Long Time Lurker

MJhami59

Updated signature with new loan totals.

Almost £300 off those loans.

MJhami59

I have taken on some tutoring, so another £25 a week and my wife is earning around £70 a week so making us nearly an extra £400 a month.
Some of this will go towards food but I am planning on saving at least £25 a week towards my buffer. I also haven't budgeted for child benefit of £80 a week. I am using this to pay for LO's baby sensory course this month.

MJhami59

I have just changed my monthly payment on my Halifax to the minimum (to allow me to save more towards my £1000 goal).

£20.00 will come off this a month instead of £50.

I have the dentist soon though and I don't think it will be cheap!

MJhami59

Very little news from me I'm afraid. I currently have 3 cars (one being my wife's) so I think I will be scrapping one by the end of the month. I only paid £50 for it and I'm sure I'll get more than £100 from the scrapyard.

pidge04

Do you have any plans for the £100 from the car?

I am extremely focussed on selling practically everything!!

Have you got anything you could sell to raise some funds?

Helps to feel like I am doing something!

MJhami59

So I'm back. I've managed to pay off one of my loans but had a slight emergency which cost me £6500. Boiler broke, hot water tank in airing cupboard leaked and ceiling in living room collapsed as a result. House insurance only covered about £400 (ceiling and floorboard repairs). Unfortunately that had to go on a credit card as my emergency fund didn't cover it. Interest free for 6 months and should have it paid off by then. Debt currently stands at around £26,000 so is fairly stagnant to where I was but at least it hasn't grown. My debt snowball is at £670 a month off of a credit card. This card will be paid off just after Christmas and I will snowball onto the next debt.

Looking forward to the next year as I can actually make dents into my debt right now . I will update my signature on January the 1st.

MJhami59

So Natwest made it particularly hard to pay off my credit card between Christmas and New Year, I wonder if this is a ploy to make people give up and just continue the minimum payments.

Anyway, I had to withdraw cash and go into my branch to pay the Credit Card off and despite changing my address when I moved and all of my post coming to the new address for 3.5 years they still have my old address on record so I need to go in and change that too (mortgage... YES!, current account etc.)! (I will do that tomorrow). I think I just need to cancel the credit card now! (who's in agreement?)

I also had £3 on a Santander Card which I put a block on, paid off in full and cancelled my card.

Still, this is the start of getting my debt below £20,000. We will have a small celebration when we get there!

I have also read Dave Ramsay's Money Makeover book. It was a good read and I already have a £2000 emergency fund saved up. I will post next month's budget here when I've done it.

MJhami59

£237.85 (minimum payment on my loan) - £35.88 interest means I have also paid off a little over £200 this month.

I have paid off £563.80 + £201 + £3 + £90 (minimum card payment 0% interest) + £60 (minimum card payment 0% interest) = £917.80. So I should have this cracked in a little over 2 years, if not sooner!

I will be editing my signature to reflect my recent payments!

MJhami59

I've tried to budget for February today by predicting pinch points and budgeting for things like car insurance, Christmas, Birthdays (We have 5 or so Birthdays in October!) and MOTs etc.

I might have to reign in my snowball slightly but will update this later this month.

I have been accepted for SATs marking so that is £1000 - £1100 income that I wouldn't have had and I am also taking on extra duties at school paid at £8.50 per half hour. That's £25.50 a week that I'll be earning on top of my salary that I will be able to snowball. I won't see this until end of February as it's paid by claim forms but from then it will be a fairly regular income.

My wife has also taken on another tutee so she will be bringing in £70 a week from 2 hours work. It feels as though we are moving in the right direction at long last.

MJhami59

Positives -
My wife applied for, and got, a new role in her job! Starts September (we're both teachers) but will be about a £6k a year increase!
We then found out this weekend that my wife is pregnant!!! (Baby #2), we will not be telling her work until after the 12 week scan and they can't descriminate against her so at least she'll get mat leave pay for her new role.

Negatives -
Maternity leave - this will mean putting the snowball on hold from November/ December to July and budgeting hard but I'm determined not to go into any more debt as a result