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Facing up and cracking on
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First of October update:
Debt 1 £3332.44
Debt 2 £0
Debt 3 £10865.60
Debt 4 £7937.45
Debt 5 £2980
Total £25,640 DFD Oct or March 2024.
So I haven't updated in a while as we have had everything on minimum. I have just upped a DD from minimum to £200 a month which changes the DFD from Oct to March 2024. We have got a nice pot of savings now thanks to lockdown. I want to keep this going as everything is on 0% but also I want to be paying down the debt. So new policy is any extra money (e.g. sales, savings, gifts) will go to the debt, and any money saved by not commuting or going out will go to savings.
I love the 1% challenge so am going to think of these extra payments in that way. My first target is to get £614.53 extra as this is how much we pay to the debt each month and it will bring our dfd a month closer.
Thanks for reading my ramblings. Off to find things to sell.....0 -
Nearly ready for the end of year summary. It is a weird one as financially I don't know what to prioritise. We put everything to minimum near the beginning of the year and have saved about £10,000. This is amazing to me! I have also started overpaying the mortgage as the interest on this seems so much more than on the debt (which is on 0%).
So who knows what next year will bring? Will we spend the money on a holiday? Will we pay off the debt with it?
Debt is about £23,000 and DFD is March 2024. Our mortgage is up for renewal in mid 2022 and it might be good to get the debt paid off by then so we can get a new mortgage with a much higher monthly payment (currently op mort £200 and paying £600ish to debt a month). We seem to have lots of disposable income but I think that is all coronavirus related.1 -
First of January update:
Debt 1 £2940.36
Debt 2 £0
Debt 3 £10147.98
Debt 4 £7585,54
Debt 5 £2922
Total £23,595.90 DFD March 2024.
So this time last year was £31,432.40, £7836.50 paid off. Wish I'd done that calculation before as I would have topped it up to £8000!
Still confused about where to focus putting our money: debt (all on 0%), mortgage or savings. All the 0% expire this year so if we can't get a free balance transfer we might pay some off. Very tempting to pay off debt 5 but that's the only one in my name so it is probably better to leave some in my name.
Happy new year!0 -
So I didn't expect to be back so soon with an update but we have used our savings to pay off debt 4: £7585.
The 0% was due to expire in Feb so we wanted to apply for the card now. The eligibility calculators on MSE said we had no chance of getting any of the cards that had no fee to transfer money. I don't understand and would really appreciate it if anyone can shed any light. Our joint income is about £100,000 and we've never had any problem in the past getting a card. We decided it was better to pay it off with the saved cash and when the next one is due in May we would have a lot less debt on our credit record. I know the eligibility thing does not do a proper credit check but does it do some sort of light check? Last year we borrowed £118,000 and about £30k on 0% cards to do building work, no problem.
So anyway, now we have £16,000 of debt and only 2.5k of savings!0 -
A payment went out so we are now in the 15s!
Some little bits of extra income yesterday and today which should pay out next week.
I'm enjoying Pengwern's idea of making sure my online weekly shop comes in at under £100.
Only other MSE is everything being cancelled and not going out anywhere!0 -
Well done on paying off so much of your debt in such a short time. You sound like you did the right thing paying off debt 4, & at least you still have some savings so all in all it’s a great result.0
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Thanks, it feels like a scary decision to have made but so nice the debt has come down by so much!1
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I want to leave the country this year. Note to self: put as much money as we can in savings while everything is on 0%. Also gives us more flexibility if we need it. So tempting to hammer down the debt as I can't book anything but if we can then we will want a holiday!
(our debt is all on 0% and is from house renovation, we only put renovation costs on 0% cards or 0% finance with suppliers, we can live within our means day to day and we do normally have a foreign holiday each year).0 -
Put a bit more in savings, so that now stands at £3k, debt about 15.5k. Not really spending anything so not really thinking about money! Enjoying having a bit of a clear out and streamlining in that way. Haven't really found anything of value to sell and have actually taken a few things off ebay and put in a charity shop bag as they have been on there for a year. Mentally it is easier to have an emptier house (although all the charity shop stuff is in bags in the hall!)1
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Your savings pot is looking nice & healthy.I love a good declutter. I’m about to do some more eBaying but have started off another bag of stuff ready for the charity shop.
Reducing the clutter is very good for mental health, a tidy house is a tidy mind or so they say!
Good luck with it & hope you find a few more bits to pop on eBay.0
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