Countdown from £28k...

joeyjimbles

Regarding London rental prices - some may have dropped right now, but I think central and adjacent areas have held their prices, and may even increase as they can be marketed to those wishing to avoid public transport. DS1 gave up his north London flat two week ago, snapped up just 2 days after with a rental increase of 15%. DS1 is out of his contract, deposit and bond money returned and even a refund of 3 weeks from the month he'd just paid! 

ryanm8655

Yeah, figure the decrease in rent will be temporary until lockdown ends. In the short term most are working from home so don’t need to live central and can live with parents. Might be a small long term impact if more businesses shift to more home working habitually.

Decided I’ll add the £50 to M&S as DD is only set to £30 at the moment. Then I’ll clear MBNA at end of June and M&S in July. Then I’ll plough everything into Barclaycard and clear Tesco when that’s done. June payment on MBNA will be £895 and then there will be about £700 left to clear M&S at the end of July.

Just sold some of my samples I bought a couple of months ago so that’s a bit of cash recouped (£30). Considering selling samples myself, can make a bit of profit buying bottles and splitting them. Not a great deal of effort and can make a bit of money out of my hobby and gives me something to do. Reckon I can make about £40 profit for about a £60 outlay for the bottle of fragrance plus the atomisers, after postage costs on top. Researching demand and price via eBay completed listings.

ryanm8655

Payday time again...

Paid £1000 on Barclays and £250 on MBNA, with direct debits set to just over £800 across my cards. Total balance is down to £15,358.44.

Well ahead of the interest free expiry dates now. My £500 DD with Barclays will cover me until the final expiry date of 02/21, with a top up payment of £795 on payday in January 2021. In reality it should have gone long before then. I'll clear MBNA next pay day, along with some M&S, then the following month I'll clear the M&S and what remains of Tesco. This means that by July I'll just have the Barclays to tackle in the short term (with a further £8k on longterm interest free, which I can then look to prioritise).

Being beyond halfway will be a nice feeling. On to the next month.

IrishSean

ryanm8655 said:

Payday time again...

Paid £1000 on Barclays and £250 on MBNA, with direct debits set to just over £800 across my cards. Total balance is down to £15,358.44.

Well ahead of the interest free expiry dates now. My £500 DD with Barclays will cover me until the final expiry date of 02/21, with a top up payment of £795 on payday in January 2021. In reality it should have gone long before then. I'll clear MBNA next pay day, along with some M&S, then the following month I'll clear the M&S and what remains of Tesco. This means that by July I'll just have the Barclays to tackle in the short term (with a further £8k on longterm interest free, which I can then look to prioritise).

Being beyond halfway will be a nice feeling. On to the next month.

Incredible work my friend😀

💪💪💪

With this kind of 'financial aggression', imagine what kind of a saver you'll make!😱😂

2022ismyyear

ryanm8655 said:

Payday time again...

Paid £1000 on Barclays and £250 on MBNA, with direct debits set to just over £800 across my cards. Total balance is down to £15,358.44.

Well ahead of the interest free expiry dates now. My £500 DD with Barclays will cover me until the final expiry date of 02/21, with a top up payment of £795 on payday in January 2021. In reality it should have gone long before then. I'll clear MBNA next pay day, along with some M&S, then the following month I'll clear the M&S and what remains of Tesco. This means that by July I'll just have the Barclays to tackle in the short term (with a further £8k on longterm interest free, which I can then look to prioritise).

Being beyond halfway will be a nice feeling. On to the next month.

You are doing so well! Literally smashing this debt! 

In a way it will be a shame when lockdown ends because from a debt point of view it’s been really good for me and I can see also for yourself as there has been no temptations! Going out for drinks and food etc!!

Good luck on the rest of your journey ☺️

findingthisdifficult

2022ismyyear said:

ryanm8655 said:

Payday time again...

Paid £1000 on Barclays and £250 on MBNA, with direct debits set to just over £800 across my cards. Total balance is down to £15,358.44.

Well ahead of the interest free expiry dates now. My £500 DD with Barclays will cover me until the final expiry date of 02/21, with a top up payment of £795 on payday in January 2021. In reality it should have gone long before then. I'll clear MBNA next pay day, along with some M&S, then the following month I'll clear the M&S and what remains of Tesco. This means that by July I'll just have the Barclays to tackle in the short term (with a further £8k on longterm interest free, which I can then look to prioritise).

Being beyond halfway will be a nice feeling. On to the next month.

You are doing so well! Literally smashing this debt! 

In a way it will be a shame when lockdown ends because from a debt point of view it’s been really good for me and I can see also for yourself as there has been no temptations! Going out for drinks and food etc!!

Good luck on the rest of your journey ☺️

I would say exactly the same as @2022ismyyear, you are smashing it! 
I have also benefitted from lockdown in the sense of not spending money that I usually would, haven't needed fuel and only getting groceries once a week..turns out all those little 'top up' shops I did were costing a tidy sum of money which I have now put towards my CC bill.

Keep Going @ryanm8655!

ryanm8655

Thanks for the replies.

Some good news for the finances. Office is going to be closed until September at the earliest and quite possibly until the new year. By the end of September I could be down to about £7k. Probably the first time I’ve been glad to work in the public sector and perks of stability and flexibility have paid off.

Good point re: little shops. Those are my big spend at the moment. I use my BA card for spending and pay in full each month. It is almost entirely made up of Waitrose, Tesco and Morrison’s transactions. Going to try to reduce that this month. Went on a stroll yesterday and resisted the urge to go into Tesco express for something to do. As time goes on I may begin targeting non-spend days, or just only buying what I’ve gone in there for. I’ll go in for a £10 shop and come out with £30 of stuff... It’s not too big an issue in terms of my budget as it’s my only real expense (beyond phone and car insurance) but it’s one area for progress and getting the debt gone quicker. Would be cool to get the clearance up to £2200 a month while there’s not much to spend money on...will see how this month goes though.

Thanks.

Naomim

The little top ups are adding up for me too.  I'm feeding a family of four so invariably forget to get something and then it's popping out to get chocolate or something, or if we've decided to have a last minute bbq and add extra meats & salad.

I think the lockdown has gone either of two ways for people, either pushing them into financial hardships or for us, like you, saving us money on commuting etc and giving us extra to throw at debts.

Naomim

IrishSean

Naomim said:

The little top ups are adding up for me too.  I'm feeding a family of four so invariably forget to get something and then it's popping out to get chocolate or something, or if we've decided to have a last minute bbq and add extra meats & salad.

I think the lockdown has gone either of two ways for people, either pushing them into financial hardships or for us, like you, saving us money on commuting etc and giving us extra to throw at debts.

Naomim

Agreed

Any of us fortunate to have full or close to full pay coming in and saving on fuel etc. It makes a massive difference. 
Plus there's the incentive of knowing it's a time of change as well as economic uncertainty; a good time to put finances in order and debt behind us. 

ryanm8655

Sold some of fragrance samples and made £30 back, got a few more I can get rid of as well. Resisted the urge to splurge on more. Also had another £25 back from car insurance. Happy days. Will leave it in my current account until month end and then put it towards the debt clearance.

So far have cut down the random grocery spends. Spent about £70 on shopping last week, which is probably half of what I had got into the habit of spending. Looking to continue that (albeit it may be a little higher some weeks). I’ve just been thinking twice about chucking random stuff in the trolley. Weather is going to be rubbish over the next week, which should help...

Looking forward to the next pay day when I can make another big dent. Then I’ll revisit the balance between clearing debt and saving the month after that.