Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

AdventureWanted

January debt roundup.

Joint debt at 31/01/20
CC1 - £0
CC2 - £0
CC3- £0
CC4 - £9,490

Total debt - £9,490.
(Total debt at 31/12/19 - £9,620).

DH Course CCs
CC1 - £0.00
CC2 - £0.00
CC3 - £0.00 :j:

Total debt - £0.00
Total at 31/12/19 - £1,355.00.

I decided in the end to throw the extra money DH got paid to the course Cc. I was far too impatient and just wanted it gone! It feels pretty good to have one less card.

This month DH has got a new 0% CC for his car, which was £10,350.00 at the end of Jan. I'm not including it properly in my totals until CC4 is much lower, as it will keep my sanity! We've got 26 months to pay it off, so definitely achievable long before then. Will pay just above the minimum each month until CC4 has gone. Current aim is to tackle CC4 so that all of the old debt is gone. The 0% on this card ends in October 2020, so this is the new challenge. I really don't want to balance transfer it, so I plan to get shot of it by then!

AdventureWanted

Today I've paid £105 to DHs car CC.

We have booked ourselves a very exciting holiday for December to Lapland! We haven't told the DC or any family members and won't be telling them about it until much much nearer the time! Its going to be hard to not blurt it out! It's not overly mse, but we've paid the deposit and now have until the end of September to pay the £2k balance. We had originally planned to do our usual December holiday, but that would have cost around £700-£1k, so thought we may as well spend a bit extra for an amazing holiday. Any additional work DH does, as well as any surveys, eBay sales, etc will go 50/50 towards this balance and the other CCs.

Always find the beginning of the year with debt busting a bit hard, as the goals to be completed at the end of December seem so far away! But I'll keep plugging away. I need to be more disciplined coming on here and reading diaries.

Currently decluttering like a crazy lady! Have taken another couple of bags to the charity shop and got a few more bits to sell. My kitchen is now sorted - every cupboard has been checked through and rearranged. It looks so much better, I'm not sure why I didn't do it sooner! Next job is clothes, although it's a bit tricky at the moment with ones I'm not 100% sure about as I can't try them on (the baby bump has well and truly popped out early!). Am re-reading a spring affair by Milly Johnson which is about a clutter clearing journey to try and get me more enthused, as well as watching that Marie Kondo Netflix program.

Hope everyone's ok. Will catch up on diaries soon .

AdventureWanted

Morning,

Just a quick check in. I was looking at my signature today and decided to add up the totals of the credit cards I'd paid off since 2017. It's a pretty horrifying figure! I mean really scary to think over the last few years we've had that much debt. Also really pleased that we've cleared that much and hopefully by next year it'll all be gone and we may actually have some savings. The horrifying figure of all the CCs paid off since 2017 (inc the difference between starting position and now on CC4) is £50,363.59 :eek:. Never ever want to be in that position again!!

In other money news I've paid £20 to CC4 today and have started doing surveys again. Still haven't progressed with starting to declutter my clothes. In fact I think I may sort the bathroom cabinets out first!

Hope everyone has a good day.


Just had another look at this. Don't think that figure is quite accurate, as I balance transferred some figures in 2017, but can't see exactly how much it was. I took a new card out for £13k, but part of that was for DHs tax bill. Balance is somewhere above £37k, which is still ridiculously high!

AdventureWanted

Hi,
Paid £70 to CC4 today taking it to a nice round figure.  Have had a good day today. Had home Ed friends over this morning and then this afternoon we've baked cakes and started a new project on Space. I imagine I'll be spending most of my evening researching activities for the kids to do! 

This new forum is going to take ages to get used to. I so far can't find my list of diaries I subscribe to and the notifications thing takes ages to look through. There was one diary I was half way through, but I can't remember what it was called and can't remember where I was up to! Hoping it gets easier as we get used to it!

AdventureWanted

Evening, 
The £130 dd for CC4 came out today dropping it into the next thousand bracket. Goodbye £9ks! 

DH and I have been making plans to do some diy ready to have our house valued hopefully by the end of the month. Really want to move house, but had a moment of panic tonight at the thought of having to pay for stamp duty, estate agents fees, etc.  We only have £1k saved as an EF, so would need to either add these costs to the mortgage or increase our debts again! Feel a bit uneasy about it all. Every month our debt is reducing and even with a bigger mortgage it'll still be doable, but at a slower rate, just have that dread of adding more debt or generally not having enough savings.  Think I'll try and do a projected budget based on new mortgage and rough bills if we move to see how frugal we're going to have to become.  Not sure if I'm just having a panic or if what we're planning to do is impractical. 

Finished decluttering my clothes today. Have another bag to take to the charity shop and a load of clothes to list on eBay. Not sure if it's worth hanging on for one of their cheap listing days or whether in the grand scheme of things it doesn't make much of a difference??  Hopefully it won't be quite so dull and dismal tomorrow so I can take some photos of the clothes in natural light! 

Still getting used to the new forum. Managed to find all my subscribed diaries, but most have been reset back to the beginning. I now have the fun task of trying to figure out where I'd read up to!  Also can't seem to see my signature other than when I edit it. I know it's not a huge problem, but I like to look at it at times to see how far we've come and what's left to do. 

AdventureWanted

Morning 👋,

Have finished checking the bank accounts and updating ynab. Rounded down my bank account and sent £6 to CC4. Is nice seeing some progress on this card after months of it barely moving!

Don't have to be anywhere today, which means we can get lots done hopefully.  I've got quite a few jobs I need to finish off, especially tidying my bedroom before DH comes home from work! Am enjoying the new space project the DC are doing (and they're really enjoying it too) so think they'll do more on this today. Love searching on Pinterest for ideas - could spend hours searching on there! Also need to find a playdoh recipe to make some more for DC3.  

Hope everyone has a good day 😀.

AdventureWanted

Morning,

Rounded down the bank account and sent £9 to CC4. Had a message saying the DCs swimming lessons have been cancelled this week, so I've sent that £20 to CC4 too. 

The weather seems much better today, definitely not as windy so forest school should be on 😀.  I think we've all missed going to this group. Looking forward to the peace of being in the woods later! 

Think I'm getting the hang of this new forum now, although I still haven't figured out how to change the colour of text. Maybe it just can't be done? 

jwil

Great that you are under £9k on CC4.  Exciting about putting the house on the market?  Are you trying to move locally?  Could you slow down on the debt payments to save up for the moving costs?  You could just reduce them a bit and put the bulk towards savings.

AdventureWanted

Evening,
It's been forever since I've posted on here. Life has become so stressful recently and my anxiety levels have been through the roof! Myself and the DC are in our second week of isolation. As I'm pregnant we were told to social distance ourselves and try and stay home earlier. It's nice being at home and having a slower pace, but the house is an absolute tip and the DC seem to need me constantly during the day - I know most of this is them needing reassurance.   DH had his work contract cancelled last week, so as of today we have no income coming in until all this is over! I've had many a sleepless night about it all, but think we should be ok for 2 months, possibly a bit more depending on how much I can cut from our budget. I just stress about what work will be like once it's over - I really pray that work picks up again.  Things are going to be really really tight and I really need to be on my game to keep on top of the finances.  I've currently got £1,580 in an EF and we will have our usual money coming in at the end of March. I'm planning on reducing the CC payments to about £100 each, so this will reduce our outgoings a lot and we will save lots on not having to fill the cars up with fuel.  I'm kicking myself a bit that I didn't concentrate on the EF more, but I can't do anything about it now.  My lovely parents have offered to lend us some money if needed to tie us over, so my stress levels have reduced slightly. This whole situation has made me realise how much I like to be in control of things and this has really thrown me.  
Since DH arrived home from working away he has been isolating himself from us just in case he has picked up the virus. I'm looking forward to him being with us properly and helping me out! I hope everyone is well and staying safe.  I am praying that it is all over soon and that not too many are affected.

AdventureWanted

February debt roundup.

Joint debt at 29/02/20
CC1 - £0
CC2 - £0
CC3- £0
CC4 - £8,330

Total debt - £8,330.
(Total debt at 31/01/20 - £9,490).

DH Course CCs
CC1 - £0.00
CC2 - £0.00
CC3 - £0.00
DH Car - £10,245.00

Total debt - £10,245.00
(Total at 31/01/20 - £10,350.00)

CC4's 0% period ends in October 2020. We'll have to see now whether we will be able to clear this in time. If we cannot, then hopefully one of our existing cards will have a balance transfer offer.

I am pleased that the debts are heading in the right direction, but it will be a really slow climb for the next few months, possibly even the rest of the year. I guess as long as they are reducing that's the main thing.