LBM and determination in full force.

stinabean

Hi everyone :beer:

So I've been trying to cut our debt down for so long and feels like I don't get anywhere ever. There's always something that comes up and as we've never had an emergency fund its the credit cards taking the hit!

I'm hoping if I write it down here with figures and lists it may make me stay on track with seeing progress. LBM is I refuse to pass on my disregard for debt and money management to my future child and with that added expense I can see us seriously spiralling if I don't step up! Plus after looking at the figures (and my awful credit score) I can't move to any more 0% cards. Crunch time.

I struggle to not buy what I want. I'll find stuff for the house like a water filter, a new shelf etc and just order. It's always cheap but obviously they pile up! I also work full time from home so I can't cut down on things like buying lunches or coffees etc, it's all covered in the weekly shop.

Our situation :

- Just started our first mortgage Sept 2017.
- Expecting our first baby in July!
- We have finance on bits we needed for the new house such as a boiler, windows, a sofa.
- Due to impending child we have also just part exed our car for a bigger one.

I have one more impending unexpected expense - our showers heating element has blown and the use of the bath is causing a leak through a downstairs light fixture!! :eek:
Hopefully I can cover the majority of this with wages rather than add to credit card.

In order of what deal runs out quickest:

My Halifax - £1,873.53. 0% until Oct 2018. After this, goes up to 18.95% p.a

My Barclays - £1,430.98 total.
£261.18 at 0% until Feb 2019
£655.30 at 0% until (I think) April 2019. End date not yet showing on statement.
£514.50 at 0% until May 2019

Boiler with Barclays Personal Finance - £2,000 - 0%. This is a repayment plan of £83.33 per month, due to end Nov 2019.

Lloyds - 0% till end date of April 2020. Can't remember total amount owing and is OH's anyway, bar £599 of the total which is mine.

Windows with Hitachi Finance - £2,346 - 4.1% per annum, 7.9% APR. Current payment plan is £39.10 per month. Log in says I can make overpayments/repay early at no charge however I'm sure I was told there was a fee! Last payment Feb 2023 if no increase in payment made.

Car with Vauxhall Finance - £12.190. 3.99% a year, flat rate fixed / 8.7%APR. Due to end March 2023.

Mortgage with Platform - £148,500 over 35 years at 3.04% until July 2022. Then changes to 4.49% for remainder unless I switch. Monthly repayments are £575.

Anyone has any tips or suggestions just shout! Done a SOA and we have money left over to pay off this debt if we concentrate but not posting it as it's fluctuating quite a bit due to new car and SMP starting in June.

Here goes, please be kind! :D

jwil

Happy new diary!

Have a play with the snowball calculator to see what it suggests - it's a good idea generally to focus on the highest interest debt. http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

If you have money to spare though, it would be an idea to get an emergency fund started too, to stop you using the credit cards.

A spending diary might be a good idea too, especially with your impending little one, it's very easy to be tempted by cute baby things!

stinabean

Thanks for the suggestions! I never know how much to split my money between debt and savings but I'll definitely give it a go.

Think I'll also list stuff I buy too to helpfully make me reign it in! :T

stinabean

Forgot about my Asda CC and luckily very minimal on there - paid off £31.53 and is now at zero balance. Undecided on whether it's worth keeping or not - staying open for now.

Plumber came out today and couldn't find a leak anywhere! His time was only around £60 (waiting on an invoice) which should come directly out of actual wages thankfully. However as the previous owners tiled alllll around the side of the bath instead of having a removable panel, I will now have to replace this somehow!

I have a spare bank account that was previously used for putting money by for an old bill - renamed to Emergency Funds and £50 transferred over today to make me want to build on it

Waiting on all the pending payments in my bank account to come out, hopefully tomorrow, so it makes more sense where I'm at. Then I'll start siphoning off some money to those credit cards!

redofromstart

Just dropped in to say happy new diary, and good luck with your journey.

RhiBi

Good luck with your diary, and congratulations son your baby to be xxxx

stinabean

Thanks redofromstart and RhiBi! Making huge effort to stick to it and not just bury my head in the sand as usual !!!55357;!!!56832;

stinabean

So today I had to get a taxi to my midwife appt as had the longgggest customer call ever and it cut into my healthy and free walking time £6 spend. I was strong and walked the 30min walk home though, and deleted the taxi app so it's less easy to give into it moving forward.

The OH's air compressor blew up last night so I have bought a new one for him which he'll pay me back for once he's paid. I don't mind doing this as it's the one hobby that keeps him sane and won't cause me to go overdrawn before his pay day.

Got plenty of food in so refusing to give in and order a takeaway (lazy adults R us) - then hopefully a NSD tomorrow bar some extra credit card payments as I'm still waiting for all my pending to go through. I usually work it out and just do what I want to do, but I want to be 100% sure and accurate that I can afford extra payments little by little and not find myself overdrawn again which seems to happen every month ::eek:

Feeling very motivated today so kept myself super busy and done a few washing loads, washed up plates from yesterday and now have a sparkling kitchen (whilst working!).

Now to go hunting on the monthly food plan board! :A

blue_eyed_girl123

I find piggybanking super helpful, having a separate account for direct debits and then putting the required amount in there each month and just I wait for the companies to take it . Other people swear by YNAB but I prefer separating it all out . This helps me know how much I actually have to spend. Also, batch cooking and freezing meals and a slow cooker (think ours was £9 in 4SD4), has saved us so much money and made it easier after long days and not wanting to cook .

RhiBi

We do the same as blue eyed girl. Dh gets paid and the same day, a chunk goes out to cover direct debits that leave from another account. It's much easier to see what we have left that way!

stinabean

Hi blue eyed girl and RhiBi!

Yep we do the same. We both have standing orders from our wages immediately after our respective pay days into our joint account which all joint finances then come out of.
Unfortunately I've got quite a few pending payments for stuff like groceries, household items, holding fee on new car etc - tho I'm thinking I should have a separate account for groceries now similar to the joint set up. It's usually me who ends up doing all the food shops and therefore it's just me paying!!

Will attempt to get my DDs moved to the joint as well so I'm not constantly waiting for money to move around!