81 weeks to debt freedom

Caspeia

Pay day!

I've transferred money to our starling joint account and I've set up some 'spaces' so we can start saving for some more irregular expenses. I've got Christmas, haircuts, birthdays, cloths and household. All of these now have £20 in them. I've also set up one for the cats to hold their food/vaccinations money separate. We also need to start driving lessons up for my husband again so I've set £210 aside which is 7.5 hours worth of lessons. His theory test certificate runs out in 4 months so we need to get him passed before that!

I've paid £870 overpayment towards the loan which takes off 6 months and saves £460 in interest! We took out the loan 9 months ago (60 month loan) and when the regular payment for July comes out we'll have paid 19 months of payments.

We'll have paid £1285.66 off the debt this month when all the DDs come off - there will be interest added to the loan which normally is on the 1st and between £80 to £90. I'll update the figure next week but this means our debt total is at roughly £13700 now. Next month I hope we can get into the £12k mark. This will be the highest amount this year we can overpay but I'm glad I have done it as it will make such a different to what we end up paying.

Caspeia

I've also ordered the cats food. £5 cheque from Scottish power had cleared and we had the £5 voucher from the company which meant we only spent £22 from our wages on food for them. This should last them all of July

I've also put £100 into our emergency savings account so we are £200 in there

natsplatnat

WOW! That is a great saving on the loan interest!! Congratulations x

Caspeia

July already, this year is going so fast!
Debt total is at £13706.48.

I'm only working 11 days this month so my goal is to bring my food every single day and zero spends on the vending machines.

I'm going to do my tax credits renewal after work today. Two days left until we go on holiday, this will be where we end up spending too much!

Household and clothes budgets gone (plus a little bit from food money). Bought armbands, sunglasses and a new cot mattress. I went to change my sons bedsheets and discovered mould on the bottom. He had a bottle of juice in his bed last week so I assume thats what caused it. This needed replaced asap so that has been bought on amazon for £22

GTBT123

Caspeia wrote: »

On my search for flour in the cupboard I discovered I have two open bags of oats and one completely unopened bag! I really need to use up the food we actually have, most of the stuff in the cupboard has been in there for a long time. Same with the freezer, I tend to buy food then realise I won't eat it in time so it gets chucked in the freezer..

I could have written this myself! I am exactly the same. I stock up the fridge then realise I've got far too much, so end up putting things in the freezer and then I forget what is actually in there. My cupboards are also full but I still overspend on groceries. So I'm also now trying to use up what we have instead of just buying new all the time.

Good luck on your debt free journey, you seem to be very motivated

Caspeia

I've had a very spendy month. We spent way too much on holiday which meant we didn't have much left for anything else so we've used our emergency savings to survive. I had to postpone the cats vaccinations due to finances as well. Next month we need to be a lot better.

Some good news this month - we got a 12% pay rise at work (from next months pay) which brings my yearly pay to £20k. In January my yearly pay was £16.3k, got a new job role in Feb for £17 850. Although I put the new figures through the childcare calculator on the governments website and we'll be better off on the tax free childcare system instead of tax credits so I'll need to set this up.

I also have been studying a degree part-time and I've passed my second year (will take me 6 years part time)

Caspeia

Haven't updated in a while. Debt total is at £12700. We also have £500 in our emergency savings and another £350 in our ISAs.
Bit of an expensive couple of months, loads to pay out and couldn't overpay. Our bed broke so got a new one - decided to get a decent one as our cheap beds have no lasted. Two new tyres and new break/pads disks cost a huge £550! I'm starting to think if my choice of car was a good one, its a limited edition sports model and so expensive for parts! Luckily none of this has been paid by credit, all cash. it feels great!
Another 2% payrise at work for me and my husband has got a permanent contract now. Luckily just as his work is going quiet so hes guaranteed hours over the quiet period.
I've finally set a budget, just need to do some last minute bits. Need to work out how much to put aside for 'extra' stuff ie. swimming lessons, haircuts etc.
Set ourselves a food/fuel budget of £14 a day, £420 a month for 30 days months seems reasonable.
I've also started putting more money towards my pension. I've sacrificed 8% of my income which is an extra £51 compared to normal, after NI savings etc its an extra £70 into my pension and my payslip is only £14 less! Around £222 is going into my pension each month now.
We've also now both got LISAs open, we won't be putting too much in these - in my budget just a small 3% of our income each month which is roughly £90 each, just to slowly build up some house savings as that is the next plan.
Aslong as nothing else expensive comes up then we should be able to pay about £900 a month off our debts, on track for paying it off by the end of next year! I can't wait until we can put that £900 straight into savings for a deposit, our financial future is starting to look brighter!

Caspeia

Forgot to add, we moved to taxfree childcare as no longer able to get tax credits. They said we owed them over £2000, I've argued we don't and we're still waiting on the decision. They moved it down to £1500 and then £1200. They were meant to get back to us 6 weeks ago but haven't! I want proof that we owe them that before I pay, as I've always updated them when theres been a change!

Caspeia

So we've set up a payment plan for tax credits overpayment, final figure is £1260.74. We're going to pay this off over 12 months at around £105 a month.

When we got this letter through my first idea was to do a money transfer and pay it off straight away so HMRC wouldn't be on my back. I did the money transfer for £1300 and then decided to make a payment plan. I then managed to blow £500 of the money transfer on something - not sure exactly what. We ate quite a few takeaways those days. We also spent over £300 on online games, very stupid! I had a bad few days mentally. I was thinking back to something in my early teens which now I realise was abuse by my then boyfriend - it now has made me realise that all my mental health issues started after then. I realised how stupid I was being so I put the rest of the money onto the loan and saved some interest there.

I've now got most of the car loan moved onto 0% credit cards, if I let the loan run its course (11 months left) I will be charged around £100 in interest.

This month I paid off the sofa in full.

Debts:

MBNA 1 £3093
MBNA 2 £4617
Tesco £1736.13
Loan £1986.45
Lloyds £1174.90
Tax credits £1260.74

Total £13868.82

Almost finished buying Christmas presents for family. I always pay for my dad and brothers to go to the cinema together, this year they are going to see the new Star Wars on launch day. I had £9 in Tesco clubcard vouchers so I've tripled them for Cineworld vouchers and I just had to pay £2.50 to cover the difference. My mums gift cost £8 (personalised item for her running) and just need to get my sisters present which will be £14. I will buy them all some chocolate as well, not spending more than £2 each for that.
Kids are almost done, just a few bits to get for their stocking. Me and husband don't get each other anything so that's fine.

Caspeia

£79.95 spent on two pairs of glasses. My prescription has changed and I seen a pair in the shop for £242 (for the extras like anti glare added on). I really liked them but decided to go onto glasses direct. My current pair are from there and are good. They still are in great condition, just shame I can't see properly!

I got one pair of normal glass with the extras added and another pair with the sunglasses lenses and anti glare etc aswell. It came to £106 as one pair were free, decided to type my husbands name into the 'friend referral bit' and it worked (hes never even used the site!) and I got £30 off the order! So some random with the same name as my husband will be getting a £15 Amazon voucher ��

I'm trying not to waste anything at the house. We had some fresh mint we got in our guosto box. I don't like eating mint so didnt use it in recipe. Ive hung it upside down to dry out. My plan is to blitz it up when dried and mix into espom salts. I've also read that its possible to make a orange salt out of peels so might save up some peels and make them into salt so I can also mix them with epsom salts. Mint and orange bath times!