Crunchy pays off the loan early, and other stories 14 April 2020 at 8:21PM in Debt free diaries 633 replies 45.1K views

crunchy_time

I used to be called crunch_time - but then the forum changed, and I had to face up to my disorganised email address administration.
But its me.  Same crunchy, slightly different username.  Same goal - smash the debt whilst living life to the full.
Crunchy x

crunchy_time

Here is my old diary
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5857070/crunchys-final-debt-free-diary/p40

Seasidegal58

Hi crunchy
Good to see you posting again and well done on your impending nil overdraft!

Have subscribed and look forward to following you on your journey. 😀

crunchy_time

Hi everyone!  I am not new to this forum at all!  I have been on here for nearly 6 years but I've been kicked out of my old account so I had to set up a new one.  Long story short, 6 years ago I was pregnant with my second and we owed £23,555 and it was holding us back from being able to move from our two bed terrace into something more family orientated.  I started a diary to keep us in check whilst we got rid of a few lines of credit to free up our potential to afford a bigger house in the country.  Since then, we have moved twice and the baby bump is now a super confident, feisty, 5.5 year old girl.  
We managed to get the debt down to about -£2800 about 3 years ago but then I decided to quit my teaching job and set up a business (that failed) and we got into more debt again - for various reasons relating to moving to a bigger house on one income.  I am now back in education but in more of a support role for the time being.  I was in my role for 4 weeks before coronavirus lockdown.  Last year we had a mega holiday to the Caribbean so debt payments went on the back burner.  The house we have is a new build and only 2 years old but it needs decorating and finishing off.  We need to tile and floor bathrooms and do lots of landscaping in the garden.  All of which we are doing ourselves.
So in summer 2017 we had £2800 of debt
Today we have £18,145 of loan with £3554 of extra interest added onto it which I am hoping to reduce due to paying off the 5 year loan early.  We took this out about 6 weeks ago to consolidate all our credit cards as juggling the monthly payments was becoming stressful. 
£5k of this is for stuff we have done to the house - turf for the lawn, furniture, tiles, insulating the loft etc.  The eesentials are paid for now so everything else is being saved up for.
The monthly payment for the loan is £355 which is roughly the same as the min payments on the credit cards.  We also have £300 of an overdraft which should be paid off this Friday.
'We' is me and husband (late 30's) and our son who is nearly 8 and daughter who is 5.5.  And a naughty dog.  
My aim is to pay off the loan earlier than 5 years and massively reduce the £3.5k of interest that is due on it  We may not start doing it this year as we have a lot to do to the house.  The biggest cost is repainting it which we have to save up about £800 for.  The rest is going to be a labour of love as the garden really needs its own identity and has privacy issues which we will need to address creatively.
In order to repay the loan early, I need to make sure that we stick to our budgets and pace ourselves.  To be completely honest, the £355 extra a month we will save when we don't have it will go onto mortgage so our lifestyle should stay the same and we should learn to live appropriately without it.  So that is the essence of this diary - learning to live appropriately without getting into any more debt.

That was quite a long post - sorry!  So glad I am back on here now to keep us on the straight and narrow!
Crunchy xx

crunchy_time

Seasidegal58 said:

Hi crunchy
Good to see you posting again and well done on your impending nil overdraft!

Have subscribed and look forward to following you on your journey. 😀

Thankyou!  Must catch up with you too!  How on earth do you subscribe!?

Honeysucklelou2

Good to see you Crunchy, I’d been wondering how you’d got on with your new job. I think subscribing is done bu using the bookmark button.

pennywisepoundstupid

Great to see you back with a shiny new diary.
Take care xx

crunchy_time

Thanks honey - I have bookmarked yours and penny and seasidegals diaries for reading later.
Last night I managed to shave £4 a month off our car insurance which is a money-saving win!  I also did a quote for the other older car.  The insurance is up for renewal next month - it looks like we can save £6 a month from that one as well from switching from fully comp to just third party - we are not planning to spend any more money on it to service it.  It passed it's MOT last month.  We will replace it with something when it dies.  We hardly use it now.
Today I am making homemade salsa and guacamole for fajitas tonight.  I shall take the children out for a dog walk in a bit and get them to do some crafty bits.  I also have to give the main bathroom a good clean - husband has just finished tiling the floor and walls and fixing a new shower in - all from you tube videos!  Ha ha!  It still needs painting though.  That's the next job.  We also have some trellises coming soon to put up on a fence to increase privacy from our neighbours.  They will need staining and the fence is only halfway through being painted.  There is lots to keep us busy during this lockdown!
Crunchy xx

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Nice to see you posting again, I think the forum changes caught a few people out.
Glad tour new job is going well and that you both still have jobs.  Strange times

savingholmes

Good luck with the rest of your journey.

Sarahwithlove

Welcome back! Sounds like you have lots of jobs to keep you busy at home at the moment. Good luck with the overpaying of your loan, that's a lo of interest you could save.