£50k to zero - made it across the finish line

One-step-at-a-time

Drawingaline said:

Oh no!!! Not good. You would think they would fix that. I organise bt in no time at all, all through banking apps, never had an issue.

I've done dozens of BTs through apps with no issues whatsoever over the last three years, this was just a particularly crappy registration system with terrible customer support. Now that it's been set up I'll just be paying a direct debit until it's clear and not interacting with them unless I have to.

One-step-at-a-time

Debt now more than 56% paid. Tax rebate due imminently which will take me past 57% paid. I've had a wobble recently with debt fatigue (no mad spending, just boredom and frustration at the slog) but I've managed to pull myself past it and start to enjoy chipping away at the numbers again.

Drawingaline

One-step-at-a-time said:

Debt now more than 56% paid. Tax rebate due imminently which will take me past 57% paid. I've had a wobble recently with debt fatigue (no mad spending, just boredom and frustration at the slog) but I've managed to pull myself past it and start to enjoy chipping away at the numbers again.

It's tough when it's a long haul process isn't it. Keep on plodding, way I er half way now! 

One-step-at-a-time

I hope everyone out here in Diaryland is managing to keep well. 
I'm still going to work at the moment but I suspect we'll be WFH by the end of the week.  I realise how lucky I am right now to be in a (relatively) stable job that has sick pay. A tiny silver lining in all this chaos is that I will gain ten hours a week by not commuting, and save a bare minimum of £15/week as I PAYG on buses and trains.

Shopping-wise I'm rather happy that we've been flexing our frugality muscles for the last three years. Last year to save us some money I bought a 25kg bag of 00 flour which has been slowly decanted into smaller containers and kept cool and dry - we make loads and loads of pizza and still have enough flour left to keep us in pizza dough (and fresh pasta as well, if/when I can be bothered to make it) for at least another year. There's also a lot of meal creation from whatever random things we have left in the cupboard, and we make soup and broth from frozen scraps. We also know exactly how much loo roll we get through and have avoided idiocy in that department! All of our local shops are in the same state that is being widely reported on social media. Who are these people, and where has their common sense gone?

The debt-reduction plodding goes on. Comfortably sub £22k now. It's been a good few weeks for chipping away; several things came to fruition at once and although the tax refund isn't in yet I've still managed to chuck an extra £375 at the cards this month. 
My target is to be under £20k by May, and at the moment it's looking entirely doable. Seeing a 1 at the front instead of a 2 would be the most amazing motivator!

Drawingaline

The supermarket situation is bonkers! My husband works for one in the online department, he is working 15hr days trying to organise all the restrictions that are having to be placed on the system. He is working from home and saving £70 a week in train fares, so silver lining! Unfortunately my two jobs are not stable, I am a self employed cleaner and am taking that one day at a time atm, and I work two days a week from home, but admin for a small business who work in aviation. They are terrified atm, the lack of timescales is so worrying. I have been paid this month, but don't know about next month!

But like you said being on here is the best thing. We survived my husband being out of work for 13months, we can do it again if need be. 

One-step-at-a-time

Fingers crossed you still get work, Drawingaline, it's so rotten and scary at the moment for everyone one way or another! DH's work is in the entertainment industry so we've kissed that goodbye for the forseeable future. Everything until the end of May is definitely cancelled, after that who knows. Swings and roundabouts though - we won't need to keep the car on the road, I don't need to get buses or trains, etc. etc. Luckily our core debt repayment plan has always been based on just my earnings as his has always been sporadic, so although things may slow down we will carry on at a fairly steady pace.

Drawingaline

Fab news that you have always calculated debt repayments on one income. And worse case these can drop to minimum for a few months. Annoying when you have come so far, but in the grand scheme of things pushing a dfd forward six months isn't the end of the world. I have taken a payment break from the loan this month (already built into the agreement) to top up the ef which I drained to pay of sofa finance as we were looking at increasing our mortgage to move. Bad timing 😂

One-step-at-a-time

One thing is always guaranteed, and that's bad timing!
The last thing DH did before things changed was buy a quite pricey piece of equipment in preparation or his next job, which has now been put back to at least October. Can't be helped, but still...grrrr...
Well, April has struck and we have now reduced the debt to £20,337.34. It's fairly unlikely that I'll make any more overpayments this month, but the next round of payments go out at the end of the month, and we will break the £20k barrier! That little milestone will be celebrated with a cake
I've been WFH since March 19th and have left the house twice, both times to get shopping. I actually get on really well with working from home. Not having to commute is lovely - I've never been much of a morning person, so rolling out of bed at the time that I usually have to leave the house, and still having time for a leisurely shower and breakfast is helping to make up for the uncertainty and anxiety that is following me around all day like a bad smell. I'm making sure that I get away from the computer at lunchtime and have written myself a list of small outdoor tasks that can be done in 30 minutes or less, to get me outside every day.

One-step-at-a-time

Just a quick check-in. 
WFH is still going absolutely fine - DH and I are still adhering to strict lockdown, exiting the house to buy food once every 7-10 days. We've taken supplies to my parents and spent a few minutes chatting from the end of their driveway, other than that all keeping in touch has been through WhatsApp, and they are doing pretty well. We're all in pretty good sprits.
 
Numbers:
CCs will go under £19k next week, more than 62% paid - the number could have been pushed a bit lower, but I've decided to try to build up a fund for living expenses in addition to keeping an EF, and that's going to be a slow drip feed. I'm picking up a tiny bit of admin work from a friend, and anything extra that comes in is now going to cash savings instead of to debt repayments. 
I'm also now under 30% of credit utilisation, and very close to debt dipping under 60% of net wages. It's all still going in the right direction and I'm just checking accounts once a week to make sure the numbers are doing what they're supposed to be doing.

My job is still fine at the moment, but who knows whether that will be the case by the end of the year. It's now looking possible that we'll have another restructure within 6-12 months, where redundancy is the worst case, but a drop in hours might be a workable solution (and with no commuting costs, it would be better to keep this job part time and look for something else online or local to top it up, than it would be to lose it completely). At any rate I've tried to plan for a variety of scenarios that could be happening within the next year, and am currently counting my blessings!

Drawingaline

Fingers crossed your job is safe