Why is spending money so easy......

Snwps

£18,925.64 Balance at 11/04/2022 - 49.52% cleared. Just another £179.01 to get to that 50% mark.

Had nice chilled weekend. Not very spendy. Just family time up allotment in the sun and fresh air. 

Snwps

Ive done it, finally passed the 50% mark. All my DD's have come out for this month and I've paid all the overpayments I can for April. Total debt at 28/04/2022 is £18,534.67. 50.57% paid since 25 May 2019 (2 years 11 months)

DH gets paid from job no 2 next week so by around the 5th May the debt should be around £17,700. 

The focus card at the moment is sitting at £1,175.81 and should be paid off by end of May or 5th June at the latest, fingers crossed. We'll then be down to 5 credit cards and the one debt with HMRC. 

DS2 starts his new job on Saturday, thats both of them in a little part time job to give them some spending money. Once he gets his first pay I can stop the pocket money so that'll save me £40/month.

My Gas/Electric bill has gone down a little bit (just over £80 a month) which I was not expecting. Im on the ball with meter readings and keeping track of our usage lately and as much as we're classed as high users for electricity Ive been overpaying my DD and BG has been in touch after reviewing my account and reduced the DD. I'll keep monitoring this as I dont want to go into next winter with a debt, but suppose that £200 loan will help a little. 

Still waiting for the £150 off our local council. No idea when this will come in.

Both car insurance renewals are due in a few weeks. I've had the renewal invites through. DH quote is £20 cheaper this year and mine is a little higher. So Im going to do some comparisons to see if we can save here. Ive got the money in a pot ready to pay in full. 

Snwps

Also forgot to add that DS1 has started the driving lessons. I paid the first one which was 2 hours for £70. Then mum kindly offered to pay the next 10 lessons so put £350 into his bank account to pay for the lessons. This has at least given me some breathing room to save a little in case more are needed, which I think will be the case.

badmemory

BG put my DD down too.  Frankly I don't believe it & am waiting for a correction.  By my figures they have only worked it out until Sept.  That will mean an even bigger increase then with the new SVR than it would have been & with winter on the way with no accumulation built up.  I have reduced some usage but not enough to account for the reduction & after the last bill (end March) I still owed about £15.

Snwps

DH 2nd salary paid to Focus card today - £797.35. So debt total at today is £17,687.32. We've paid off £19,805.93 (52.83%). Just £194.07 to pay off to reach the £20k paid off mark. (I like these little mile stones). 

Focus card is now sitting at £948.46, which Im hoping to clear within the next month. (another milestone)

Not much going on this month. 1 Birthday and some time off end of May but nothing planned at the moment. 

Snwps

Quick update from me for end of May 2022 figs. Debt at today is £17,405.67. This means we've paid off £20,087.78 (53.58%) since May 2019 - 3 years! 

TBH I wanted to clear a little more than that this month but with us being off work for a couple of weeks meant a slight overspend, but it wasnt OTT. 

My 'net worth' in YNAB is showing -£15,319.27 so thats nice to see. 

All going well it shoud be cleared in 9 months, without any work bonuses end of the year. I feel like its never ending but seem to have a better handle on things this year, making more of a headway. 

Focus Card mentioned in last post was paid in full yesterday. So now moving onto one of the MBNA cards which is currently at £2,215.41. Aim to clear this by end of July. 

Perseverance, perseverance, perseverance!!

Snwps

Forgot to mention, we had the £150 from council went straight off debt. If we find we need to add the credit to gas/electric come winter I'll reduce one of the overpayment amounts and pay BG instead of the debt to counter balance. Also been in touch with BG and upped my DD again. Best be safe than sorry come winter. 

Also renewed both car insurances cheaper than they were last year. Paid off in full from money saved through year. That felt good. 

Snwps

End of the month round up time. I know we have one more day left of June but I've made all the repayments and the figure shouldnt alter so thought I'd post today. Debt at 29/06/2022 is £16,707.45. Thats £20,765.80 paid off in total (55.39%). 

I'm not going to make excuses, this month wasnt the best month and unplanned spends have been high. This is something I really want to focus on in July. I am tracking every spend and logging on YNAB/my spreadsheet so I know where the money is going and its silly little things that all add up. It does not make for good viewing!

Breakdown of debts at today is:
Cap 1 - £1,502.55
MBNA 2 - £1,450.00
Halifax - £2,430.00
MBNA - £2,250.00
MBNA DH - £3,310.00
Barclaycard - £5,380.00
HMRC - £384.90
TOTAL £16,707.45

The Capital One card is my 'spends' card. The others are all Balance Transfer cards. I cant compare to previous breakdowns as Ive moved the debt between cards and combined some onto others. But all are on 0% until at least March 2023 so there shouldnt be a need to do further balance transfers. I can use this to track whats paid off and whats left on each card. 

The Cap 1 card should be cleared end of July. Thats the focus card at the moment. The MBNA 2 should be cleared by end of August. DH's pay from 2nd job gets paid next week so that will put the debt total in the £15k's. Wishing the days away.

Up and coming in July
- DH and I have some time off work. We were looking to go abroad but with the debt being higher than we'd planned at this time, we've decided on a cheap 2 night break in the countryside. 
- Both cars have their Service & MOT's due in July. Both cars are around 12-13 years old so may need some work. I have some money in my pot for this but I fear it may not be enough. We shall see. I do have money saved in other pots so may need to do a shuffle.

Both DS's are now finished in school/college for the summer. Its nice not having to get up so early for the school run and saving on lunch money/packed lunch but with them being home they're using more electric and eating more food while here. Swings & roundabouts. I've also stopped their pocket money now both are earning.

Talking about gas/electric, I always keep track of usage on my spreadsheet and I'm on a fix until end of September but we're looking at ways of saving now so that when we come off the fix its not so much of a hit. I've got the increase from Oct 21, April 22 and Oct 22 to face in one go so Im not looking forward to that.

enthusiasticsaver

Sounds like you  are doing really well in paying off that debt and I think it is sensible to forego an expensive holiday for now until that debt is gone. 

Snwps

Thanks ES for posting and your encouragement. 

One of the cars went into the garage yesterday as it was shuddering when turning the wheel. It was just the tracking rod end which needed replacing but had the MOT done the same time. It passed. Just needed a new bulb on head light so cost a total of £142.20 which was a massive phew! The other car is booked in for Monday for the MOT and I think it just needs a new tyre. We shall see.  The £142.20 was paid straight from the car maintenance pot but Mondays costs will have to come from a 'pot shuffle' once I know how much.

I splashed out on a new air fryer today. We use our current one a lot but its much too small for the 4 adults I feed. Its taking twice as long as Im having to cook half & half, so this new larger fryer should be much more efficient. I hate using our large electric oven as its expensive. I plan on washing that out and giving it a good scrub then closing it and then not have to use it. I've been thinking about buying a toaster as we currently use the grill, again not energy effient just for 2 pieces of toast. But this air fryer also toasts so will see how that goes, I shouldnt need a toaster.