Journey to £0 by 2020, with a few bumps along the way

chelseablue

Husband got paid on Friday and I've spent loads already

Had to pay the £255 bill for the boiler repair

Plus spent almost £100 on Amazon today, stuff we actually need though;

Suitcase for son as he doesn't have one and we go to Australia 2 weeks this Saturday!
Suitcase padlocks
Plug adaptors for Australia
Sun hat for son
Swimsuit for son
Case for my new phone

£68 on the food shop in Aldi (but that includes £12 on a new kitchen bin)

£50 for a meal out and cinema at the weekend

As its almost Christmas there seems to be costly stuff coming up (and we wont even be here for it!)
Got husbands work Christmas do this Saturday but that's paid for.

Then on the 7th December we're going for a meal with people I used to work with.

Then on the 14th December (night before we fly) we're staying at the Premier Inn at Heathrow, that's £48 that we need to pay on arrival.
Plus we'll need to eat there (might suggest we grab a McDonalds instead)
Plus the taxi from our house to Heathrow which will be about £40

Think I'll just resign myself to having no money for the rest of my life :rotfl:

chelseablue

Over a week ago I listed a few of my sons old toys for sale on Gumtree and facebook, had no offers so going to relist them as free to whoever can collect.

I need to list his old travel cot too, hopefully get £20 for it.

Paid the final balance on one of the Australia hotels last night, so credit card balance has increased by £800

chelseablue

Not much to report, but I'll have a waffle anyway

Went to the tip at the weekend and got rid of some stuff from home.

All direct debits have now left the account, we have £1,480 to last until December's pay day.
Sounds wonderful but we're going out for a meal on Friday with the people I used to work with, that'll be about £60

Plus need to fill my car up, that's another £40

Need to get some stuff in Boots for the holiday, will try and keep it at £20 spend.

Need to pay off my Next account, £60

The Premier Inn at Heathrow will take the money when we check in next Friday, that's £48

Plus £40 for the taxi from our house to Heathrow

At least its all from the current account and not a credit card! Cant remember the last time I used a credit card.

After we're back from Australia I'm leaning towards keeping £1,000 in the savings account and using the rest to pay off the 2 cards.
Would still have around £7,000 to pay off but it sounds better than £15,000 :rotfl:

Plus I would still have £6,000 in my ISA

chelseablue

Hi all! Got back from Australia on Saturday, what a lovely country!

I've made a decision, I am going to use the £6,000 I have in savings to reduce the debt.

I just feel this will be better for me mentally, I really hate being in debt and worry about it every day.

Paying off £6k will mean I'll be left with just one card to pay off.

Also I wouldn't really have zero savings as I do have the £5,800 still in my ISA that I never touch

The 1 remaining card has a balance of £9,000. At least my debt will be in 4 figures instead of 5

I shouldn't be with zero easy access savings for too long as I will move both mine and my husbands bonus into savings, so by the end of March should have around £3,000 back in the savings account.

enthusiasticsaver

I think that sounds like a good plan Chelsea. £9000 sounds way better than £15000 and you can steadily reduce over the year and continue to build up savings.

chelseablue

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I think that sounds like a good plan Chelsea. £9000 sounds way better than £15000 and you can steadily reduce over the year and continue to build up savings.

Well, I've done it!

Just paid of my Lloyds credit card :j £4,775

Had the card since October 2016, and made very little progress with paying it off since then. Until today!

Cant wait for the balance to show as £0 (should be tomorrow) then I will be phoning Lloyds and closing the account

enthusiasticsaver

Brilliant. Well done. Presumably the 0% deal was due to finish soon anyway if the card was issued more than 2 years ago?

chelseablue

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Brilliant. Well done. Presumably the 0% deal was due to finish soon anyway if the card was issued more than 2 years ago?

0% was finishing in October this year, so had about 9 months to go. I feel a lot better having paid it off, I just wont look at my savings account for a while :rotfl:

enthusiasticsaver

chelseablue wrote: »

0% was finishing in October this year, so had about 9 months to go. I feel a lot better having paid it off, I just wont look at my savings account for a while :rotfl:

You will soon build up the savings again and you have the ISA in an emergency. When does the remaining card come off the 0% deal?

chelseablue

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

You will soon build up the savings again and you have the ISA in an emergency. When does the remaining card come off the 0% deal?

I've got until January 2021 for the Virgin card, so 2 years to pay it off.

I've got 2 options to pay it off;

The day before pay day send all of what's left in the current account to the card. This should see it paid off this year

Or

The day before pay day send half of what's left to the card and the other half to the savings account. I've worked out will take around 20 months to pay it off this way