Tidying up the mess

enthusiasticsaver

BabyStepper wrote: »

It's done, the overdraft is gone, I paid it off. :T:j:beer: (bit early in the morning for a beer? ) I did it, and I can't quite believe it.

Month 2 of the year long plan has got off to a great start. I was able to take £1500 wage and DDs are flying out now so I'll do a full update in a few days. Now onwards to the next debt.

:T:T:T

Fantastic update and so good that overdraft is finally gone. You are really busting those debts.

PositiveBalance

:jWell done on getting rid of the OD! :j


What does it fee like?!

BabyStepper

Thanks everyone I'm just getting used to seeing a positive balance every time I log on to my bank account and who knows, I might even switch that account too for a bit of extra cash. Easier to do with no overdraft. I'm very pleased to be holding my plan together, hopefully it will stay intact for another month at least. It all feels very encouraging and has given my confidence a boost. Just what I needed on this debt busting journey.

DDs still going out so I'll wait a day or two to post my proper update and change my signature.

The next debt is supposed to be Santander but I'm tempted to get rid of Barclaycard next month for a quick win. I'll have a think, depends how confident I am about my job and cash flow. With summer coming (my quietest time for work) it would be sensible to target Santander, just in case my income drops a bit. I'll have a think.

enthusiasticsaver

The positive balance is great and yes you could switch your main account too if you wanted to get another bonus although not sure how many deals are out there. You have already done the FD one haven't you?

I think I would stick to your plan of targeting the Santander one next given it will take you three months near enough to get rid and the deal expires December.

Pros of targeting the Barclaycard next is you can clear in one full month, your minimums will go down giving you more to overpay and you will be down to just four cards. Pros of targeting Santander is you give yourself some leeway to get it cleared by the 0% expiry date in December if your income falls (more possible if SE) and also if it isn't cleared the balance at least would be lower. As you say it depends on how confident you are of your income. How is the budgeting for everything else going? Is your emergency savings still intact?

Look forward to seeing the balance in the 12s :T:T:T:T

pidge04

A m a z i n g !
No overdraft!

I’d be tempted for the next quick win but it was instant gratification that got me into the pickle I’m in so ....

You are fantastic!!

BabyStepper

Here's how the debt looks this month. Still massive, but going down.

Still to go: 9 months x £1,400 then 1 month x £300

[STRIKE]Barclaycard (1) £3,044.54[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
[STRIKE]Lloyds (1) cc £434.33[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
[STRIKE]Barclaycard (2) £517.12[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
[STRIKE]Hitachi loan £970.60[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
[STRIKE]Overdraft £2,000[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
Santander cc £3,435.67/£3,000 0% Dec 2019
Barclaycard (3) £1,250/£1,140 0% Feb 2020
MBNA cc £5,325.99/£5,060 0% Feb 2020
Lloyds (2) £907.57/£810 0% Nov 2020
Halifax cc £3,342.25/£2,890 0% Oct 2020

Total May 2018 £21,228.07
Total May 2019 £12,900
£8,328.07 paid off :j:j:j

I'm feeling quite low about it all today. I've been listening to work colleagues talking about their summer holidays and feel very left out, just wishing for a proper holiday. Also because no-one knows what I'm trying to do in paying down debt they just assume I'm poor. Which I guess I am, but it then comes with being pitied and/or looked down on. I can't stand it. And I almost had a tantrum setting off on public transport this week. OH has suggested slowing down the repayments and buying a car, he doesn't care how quickly it gets paid off, but I want to keep going. It's not really for long and the rewards will be great. But it's been hard this week, despite getting rid of that overdraft.

Sorry for the whinge, just wanted to say.

BabyStepper

enthusiasticsaver yes I got the FD switch cash through, it helped to pay off the overdraft. I'm not sure about another switch, I'll leave it a while. The budgeting is going alright, emergency fund is full, presents fund not big enough so we need to keep supplementing it with spends but it's not a disaster, house maintenance is approaching £300 but we will probably stop at £500, £250 spends is working well enough (it'd be good if it was more but we're managing). I'm aware we have had no disasters and that's just luck. Also, despite invoicing for £2k+ most months, my expenses at the minute are pretty big with yearly things to pay for so I haven't managed to build up much of an excess. I need to keep an eye on this, expenses will definitely fall a lot in the summer but I'm noticing trends I wasn't aware of. Overall I am gaining more work and everything is looking much more secure. I'm thinking I can count on this wage to last until the end of my plan.

And because of this, I'm changing my plan. Pidge, I loved your comments about instant gratification, so true! However, I need the quick wins because this debt repayment business, at the rate of £1400 per month, is incredibly hard and I need all the motivation I can get.

New plan:
end of May, pay off Barclaycard, extra £80 to Santander
end of June, pay off Lloyds, extra £425 to Santander
By the time I get to Santander in July and August it will get paid off in 2 months
Then Halifax next as it's smaller
By the time I reach MBNA, the final card, I will have the full £1400 to throw at it. This one needs a good 'shovel to hole' ratio because it is so big.

I know this is more risky because of 0% deals ending but right now I don't care. I need the motivation of reducing the amount of debts. I just need it.

Moneywhizz

It sounds like you are finding this really difficult so anything you can do to make you feel better is the way to go. The main thing is that you don't want to be paying interest if possible so even if things didn't work out exactly as planned, there are always ways to avoid that. Maybe it is worth considering slowing down the debt repayments if it is causing you to feel a bit down. It is easy to say that it is only for a short time and will be worth it, but even a month can seem like a long time when you are living on a such a tight budget. You are so determined to get the debt paid off so I am sure releasing your timescale a bit would not result in you falling into bad money management again. Of course it will be great to be debt free and have all the extra money to do the things you want, but maybe building a bit of extra into your budget just now for a short holiday or even a cheapish run around car would make things more bearable for you right now. If you decide to push ahead with your debt free plan, you should do it whatever way you think will give you the most satisfaction and keep you motivated to stick to it. Try not to be disheartened, you have made amazing progress in a year and we are all rooting for you.

BabyStepper

Moneywhizz, thank you for taking the time to reply and help me with this. I do wonder if I'm going mad with it all sometimes, running over things in my mind again and again. It helps to have somewhere to write it all down so thanks for replying. :A I'm now going to try and figure out how to get a short summer break paid for out of our tight budget.

enthusiasticsaver

I agree with Moneywhizz that you seem to be finding it hard and I think you knew that paying more than £15k of debt over a year would be a struggle and totally understand that. Whatever you decide to do your situation is improving every month you get rid of these debts. Paying off another card will give you a quick win so if that helps motivate you then target the smaller cards first.

Interesting you don't want to tell your colleagues/friends/family why you are going for a frugal year to pay off debt while they are bragging about their holidays. There is still a stigma to it even though I would guess many of your acquaintances also carry debt ( maybe more than yours). I would bet more than one has put the cost of their holiday on a card. Don't be sucked into the keeping up with the Jones's just to avoid being pitied though. Learning to avoid the instant gratification that goes with buy now pay later is one of the hardest things about changing spending behaviour.

You have to do whatever is right for you so if that means slowing down the plan to make this year bearable then no one would blame you. Can you reduce your spending money a bit for a couple of months to find a short break somewhere? I think if I was really struggling I would take the two longest deal debts out of the equation for now leaving you just £9.2k to pay off by February 2020. That means you just paying around £1100 a month including minimums for Halifax and Lloyds so gives you £300 spare to go towards car or holiday savings. That means instead of almost your whole salary going to debt 25% is going towards something you need/want.