Tidying up the mess

BabyStepper

Thank you for all the supportive comments. You are all so helpful. :A:)

Various bits of news to report. First, we didn't get a car this weekend. The ones we looked at are 10+ years old but we really need the body to be in good condition and the 3 we looked at were not right. Need to keep looking and maybe go for something newer. Also might need to look further afield. Disappointing, but we can't rush this.

Better news, I did really well with work this month and invoices have all been paid. I took £1500 wage + £350 for the holiday pot. Also managed to skim £200 from the joint account to go towards the holiday so we are half way there with holiday savings. :T What a relief!

The debt overpayment cash £1,220 has been moved into a seperate account for buying the car when the right one comes along. I still have more cash I could take as wage from my business account - might use it to kick start the car maintenance pot if we manage to get one this month. As I said, it's been a good month and I'm hoping for many more like it.

These are the debt totals at the minute, bearing in mind that the debt will go up by possibly £2.5k when we get the car. But for the moment this is how it all looks.

[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/£2,965 0% Dec 2019
Barclaycard (3) £1,250/£1,105 0% Feb 2020
MBNA cc £5,325.99/£5,000 0% Feb 2020
Lloyds (2) £907.57/£795 0% Nov 2020
Halifax cc £3,342.25/£2,855 0% Oct 2020

Total May 2018 £21,228.07
Total May 2019 £12,720
£8,508.07 paid off :T:T:T

Only £180 paid off this month but the budget is working and the debt is going in the right direction. I count that as a win.

PositiveBalance

BabyStepper wrote: »

Only £180 paid off this month but the budget is working and the debt is going in the right direction. I count that as a win.

Totally! Particularly given all the car savings that are going on at the same time. It's a total win! :T

enthusiasticsaver

Good result. I hope you manage to get a car you are happy with soon. The debt is down by £180 and you have some money towards the car and holiday.

BabyStepper

Quick update: still no car, the budget is working, I'm glad for a quiet month with not much happening! Spoken to two small independent garages about what we are looking for and they have said they will get in touch. Hope they don't both find us a car at the same time. Just trying to hold everything steady for now.

BabyStepper

We got a car last night!! :j:beer: We had a call from one of the garages, a car had come in that was not really what we were looking for but they thought we might like it, and after a quick look we do! It's smaller than we were hoping for and pretty old (13 years), but low mileage and the garage had just finished mot-ing it and will provide free 3 months warranty. And it cost £1,399!! :T:T:T After a test drive we decided it was for us, I can't believe it! It's WAY under budget!

We won't pick it up until later today but I've had a chance to do the sums and check insurance. Basically the whole thing can come in a touch under £2k, for the car, insurance, tax, and breakdown cover. And that's without a bit of cashback and a petrol voucher. I suspect it will come with no fuel so I'll add in £40 for a tank but it is still so much cheaper than we were hoping. Thank goodness!!

I have a new plan now to pay for it. (Bear with me). £1,220 in car savings and the rest from the emergency fund. I know this seems foolish, but with the car being so cheap, this is really a chance to NOT see the debt increase and finance the car in cash with a new goal afterwards of building the emergency fund back up. It will likely reduce to something like £250. :eek::eek: But we have a few hundred in the house maintenance fund too so if things went badly wrong we would have something to try and fix it with. Me and OH discussed it and both agreed that's what we want to do. The de-motivation of the debt increasing again was just too great and here is a chance, a real chance to keep the aggressive payments going.

So that's where we're at. So pleased and can't wait to pick up the car!

DancingInTheRain

Great news on the car & so happy it means the debt won’t increase for you.
Your diary is really inspirational, you’ve done so well.
Have a great weekend, enjoy the car! x

BabyStepper

Thank you so much DancingInTheRain - I was worried someone may tell me off for spending a big chunk of my emergency fund!

Saying that, it may happen yet, are you around enthusiasticsaver? :rotfl:

DancingInTheRain

:rotfl::rotfl:

enthusiasticsaver

BabyStepper wrote: »

Thank you so much DancingInTheRain - I was worried someone may tell me off for spending a big chunk of my emergency fund!

Saying that, it may happen yet, are you around enthusiasticsaver? :rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl: Just popped on to your diary as I saw you posted on debtaggh's DFW diary.

Great news on the car and sounds like you have picked up a bargain. Personally I think I would do the same as you and use savings rather than increase debt. You can replenish the savings gradually and if an emergency does happen which cannot be dealt with in one month then putting it on a 0% card is not the worst thing when you have done so well in getting the debt down. Hopefully it will not come to that though.

Do you need to do a new soa given you have to replenish the emergency fund and presumably allow more in the cars category? I am assuming you won't be continuing with the £1400 debt reduction monthly unless the business is doing so well you can increase the monthly wage especially if you can pick up more work now you have wheels?

Kitten868

Another one chiming in to say you've done the right thing. Great work on the car.

Hope the budget works going forward. And once you're back in it it'll be goodbye Lloyd's straight away!

Keep it up! Xxx