“Debt is normal. Be weird.”

browneyed_girl

Having lurked for a long time (and posting occasionally), I’ve finally plucked up the courage to start this diary. No idea if anyone will actually read it, but I hope that the process of writing it will at least provide some much needed therapy. That is assuming this thread actually works as intended (my technological prowess leaves a lot to be desired).

Before diving straight into the financials, a bit of background...

The household consists of myself (early 30s), DH (6 months younger - doesn’t let me forget it), DDs 1-3 and DS (age range 9 years to 15 months). I work full-time with a pretty good salary, whilst DH has just started working part-time (approximately 18 hours/week), having previously been a stay-at-home dad since DD1 was born.

Life is fairly hectic, with the usual everyday dramas that come with raising four children. As I write this, DD3 is refusing to sleep, but I’m feeling particularly stubborn tonight and fairly certain I can win this one as long as I concentrate all my energies on typing...

I feel that my goals in life pretty much mirror those of all others that stumble upon this forum - be debt-free, buy a house, be healthy, keep the kids alive into adulthood (hopefully with some manners instilled) and attempt to lead a simple, sustainable life that is rich in memories. Not too much to ask, right?!

And so with this post, the journey officially begins...

:hello: <— Me, waving to all you lovely readers! (I’m less round and yellow in real-life, but just barely).

adindas

Wish you luck with your journey. You will be the end of tunnel soon

browneyed_girl wrote: »

Having lurked for a long time (and posting occasionally), I’ve finally plucked up the courage to start this diary. No idea if anyone will actually read it, but I hope that the process of writing it will at least provide some much needed therapy. That is assuming this thread actually works as intended (my technological prowess leaves a lot to be desired).

Before diving straight into the financials, a bit of background...

The household consists of myself (early 30s), DH (6 months younger - doesn’t let me forget it), DDs 1-3 and DS (age range 9 years to 15 months). I work full-time with a pretty good salary, whilst DH has just started working part-time (approximately 18 hours/week), having previously been a stay-at-home dad since DD1 was born.

Life is fairly hectic, with the usual everyday dramas that come with raising four children. As I write this, DD3 is refusing to sleep, but I’m feeling particularly stubborn tonight and fairly certain I can win this one as long as I concentrate all my energies on typing...

I feel that my goals in life pretty much mirror those of all others that stumble upon this forum - be debt-free, buy a house, be healthy, keep the kids alive into adulthood (hopefully with some manners instilled) and attempt to lead a simple, sustainable life that is rich in memories. Not too much to ask, right?!

And so with this post, the journey officially begins...

:hello: <— Me, waving to all you lovely readers! (I’m less round and yellow in real-life, but just barely).

DebtFreeMonkey

Good luck with everything. With time and persistence/discipline, you'll get there as will we all

jen49

Alicia1804 wrote: »

Good luck with everything. With time and persistence/discipline, you'll get there as will we all

I second that

enthusiasticsaver

Love the goals and good luck with the journey. Not easy with 4 children but you sound focused.

browneyed_girl

adindas wrote: »

Wish you luck with your journey. You will be the end of tunnel soon

Thank you! It seems a long way off but I have a plan (and many, many spreadsheets. God, I love a spreadsheet).

Thought I’d best come clean with the level of debt and get it over with, just like ripping off a plaster. Essentially, it all started with poor money management as a student and spiralled from there.

Here goes (amounts listed are current outstanding balances)...

Natwest loan - 14,087.04
Sainsbury’s loan - 13,618.59
Very - 778.00
Natwest CC - 460.00
Amazon CC - 89.52

Student loan - 24,670.00

Total debt = £53,703.15

I’ve included the student loan debt because it takes £200+ monthly and I’d love to clear it to get this as disposable income. The Natwest loan was to replace both household cars. We were sick of buying cheap cars that always ended up with multiple problems, so bought two newer (but still secondhand) vehicles. Sainsbury’s loan was a consolidation loan (frowned upon, I know) but it really helped me out with managing unaffordable monthly payments and ridiculous interest on multiple credit cards.

Monthly loan payments come to £661.55, which is totally manageable. After debt payments, bills and budgets for food and fuel, we have around £1000 leftover each month. I always intended to put this towards paying off debts quicker, yet somehow this money disappears into the ether. I’m hoping keeping this diary will help me identify where it’s ending up (feel free to point out where I might be going wrong).

Anyway, I feel that’s enough soul-bearing for my first day. Wishing everybody a good night and happy debt-busting!

enthusiasticsaver

It sounds as if you can easily sort this once you have located where all your money is going if you have a reasonable level of disposable income.

As you say consolidation loans usually are frowned on because they trick people into thinking their debt problems are sorted and they do not correct their bad spending habits. I am looking at your credit cards balances and they are relatively low now but it may be tempting to think you can borrow on this as they have been much higher in the past presumably. However all that means is that you have your loan payments and also now credit card payments when presumably you repaid the credit cards with the Sainsburys loan? Usually Very and Amazon are also expensive credit cards. I would be tempted to repay them in full asap then close them down to stop further temptation.

The second thing I would say is that a spending diary is a great start on seeing where you are overspending and an emergency savings account is another thing you should have to stop you resorting to credit in an emergency.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Welcome... you sound very focussed

I would target the 3 smaller debts first, I'd imagine Very and Amazon have the highest interest rates.
Personally, I would leave the student loan until last as it's the least pressing and if you were ever to lose your job, you wouldn't have to repay it until you got another one, whereas the other debts would be a constant.

I'm in a similar position, where on paper, we should have a big surplus, but it seems to vanish. I found a combination of keeping a spending diary and YNAB very informative (and a bit depressing) in discovering where it vanished to. I have 5 children... most of it goes in their direction :rotfl:

Good luck on your journey

browneyed_girl

Morning :wave:

Thanks for the advice so far. I just wanted to clarify a few points about the CCs...

The Amazon CC I have because I got a free £20 Amazon gift card for applying. I use it only for online purchases and clear the balance every month without fail. The reason I use it is because I accumulate points that are then converted into gift cards and are a little bonus come Xmas time. Maybe I shouldn’t be including it amongst my other debts, but it is still credit so the jury is out :think:

The Natwest CC is my “in case of emergency” card which I had to use to pay for an exam but plan to pay off over the next 2 months.

As for Very, we have been rather unfortunate with broken appliances this year and didn’t have the funds at the time to replace them so got them on BNPL. As long as the balance is cleared by March (again, very doable) then there won’t be any interest charges.

I’m definitely keeping the student loan until last, so with other things under control I’d like to start overpaying on the loans to clear them faster. Currently, the Sainsbury’s loan would be paid off October 2022 and the Natwest loan in September 2023. Is it too much to hope that I could have them both cleared by the end of 2021?!

I’m hoping to start earning some extra income (suggestions welcome) to make this happen. I’ve already started some extra work on a self-employed basis, but am putting half of any earnings from this straight into my lifetime ISA (for first home) and the other half into an instant access savings account to earn some interest before paying the tax bill at the end of the year.

I feel as though all this debt is manageable and under control, but I still don’t like it! The sooner it’s gone, the better! :j

Oh, and I am working on the emergency fund (see signature). I set myself the challenge of funding it entirely by survey payments, cashback and rewards from my current account. Current total is after 10 months, which I’m quite proud of :A

Hope I haven’t bored you all too much! Following posts will be more about the daily efforts to combat these debts, and will hopefully be shorter (no guarantee though - I was always told I could talk the hind leg off a donkey! :rotfl:).

jwil

Good luck

browneyed_girl

Afternoon readers

Having written a bit about the family and the financials, I thought I’d just dive in with how we’ve been keeping ourselves busy.

DH is currently off on the school/pre-school run, giving me quality time with DS before I’m back to work tomorrow. I appreciate that time so much, particularly when he’s playing independently and letting mummy sit back with a cup of tea

Literally as I finished typing that last sentence, I catch DS out the corner of my eye rummaging through the contents of his nappy :doh: He then screamed at me when I tried to take his nappy off to clean him, then screamed again as he refused to let me put a clean one on. I had to put the nappy on him as he was sat playing with his cars - the joys of parenthood! :rotfl:

Back to today, DH and I made a start on clearing out the garage ready for filling with scavenged wood to last the winter (we have a lovely open fire in the living room that is much cheaper than running the electric radiators, particularly when all the wood is sourced free!). Rather embarrassingly, we moved into our current house 2 years ago, and yet still have unpacked boxes lurking at the back of the garage. No idea what’s in them, but it’s probably all the things that we seem to just move from house to house without ever taking them out the box. The kind of things you couldn’t possibly throw away, but are just too hideous to actually display in the house.

I actually cannot stand clutter. I’m not at all materialistic and would happily live a very minimalist existence. However, with 4 children (where do all those toys come from?!) and a husband who loves gadgets, this seems an almost impossible goal. With the start of this diary, I’ve decided to at least find a way to reach a happy medium. Garage is first on the list whilst the weather’s nice, then I’ll be going room by room around the house. I also really dislike the idea of adding to landfill, so will do whatever I can to sell (money towards debt - yay!), re-home or donate unwanted items. This does make the whole ordeal a lot longer - DH would much rather put it all in bin bags and forget about it. He keeps talking about doing this when I’m not around to object, and I have to admit that at times it is a very tempting idea...

My other goal once the garage is cleared is to source a chest freezer to keep out there (such utterly fascinating dreams I have, I know). I’m hoping I can then actually take batch cooking to the next level. Currently, I’m limited in what I can do by the amount of space available in the fridge/freezer. If we can find one secondhand, I’m sure the money-saving from the batch cooking will easily justify the cost.

Well, I’m sure that was all incredibly exciting to read! I can already feel this diary helping me to organise my life, not just my money! Is it possibly going one step too far to use it to make me accountable for my diet and the 2 stone weight loss that I’m still waiting to happen?! Maybe I’ll have a think about it as I head off to get a snack... :rotfl: