Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

GeorgianaCavendish

Aside from the above bit of reddit-inspiration, I don't have much to report. Finished up the hectic week of meetings and colleague dinners etc, I'm so glad to get back to real life!

At the end of the week, my team were treated to a meal at a v trendy restaurant. The kind of place that you see all over Instagram. The company had arranged for us to have a fancy tasting menu that was v expensive, but I found it utterly repulsive. I barely ate anything and although this was extremely disappointing, I kept thinking thank god I am not paying for this . The restaurant was round the corner from a builders caff and I would have 100% preferred to have been given a fiver to spend in there instead of an over the top lunch at the pretentious place!

I still feel a bit queasy at some of the combinations I was served up at the restaurant ... it has definitely gone a long way to curing me of instagram FOMO

On_a_Shoestring

I completely agree with that sentiment! Since trying to save money I've taken the time to appreciate the free things in life. For example, appreciating that it's light and sunny by the time I wake up in the morning now that winter's over. Going on long walks with the boyf to appreciate nature and have a good chat. Looking into the local heritage and having a nosy around the historical buildings etc.

It depends where you are in the country. I'm in Surrey so there's a lot of parks, old buildings etc for me to nosy around. It's helped me be a bit more active as well as saved me money!

You could have dinners in with friends, everyone bring a dish and you provide a couple of bottles of wine. It's great fun and way cheaper than going out for a meal.

There's loads of free stuff that you can do as long as you look for them!

armchairexpert

Now I really want to know what the food was! Do share?

Love the reddit quote. I definitely find that budgeting makes me do things like arrange walks and picnics and gardening afternoons with the family and it's so nice.

Bobarella

I know what you mean. I can't believe​ how much something's cost now and I used to go to top restaurants a lot before we had kids.

For example £6 for a green salad??? It just makes you feel sick somehow.

JoJoC

I'm also intrigued about the food combinations! Do share!

I find that my uptake of free things like walks/ picnics/ outdoor fun is limited to dry weather, which is few and far between.

GeorgianaCavendish

On_a_Shoestring wrote: »

I completely agree with that sentiment! Since trying to save money I've taken the time to appreciate the free things in life. For example, appreciating that it's light and sunny by the time I wake up in the morning now that winter's over. Going on long walks with the boyf to appreciate nature and have a good chat. Looking into the local heritage and having a nosy around the historical buildings etc.

It depends where you are in the country. I'm in Surrey so there's a lot of parks, old buildings etc for me to nosy around. It's helped me be a bit more active as well as saved me money!

You could have dinners in with friends, everyone bring a dish and you provide a couple of bottles of wine. It's great fun and way cheaper than going out for a meal.

There's loads of free stuff that you can do as long as you look for them!

Such a good idea for the pot luck dinner parties! I've got a couple of friends who trained as professional chefs, I should definitely suggest it

GeorgianaCavendish

armchairexpert wrote: »

Now I really want to know what the food was! Do share?

Love the reddit quote. I definitely find that budgeting makes me do things like arrange walks and picnics and gardening afternoons with the family and it's so nice.

Bobarella wrote: »

I know what you mean. I can't believe​ how much something's cost now and I used to go to top restaurants a lot before we had kids.

For example £6 for a green salad??? It just makes you feel sick somehow.

JoJoC wrote: »

I'm also intrigued about the food combinations! Do share!

I find that my uptake of free things like walks/ picnics/ outdoor fun is limited to dry weather, which is few and far between.

The food was Spanish/Asian fusion (I nearly wrote confusion then!). I wouldn't describe myself as a fussy eater but there are certain foods that I just can't stomach, like fried eggs or shellfish, (I'm fine with scrambled eggs but I hate the texture of fried eggs). Unfortunately, the tasting menu had 3 dishes that were shellfish, and one that I had high hopes for that came with a nasty oozy fried egg on top. Ick.
One of the two dishes I was looking forward to (a kind of dim sum) came with a pig's ear on top And the other one (beef lasagne - neither Spanish nor Asian!) was so ridiculously small that I got a portion that was literally a teaspoon sized serving.
Oh, and the fried egg dish came on a sharing platter that was splattered with a strawberry sauce (it looked like a crime scene) and we were supposed to pick up the whole sandwich and smear it around the platter to get the sauce. I REALLY felt sick after everyone else had smeared runny fried egg in a bunch of strawberry sauce. YUCK!

I think if I'd be free to choose my own meal then I would've been able to find something I liked but having course after course of repellent looking food put in front of me just put me off! One of my colleagues is a vegetarian and so didn't get anything to eat, and another one had fish sauce splashed on her from a serving mishap. All in all, not a restaurant that I would recommend!

Bobarella

Sounds a proper shambles!

GeorgianaCavendish

Total debt (excluding Student Loan) is £26,927.81

HSBC Personal Loan : £12119.60
Interest rate 8.9%, 32 payments left

Credit Card Balances

HSBC £0!!!
Interest rate 21.9% The card has been cut up. I'm keeping the account open for the time being to see if I qualify for any promotional balance transfer offers in the next couple of months, so that I have the option there to transfer some of the MBNA debt when the promo rate end in November this year.
Actually, on reflection, I'm undecided about this. I think it might be better to close this account and draw a line under that credit facility. Any advice gratefully received!

MBNA £7591.83
Breakdown as follows
£141.68 @ 10.9% (rate ends September 2017) (this tranche will be cleared by the end of June)
£550.75 @ 10.9% (rate ends October 2017) (feeling confident about clearing this over the summer)
£986.56 @ 10.9% (rate ends November 2017) (feeling optimistic that I can get halve this amount before November but am not expecting to be able to clear it unless I get unexpected income from somewhere)
£5912.94 @ 10.9% (rate ends May 2018)
I transferred my entire HSBC balance (£2311.45) and after much deliberation, I decided to transfer as much of my Barclaycard debt as possible (£3392.43). I've explained a bit more about this at the end of this post.

Barclaycard £6,097.95
£6,097.95 @ 18.6%

Catalog £687.43
Interest rate 17.9%

Furniture Finance £431
Interest rate 0%, 4 payments left Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on this one!

So May was an interesting month in terms of restructuring my debt. I was offered a balance transfer rate of 10.9% until May 2018 by MBNA and I moved all of my HSBC debt and a chunk of Barclaycard debt over to this card.

I thought about this a lot before I did the Barclaycard transfer as I had to pay another balance transfer fee (£118.73). My main motivation was that the reduction in B/C balance would reduce my monthly payment on this card, it will increase my MBNA monthly payment but that increase will go towards the expiring-rate tranches first.

I am quietly confident that I can pay off Tranche 1 & 2 by October, Tranche 3 by end of Jan and £2000 of Tranche 4 by May 2018. I may have to look at another balance transfer around that time, depending what I'm offered by MBNA.

I had gone into this month with noble intentions to make an overpayment to my MBNA card of around £200. Unfortunately, I had set backs in terms of the sofa repair and paying for an exam entry fee. I am aiming to make an overpayment of £50 by the end of this month, which together with the regular direct debit will pay off Tranche 1 of debt.

As at today's date, I have repaid £8995.35 which is just over 25% of my total debt. I know that the rate of repayment will slow down a lot as a big chunk was due to my annual bonus, but I had been feeling a bit disheartened this month so it has helped boost my spirits a bit!

GeorgianaCavendish

Bobarella wrote: »

Sounds a proper shambles!

It really was. And this shambles cost something ridiculous like £80 a head (when you include the wine ... which was also not very nice). I was thinking how much I would have preferred one of the Hot Wraps from Pret (and the remaining £75 to put in my pocket!)