Facing reality

mark55man

Its a toughie.  I would probably go for paying it off, because you have both the 0% and the offer from your dad.  If only one was in place I would probably go the other way.  Although you could go half this month and if the world didn't stop then do the other half net month or the one after.  

Depends if you think you will find refilling the empty pot more motivating than knocking zeroes off the debt really.  Psychological innit 

Sarahwithlove

t2rry said:

I would do what you're doing - thinking about it and going round and round about it as I've done this many many times in the past.

I think it essentially comes down to the best way it works for your psychology.  Which approach will give you the better push, for instance, which probably only you can answer.

I've had both instances happen to me - where I've paid off credit from saved funds and it's been the best thing for my mentality about saving moving forward, then also where I've paid off from saved funds and later had to have a juggle around which could have otherwise been avoided - although when you have to find a way to figure things out, you invariably do find a way!

To note though, thinking through that objectively, I have never once regretted keeping funds in a saved pot because the option is always there.  Unless there is interest accruing, which would be a different question of course.

Alternatively there's always the compromise approach, keeping say half and half, gives you some emergency fund still in place for reassurance but also takes a huge percentage chunk out of the CC.

And I think you can see that I'm pretty good at going around the houses with these sorts of dilemmas!!! But hey, it's a good position to be in to have funds there and questions to answer rather than the alternative!

I know i keep going between the two. Maybe I should just pay half off. I don't know. I should really just be happy that I have enough to clear it if needed but part of me is like it's just sat there and I have some money in house fund and maintenance fund to do small things if needed and 1k isn't really gonna cover anything major if it went wrong so it would be bank of dad in that case anyway. I'm only doing about 5 or 6 miles a week in my car currently anyway 🤣 so my tyres that will need replacing at some point have just kept going for now 

Sarahwithlove

mark55man said:

Its a toughie.  I would probably go for paying it off, because you have both the 0% and the offer from your dad.  If only one was in place I would probably go the other way.  Although you could go half this month and if the world didn't stop then do the other half net month or the one after.  

Depends if you think you will find refilling the empty pot more motivating than knocking zeroes off the debt really.  Psychological innit 

I'm torn as part of me thinks knowing that I don't have that card hanging over me will be a great boost. I also know that my EF being empty will make me tighten my belt further to get it filled back up. But at same time if something went wrong I would be like omg. But then this month I've put over £700 into my sinking funds and will do same in March so could easily divert some of that as actual SF come to about £250 a month I'm just topping them up for reassurance to have a good amount in my house and car funds. Maybe I'll do half and half like you said. Or divert it to my sinking funds so they are fully topped up then start overpaying aggressively on the card. I'm just impatient to have it gone. 

Parkyp

Hi Sarah, happy anniversary. I think I’d go for half and half. That’ll give you a wee boost in both directions saving and debt busting x

vixx_123

I'm really impatient and would pay it off 😅

Blackcats

Hi Sarah - It's a good dilemma to have and well done for getting to this point.  I agree with markman - will you be as motivated to build up your savings as you are paying off the debt?  I've read on other diaries that there's often a strange reluctance to finally clear the last of the debt as it has defined us for so long. 

jwil

I'd clear it personally.  You have funds to fall back on in the event of an emergency.  50:50 is just as good though, so if you don't want to empty your pots, then go for that!

Sarahwithlove

Parkyp said:

Hi Sarah, happy anniversary. I think I’d go for half and half. That’ll give you a wee boost in both directions saving and debt busting x

Thanks I'll think it over for a few days and then decide I think. 

Sarahwithlove

Blackcats said:

Hi Sarah - It's a good dilemma to have and well done for getting to this point.  I agree with markman - will you be as motivated to build up your savings as you are paying off the debt?  I've read on other diaries that there's often a strange reluctance to finally clear the last of the debt as it has defined us for so long. 

Im quite good at building up the savings tbh. I don't like not having my sinking funds full up but I sort of struggle with my emergency fund because I have pots for most things so prefer it to come from that. 

Sarahwithlove

jwil said:

I'd clear it personally.  You have funds to fall back on in the event of an emergency.  50:50 is just as good though, so if you don't want to empty your pots, then go for that!

I think I would do it the other way and clear the emergency fund and then keep the pots full up as everything I can think of is covered by a pot. Maybe I should do it other way and keep the EF and then use money in the pots instead. Urgh decisions.