First Diary

ryanm8655

Good luck! Will be following with interest.

How long is left on the loans?

Is Aldi/Lidl meat really worse? I’ve found it to be decent, likewise with the veg. Unless you’re shopping in Waitrose and buying too quality cuts? Even then you’re probably being ripped off.

I did genuinely find Asda meat and veg terrible, would often go off before the best before. Lidl and Aldi are decent though.
I suspect it’s just being stubborn/placebo.

mnkone

No, not double counted, the bills are as I mentioned above and the £150 holiday is to pay until the end of April, its just not a loan or credit card, so I kept it split out.


Lidl we don't have one nearby, the closest is about 15 miles away so not sure about theirs, but with Aldi, I don't mind things like the sausages and bacon, but when we have bought the mince meat mainly, its been more fatty, so if I make burgers as an example, its been pretty bad. That just put my wife off the meat mainly. The veg we did try for a while, but it only lasted a couple of days, so Morrison's and Asda worked better for us. We do a weekly shop and have been very stringent on meal planning, we are both trying to eat decent meals every night, so getting a weeks worth of meat and veg at a time and not top up shopping helps.


Oh and sorry forgot to say, all loans except the large one end August and September 2020, the large one still has 5 years and 1 month on, it was a 7 year one.

Gettingtherequickly

Hi

I don't usually comment on this forum, but do read regularly to keep me in check.

Having read your breakdown, the single expense which sticks out like a sore thumb is the large loan. I respect your right to privacy but having a loan of that size implies a major expense. Was this essential, eg property related or you clearing other debts? If the former, is this not something your wife should be contributing to, or if the latter, and it appears as if you have the correct mindset on clearing debt, have all of those little rectangular temptations (credit cards!) been scrapped?

Like other posters, I fully understand why you want to deal with your debts yourself, but the domestic costs feel a bit disproportionate. With the £150 extra you will have in May, will you be allowed to overpay the large loan, then once the others have finished use that money to reduce the large loan balance?

mnkone

Hi,


The large was to pay off several debts, it was all before meeting my wife, I was paying around £700 a month for several loans, now that its all on 1, its lower interest than all of them and I will be paying around about the same amount of time, saving about £3000 in interest if it just runs to the end with no overpayments.
Some of it was furnishing a previous property with an ex and just living outside of our means at that time, stupidly I paid for her car, which was £8000 itself, which was all in her name (the car in hers and the loan in mine so she could have it outright) and she was paying for a few months before things didn't work out. I would say I tried to get her to pay, but she lives in Australia, so little difficult. I couldn't get all the debt I have onto one loan as I wasn't approved.


I am hoping by May I will have made enough overpayments on the smaller loans to have them paid off by then, or at least some of them. So it that is the case, the £150 plus any extra (ideally another £300+), I should then start to pay down that loan. Loans 2 and 3 are the main ones at the moment for me, as they are highest interest.

mnkone

Well the first weekend is over, so 5 days in and I will be using Mondays as my tracking day going forward.


The weekend ended up costing less than £10, other than the weekly shop, which was also cheaper than usual due to some cheaper dinners this week.


I just need to stick to packing lunches and not spending any of my money on food. I worked out I was spending around £180 on lunches as well as taking crisps and a sandwich to work. So that's now changing to 1 can of pop a day, which we buy in advance, rather than pay for individual cans and also get the supermarket own cans as I really cant taste a difference. Other than that its just water at work. With the change I am expecting some weight loss at the same time as saving some money/having money to overpay on loans etc, although the weight loss isn't really something that has or will ever bother me, personally, I have always been confident enough to not care what people think of me (I realise for a lot of people that's easier said than done).


The next step later in the week is list 8 pairs of trainers (unworn) online and see what I can get for them, that should be a little extra money to put aside.

mnkone

Really good start to this week! Since starting this diary I have been a lot more focused not just with money, but all aspects of my life. Its amazing how venting like this and getting advice makes a difference.


So Monday I got into work and have a couple of new long term projects, which are very much in the direction I want to learn and progress in more. Then yesterday my mother in law gave my wife and I an early Christmas present, which was an overnight stay in Amsterdam just before Christmas, Flights and accommodation all paid for, plus some euros spending money.


Now the biggest thing, the complaint I mentioned which may help pay some of the debt off. The ombudsman have come back to me, within 2 weeks of raising the complaint with them, to say they are upholding my complaint, that there was an abundance of evidence I was in financial difficulty, so with interest that gets added, just over £3,500, that will pay off loans 2, 3 and 4 and still may leave a small amount for the credit card (which is 0% so is less serious to pay quickly). Of course this is all based on if the company pay out or dispute, so I am bracing for a dispute that will still then take months. But its a step the right direction!
I may even start the year better than the last 10 years financially by a long way!


The little things to top it all off, since my wife started WW again last week, I have lost 4lbs, plus sold 2 of the 8 trainers, for £15 each, bargain for people buying as they are still £70+ online everywhere.

mnkone

So 15 days since my last post and considerable movement on my accounts (to me), my affordability complaint hadn't been escalated any further, so I emailed the MD of the company it was with, and within a week I had the money refunded in my account, albeit less than I originally expected, it was around £2,100.


That money paid off loan 3, just over half of loan 4 and £150 on my credit card. So the below are the new balances.


Debt
Monthly
Overdraft – £3,000, monthly £50 (interest only)
Loan1 – £15,765, monthly £331
Loan2 – £1,210, monthly £167
Loan3 – £0
Loan4 – £600, monthly £100
Credit Card - £350, monthly £50
Total Debt – £20,925, monthly £698


I realise it looks like I have only paid £1,765, but that's only due to the interest. Now that 1 loan is fully paid I can focus on paying more where I can, although my pension kicks in now that I have been at my job over 3 months.


Current bank balance is still at £140, which is after taking all food and such into account, so I am trying to stick to only using £10 a week, leaving £100 on payday to pay down loan 4 an extra £100 (or whatever is left at that point).


Coming up to Christmas, I have got some money aside for gifts, so that shouldn't impact my money really and I have been asked if I want money for Christmas rather than presents, as everyone I know, knows I am going away next year, so could do with the spending money. That helps a lot!


If things continue, end of April, loan 4 will be gone, as well as the credit card (which is still 0% for another 20 months), so the card will more than likely be kept for emergencies until I have a savings pot built up.


(on a slight side note, as I got the refund on the affordability complaint, I have put 2 more forward, which could be a potential £800 - £900, if successful).

mnkone

So its been a good 5 or 6 weeks since I posted, but been keeping my head down and working on what I can pay off what I can. I have put the breakdown of what I have left below;


Debt
Monthly
Overdraft – £3,000, monthly £50 (interest only)
Loan1 – £15,633, monthly £331
Loan2 – £1,050, monthly £167
Loan3 – £600, monthly £50 (was loan 4 but as that was paid I am renaming)
Credit Card - £300, monthly £50
Total Debt – £20,583, monthly £648


Its only a small movement and with Christmas its smaller than I hoped. But its all including presents bought and I still have a little money left until payday. I am off over Christmas and am planning on staying in relaxing most of it, so not really any expenses.


I have re-evaluated my budget spreadsheet and moved some things around, ensuring I pay the higher interest things quicker. Which has meant without stretching myself too much, I will have loan 2, loan 3 and the credit card paid by end of Junes payday.
Once those are paid, I will be targeting the overdraft, and as I will have £670 left after all outgoings including the loan and overdraft interest, I will look at putting £250 on paying that down to start with and putting £150 into a savings pot.


Thanks to being able to put things down in writing I have been able to focus with my finances a lot more and that's meant this is the first Christmas I am not dreading money since I was 21!
With me sorting my finances out it has also made me change a lot of other things around my life, so to list some of the bigger things that have helped, I went through everything I own and cleared out anything I haven't used for over 6 months to start with, clothes, consoles, random things I have accumulated over the years, this has meant selling some and donating the rest. Whilst I'm not a minimalist, I would say I am adopting some of that lifestyles tips. only owning what I do now has meant less stress and a lower want for more. I cant really explain it, but knowing I am happy and stress free means I make less stupid decisions. As its Christmas, when family have asked what I wanted, as there isn't anything I need, I have just said dollars for holiday next year and if they aren't comfortable with that, I have a gift card for a tattoo shot that's being passed round and people are adding to that, which means Jan/Feb, there is enough on there for around 4 hours.


Things are really looking good, although there is always something around the corner that could throw a spanner in the works.

TravelGirl84

Hi mnkone :hello:

Just caught up with your diary. You've made amazing progress since you started, and great to see the mindset change. It can happen quite quickly once you really have decided to tackle debt / build savings. I have had it on my mind for ages, but only in the last 6 months or so have I really felt it click in my brain.

I was going to suggest if you can see if you can consolidate your loans in to one bigger loan with a smaller interest rate which you can over pay? That's what I did with mine and managed to get 3.1% (though did build up another credit card afterwards :undecided ), but from reading your diary it looks like you might have already tried that?

Re buying your meat in Waitrose, could you make a surprise meal with meat from somewhere cheaper and only tell her once she's eaten it, see if it changes her mind. May seem a bit mean I suppose but might work a treat haha.

mnkone

Hi,


Thank you, really appreciate that. Its going down quicker in some areas which I am hoping to get rid of as fast as I can. Yeah I know what you mean, it took a good amount of time to even come to the realisation of "this has gotten bad, I need to do something".


Yeah the large loan was to consolidate and it got worse after again, but letting the large loan run as normal while paying down everything else seems to be working well for me.


To be honest I have gotten to the point where I don't take the food/bill money into account for me and leave that for my wife to sort when I transfer, while I sort these debts out. She knows the money I give is the money we have and there's no additional extra I can put on. At least not without impacting my debt going down, so its a no go.


As bad as it sounds to some, I have segmented my life into a few areas to make things easier to deal with everything, I think I mentioned in a previous post, nothing really affects me personally, I am a pure optimist and the worst thing I can twist into opportunity, so segmenting works for me; I have my home life which costs me the monthly money and nothing else. Then I have my debt side which I document and keep isolated from everything and everyone (although my wife does know and of course I come on here). Work, which I really love (which I know not everyone does, so its a nice bonus to love what I do). Then I also have my hobbies, which stopped for a long time, maybe 7 years, but since going back to climbing and currently setting up dance lessons with my daughter as time together, but also for some fun, its really helped keep me motivated.


This was longer than I thought it would be.