Wedding and honeymoon debt

Storm89

Heading to the oldstyle boards now !

Torties2

Yes, surprisingly it was really easy!


We used the cards eligibility calculator on MSE, it shows you how likely you are to get a card.


To put it into perspective re: snowballing, we have 3 cards-one was mine and two were DH. In the beginning one of his cards and one of mine were practically the same amount (4k or just over) we pay the minimum on these (kept at £100 each). The other card of his was about 1k less so we started the big payments with that one.


We have just recently transferred the two similar amount cards to 0%. Mine went to a Barclaycard and his to sainsburys. My eligibility was 95% for this card and I have 18 months on it at 0%. All applied for and done online.
DH was 100% guaranteed the sainsburys card on the eligibility calc but he had to sign a form and post it off I think his is 24 months or something like that.


The smaller amount card is what we have been paying the most off. It will be paid up next month! We can't wait. This means we're over 1/3rd paid on our total debt.


Next card for the big payment will be mine, so the payment that we used on the small card will now go to this one plus the minimum we were paying anyway. If we continue the way we are going this will be paid off by xmas this year.


When that's paid we'll pay the last card off (his) throwing all of the money to it (big payment plus the two 'minimums' which we've kept at £100). The 0% deals mean this will be down to about 3300 by this time and it should take us less than 6 months to clear.


It would take us much longer if we didn't transfer these balances and cost us hundreds more over the term.

Storm89

Ah that makes sense, thanks for explaining. I think once the minimums go down on the two with big amounts on, I will put extra onto the barclaycard that has only £2200 on it then see if we can get that down first. Might not be for a while though just because the minimums are about £200 on the other 2 cards. But I do like the idea of just getting that one out of the way, just have to see if it will be do-able.
I will try the eligibility calculator once our 0% is up on these others - I worry it won't have a big enough limit on to cover what we will owe at that point. We do have 20 months left at 0% on sainsburys though.
Its so mind boggling isnt it- I should probably just focus on getting to Christmas first! I would love to get rid of that £2200 but can only really put £100 a month on it as the minimum on the other 2 cards is £195 and £205 . As that goes down I will have more leftover . I don't want to put more than £500 a month on the debt each month.

Torties2

DH worried about the card limits on transfer too but you state how much you're transferring in the eligibility calc so it shows you your options based on that criteria.

It definitely helped us to concentrate on clearing one card at a time. We chose the smaller one so we'd get a sense of achievement quickly and it would motivate us to keep going. At the same time those minimums are bringing the others down bit by bit.
You could use the money that you've saved on other things (like clothes and groceries) to pay a little extra off where you can.

It is hard some days. We are doing a house up at the same time (its in pretty bad shape!) and I would love to be able to get it done on cc but it would just compound our problem.
Paying off debt doesn't make a very glamorous life (we've been living with bare floorboards for 2 years) but the scrimping really pays off if you keep it regular.

Storm89

Oh thats great about putting in the amount first. Haha we are living on bare floorboards on the landing too!

Torties2

Ha! I'm glad we're not the only ones!
People think we're mad I'm sure but we won't care when we're debt free!

questionss

Storm89 wrote: »

At some point the kids will need spring/summer clothes and I don't know where to go. In the past they had Next and John Lewis clothes (I hardly ever spend on myself, just them) but I need to change that. I don't know if primark or supermarket is better? Can't decide between the 2. I also don't have the money this month anyway. If I can just end the month on 0 and manage to pay the minimum on debts I will be happy. And then next month can start overpaying.

How old are your kids? Do they really need new stuff. Look at what they've got, think about how much they actually need, look at what still fits ok from last year. Consider that we live in England - my biggest requirement for summer is a decent fleece & a decent set of waterproofs 😂
I've just gone through my boys' wardrobes. Nobody needs anything for summer. My eldest has most of the same summer stuff he's had for the last 3yrs, he's 7.

Look on local selling pages on FB - buy bundles. Put a shout out on freecycle.

Treadingonplaymobil

I have found Sainsbury's Tu kids clothes a good compromise between price and quality. Not all quite as good as Next etc, but enough cheaper that it works out cheaper even if you need to replace the odd pair of jeans after they wear through. Tshirts etc exactly the same quality IMO. I think once you drop below Boden/John lewis quality levels, there's not a lot to choose between supermarkets and M&S/Next. I loathe primark with a fiery passion, so can't comment on quality there

Storm89

I think we will go with saisburys cos they do 25% off every so often dont they?Plus get nectar points! Gosh my eldest is almost 7 and no way would he fit in clothes from 3 years ago hahaha . We have a bin liner full of last years clothes and pretty much nothing fits. I will probably just buy a weeks worth per child because they can always get washed and we arent going on holiday anywhere. Then will try and sell their last years things.

Storm89

Payday yesterday! so even though I had my lightbulb moment in March, OH got paid end of feb so I had already spent a bit of March's pennies on useless crap.
This is THE MONTH it starts properly. All the monies have been transferred onto 0% deals so we're ok for at least the next 12 months when we may need to reshuffle. There was however £248 left on the post office card that I didn't have enough room to transfer onto the Sainsbury's so we will be paying interest on that until it's cleared but when we called them to do the balance transfer from the MBNA (virgin atlantic) they said they take the highest interest first anyway so we'll just pay the interest on top. Not overly concerned about it because everything else is on 0%.
So the new debt balance including that £248 and the balance transfer fees is as follows
Post office - £7985.96
Sainsbury's- £8600
Barclaycard- £2200
Total - £18785.96
I aren't phased by the increase though just feeling really positive, we both are. We've set a target for the debt to be down to £14k by Christmas and I really hope we do it. We'll be paying off £500 a month (plus post office interest on the £248 until that's gone). I've gotten a lot of inspiration from reading other people's diaries , it's made me sure we can do it.
Our plans for April are as follows
- Pay off £500 of the debt (plus PO interest)
-Put £100 into Christmas account (I've got a savings account that I'm going to put £100 a month in for Christmas/emergencies)
- Get kids Easter baskets made up with crafty stuff from Poundland ; around £5-10 each. They're lucky we have a big family so will get tons of chocolate from other people.
- Day trip up to the Lake District
- Meal out with DH and SIL (this is SIL's Christmas present from us that she hasn't redeemed yet so can't really get out of it haha)
- Spa Day (won in a raffle so free)
- Enjoy lots of walks and bike rides, free activities over the easter holidays.
- Any money leftover (most likely to be £0 haha) to go on the debt.

Feeling super positive for the month ahead, we've estimated costs for everything. It's a set menu for the restaurant so we've been online looking at the menu, estimated petrol costs for our trip to the lakes, plus we'll be packing a breakfast and lunch then having a mcdonald's on the way back. EVERYTHING has been accounted for - we're good as long as nothing breaks down haha.