Facing reality

alt80

That’s brilliant news debt neutral in just under a year!

re video calls my parents have only met my son 3 times since he was born they will not come to uk and we have neglected going to see them (speak on FT all the time).

Aspiration

Morning,
Firstly, I just wanted to say how motivated you sound!
Lots of people have different thoughts about the sinking fund etc. The general advice I’ve seen which I think is most balanced is to consider the stability of your job first. Then, like you describe re car or boiler, can you predict any large expenses I.e boiler/car. If you’re confident that these both are ok and still have the £1k emergency fund, i personally would go with the £500 a month to debt repayment. 

I have done similar and there are some months where I’ve had to use all of it but still feel I have more control like this. Also, paydays become not particularly exciting as it just tops up the pots and allows me to pay down more debt. 

Whatever you decide, you’re making progress which is awesome!! 😎 

Sarahwithlove

alt80 said:

That’s brilliant news debt neutral in just under a year!

re video calls my parents have only met my son 3 times since he was born they will not come to uk and we have neglected going to see them (speak on FT all the time).

Thanks just hope nothing major goes wrong in that time. 
Maybe going to see them needs to become a yearly fixture for you. Its a cheap holiday to somewhere nice and sunny and you're son will love seeing his grandparents and learning more of the culture. Win win by sounds of it. 

Sarahwithlove

Aspiration said:

Morning,
Firstly, I just wanted to say how motivated you sound!
Lots of people have different thoughts about the sinking fund etc. The general advice I’ve seen which I think is most balanced is to consider the stability of your job first. Then, like you describe re car or boiler, can you predict any large expenses I.e boiler/car. If you’re confident that these both are ok and still have the £1k emergency fund, i personally would go with the £500 a month to debt repayment. 

I have done similar and there are some months where I’ve had to use all of it but still feel I have more control like this. Also, paydays become not particularly exciting as it just tops up the pots and allows me to pay down more debt. 

Whatever you decide, you’re making progress which is awesome!! 😎 

Thanks my job is pretty stable. I work for local authority and our department is one of the departments that's never been hit by any of the redundancies over the years. Even if we were to be caught in the next lot there's about 10 of us in the team and I can think of at least 4 maybe 5 that would go for it so I'm not worried about my job at all tbh. I'm very lucky in that respect. I have worked through the whole thing. My boiler is only 3 years old so I can't see anything major going wrong with it that would cost more than the £500 a month I put towards funds so if did go wrong I could just do minimum payments for a month or use the emergency fund. Ref car again it seems to be OK, about 7 years old and been well looked after. Hardly used in all honesty only to go to do food shop and chemist occasionally both which are about a 5 to 10 min drive from my house. I know from my recent MOT that I will need 3 new tyres in next few months but I have already budgeted for those. Plus my plan is to keep hold of the £500 until the next pay day and only pay it then if its not needed for other things. 

enthusiasticsaver

Sounds like you are doing really well Sarah and getting rid of the cards and being debt neutral by the end of next year sounds fantastic. Are you still paying your Dad £100 a month? 

I am a big fan of sinking funds (not surprising given my user name  ). I think though given you have a £1k emergency fund focusing on the debt is more of a priority for you. Good that your job is relatively secure and your car and house sound like they are well maintained so you have a good plan. Do you have a savings target for when the debt is gone? 

Sarahwithlove

enthusiasticsaver said:

Sounds like you are doing really well Sarah and getting rid of the cards and being debt neutral by the end of next year sounds fantastic. Are you still paying your Dad £100 a month? 

I am a big fan of sinking funds (not surprising given my user name  ). I think though given you have a £1k emergency fund focusing on the debt is more of a priority for you. Good that your job is relatively secure and your car and house sound like they are well maintained so you have a good plan. Do you have a savings target for when the debt is gone? 

Yes still paying him the £100 a month so it is slowly going down.
Thanks I think I'm going to go with clearing the debt. I think the psychological boost of it will be much better for me. 
I want to get £5k saved up to cover any real emergencies and then pay back dad and then start overpaying on the mortgage if possible.
I feel its also important to keep paying down the debt and get a good fund behind me before I overpay the mortgage because I don't know how long realistically my housemate will continue to live with me. She is already talking about next Xmas and stuff so don't think she has any plans to move out any time soon but who knows really. She has it quite good really so not surprising tbh. But all the time she's here then I have extra income to help with saving. Once she's gone ill have about £200-250 a month spare which would probably go into sinking Fund instead. But some of the other bills would be likely to come down as well so it's hard to say and think at least a year off. 

ryanm8655

That’s what I went with as well, had a small EF that often got depleted (it’s about £500 at the moment but going to put it towards the debt at the end of the month I expect) but took the approach that if anything bug came up then I could reduce the debt clearance that month and fund it that way (as I did with car, sort of).

Granted, pretty much the only emergency I could have is car related and also I have more room in the budget, since I live with family but I’d go with that approach in your shoes too.

I say mine is an EF, it’s more of a general savings pot for big spends, like birthdays etc. Even my car, I was half expecting a big bill.

Sarahwithlove

ryanm8655 said:

That’s what I went with as well, had a small EF that often got depleted (it’s about £500 at the moment but going to put it towards the debt at the end of the month I expect) but took the approach that if anything bug came up then I could reduce the debt clearance that month and fund it that way (as I did with car, sort of).

Granted, pretty much the only emergency I could have is car related and also I have more room in the budget, since I live with family but I’d go with that approach in your shoes too.

Thanks I think it makes the most sense tbh. Plus I know paying these cards off will be a great weight lifted off my mind. I've written a list of different things I can do, sell, cancel etc to try and make up the extra £500 for next year to bring my debt neutral date forward. 

Sarahwithlove

So rejigged the YNAB budget and made some payments on the cards today. Debt is now under £7.5k just. Have money put aside for car tax due in 1st Jan and adding small amounts to sinking Fund to cover car costs which again will hopefully stretch until Jan again before need doing. No plans for any long drives or anything over Xmas and rarely gets used at the moment. I've also started getting me and my housemate to take it in turns to drive to do food shop etc. May need to top car up with petrol towards end of month but I have £25 a month budgeted and this usually lasts me the month if not a bit longer.
Have done next months budget to include paying off extra from the back pay going to receive from work. Have added more "spaces" on my starling account and put them in date order so I can top them up from the funds I assign to my sinking Fund. This is usually whatever is left over from previous months in budget, will include my save the change once reaches £25, my £5 bank rewards, anything I get from prolific, and shopping receipt apps and the odd bit of my budget leftover as I like to pay nice round numbers off my cards as drives me crazy if its not. Hence why I paid off 277 on my sofa card to get rid of the odd. 😂🙈
My plans for weekend include, returning some unwanted clothing items (£8), putting some bits on fb market place, clothing on ebay that's new with tags and tidying my bedroom. Hoping to Declutter whilst tidying as made a list of potential things I could sell and want to see if can find anything else whilst doing it. The one I'm debating at the moment I'd my TV in my bedroom, I haven't used it for months, not sure I'm likely to in future either tbh. Think could probably get about £50 for it looking on Facebook at others going for similiar. Not massive amount which is what's making me hesitate because although atm were not really having people round due to covid it could be once things to back to normal I will use it again. Mostly it's when my housemate had her boyfriend around I would let them have living room one evening a week and watch a dvd in my room on my TV. Decisions. I could just watch stuff on my ipad instead I suppose. I'll have a think about it as don't need to decide today. 

Sarahwithlove

Had email today back from finance company for my sofa and they have requested an independent report be done. Have booked it in for next week, cost me £48. Did um and ah over it for a bit but have decided to go ahead as if all else fails I can know how much would cost to fix and if could be fixed if nothing else. Not holding my breath on them saying its a manufacturing fault though even if its less than 2 years old from what reviews online have suggested for several of companies that were recommended. But I'm prepared to argue my case if need be. Have seen a few people say to follow it up with ombudsman if doesn't go your way.
Have to wait and see. Out of interest am I right in expecting my sofa to last me more than 20 months when cost me about £1k? When I was growing up our sofas always lasted several years and most come with 5 year cover so to me that says they expect it to last that long surely?