Wobbling my way out of debt

Kitten868

You're selling your house and you've signed up to a new fixed rate mortgage? Check if you can cancel. The interest increase won't be as much as the early redemption fees will be. 

findingthisdifficult

Kitten868 said:

You're selling your house and you've signed up to a new fixed rate mortgage? Check if you can cancel. The interest increase won't be as much as the early redemption fees will be. 

I made my mortgage advisor aware and she has arranged a portable mortgage for me, so hopefully it shouldn't be a problem.

findingthisdifficult

Paid £161.04 off my credit card on Friday to get me to a round balance of £3000.
The loan payment is due out tomorrow, so will be back to update that then I think we're into the final 10 (could be 11) payments on that and also in to the £5k bracket we go.

findingthisdifficult

A little more progress today see's the loan drop in to the £5k bracket, month after next sees us drop to the £4k bracket....this is starting to get exciting, still a long way to go but having never got the far before I feel this is really good progress.

Peltast

I am currently struggling at the moment well have been for years financially. I am going more and more into debt every month.
I am currently paying off  4 credit cards that are coming to the end of the promotional rate. I am looking at taking out a consolidation loan where I can fix my amount and term time and then save money by not having to pay for 4 cards every month.
Do you think this is a good idea? I have excellent credit rating and one loan I have looked at has a 60% success rate for application. This makes me nervous as I need to do something before the card promotion expires.

Thanks in advance for any advice  

findingthisdifficult

Hi Peltast,
It might be worth you posting in the main forum section, lots of the regulars can give some really great advice.
I would avoid consolidation, trust me the loan I'm coming to the end of has been the result of multiple consolidations.  It may be worth posting an SOA (statement of affairs), we may be able to help identify where you could make some savings.
Another option would be to speak to one of the free debt charities, they may be able to suggest ideas of a way out of your situation.

findingthisdifficult

There has been so much wobbling over the last week, as we see the light at the end of the tunnel flickering in and out of focus.

We've considered a new mattress (a NEED rather than a WANT) we've had ours for 8 years and it was given to us (barely used) by the in-laws so it's definitely had it's day.  A new mattress will come, however it might have to wait until the loan is paid off, that way we can easily afford the one we want by saving up for a couple of months.

The other wobble that's happening is a car, our car is temperamental but definitely not completely ready for a scrap yard yet, again this can wait a little longer.  Not sure what we're going to do with this idea going forward, definitely want to hold off until the loan and card are gone, then just to decide how we want to finance our next car.

findingthisdifficult

What a difference a few weeks can make, we've made it to the end of another month.
Over the next couple of days Mr FTD and I find out whether we are going to be furloughed, we both work for the same company, obviously the drop in income will be difficult so fingers crossed it doesn't happen to both of us (although I fully expect it to)
Never have I been more grateful to have started getting my finances in order, if this happened a few years back we would have been a lot worse off but for now, it's not ideal but I hope we can manage by cutting back a little if we need to.

I'll be back in the next couple of days to update the CC and loan numbers.

LondonLiz

HI FTD, de-lurking to wish you all the best on the furlough situation and to make a suggestion about the mattress problem.  I actually did buy a new one a few months ago to replace an 11 year old mattress,  In the process I did loads of research and found out that one big problem is slatted bed frames.  So if you do have one of those, see if the mattress is sagging though the slats and if so,  put some MDF boards under it, or failing that some heavy duty cardboard boxes flattened out are better than nothing.  A spare duvet on top under the sheet will give some extra ' give'  if you need it  and in lieu of a proper memory foam/latex topper. I also bought my mattress from a company recommendation elsewhere on the forums, and it was a bargain.  Happy to recommend them  when you get to that point, funds permitting and when life returns to 'normal'. 

findingthisdifficult

Sadly we have both been furloughed, that's quite a hit on our finances - will look in to taking a payment holiday on our mortgage,  I'll be back tomorrow to update CC and loan numbers.  The loan should hopefully be sitting just above £5k which is incredible, meaning we drop in to £4k bracket next month, given this started at £23k this is HUGE for us.