The Piano Diary

glass_half_full

Dear Diary and all,

We are back from holiday. We had a wonderful time. It was a great to spend time with DS and his GF. It was good to completely switch off from work for a while. It was a special holiday, one we have been planning for a while. It was a bit non MSE in that it was a bit ‘live for today’ rather than saving for tomorrow. We don’t know what is around the corner, so I want to have some experiences now as well. We spent a bit more than we had budgeted. We took DS and his GF as they would not be able to afford a holiday themselves. They brought some spending money, but it would have gone very quickly, so we told them to keep it for souvenirs etc. Now we are back, we are going to refocus on clearing down the credit card debt. I was hoping to pay off some in August, but I think this was more than a little optimistic since this is holiday month. We will start in earnest in September. Credit card debt total is £18,615 across the two cards.

Meanwhile, things have been volatile on the pension front. The DC fund reached a low of £350K from a high of £390K and has now settled back at £372K.

Time away has helped to settle my mind somewhat. I am actually quite ok about going back to work. I think I can manage the situation by maintaining a bit of distance from it going forward.

savingholmes

Glad you had a great time away. On the pension volatility it's frustrating but hopefully will resolve before you need to claim it / start draw down

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Been back at work around a month now so holiday is a distant memory. Its hard to switch back from a spendy period to a belt tightening approach. It’s a bit like dieting where when you relax a bit the pounds seem to pile on. It took me a few weeks to mentally adjust back to a slightly more frugal mindset. It looks like we can pay off around £2K to £2.5K per month off the credit card and at the end of September we were able to reduce the total from £18,615 to £16,542. Aiming to pay it all off in the next 6-7 months. OH and I have talked about a cheaper holiday next year. I don’t regret the spending, but will be glad to be debt free again as soon as possible.

Pension is currently sitting at £375K after a bit of up and down.

savingholmes

Glad the pension and the CC are heading in the right directions. I totally get what you mean about the difficulty adjusting back after a spendy period.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

I have been paid for some work I did a while ago, I had forgotten the payment was coming in October. This combined with some expenses has allowed me to pay a further £2500 so the credit card debt is now down to £14,000. Starting to get focused now on getting rid of it asap. Pleased to have got it down from a high point of £19K.

Just out of curiosity I checked my credit rating which I haven’t done for a while. Its 903 which is good but not excellent. When I checked why it comes down to credit utilisation ie it currently has me down as owing £19K against combined credit limits of £24K which is 80% utilisation. As the balance comes down the credit rating will improve. Although I have no intention of borrowing any more, fingers crossed.

The home improvements really pushed the limits of what we could borrow. I can see how home improvements could really get you into trouble as they seem to spiral a bit as one thing leads to another.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Confession time re. credit cards.

I have two credit cards, HSBC and Sainsburys. The Sainsburys card I got to use for grocery shopping to get Nectar points. Never intended to use it for anything else, but then did. It now has a balance of £8,400. £5000 of that is a zero % balance transfer which expires in June 2025 from the HSBC card.

The HSBC card has a balance of £5700 is all on instalment plans, two of which are paid off by December 2024 and one is February 2025.

I’ve fallen for the credit card trap. I want to get back to where I was with one credit card which was fully paid off every month.

I’m going to prioritise paying off the Sainsbury card. This should be doable in 4 months. I have stopped using it and moved the subscriptions I had set up on in to my bank account. This is another problem where you ‘hide’ payments from yourself on a credit card so they don’t really exist. Once the card is paid off I think I will cancel it.

In the meantime, the HSBC card balance will drop and will be paid off latest February 2025 but maybe earlier. I’ve also stopped using this card. I will keep this one but pay off every month.

Will have this cleared up by February 2025.

AgathaSquirrel

Good you have a plan.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Another bump in the road. We were having a chat with DS and it turned out that he is in arrears with his tax. He is operating as a sole trader and for some time I have been asking him about his tax situation and saying to him that he should do a tax return. Anyway, it seems that he got around to submitting one, which is good, but that he owes tax which he had not put aside, which is not good. So we spent an evening recently going through his finances. Unfortunately, the maths doesn’t really add up in terms of the amount coming in compared to the amount going out to cover these arrears. We are going to help him out with this, but I explained to him that this is the last time and that going forward he needs to put aside the money to pay tax and other costs. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that his GF isn’t working. I also explained to him that we wont be in a position to help them for ever since in the next year or so we will be retiring and so they will have to stand on their own two feet. Needless to say this will slow down paying off the credit cards. I do feel for them, but at some point they need to be able to support themselves without us.

glass_half_full

Dear Diary and all,

DS is getting to grips with his finances. I recommended a couple of budgetting apps to him and he is using Emma which seems to be working well allowing him to see his outgoings and budget categories. Although it is a paid app, I think it will pay for itself if it helps him to get control of his finances. We are going to meet once a month at the end of the month to go through things including tax etc. I feel like it is really important that he gets these skills now because these are really important lessons for life.

Meanwhile on the home front CC debt has dropped to £13K which is £1K down. I think we can keep reducing it at £2K per month so aiming for 6 months. Just booked the car in for a service in a couple of weeks time. We are a one car family and its 10 years old with 89000 miles on the clock. Its has been very reliable so touch wood we can keep going with it for some time. I use a local garage which is good value for money. They always check with you before doing any work that they recommend. Over time I have built up a lot of trust with them as they will often tell you when things can wait eg not safety issues so its up to you whether to get it done. I’m getting back into the better moneysaving habits, using YNAB and seeking out cheaper and better ways of doing things. Took a pair of OH’s leather boots into town to see if they could be repaired and reheeled. I found a traditional cobbler in an arcade. The leather has become unstitched and he will restitch them and reheel them. There is something really satisfying about getting something repaired and seeing people who are really skilled at doing so.

Pension quite volatile. I’m not worried, it will reach the required level over the next 6-12 months. Work is going well at the moment. I have a great boss which really helps.

savingholmes

Glad work is going well. Good you are still on plan - and how lovely to get the delayed payment this month and make such good inroads into your debt.

Totally with you on the DS thing. Mine owes me some money too - but probably less than yours -and he made an unexpected first payment last month. I hope that repeats as it would help.