money saving lark so I can add the monthly surplus (I hope!) to one of my ccs.

Going out for ds2's birthday once shopping has arrived so I'll do my daily spending diary later. Also going to make a note of the survey sites I'm doing and points and my cashback.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone

shaundiamonds

You're paying a total of 427.27 in interest a month. The obvious choice would be to go for the 2 big debts but in reality that may slow down your pay off rate.

In order of priory if these were my debts:

Aqua
Studio
(Quick wins - £8.46 interest towards other debts)

Mobile Money is the killer here followed by Avast so any excess cash lying around would have to go to these - set up a payment on your online account and chip away.

Next Vanquis - another £17.11 interest saved to go towards MM and Avast

I would be tempted to close Capital One off next but to be sensible attack JD Williams (£21.57 a month saved) and then Gratton (£17.95) with Capital One (£4.43) last.

Then go full force into MM and Avast. At this point - lets say ~3 months down the line - your Credit score may have improved enough for a consolidation loan - check on Clearscore or another free site.

Do not cancel your cards when you pay them off - cut them up but don't cancel.


Hope this helps.

triple_choc_chip

thriftyandfabulous wrote: »

Okay so I've just gone through all of my accounts with a fine tooth comb and found exact amounts owed, APRs and minimum payments and it's really gotten me down. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all and wondering if I can do it . The APRs are really getting me down, I feel like I've been so stupid. It was easier with my head firmly in the sand.

My plan is to tackle the cards first, starting with Vanquis. As these are smaller I think it will be good to keep me on track and the loans just seem unmanageable at the moment. Once I have these paid off, I'm going to use those payments to overpay on my 2 loans. I want to be ambitious but realistic and aim to be debt free in 18 months, so my DFD target is June 2017. Any comments appreciated . Please help me keep motivated!

Debts

Name....................Amount....................APR....................Min Payment

1. Vanquis....................293.73....................69.9%....................17.50
2. Capital One....................177.95....................29.9%....................25
3. Aqua....................90.94....................69.9%....................15
4. Studio....................77.50....................48.9%....................10
5. Grattan....................600....................35.9%....................40
6. JD Williams....................701.50....................36.9%....................60
7. Mobile Money....................2853.20....................97%....................237.80
8. Avant Credit....................2200....................69.59%....................148.45

Total amount owed = £6934.82
Total minimum payments = £553.75

I don't want to dishearten you, but you haven't shown us how you can speed up your repayments to achieve this early debt free date - is it because you don't know yet but hope that next year you can make enough savings from your soa to increase payments?

At the moment you pay £553.75 of which shaundiamonds has calculated £427.27 is interest, leaving just £126.48 coming off the balance. Dividing this figure into the £6934.82 gives you a debt free date four and half years away. Given that you don't intend to start in earnest until Feb 2016, realisically you are looking at an end date of Aug 2020, not June 2017.

Have you run the figures through the snowball? This will give you a best case end date scenario using your current repayment schedule and then you can aim to bring it forward as you make changes / increase payments. Gonna hunt for the snowball linky now...

triple_choc_chip

Found it!

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/snowball-calculator.php

Have a go at this to get a realistic date, no point in setting yourself up for dissapointment in 2017 from the beginning.

triple_choc_chip

OMG 3rd post in a row - does that make me a stalker or is this just a lazy Sunday?

Here's another place to check out, the Minimum Repayment Calculator. You will find it on the home page, click on 'Cards and Loans' right below Martin :money: then 'Tools and Calculators'.

It is essential to understand why your payments should not drop when the minimum required drops and this tool helps you to see how much difference paying even a little over the minimum can make.

thriftyandfabulous

Thank you for your advice. The reason I'm aiming for June 2017 is that my final payment to mobile money is in November 2016 (that's if I just pay my monthly payment and no more). I then plan to pay the mobile money payment to Avant, overpaying by 237.80 a month, meaning I will be paying them £386.25 per month from December 2016. The end date for that loan (if I only pay 148.45 per month) is November 2017 so I think by paying them extra I should be able to bring this forward. There is no penalty for repaying early. That's my plan for the bigger 2. For the other ones, I was hoping to save money on my monthly shop/fuel/entertainment and pay the surplus off a cc, taking it one debt at a time. I'm also planning to use survey sites and cashback sites and any payments from this will go straight off a cc. Does this plan sound okay?

thriftyandfabulous

triple_choc_chip wrote: »

OMG 3rd post in a row - does that make me a stalker or is this just a lazy Sunday?

Here's another place to check out, the Minimum Repayment Calculator. You will find it on the home page, click on 'Cards and Loans' right below Martin :money: then 'Tools and Calculators'.

It is essential to understand why your payments should not drop when the minimum required drops and this tool helps you to see how much difference paying even a little over the minimum can make.

I also don't plan on reducing the payment when the minimum payments drop but maintaining the current payment in my SOA. I have budgeted to repay 15 off Aqua (minimum payment is 5) and 25 off capital one (minimum payment 10) so hope that this will make a difference here while I work on the Vanquis card which I want to attack first.

shaundiamonds

The problem with that method is you are paying unnecessary interest on cards you could easily close off first - hence the reason I suggested a certain order that will not only save you money but help improve your "credit score" so you don't get into this situation again!

thriftyandfabulous

shaundiamonds wrote: »

The problem with that method is you are paying unnecessary interest on cards you could easily close off first - hence the reason I suggested a certain order that will not only save you money but help improve your "credit score" so you don't get into this situation again!

So do you think I should repay the money saved from mobile money payments (from November 2016) off the cards and catalogues and leave the avant loan till last, and delay my DFD to November 2017? Thanks

[Deleted User]

Hi,

thriftyandfabulous wrote: »

Thank you for your advice. The reason I'm aiming for June 2017 is that my final payment to mobile money is in November 2016 (that's if I just pay my monthly payment and no more).

I'm not usually on this forum, so apologies if I've misunderstood and got it all wrong.

I just don't see how you can pay off MM in a year.

You owe £2853 your interest per month (97% p.a.?), is about £230 and you pay about £238, so only £8 coming off the debt?

Maybe I've got it wrong, hope so.