£29,303...Enough is enough!

WelshKitty85

Don!!!8217;t know why I didn!!!8217;t think of it myself but I read a comment on somebody else!!!8217;s diary that they keep a tab open for prolific academic on their computer so they remember to check it every time they go on. Have done this since yesterday and have £7.15 approved already. I usually make that in a month on there! Such a simple idea, but very effective especially while I!!!8217;m still on mat leave.

WelshKitty85

Only a £3 sale today so currently upto £45.50 of my £100 additional income target.

JonW1984

PositiveBalance wrote: »

To be honest, given that this represents such a huge percentage of your debt and your husband's precarious work situation, I would find a way out of this car ASAP. I'm sure there are better people in these boards than me to discuss car finance with you as I know nothing about it but there's an American finance exert called Dave Ramsey who would be worth listening to about this. Look him up on YouTube.

If you car is still worth what you paid for it, you could sell it, pay off the finance and save up for another. If you need a car and couldn't wait for another you could save up for one first but I'm not sure if that's feasible for you right now. If the car is worth less, you would need to have the difference to hand to be able to pay off the finance. I don't know if you could get a loan at the minute for the difference so you might have to be creative with looking for other solutions to that.

You had problems before the car, but nowhere near to this extent. Please seriously consider getting rid of it. It's clearly playing on your mind if you are lying in bed at night thinking about it.

I think I would have to agree entirely with the above - I think at the very least it would be worth contacting the finance co and gaining an understanding of the options available. You have a very significant level of debt you could wipe out a large proportion by getting rid of the car. In the interim can you car share / bike to work / ask a relative for a lift?

If you could then save up even £500 - £1000 you could buy something with 12 months' MOT?

At the end of the day the car is continuously depreciating and dealing with that issue first would (in my humble view...) turn your debt situation around.

I know you must have spent a lot of time considering it but from an outsider's perspective this just seems the easiest option to improve your situation.

anna_1977

Hi, can I just check your debt is £29k NOT including the 2 cars on HP that on your SOA are £14,888 (approx) ? So if it is worth £16k how much equity is sat in there?
Also with regards to finance company as long as you've paid off 50% of the loan you can normally hand the car back with no penalty

Good luck

WelshKitty85

It’s just the 1 car on HP & no that’s not included in the £29k. I don’t know why I haven’t included it, maybe I think of it more as a bill payment than a debt. I don’t know why. The other 2 cars make up £10k of the credit card/loan balances, £5k of which will be paid off if/when we get a resolution from the S75 claim.

DH and I have had a chat and decided that we will be keeping my car for the foreseeable future. Mine is the practical family car, his is a classic ‘toy’ that can’t fit the whole family and will be the one to go if we can’t make our budget work. For now the focus is on upping our income and minimising our spends.

WelshKitty85

Another £4 made today, bringing my total to £49.50.

Have been browsing school shoes today, which DC1 & 2 will both need for September. Have enough nectar points to cover the cost of at least 1 pair. Trousers, skirts etc already sorted from Aldi and they are both happy to use the same school bags next year.

Have updated budget to include £145 after school activity fees due by Sept (pay yearly for a 10% discount). As long as no unexpected spends crop up our current account is out of the red until the last week of August, so DH only needs a few more days to cover this. Anything else will build up a cushion and give us potential to make overpayments on the M&S card.

PositiveBalance

WelshKitty85 wrote: »

A large chunk of of debt comes from cars. DH purchased a car around 6 weeks ago. He didn!!!8217;t view it beforehand and was completely reliant on the dealer!!!8217;s description that said it was !!!8220;fully restored!!!8221;. We!!!8217;ve since had the car into a local garage who say the car isn!!!8217;t even road worthy, never mind restored. So, we have submitted a S75 to the credit card company we used to pay the deposit. If our claim is successful then we should get a refund of nearly £5000, which can come straight off the debts.

WelshKitty85 wrote: »

Minimum payment made to barclaycard and Ive been able to transfer some of the M&S balance to this card on 0%, so they currently look like:

Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Barclaycard....................8380......160...... .0
RateSetter ....................4000......87.64.....7.4
Hitachi..........................11780.....226.5.... 3.4
M&S Card......................1161......35..........22. 9
MBNA...........................3831......70......... .0

Total debt now £29,152

WelshKitty85 wrote: »

It!!!8217;s just the 1 car on HP & no that!!!8217;s not included in the £29k. I don!!!8217;t know why I haven!!!8217;t included it, maybe I think of it more as a bill payment than a debt. I don!!!8217;t know why. The other 2 cars make up £10k of the credit card/loan balances, £5k of which will be paid off if/when we get a resolution from the S75 claim.

DH and I have had a chat and decided that we will be keeping my car for the foreseeable future. Mine is the practical family car, his is a classic !!!8216;toy!!!8217; that can!!!8217;t fit the whole family and will be the one to go if we can!!!8217;t make our budget work. For now the focus is on upping our income and minimising our spends.

My apologies - I misunderstood your position. I thought the Hitachi was for your car.

WelshKitty, I'm going to say something and you may not like me much when I have finished, but this car situation is ridiculous! I imagine the real reason you didn't add the car debt to you existing debt is because it pushes your actual debt levels to £45,152, assuming that you owe a round £16,000 on your car and that overall figure is enough to give anyone palpitations!

To top it off, your precariously-employed husband bought a (your wording) 'classic toy' while you are on maternity leave (so, one assumes, not earning 100% of your usual wages). Perhaps he needs a car to get around, to be fair, but buying a pretty expensive car while you are are both on compromised incomes when he hasn't even seen it and is relying on the word of someone who has a vested interest in selling cars is foolish at best.

What's the story with the third car? Does your husband need it to get to work if he sells his 'classic toy' and you keep yours? Is it roadworthy? How much is it likely to fetch if you sold it? If it is roadworthy why did your husband feel it was a good idea to buy his 'classic toy'?

As I said, you might not like me much when I said this, but I think you need to hear this to stand any chance of getting yourself out of this mess.

I wish you all the best but if something doesn't change with this car situation, you are going to struggle to get out of this very deep hole that you have both dug for yourselves.

WelshKitty85

PositiveBalance wrote: »

My apologies - I misunderstood your position. I thought the Hitachi was for your car.

WelshKitty, I'm going to say something and you may not like me much when I have finished, but this car situation is ridiculous! I imagine the real reason you didn't add the car debt to you existing debt is because it pushes your actual debt levels to £45,152, assuming that you owe a round £16,000 on your car and that overall figure is enough to give anyone palpitations!

To top it off, your precariously-employed husband bought a (your wording) 'classic toy' while you are on maternity leave (so, one assumes, not earning 100% of your usual wages). Perhaps he needs a car to get around, to be fair, but buying a pretty expensive car while you are are both on compromised incomes when he hasn't even seen it and is relying on the word of someone who has a vested interest in selling cars is foolish at best.

What's the story with the third car? Does your husband need it to get to work if he sells his 'classic toy' and you keep yours? Is it roadworthy? How much is it likely to fetch if you sold it? If it is roadworthy why did your husband feel it was a good idea to buy his 'classic toy'?

As I said, you might not like me much when I said this, but I think you need to hear this to stand any chance of getting yourself out of this mess.

I wish you all the best but if something doesn't change with this car situation, you are going to struggle to get out of this very deep hole that you have both dug for yourselves.

I totally understand what you are saying and if I was reading somebody else’s diary I would probably be saying the same thing. But we have to make this journey work for us.

To clarify, my car is on HP. DH bought the classic around 2 months ago now, but it wasn’t as described. We’re in the process of claiming a refund and returning it. He bought car number 3 to replace this, knowing the refund is coming. The third car is completely road worthy, worth around £5000 currently, but likely to go up in value if DH puts time into smartening it up (minimum cost but lots of effort). When we are both working we do need 2 cars. Schools aren’t within walking/cycling distance, we’re not on a bus route, our shifts overlap so we can’t share a car.

I’m fully aware our debt currently stands at £44,041 including my car finance. However the cars are something we both enjoy. We know that having them means it will take longer to pay off the rest of our debt, but we’re ok with that.

PositiveBalance

WelshKitty85 wrote: »

I totally understand what you are saying and if I was reading somebody else’s diary I would probably be saying the same thing. But we have to make this journey work for us.

To clarify, my car is on HP. DH bought the classic around 2 months ago now, but it wasn’t as described. We’re in the process of claiming a refund and returning it. He bought car number 3 to replace this, knowing the refund is coming. The third car is completely road worthy, worth around £5000 currently, but likely to go up in value if DH puts time into smartening it up (minimum cost but lots of effort). When we are both working we do need 2 cars. Schools aren’t within walking/cycling distance, we’re not on a bus route, our shifts overlap so we can’t share a car.

I’m fully aware our debt currently stands at £44,041 including my car finance. However the cars are something we both enjoy. We know that having them means it will take longer to pay off the rest of our debt, but we’re ok with that.

I'm glad that your third car is in good condition and that it does what you need it to.

Best of luck with rest of debt-free journey.

WelshKitty85

So today I have made a grand total of...£0!

DH actually got up with DC3 at 6am so I could have a lie in, but I!!!8217;ve spent the day feeling more exhausted than ever and have a really mild but annoying sinus pain. Have achieved a few things today:
Started to declutter DC2s room
Homemade wraps
Homemade BBQ sauce which evolved into a sort of !!!8220;pulled pork!!!8221; with leftover gammon
Homemade shortbread

Not achieved as much as I hoped, but could have been worse!