How do you cope with boredom of paying down long-standing debt?

Poppy1984

savingholmes wrote: »

I think pay the least interest possible.Check the loan terms for the tesco loan see if you can do overpayments. Go for it- Just don't extend the time it takes to pay off the debt.

What can you use the help to save for?

You can over pay the Tesco loan, I'd be looking to reduce the term by a year to 4 years rather than 5 so definitely not going to extend the time. You can use the help to save money for whatever you want.

Poppy1984

Unicorn_cottage wrote: »

Is your son with you full time? How old is he? Just thinking of ways you can make a bit of extra cash

Yes I have him full time, he's a teenager

Poppy1984

For anyone who is interested this is the help to save scheme I'm referring to

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-save/

Poppy1984

I've applied for the Tesco loan praying I get accepted. I've applied for it over 4 years it's a higher monthly payment from £415 to £450 but will reduce the term to 4 years from 5 and hopefully I'll be able to over pay and reduce it even more I'm aiming to pay it off in 3 years

Poppy1984

So what I'm thinking about the help to save is that after 2 years when it pays the bonus of £600 into my bank account that's effectively £600 of free money I can overpay off my loan. I will leave the £1,200 in the help to save and continue to deposit £50 a month for the next 2 years. Hopefully I will have paid my loan off before the 4 years is up and will have a lovely lump sum of £3,000 to start me off on my debt free journey

Poppy1984

savingholmes wrote: »

I would look at clearing your debt first before saving. 8% is quite high - have you joined the mse credit club? What's the likelihood of being accepted for a lower interest rate loan? Every little helps.

Thank you savingHolmes!!!!!
I applied to the Tesco loan but they declined me they said they could give me that amount over 6 or 7 years but not 4 or 5. I didn't want to extend the term of my loan so i left it. But I was so cross and fired up I decided to phone Halifax to see if they could offer me a better rate over 48 months rather than 60 what it currently is.
They only blooming did!!!!!! :D
They accepted me for a 3.9% loan over 48 months. My contractual monthly payment has increased by £41 but I'm fine with that I was going to be over paying anyway.
So I have just knocked 1 whole year off my debt free date!!!!! :j:D I'm so happy!!!! My original dfd was going to be aug 2024 now it's aug 2023 and hopefully I'll be able to knock another year off that by overpaying.
I'm so pleased. Thank you to everyone who has read and replied to me and thank you saving Holmes I would have waiting another year or so before I tried to refinance my loan so I'm thrilled thank you.

savingholmes

Hi Poppy - I am so glad it worked. Great news that you can halve your interest rate - and clear your debt a year early. Make sure you don't get tempted to go back into more CC debt. Try and get a £1K emergency fund together if you don't already have one.

The help to save account sounds great.

Poppy1984

savingholmes wrote: »

Hi Poppy - I am so glad it worked. Great news that you can halve your interest rate - and clear your debt a year early. Make sure you don't get tempted to go back into more CC debt. Try and get a £1K emergency fund together if you don't already have one.

The help to save account sounds great.

Thank you. I will NEVER get tempted by credit cards don't you worry! I have my loan and mortgage and nothing else and I will not be taking anything else I out. I just want to get this horrible loan paid off as fast as I possibly can.

I've been playing with over payment calculators and day dreaming about if I could over pay by £430 every month I could have it paid off in a year!!! I would LOVE that but obviously dreaming is I definitely don't have 430 a month I can over pay with.

Daydreaming about how I can raise an extra £300 a month :rotfl:

Poppy1984

So the loans going ahead just waiting for them to switch on my online banking then I can think about starting to overpay. I want my EF up to £300 first though.
I really need to find some ways of bringing in extra cash. I've cut my outgoings as much as possible and I track all spending so now I need to bring in extra cash. I keep reading about match betting but read mixed reviews and it all seems so complicated, I am also of the if something. Sound too good to be true it probably is so I'm not sure. There's no option to do overtime where I work so my only options are second job or new job

Sassers

I've been going 10 years now...I've tried so many challenges. Payment a day, surveys, second job, splitting larger payments into chucks, eating for a £1 a day, colouring charts, etc. Now on the D@ve R@msey method and snowballing like hell to get me to the end ��Good luck and don't stop, whether it's a shovel or a teaspoon. Keep bailing xxx