I’m taking control of my life, now.

doingitanyway

Just catching up with your diary. You are doing great on the debt. And all whilst enjoying nice things. Result

Shortening the term on the mortgage sounds like a great idea too.

System

As long as the debt goes down and not up , you use cash and not credit then things are ok. It is a good idea to track spends as you don't want to end up back in old habits.

Golightly72

Well done paws, you are doing really well!

I would argue though, that you are actually doing the stepkids a disservice by always having a cash hand out available. They will never learn to budget while the bank of dad and stepmum is always available to bail them out, and may be storing up future debt problems.

So by holding onto your money you are actually doing them a favour.

boxofpaws

Ive gone a bit quiet havent I? Its because I am in the process of doing something you might disapprove of. Whilst we are not consolidating, we are going through the application for the remortgage and adding £7k on to it to have our driveway done (which will be about £9k).

So there you have it. Please dont be cross.

redofromstart

I'm going to focus on the positive of how your user name always makes me smile. Lots of lovely paws

I am sure you have out a lot of thought into the decision, and its an investment into something solid.

Suffolk_lass

Nothing wrong with planning some house improvements as long as you have a plan Paws!

JoJoC

If I was cross then I'd be a big fat hypocrite Paws!

We got our driveway done in September Paws, adding more onto an existing loan (although getting the whole loan at half the interest rate while we did it). It's more than worth it for us - solved our drainage problems through the winter, which was affecting our house, meant that we didn't have the kids climbing out the car into big muddy puddles and wet feet all winter, and also has likely/ will likely save us money on lessening the damage to our cars due to loose slabs that acted like a see saw every time we drove over them.

Ultimately, it's your decision and as long as you have a plan in place and you're happy with it, no one here will give you the guilt trip! haha

System

Hello Paws , are you still around debt busting ?

Homegrown0

Another one missing your posts!

boxofpaws

Hello all

Been a long time since I posted. I’m sure the people who were knocking about when I was posting have probably moved on, but just thought I’d let you know I’m still around. 

I’ve had a difficult few months. My husband had a big seizure at work, and scans revealed a large brain tumour. He’s had a craniotomy and is recovering quite well. On the same day as the operation, my lovely Dad was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer , and he died 9 weeks later. I am still reeling from everything.

In finance news, we finally did the unthinkable. We consolidated our debt onto the mortgage. I have NO regrets, I wouldn’t have had the resilience in the last few months to have continued the credit card battle. This was in June, we increased the mortgage debt but decreased the term to pay it all off a lot faster. Happy to report it’s going really well and we have managed to accrue a large emergency fund too. All in all it been good for my general well being.

I will resurrect and carry on with this thread, and post a bit more later

Yours
Paws