Rennovations and the price to pay.. 30 September 2019 at 12:53PM in Debt free diaries 112 replies 7.9K views

Pengwern

Hi, I am back and after some planned for spending on the renovations we have also had some unexpected costs. lets just say that buying the worst house in the village comes at a cost. A few major structural issues discovered along the way has blow our budget out of the water and I am now sat here with £27k debt. I have done it before and paid of a debt this big, I was just hoping never to have to do it again.


All are on 0% deals so I just need to buckle down and tighten the finances to make sure it gets paid off. here is the shocking list, in the order the deals expire. So the age old question is which to concentrate on first. I will be spending some time trying to figure that out. All have payments set above the minimum for now, but I may need to change that soon.


cc3 £5100
cc4 £2600
cc1 £2700
cc2 £8200
cc5 £9000


I will be back to let you know the plan I will take and to make sure I keep myself on track. It is going to be a bumpy few months and Christmas is nearly here.

remote_control

Did I write this post? We are in the exact same situation. I would suggest joining the 1% challenge, pick your smallest debt and try and find 100 ways to make 1%. I have a little chart with 100 squares and I colour one in everytime I hit 1%. I also pay the 1% immediately to the card.

I have set the DDs as fixed amounts for the other cards so that the DDs aren't just the minimum payment.

Once I've paid off card 1 I will pick the next smallest balance to 1%.

Good luck!

beanielou

Good luck

Pengwern

Thank you to those that have take the time to read and respond, remote_control and Beanielou. I have just looked into the 1% challenge and think it is a good idea. Still not decided which to tackle first they expire in this order


Dec 2020
Feb 2021
Mar 2021
June 2021
Nov 2021


I am currently paying £100/month on 4 and £150/month on 1 of them. that is a shocking figure but thankfully at the moment we can cover that if we do not have extra spending or a big bill to pay.


I have a few things for sale and some concrete slabs are being collected today for £15. Frustratingly that is not even 1% of my lowest CC. This money currently goes on top of the microwave to fund corner shop purchases such as milk etc. I think I need to find 2 pots, one for the milk and the other for the 1% challenge. I am not doing too badly at the moment with sales, but then most of the items have either now sold or no one wanted them, so they were given away for free. It is helping us, as everything collected is 1 less skip we need to hire and at £200 each I can do without that. We are trying to resist hiring another skip and making do with tip runs in our cars. However its now wet and that just made last weekends runs horrible. We will see how we get on but I have my fingers crossed we can get rid of the rubbish without spending any more money.


My next task is to renegotiate my mobile contract. I am on a SIM only deal so need to look to get the best deal around.


Electrician is here today doing 2nd fix in the kitchen, I will be so pleased to see the back of all this work and have my house back. hopefully only 4 more weeks if it all goes to plan.

remote_control

I tackle the smallest first and don't worry about the end date. That way when you pay that one off the others have reduced by a few months. I guess we've never had a problem getting credit so have always been able to get a 0% fee 0% balance transfer card when we need to.

Last time my 1% was £39, this time it is £14! Much preferring the £14.

clearmydebts

Good luck! A lot of my debts are renovation related to as well, and my house isn't even finished! Good luck on your journey

Pengwern

Well small success today as person collecting the slabs also brought some wood for £10 so that’s £25 to add to the top of the microwave!! Need to sort out a pot for milk and one for 1% payments.

Just seen the Argos toy sale but can’t see anything suitable for my nieces for xmas. I have previously stopped buying for their parents and each yr I try to reduce my present list. My family are great but the in laws just don’t understand so they get thoughtful small gifts and they can think what they like but that’s it. This year I’m doing plastic free gifts, I’m smiling as I write that as I can see their confused faces as they open them! I’ve already got brown paper and just brought some plastic free tape so all my packing can be recycled

Pengwern

My daily nip to the post office to buy a chocolate bar is to be stopped. not only for the reduction of 55p/day spend but also because at some point the chocolate triggers my migraines and I realise why I need to stop eating it. so here goes day 1 and a decaf coffee with no chocolate.


Electrician is here fitting more lights but we still have no boiler or power to the new extension. it is getting colder now and I am starting to worry the boiler will never arrive. I will be glad when the expenditure has also stopped and we can enjoy it while trying to figure out how to maximise payments to the cc.


Todays task to generate some more income is to put the spare car seat for sale, that is if I can find the instruction book.

remote_control

Are you going to have more expenditure for the renovations? I found I couldn't pay down the cards until all that had stopped.

Is the instruction book in the car seat itself? Sometimes they are. I have something big that I've been meaning to list for about a month, wish I'd just crack on and do it!! I'm up to 5% in the 1% challenge. It's really fun, I'm enjoying it.

Pengwern

Quick update to say I earned £1 yesterday from the sale of an old sink. it was a lovely 1980's brown but thankfully it is destined for a school outside mud kitchen rather than the landfill. it also saved me time and effort getting rid of it. So I am therefore quite grateful for the £1. It will go on the microwave.


Just a load of old pallets to get rid of, and some more small bags of tiles. then a load of rubble, trying to take a bit at a time, but I think we may resort to a small skip. I am hoping not.

Pengwern

Todays update is not a great one. Went to get a slow puncture (as I thought) fixed and it turns out it was the vales on 2 wheels. because I have sensors on the tyre pressure that obviously makes it more complex and costly. then to top it all off my wheel locking nut broke, so they need to take it to a person who only takes cash to remove the nuts and then I need to buy a new set. Arghhhhh best part of £300. this car which I only brought last year is getting expensive. I also need to renew my car insurance which is another saga. Last year I went to get insurance for the first time in 3 yrs. We went down to a 1 car family so I was only a named driver. turns out my 10yr plus of no claims was wiped clean........ cue lots of frantic searching trying to find insurance that did not cost the earth and a company that would take my full history into account. Anyway 1 yr on and with 1 yr no claims my insurance quotes are hundreds of pounds cheaper this time thankfully. Is it me or does the insurance system never work in your favour.