Worrying about debt

catlady1990

So it's 1.45 am on a Monday morning and I'm lying in bed worrying about debt, which lead me to start this post.

My debt is manageable (just) but it means I'm having to work a lot whilst in my third (and final!) year of uni.
The cause of my stupid amount of debt was that I jumped into uni before settling my debts.
I currently owe ~£10050 to three credit cards, £2000 to bank of mum, ~£2569 loan. I also pay £98 towards my car which is on 0% finance and will be completely paid off in September 2018.

Sooo much debt! I have currently £1000 saved towards the mum debt, which if I have calculated right will be paid off by the end of December.

I recently moved back home so rent and food bills are mimimal.
I'm just wanting to pay off all my debt by February 2019 which is when I will have paid my loan off but I think it will be impossible.
I currently pay £3 per day into three different savings accounts and that is where I have also put the money saved to pay mum's loan.
I use plum to save money and add between £10 and £30 additional to the automatic transactions. It is nice to see the money add up and I split it between my three savings accounts whenever it gets to £500 to add to mums loan payment.
I pad on this forum sometimes, however I am often so busy I forget to do it. But basically I want to have paid £4000 off by April.... Am I being to ambitious??
If I could be as debt free as possible by February 2018 that would be great.

I just want someone to tell me I'm doing OK really. I don't want to go through Iva or dmp because as soon as this debt is paid off, I want to save for a house and sometimes it can stop you from getting specific jobs which could ruin my change in career.
Anyway that's me signing off for now after whinging about everything rubbish due to my own ambition and stupidity :mad:

enthusiasticsaver

What interest rate are you paying to your credit cards and how much a month are you paying off? Would your mum wait for her money so you could put that £1k to the credit card debt?

catlady1990

0% on £789
20% on £1250
21% on ~£8000
No she wanted it by November the whole amount ( even though I was originally told June 2018). So I have to pay it first which is frustrating but at least it clears some money.
I am actually going to do this backwards by some methods and just save up a further £2000 to pay off the 'litte ' debts, whilst paying over minimum on the two I'm paying off first. It means I can use stack method and throw all spare money at the big debt. This is because my 0% runs out in March and I have worked out if I pull enough hours I can save £2000 in three months ( have to live really frugally but I don't mind).:T

catlady1990

I have a plan and it's working, I just still find it stressful but I have learnt a good lesson. So this is never going to happen again!:j

DebtFreeDuo

If you want to target a small debt first then why not pay off the 20% card first? At least this will save you some interest and then you can clear the 0%. I would be making overpayments as often as possible, the smaller the amount owed the smaller the interest amount and all those extra pounds of interest saved can go towards debt repayments.

catlady1990

Yeah as soon as I have paid off mum's debt, I can start with overpayments. Unfortunately, I just don't have the spare money to over pay of cc's and pay her off at the same time.
I'm just over half way to her and I have somehow managed to get that since saving in September. So as soon as that debt it gone I will make a massive dent in the 20% one.

Does anyone else overpay on cc and have money in a savings account to pay it off in a lump sum as soon as they reach the same amount? Is it that just a stupid way of paying it off?

catlady1990

So today, I went to the dentist for the first time in three years and had to pay £14 for the horror.
Nothing wrong but they want me to go back for a scale, polish and Xray. I wasn't expecting this cost so it means I'm not going to be able to pay as much into mum's loan amount in November.
I am going to be working an extra couple of shifts though, so maybe I can get a bit put aside.
It's just one of those annoying extra costs which you can do without. Haven't paid anything towards mum's loan today apart from my daily £3 and won't have anything extra until I get paid next week.
Anyway enough rambling on!

beanielou

Wishing you well on your DF journey.

juliejim

catlady1990 wrote: »

Yeah as soon as I have paid off mum's debt, I can start with overpayments. Unfortunately, I just don't have the spare money to over pay of cc's and pay her off at the same time.
I'm just over half way to her and I have somehow managed to get that since saving in September. So as soon as that debt it gone I will make a massive dent in the 20% one.

Does anyone else overpay on cc and have money in a savings account to pay it off in a lump sum as soon as they reach the same amount? Is it that just a stupid way of paying it off?

Hi catlady

It depends whether your cc is charging you interest. If it is then you are better off paying the small amounts straight away as the money earned on your savings will be less than your cc interest so it will be costing you more.

Jue

DebtFreeDuo

Exactly what juliejim said, don't hold overpayments back from a CC, pay them off immediately. This will save you interest every month and the money will also be removed from any temptation of spending. If it was a 0% card then you could justify holding it back to receive interest on it but you will always pay more interest on a CC than you will receive from any savings.

catlady1990

Thank you, but is it still OK to save a little each month and send a lump sum to the credit card at the month end?
I'm only asking because the way I've been paying off the debt to mum is by using plum savings and taking it out at £500. That's how I've managed to save a £1000 relatively quickly, without really trying.
Also how does anyone make extra money, I used to do paid surveys but they were too time consuming, especially when studying and doing three part time jobs!

Any suggestions would be great :-)