Debt free before August 2023

enthusiasticsaver

You are well under £15k now so that is great.  I think holidays are very much up in the air for the rest of this year so I would have transferred the holiday money to the loan too.  Sounds like you are really ploughing ahead with getting rid of this debt now.  Stay focused. It will take you no time at all to do the house repairs once you have all that spare money. Just make sure you continue to budget for emergencies.  

Poppy1984

enthusiasticsaver said:

You are well under £15k now so that is great.  I think holidays are very much up in the air for the rest of this year so I would have transferred the holiday money to the loan too.  Sounds like you are really ploughing ahead with getting rid of this debt now.  Stay focused. It will take you no time at all to do the house repairs once you have all that spare money. Just make sure you continue to budget for emergencies.  

Thank you enthusiastic saver yes you are right I need to just focus on getting the debt down and do the house repairs once I'm debt free thank you for making me see sense!! 

That's why I love this forum

Poppy

Lookafterthepennies2020

Hi poppy,
I was reading through an old thread yesterday and just wondered did you go ahead with opening the government savings account? I have one which is just coming to two years and just wondered if you knew if you kept your balance from year 2 does it still count for the end of year 4? 

If that makes any sense to you whatsoever 

Poppy1984

Hi looksfterthepennies 
I did open one, I'm not sure what you mean but found this, which might help you. I'm saving £50 a month and I'm just going to leave it there till the 4 years is up so o can get the maximum amount interest. 

What you’ll get

You can earn 2 tax-free bonuses over 4 years. You’ll get any bonuses you’ve earned even if you withdraw money.

After your first 2 years, you’ll get a first bonus if you’ve been using your account to save. This bonus will be 50% of the highest balance you’ve saved.

After 4 years, you’ll get a final bonus if you continue to save. This bonus will be 50% of the difference between 2 amounts:

• the highest balance saved in the first 2 years (years 1 and 2)
• the highest balance saved in the last 2 years (years 3 and 4)

If your highest balance does not increase, you will not earn a final bonus.

The most you can pay into your account each calendar month is £50, which is £2,400 over 4 years. The most you can earn from your savings in 4 years is £1,200 in bonus money.

Your bonus is paid into your bank account, not your Help to Save account.

ExampleYou pay in £25 every calendar month for 2 years. You do not withdraw any money. Your highest balance will be £600. Your first bonus is £300, which is 50% of £600.

In years 3 and 4 you save an extra £200 to grow your highest balance from £600 to £800. Your final bonus is £100, which is 50% of £200. Even though you withdrew some money after your balance was £800, this does not affect your bonus.

What happens if you withdraw money

If you withdraw money it will be harder for you to:

• grow your highest balance
• earn the largest possible bonuses

Withdrawing money could mean you are not able to earn a final bonus - depending on how much you withdraw and when.

Hope this helps! 

Poppy

Lookafterthepennies2020

Poppy1984 said:

Hi looksfterthepennies 
I did open one, I'm not sure what you mean but found this, which might help you. I'm saving £50 a month and I'm just going to leave it there till the 4 years is up so o can get the maximum amount interest. 

What you’ll get

You can earn 2 tax-free bonuses over 4 years. You’ll get any bonuses you’ve earned even if you withdraw money.

After your first 2 years, you’ll get a first bonus if you’ve been using your account to save. This bonus will be 50% of the highest balance you’ve saved.

After 4 years, you’ll get a final bonus if you continue to save. This bonus will be 50% of the difference between 2 amounts:

• the highest balance saved in the first 2 years (years 1 and 2)
• the highest balance saved in the last 2 years (years 3 and 4)

If your highest balance does not increase, you will not earn a final bonus.

The most you can pay into your account each calendar month is £50, which is £2,400 over 4 years. The most you can earn from your savings in 4 years is £1,200 in bonus money.

Your bonus is paid into your bank account, not your Help to Save account.

ExampleYou pay in £25 every calendar month for 2 years. You do not withdraw any money. Your highest balance will be £600. Your first bonus is £300, which is 50% of £600.

In years 3 and 4 you save an extra £200 to grow your highest balance from £600 to £800. Your final bonus is £100, which is 50% of £200. Even though you withdrew some money after your balance was £800, this does not affect your bonus.

What happens if you withdraw money

If you withdraw money it will be harder for you to:

• grow your highest balance
• earn the largest possible bonuses

Withdrawing money could mean you are not able to earn a final bonus - depending on how much you withdraw and when.

Hope this helps! 

Poppy

Hi poppy,
thanks for that it did answer, I meant did you know if it was paid after four years on the difference between year two and four or was the balance of year two included also for the bonus which it isn’t thanks xxx 

Poppy1984

Great! Glad it helped, oh I see what you mean now. I guess they had to put a cap on what they'd pay interest on so it wasn't getting too much. I'll be thrilled to have mine when I get to the end of 4 years. I'll also be debt feee by then so it will be MY money and I won't owe it to anyone  

poppy

Lookafterthepennies2020

Poppy1984 said:

Great! Glad it helped, oh I see what you mean now. I guess they had to put a cap on what they'd pay interest on so it wasn't getting too much. I'll be thrilled to have mine when I get to the end of 4 years. I'll also be debt feee by then so it will be MY money and I won't owe it to anyone  

poppy

Yes it deffo did feel a bit silly now that I opened mine when I wasn’t really in a position to save as I have lost a lot of time where I could have been building it up.  At least I will get something at the end of year 2 tho as I went on and had a look how long I had left so will be putting in £50 a month in from now

Ah that sounds great, money to do whatever you want with ..and it’s free  fingers crossed apart from the mortgage I’m praying to have by that point I might be in the same boat by then too! 

Have a good day x 

Poppy1984

Ah yea i will still have a mortgage but I'll be free of credit card/personal loans/store card etc debt so counting that as debt free. If that makes sense. Good luck I'm sure you will be! And yes feel very lucky to be receiving £1,200 for free will be a fab reward for scrimping to pay off debt all these years!  

poppy

savingholmes

A fab reward indeed. 

Poppy1984

Hi 
I am literally counting down the days till payday! It feels like the longest time ever. Any money I have left over on Sunday the day before pay day plus the £175 from my bank switch bonus I will be using to over pay my loan. So trying to not spend any more money between now and Sunday counting down the days. I don't need anything really there's plenty of food in and I don't need fuel so I should be able to do it but you know what it's like sometimes things crop up at the last moment. 

I will hopefully be able to make another dent in the over payments and bring my total down further. Next month I don't think I'm going to be able to make an overpayment so it will just be a case of making my regular payments and keeping it ticking over but I will try my best. It's hard to raise money at the moment ive nothing really I can sell, my work doesn't do over time and I couldn't take on a second job. I'm still scanning receipts on my apps but with not buying much they are taking a while to mount up. I haven't had any surveys on prolific for a while so I don't know what else I could do to bring in additional money. 

Suggestions welcome! 

Hopefully i will be reporting back next week with a lower total :smi:smile:

poppy