Crunchy's Final Debt Free Diary!

Willowtree222

A cottage holiday with friends sounds nice. That's quite a good budget as well, but a lot less than going abroad. I looked at holidays abroad yesterday for next year, and they were quite expensive.

Beach days are gorgeous though. I love having them and fish and chips too. x

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Beach day sounds lovely, fish and chips always tastes nicer by the sea and the cost of sharing a holiday cottage sounds very reasonable

crunch_time

Morning all!

A few things to update you on....

- Cottage is booked for next year! It was a £300 deposit thought which is currently sitting on my credit card and will be paid off with the holiday budget as and when (£600 a month).

- I used my credit card to pay for food for the rest of this week and for most of next week (Friday to Friday is our shopping week). But I have reduced our food budget for Sept by £100 to compensate for this.

- Aside from £325 leftover from this summers holiday and £300 deposit for next summers holiday which will be paid for from the holiday fund, my credit card stands at £610. We will pay this off on Friday and then pay the holiday bits off when I gte paid on 19th Sept - then this credit card is paid off!!! I've been toying as to whether to cut it up or keep it for now but I think I will cut it up. I have three credit cards to my name so it will be nice to get rid of one especially as the credit limit on this one is £6500 and my other two add up to over £7k!!

- When we got back from holiday there was a letter from HMRC saying husband owed about £289 in tax. Initially, I thought it was a demand for payment but its not, they are going to take it over 12 months through his pay from April next year - happy days!

Husband is already misbehaving about his credit card. He wanted to buy some protein powder yesterday for £50 which is apparently on a big discount. I said it needed to come out of his spending money and he was arguing saying it was basically food money so needs to come out of that budget!!

I also checked his balances today and his credit card balance has increased by another £100 due to drinks at an event we went to at the weekend - I thought he was using the new joint monzo account we have set up but didn't check - and also didn't realize what he bought cost £100!!! So I marched out to his office and demanded he stops using the credit card as a cash card as otherwise we will never get out of debt. He agreed thank goodness.

The only reason he is hanging onto this card is an emergency when he is away with work and he needs to pay for something like a train ticket and he can't use the company one. I'm going to see what happens over the next few months whilst we pay it off and see if he can manage not to use it. He could have his Virgin card instead in case this happens when he goes away. We shall see.

Its the reliance on the credit cards that worries me about this debt pay off compared to the last one. When we originally (nearly) paid off the £23k, we had a huge incentive as we desperately wanted to move to a bigger house and then afford holidays. 5 years later and we have achieved that goal. Its time for a mindset shift

The holiday has shown me at least that saving up for stuff is so much more fun - good things come to those who wait for sure.

I'd like to pay off all this debt by the end of 2021 and it's possible so long as we have a mindset shift.

Crunch x

crunch_time

Quick update:

I've been doing a bit of financial organisation this morning and cancelled my word press account - £17 a month

and

switched supplier for our electricity which will hopefully reduce our bill from £99 a month to £65 a month.

Just a few nice little savings which will make a difference.

Crunch x

enthusiasticsaver

crunch_time wrote: »

Morning all!

A few things to update you on....

- Cottage is booked for next year! It was a £300 deposit thought which is currently sitting on my credit card and will be paid off with the holiday budget as and when (£600 a month).

- I used my credit card to pay for food for the rest of this week and for most of next week (Friday to Friday is our shopping week). But I have reduced our food budget for Sept by £100 to compensate for this.

- Aside from £325 leftover from this summers holiday and £300 deposit for next summers holiday which will be paid for from the holiday fund, my credit card stands at £610. We will pay this off on Friday and then pay the holiday bits off when I gte paid on 19th Sept - then this credit card is paid off!!! I've been toying as to whether to cut it up or keep it for now but I think I will cut it up. I have three credit cards to my name so it will be nice to get rid of one especially as the credit limit on this one is £6500 and my other two add up to over £7k!!

- When we got back from holiday there was a letter from HMRC saying husband owed about £289 in tax. Initially, I thought it was a demand for payment but its not, they are going to take it over 12 months through his pay from April next year - happy days!

Husband is already misbehaving about his credit card. He wanted to buy some protein powder yesterday for £50 which is apparently on a big discount. I said it needed to come out of his spending money and he was arguing saying it was basically food money so needs to come out of that budget!!

I also checked his balances today and his credit card balance has increased by another £100 due to drinks at an event we went to at the weekend - I thought he was using the new joint monzo account we have set up but didn't check - and also didn't realize what he bought cost £100!!! So I marched out to his office and demanded he stops using the credit card as a cash card as otherwise we will never get out of debt. He agreed thank goodness.

The only reason he is hanging onto this card is an emergency when he is away with work and he needs to pay for something like a train ticket and he can't use the company one. I'm going to see what happens over the next few months whilst we pay it off and see if he can manage not to use it. He could have his Virgin card instead in case this happens when he goes away. We shall see.

Its the reliance on the credit cards that worries me about this debt pay off compared to the last one. When we originally (nearly) paid off the £23k, we had a huge incentive as we desperately wanted to move to a bigger house and then afford holidays. 5 years later and we have achieved that goal. Its time for a mindset shift

The holiday has shown me at least that saving up for stuff is so much more fun - good things come to those who wait for sure.

I'd like to pay off all this debt by the end of 2021 and it's possible so long as we have a mindset shift.

Crunch x

It sounds like you have it under control and I would definitely agree with your last statement that a mindset shift is needed definitely by your husband at least.

An automatic impulse to go to a credit card either implies he does not have the money spare to buy something but is not prepared to wait. Or alternatively his wish to buy something instantly is more important than adding to the debt.

You did well calling him out on it but I think you will have to do as I did with my husband and get him more involved in your day to day finances or you will forever have him kicking against you whilst you address repaying the debt. A weekly discussion is usually a good plan or monthly if you set your finances monthly.

Sometimes setting goals helps. You have moved house and had a holiday but you still have debt. Your goal may be to repay it but maybe your husband thinks he can have his cake and eat it too so continue with the holidays and other spending and the debt just plods along in the background. A discussion about how the £500 or whatever you spend on repaying debt monthly would be better saved for holidays, home improvements, your children's future or a new car or early retirement or whatever may be in order. It was the security of having savings behind us that eventually persuaded my husband to get on board. There is nothing like the feeling that a holiday or project you fancy doing is already funded by yourself without resorting to taking on debt and still paying for it three years later.

crunch_time

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

It sounds like you have it under control and I would definitely agree with your last statement that a mindset shift is needed definitely by your husband at least.

An automatic impulse to go to a credit card either implies he does not have the money spare to buy something but is not prepared to wait. Or alternatively his wish to buy something instantly is more important than adding to the debt.

You did well calling him out on it but I think you will have to do as I did with my husband and get him more involved in your day to day finances or you will forever have him kicking against you whilst you address repaying the debt. A weekly discussion is usually a good plan or monthly if you set your finances monthly.

Sometimes setting goals helps. You have moved house and had a holiday but you still have debt. Your goal may be to repay it but maybe your husband thinks he can have his cake and eat it too so continue with the holidays and other spending and the debt just plods along in the background. A discussion about how the £500 or whatever you spend on repaying debt monthly would be better saved for holidays, home improvements, your children's future or a new car or early retirement or whatever may be in order. It was the security of having savings behind us that eventually persuaded my husband to get on board. There is nothing like the feeling that a holiday or project you fancy doing is already funded by yourself without resorting to taking on debt and still paying for it three years later.

Thanks for your reply enthusiastic saver.

He does want to have his cake and eat it. We had another chat yesterday as I felt so down and was crying. He wants to take the scenic route with the debt for sure and we have both agreed on this. Because we haven’t been organised about our money despite having a budget he has just used his credit card instead to pay for things and because he hasn’t been adding them up and I have been ‘taking care of it’ behind the scenes he’s just got used to it.

We have our own monzo cards for our own spends and then a joint one for joint spends like food and fuel. Part of our big money chat before the holiday was a decision to save £200 each going forward for emergency in the first instance but then we could get to a certain point and drop some in the debt or home improvements.

The current head battle for me is that our debt costs us £300 ish a month on min payments but we have about £1000 a month that could get rid of it quicker or we could use it to donup the house. Our debt free date would be further away but at least the house would be done.

We also have a mortgage renewal at the end of next year to consider and will need a new car as well so about £150 extra a month for a car loan and £200 extra a mont for mortgage deal so ideally I’d like to take advantage of not paying for this now.

I’m trying to be strategic and forward thinking but he’s being more, month to month and I guess that’s where we clash.

We have two quite in now for house stuff....

Pergola -£950
Hedge - £2500 plus extra bits

We also have two bathrooms to do and outside painting which I haven’t got quotes for yet.

Both for next spring say April - would be the ideal time to get it done. Another thought I have had is to take out a loan and just pay for all the house stuff next year - we are not going to move for at least 5 years so paying it off over 5 years would be nice.

Arrrrrrghhh!! So many decisions!!

Elnora32

[FONT=&quot]Hello crunch_time,[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I’ve been reading through your diary and I’m impressed with your progress so far.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Re taking out a loan to finish the house – I guess it depends how you feel about paying down your debt and then increasing it again. Would you feel like you were treading water? Or OK about it because the house was finished?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]You would also be facing another 5 years of loan repayments – would you be OK with this or feel you are on a never ending treadmill?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]

we are not going to move for at least 5 years

[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]If this is the case then this is not your ‘forever’ home. If the bathroom suites are OK, could you update tiles and taps to reduce costs? Are all your plans to complete the house essential? [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Is the £2,500 just for the hedge? We planted a hedge ourselves a few years ago. To give you an idea of cost, we bought around 150 bare rooted plants which cost around £200.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I don't mean to butt in - just some thoughts that you might like to consider. Good luck.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Elnora[/FONT]

ohdearhowdidthathappen

As you know, we ended up putting (big) house renovations on the mortgage in the end.... as far as we were concerned the work on the house had increased the value of the house and we weren't decreasing our equity. We're now overpaying so our term stayed them same. I'm not saying to do the same, but sometimes I think renovations are so expensive, they're very hard to save up for in the same way you would a holiday.
We are not perfect and still finding a balance between paying off debt, doing up house and having a life and I think everyone's balance is slightly different

UncleFeushy

Awesome good luck

crunch_time

Morning all

Been busy with back to school stuff so haven't had a chance to update. I've finally updated the spreadsheet since the first of the month and can update on here with the not so great but also not so great progress.

Thanks for reading my diary Elnora32 - replies in below...

Elnora32 wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]Hello crunch_time,[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I’ve been reading through your diary and I’m impressed with your progress so far.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Re taking out a loan to finish the house – I guess it depends how you feel about paying down your debt and then increasing it again. Would you feel like you were treading water? Or OK about it because the house was finished?[/FONT]
I'me actually Ok about being in debt due to house renovations. Not so happy about the holiday debt and spending money debt we have racked up in the last 2 years but there are reasons for that other than the normal 'living beyond our means.' I just want the debt to be controlled.

[FONT=&quot]You would also be facing another 5 years of loan repayments – would you be OK with this or feel you are on a never ending treadmill?[/FONT]

to me loan repayments are better than credit cards. We have a loan for a car which is £227 a month and current balance is around £12k and will have to get another loan at some point next year for another one. To me cars are costs.

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]If this is the case then this is not your ‘forever’ home. If the bathroom suites are OK, could you update tiles and taps to reduce costs? Are all your plans to complete the house essential? [/FONT]

The house is only 2 years old so the suites are ok. When we moved in we didn't have enough money for floors for the bathrooms so we currently have old carpet down. Since living here we have realised that the ensuite actually needs tiling like a wet room so we need to retile the whole thing as adding tiles won't work. For the main bathroom the bath actually needs raising to fit a tiled floor underneath so we need to take the tiles off the walls to do this. So the costs of the bathroom re actually just tiling.

[FONT=&quot]Is the £2,500 just for the hedge? We planted a hedge ourselves a few years ago. To give you an idea of cost, we bought around 150 bare rooted plants which cost around £200.[/FONT]

Its actually pleached trees we will be buying and planting ourselves. each one costs about £200-£250 and we need 10-12. A hedge won't work. I called it a hedge for simplicity. The issue is privacy from our neighbours above the febce as they can see into our garden. Trust me we have gone around the houses about what to do about this and I am NOT happy about £2500 for trees but we a rethinking forward for the resale of the house. Not thinking the trees will add value to the house at all but will improve the privacy issues we have which will make others more likely to want to live here.

[FONT=&quot]I don't mean to butt in - just some thoughts that you might like to consider. Good luck.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Elnora[/FONT]