Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

AdventureWanted

Morning,

My post from last nights doesn't seem to have posted .

Yesterday I paid £20 to CC3. One of the toys i had been trying to sell for months and was going to charity shop sold out of the blue yesterday. It's only £3, but is nice to know it's gone to a good home. Plus the £3 can be added to my pad account for next month.

Today I've paid £35 to CC3. Can't believe that tomorrow is the final day of November. It's crazy how fast this year has gone.

Today we've got a busy day, with DC1&2s climbing and swimming groups, then the financial advisor coming. I'm going to have to have a quick tidy up in a minute, as won't get a chance once we get home, as they're arriving 15 mins after we get home. Always apprehensive about the financial advisor coming round, but I think it's mainly pensions we'll be discussing. Fingers crossed the debt figures don't come up!!

AdventureWanted

The financial advisor has been. Had a good chat about our pensions and plans going forward. Hopefully once the debt has gone we can contribute a bit more towards the pensions, as well as save in an ISA for the future.

Did an update of expenses and debt figures with him :eek:. Was pretty embarrassing having to admit that we STILL have debt and that it's STILL high. Really hoping that this time next year the figure will be less mortifying!

AdventureWanted

Payday today. Have transferred £325 across to CC3. That's the final payment made to debt this month, so I'll do my month end round up below.

Total debt at 30/11/18
CC1 - £0
CC2 - £0
CC3- £5,525
CC4 - £11,310

Total debt - £16,835.
(Total debt at 30/10/18 - £17,620.).

Paid £785 off this month. Need to pay more next month if I want to get in to the £15ks at the end of the year. I'm not fussed if it's £15,999 or £15,000!!

It's nice being in the £16k's now. Looking at the total debt yesterday (inc DHs business course CCs) was a bit of an eye opener. I don't often include those figures as it makes the figures too eye watering for my liking. Next year the 0% deals on both of DHs course CCs comes to an end (Feb 2019 & May 2019), so I need to decide whether to balance transfer these or try and pay these off over our personal CCs listed above. Part of me would be happy balance transferring them, as they are a business investment, but on the other hand it does seem a bit ridiculous to pay a balance transfer fee of around 3% when I have 0% deals on CC3 until Dec 2019 and Oct 2020 on CC4. Will have to have a long hard think about goals for next year. Any opinions on the balance transfer situation greatly appreciated .

jwil

You have done so well with the debtbusting, I bet the FA saw an improvement.

I have no idea about the balance transfers - can you work out which option will save the most money?

AdventureWanted

Thanks Jwil. I hope he saw an improvement, although he did let out a worried noise (a sort of hmmmm) when the total debt was calculated .

I've been thinking about the CCs and think I'll do a CC shuffle in ynab. I tried to explain what I was going to do to DH but it sounds really complex! DHs CCs are less than CC3&4, so I will pay them first until they have gone, but I will treat the payments as CC3 and then CC4. I'm sure this doesn't make sense!! In effect I'm swapping the 0% dates so I'll try and pay CC3 by the end of May 2019 when a 0% balance ends.

Have no idea if that makes sense! DHs business CCs are £10,975 which is less than CC4, so as I pay off DHs CCs I will be clearing my debt and transferring the business debt to the Oct 2020 0% end date (currently labelled Cc4). Eg. £1000 paid off CC3 will actually have been paid off the shorter 0% deal. In ynab it will still show the correct balances I'll just be paying someone different. I'm sure I'm making this lots harder than it needs to be and I know I could just add DHs debts to mine and pay them, but I don't want to! I also don't want to pay DHs debt and not look like I've paid anything. I'll see how the switching on ynab/my cc spreadsheet goes. If it's a disaster I'll have to rethink it all!

AdventureWanted

Well after that long complicated previous post, I don't think my idea will work after all!! I'm 99% sure that paying off the balance of DHs CCs by the end of the 0% period in may is impossible, so will go back to the drawing board!!

AdventureWanted

Morning,

Have updated ynab, reconciled all bank accounts and reviewed budget for this month. Have made my first pad of the month - a £5 bank round down to CC3.

Can't believe we're now on the final stretch of the year and that before you know it it will be the final year totals.

Today we are having a quiet day at home, as my back is killing me. I twinged it 2 days ago and it still hurts. Really hoping it eases off soon. Anyway today we will spend part of the day finishing our Ancient Egyptian project and watching a Christmas movie . DH hasn't got the decorations down from the loft yet, so we've got to wait a bit longer for the decorations to go up . He's being a bit more Scrooge like this year & wants to wait at least another week, where as I've been in Christmas mode for ages. Think it's because I've been doing Christmas shopping for so long and he hasn't started the couple of bits he needs to do.

jwil

I can't believe the year is nearly over.

I hope you get your decorations up! I want to do ours but need DH to finish moving some stuff first.

AdventureWanted

Checked my top cashback account today and I have £105 payable (I didn't think it was payable until the end of the month). Have requested for it to be paid via bacs, so hopefully it'll clear my account by Wednesday.

I've paid £20 to CC3 today, so that takes the balance to £5,500. Looking forward to it being below £5k, as it then feels a lot more like the home stretch on clearing the card.

jwil

That's a nice amount of cashback! You are very close to being under £5k on that card