Countdown from £28k...

IrishSean

Yeah, i'm fortunate to be saving 3 times more than I need to service debt (in premium bonds; am hoping I don't get flak from the 'best on market' regular saver devotees, lol!).

No need for me to clear my CC completely when its at 0%. I think now i'm in full DFW mode and in the final mile of the marathon, so to speak, I can live with the £20-40 to shift, stick £49 a month on SO and in effect forget about it. 

Your debt clearance has been amazing; your journey so far is motivation enough to get a tidy deposit put aside, that will actually grow as you add to it (albeit at a paltry rate, given the crappy interest around😂). 

Moving from debt to savings gives me some upswing in mood too, although I am a wee bit jealous at the help to buy and life time isas folks can get these days. Mine was chuck what you could into a lock-away tessa and hope for the best, lol.  (It was so last century😂)

IrishSean

BTW, GL with promotion mate, hope it goes well. My mrs got promotion b4 lockdown hit. She hates it but its more money. 
She's still getting to grips with this 'lockdown pragmatism' 😂 can't change the world from your bedroom (i tell her we're not all John Lennon)

ryanm8655

Thanks again for the reply.
I still have this nagging anxiousness about not ploughing everything into debt, as I've had my total debt figure as my KPI for so long and get a lot of satisfaction from seeing it go down. I guess that's a good thing ha. Might switch it to net assets instead (savings vs debt) or set separate KPIs for each.

Got a relatively quiet day at work today so going to review due dates for 0% offers and see what I can afford to save and when.

Are there any regular savers worth having at the moment? I have an HSBC advance account, whihc used to have a decent one but think they've slashed the rate.

Thanks for the GL, should hear back from the sift next week and congrats to your other half! I'm also not that inspired by the roles (hence am looking to switch career in the future) but it is a lot more money and with the career change looking like it might be on hold for another year it makes sense to earn more money until then.

IrishSean

I'm not getting any BT or MT offers at the minute; once my credit reports catch up with the fact my %% debt utilised has dropped from 93% to the 27% it is now (paydown / credit limit increase to 8.9k).
I felt a bit guilty lying this morning to DW that my balance increase letter was just a circular BT offer. I didn't want her thinking i'd got the credit limit increase because I planned on a spending splurge😱; she's enough on her plate with work. It'll be nicer to tell her in the autumn about savings and the fact we are debt free; more to build on from there. (I'll get told off now for lack of transparency with the OH, which is completely correct but it's a white lie for the right reasons for once, as opposed to the wrong ones e.g. hiding debt).

Sarahwithlove

I'd suggest talking to a mortgage broker but generally credit card debt is viewed more negatively then other kind of debt as it has no end date to it. Ideally you need to clear the debt if possible or have it down as low as possible before doing a mortgage application. In terms of renting a room out you might need to look into it more as there's a limit on how much you can earn before you have to start paying tax. I know you can allow for some household expenses when calculating it. Well done so far though you have made quite a difference on the debt and now it's almost all interest free. 

ryanm8655

Thanks for the replies.

Think I’ll just look to save and clear down the debt until the new year and assess then. I’ll have more of an idea where my life is by then, in terms of job/career and also how much longer I can get away with mostly wfh. 

I’ve just been playing around with my spreadsheet and tidying it up in advance of payday next week. Saw I had my monthly minimums from when I started and thought I’d compare to now. Before £716 and after £298...not that I’ll ever be paying the minimums but an interesting indicator nonetheless.

Current totals:
Barclays £6295 (£987.54 interest bearing - £500 dd due tomorrow and will pay another chunk on payday).
Tesco £719.87 (£103.4 interest bearing, will clear this on payday)
MBNA £995.76 (Expires in August - Might clear this next month just because I can)
M&S £894.01 (expires end of November)
Virgin £4466.64 (expires nov 2021)
Natwest £3970.29 (expires sep 2021)
Total: £17,341.84

A number of the Barclays offers expire gradually from July through to November. With a final £2.3k expiring in feb. But the £500 dd covers clearing those on time, with an additional payment of £1k this month. So my thinking then is to clear MBNA in June payday, then M&S in July, with a smaller amount going into savings.

Thanks,
Ryan

Naomim

Hi Ryan,

I've subscribed to your diary, really impressed with the amounts you are managing to clear and your determination.

Keep it up! 👍👍

Naomim

ryanm8655

Thank you 😊 

Feel like I’m on the home straight now but let’s see how lockdown goes.

enthusiasticsaver

You are doing really well in repaying that debt.  Once it is gone you will easily be able to save up a decent deposit.  I would get the debt as low as possible before applying for any mortgage and deposit as high as possible and urge you not to rush into buying at the moment. Will you be able to clear that £17,341 before interest kicks in for any of the cards? 

Sarahwithlove

Sounds like you have a good plan in place. As long as you can work from home with cheaper expenses the better. I think at the end of this pandemic first time buyers will be in a good position when it comes to house prices. It seems they are dropping very quickly so be good if you can get yourself into a good position financially for then.