Tidying up the mess

Drawingaline

Sorry to hear about your husband. Hope everything settles down and gets back to normal for you.

BabyStepper

Thank you all for your support. You are really appreciated. :A GAP, I have also been hearing about lots of people with serious health problems lately, must be something in the air, makes me feel so grateful we are out the other side with no long term implications.

So, the Barclaycard is gone and I made an overpayment to MBNA to get a start made on it. Can't believe I've finally reached the biggest and most scary debt on my list. The temptation to pay off Lloyds is always hanging around but with Feb 2020 approaching I need to stay focused on MBNA. Here's how it looks.

Barclaycard (1) [STRIKE]£3,044.54[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
Lloyds (1) cc [STRIKE]£434.33[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
Barclaycard (2) [STRIKE]£517.12[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
Hitachi loan [STRIKE]£970.60[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
Overdraft [STRIKE]£2,000 [/STRIKE]PAID OFF
Santander cc [STRIKE]£3,435.67[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
Barclaycard (3) [STRIKE]£1,250[/STRIKE] PAID OFF
MBNA cc £5,325.99/£4,500 0% Feb 2020
Lloyds (2) £907.57/£750 0% Nov 2020
Halifax cc £3,342.25/£2,735 0% Oct 2020

Total May 2018 £21,228.07
Total October 2019 £7,985
£13,243.07 paid off :T:T:T

Next month's overpayent will not be so big as I will need to top up the emergency fund by quite a lot. (Still haven't checked exactly how much but I'll get onto it.) The car fund can just keep building up at £50 per month, no plans to replace the spent cash, that's what it's there for. I haven't touched matched betting in over a month so need to get back onto that asap.

Overall I'm quite pleased but will need to keep fingers crossed for no disasters in the next 3 weeks until payday.

warby68

Glad to see you back and hope OH is firmly on the mend.

And how good are you? Really tough time but hardly any problems with the financial side of things which are all set up to tick along now. I know its not the be all and end all when illness strikes but well worth a quiet moment of satisfaction when you get a minute to reflect.

enthusiasticsaver

Fantastic figures there and good you have got to the large scary one. It is also the only imminent one although worth remembering that February is still 4 months away so you have time to get it cleared. Good idea to top up the depleted EF. So close now.

BabyStepper

I've been doing a few sums and trying to figure out how to fix the damage of the last month. The emergency fund is reduced to practically nothing but thank goodness it was there or we'd have been using credit cards again. Here's my plan, let me know if you see any flaws.

MBNA has £4500 to pay before February, so 4 pay days away. EF needs £425 to top it up to £500. I want this done as fast as possible, feels vulnerable to have so little right now.

Over the next 4 months -
£40 minimums on Lloyds card
£120 minimums on Halifax
£425 to EF
= £585

Debt plan - £1,400 x 4 = £5,600
minus £585 = £5,015
minus £4500 MBNA = £515 leeway

This does not leave much breathing space and I will have a lower wage at the end of this month due to missing a day's work. I need to do those sums too but I think I should still be able to contribute £1,500 to the household pot. Will need to double check.

Come the end of January, MBNA will be paid off, Lloyds will be at £710 and Halifax £2615. If I copy BlackCoffee's plan and then throw the emergencey fund at the debt, we could be debt free by the end of March. If I keep my wage up, and we also manage to save the £515 leeway cash in the next 4 months, then we could be debt free and still have our emergency fund. But that's for a bit further down the line.

So, at the end of October I will put £425 into EF, £100 minimum payments, then overpay MBNA by £975. For the following 3 months, £40 minimum to Lloyds and Halifax, and £1360 to MBNA until it's gone.

This may not work 100% but it's always been helpful for me to have an ambitious plan. I'm going to give it a go. If anyone sees any mistakes with my sums or anything else do feel free to let me know.

6 months...that's not long really. Wow.

enthusiasticsaver

Are you saving separately for Christmas and will your wage be reduced in January due to presumably working less over the Christmas period.

It seems like a solid plan but I am a little confused as to what the minimums are on Lloyds and Halifax. Initially you said the minimums were £40 for Lloyds and £120 to Halifax but you are only intending to pay £100 in minimums this month? Should that be £160?

Similarly minimums for November to January should be £160 so MBNA should get £1240 if you stick with £1400 once the EF is back up to £500.

enthusiasticsaver

Or are the minimums of £40 and £120 the minimums for 4 months not 1 month so £40 a month? In which case your figures then make sense and reading your post again I think this is what you meant but then I wondered why £100 in October? Whichever way you look at it though I think if you are able to maintain £1400 per month to the debt then over 6 months you have £8400 to play with so £7915 to the debt and £485 to EF which you may need to use in March Countdown to 6 months including October is March so I agree you should be clear by then barring any disasters. Exciting.

BabyStepper

Hi enthusiastic saver
Sorry for the confusion, yep, £40 and £120 are for 4 months. Lloyds - £10pm Halifax £30pm Also MBNA £60pm but I wasn't counting that one in as I will be throwing everything at it for the next while.
Wow I will be SO glad when I don't have to do these sums all the time! They're a right pain in the neck!
Thanks for checking my plan over, I think it will work too, and if I try and fall short then at least I will almost have made it.
I've been looking forward to this autumn/winter for ages because I knew I'd be closer to my DFD than ever before and on the home straight. And here it is, chilly and bright, with only good things coming. I never thought it would get here but it did.
So close, and yes, I'm excited!

BabyStepper

Also yes, my wage will be reduced given the 2 week Christmas break. Luckily, one week falls in December and the second week falls in January so the impact is limited and I should be able to keep contributing £1500pm. I'm not great at forecasting earnings yet, but once this debt is gone I'll be better prepared. The worst break is in summer, 2 weeks in the same month. It's a killer and I need to figure out how to smooth that over.

girlatplay

BabyStepper wrote: »

...and if I try and fall short then at least I will almost have made it.
...

I'm so glad you can see this. It's not a competition, it's your own targets and goals that you are aiming for. If you fall short, don't look at it as falling short, look at it as how far you have come and where you would be if you weren't doing this. You can totally do it though