Tidying up the mess

BabyStepper

Me and OH have decided to start prepping for brexit. We bought a fair amount of extra food with the shopping budget to keep in store and are investing in a camping stove, calor gas heater and a few other things in case of massive price increases or supply problems. We're not in a panic, but it never hurts to be ready.

I'm also still trying to work out what to do with the extra £200. As usual there are about 15 ways we could spend or use it but obviously we can't do them all. Still in savings at the moment.

4 more days until the Christmas break and I just can't wait. Budget is in order, everything going smoothly, as long as we have good travelling weather on Christmas day we're fine.

enthusiasticsaver

Impressed with you prepping for Brexit. The only thing I am doing is refusing to book overseas trips post March until we have a clear idea of how it will work with a no deal scenario. Food is expected to go up in price due to supply issues but who knows. We really are stumbling around in the dark with this so I am taking the ostrich approach which is not one I recommend for debt problems though.

Hopefully you should not have a problem getting another BT offer in 2020 so just focus on getting the balances down as you have been doing. You will have been self employed for longer too

BabyStepper

You make a good point about debt problems and Brexit, having debt makes us all a bit more vulnerable, not so easy to cover the cost of food price increases. We're really just trying to ease ourselves over the bump and if there is no bump, all the better. The gas heater has been on our minds for a while after our huge gas bill last year, feels good to make a decision about it. We don't have any overseas trips to think about, but I have a few friends who are buying euros now given the way the pound is falling.

All is well today. I'm procrastinating about work but that's just how I'm feeling, tired and ready for a break. Everything that pays is being done, everything else is kind of on hold. Ah well. Bring on the holidays.

Kitten868

How are you with savings? I'm useless I always find an excuse to spend it. Plus it's not money you were going to have so you won't miss it. I would pay it off Barclays but as I say I'm awful with savings.

I love the new system with your credit cards for knowing your next priority and £3k and £5k looks better than the lumps they were. I think just keep going paying the next one on the list. Consistently paying it down puts you in a great position for if you do need to do a transfer. You can't do better than that.

Congrats on getting two lots paid off and being interest free.

Keep going - you're doing it! Xxx

redmel1621

Hi Babystepper,

How generous of your OH's aunt. I bet that was such a shock. You are doing absolutely amazing and have paid of such a good chunk of debt this year - keep going

I'm look forward to reading how you are getting on in 2019

BabyStepper

kitten868...your advice about changing how my debts are ordered and written down was so helpful, I do have a much better idea now of what I'm doing and how to go forward. I'm not spending all that time trying to decide what to pay off first and worrying about getting it wrong. Any ideas about what I can do to reduce the stress of this whole process are welcome.

About savings, I am not great at hanging on to savings. The emergency fund has been an eye opener and at times I've had to protect it with my life and it has still taken a massive hit some months. It took more than 10 weeks to save it up, and can be destroyed in an afternoon. The way I think of it is that I'm practicing and the longer I have it, the more confident I feel. The new sinking funds are the same idea, practicing managing money better.

I do plan to keep going and just keep paying things down in the right order. I need to not jump ahead and start worrying about what I'm going to do in February 2020. It's a long way away. One step at a time, however small, will get us there.

redmel...yes the gift was a massive shock and comes with mixed feelings, we are so pleased and grateful but also aware OH's aunt is preparing for the end of her life. She gave cash to all OH's immediate family and looked so pleased to do it. We told her everything about our finances and she was very encouraging and said we were free to use it in whatever way we thought was best. Wonderful gift, no strings, but some very tearful moments throughout.

I'm going to edit my debts list to include the totals at the start of this process. I can't seem to stay away from fiddling with numbers.

BabyStepper

[STRIKE]Barclaycard (1) £3,044.54[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
[STRIKE]Lloyds (1) cc £434.33[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
Barclaycard (2) £517.12/£517.12 0% March 2019
Santander cc £3,435.67/£3,197.29 0% Dec 2019
MBNA cc £5,325.99/£5,360.27 0% Feb 2020
Barclaycard (3) £1,250/£1,250 0% Feb 2020
Hitachi loan £970.60/£633.00 0% March 2020
Overdraft £2,000/£2,000 0% Sept 2020
Halifax cc £3,342.25/£3,065 0% Oct 2020
Lloyds (2) £907.57/£907.57 0% Nov 2020

Total May 2018 £21,228.07
Total now £16,925.25 :j

That looks better still.

Lydia42

Hi
That's brilliant news about the unexpected £2500. What a great way to start 2019. No interest.
I know you are keen to deal with the next debt on your list, but have you thought about using the spare £200 to reduce your utilities debt? This would allow you to move to a cheaper provider and reduce you monthly outgoings?? Just saw your last SOA and you said you were paying a large monthly amount at the moment, but i'm not sure how much you owe. Might be worth looking into?

BabyStepper

Lydia, what a great idea. Just checked our utilities account, currently owe £190 which is a vast improvement as we started with £900. There will be another payment of £223 at the start of January so we will be in the black. We will still owe for November and December, but maybe that would be a good time to switch? I have never switched energy provider before so I'm not sure how it all works. Would the old company just send me a bill, and then set up a DD with the new one? We don't want to be paying twice in one month because things are so tight, might there be a bit of overlap in January? I guess that's where the extra £200 could come in handy. I reckon we should be paying somewhere around £100-£130 per month so that would be quite a saving in our budget. All advice and info is very welcome.

2 more days of work before the holidays. It really cannot come quick enough.

BabyStepper

I've just been checking out tthe switching info on here. It looks like we could save quite a lot by moving, but if I did it now the new DD would start in January and we still need to pay the old one then too. I've decided to make the move at the start of January, then the extra £200 can be used to cover the final bill from the old supplier and we will have a greatly reduced monthly DD come February. I'm sure OH's aunt would approve.

Thanks Lydia. :A