Crunchy pays off the loan early, and other stories

remote_control

Well done on the ebaying!! That is awesome,

crunchy_time

Morning all
Pay day today!  We bought some blinds for the kitchen so I have paid those off and put the rest of the spare money into the pot for house stuff this year - £260.
So far I have sold 3 things on ebay for £10.70 in total but I made a bit of money on the postage too.  We have also sold our old wardrobe for £35.  I need to add this to the pot actually that has reminded me.
I've put both of the jobs on my builder and have been getting quotes from tradespeople these last few days.  It annoys me how they are so different - for painting a house - £1500 to £4000.  The guy that quoted £4000 wasn't going to get the job anyway as he seemed really daunted by the project.  The guy that I liked was really experienced and he thinks £3000 which is what we budgeted for.  Then for the pergola - we have had one carpenter around and he said £2500 first and is now saying £3000.  We have designed it and it is bespoke with wooden slats on the top for privacy.  We have another carpenter coming round on Saturday to quote and one last painter.  It's really hard to know what to do.  We don't know anyone really to recommend anyone to us.
Today's plans include a chiropractor visit and food shopping.  We have lots of things in already so I was going to go to Aldi as we have a lower than normal amount for the week.  I'm going to have get creative this week with our food.
Anyway, trucking along.  Next week we will get the debt down to £5500 which makes me happy.  Then £4950 ish for 1st April, £4400 ish for 1st May, £3850 ish 1st June, £3276 ish 1st July, £2720 ish 1st Aug, £2164 ish 1st Sept, £1608 1st Oct, £1052 on 1st Nov and then £496 on 1st December.  So it will all be gone this year.  Hopefully when we get the garden structures sorted, we can chuck some extra money at it, but I am pleased that so far we are sticking to this plan.
Can't believe 'half term' is nearly over!!
Crunchy x

t2rry

crunchy_time said:

Morning all
Pay day today!  We bought some blinds for the kitchen so I have paid those off and put the rest of the spare money into the pot for house stuff this year - £260.
So far I have sold 3 things on ebay for £10.70 in total but I made a bit of money on the postage too.  We have also sold our old wardrobe for £35.  I need to add this to the pot actually that has reminded me.
I've put both of the jobs on my builder and have been getting quotes from tradespeople these last few days.  It annoys me how they are so different - for painting a house - £1500 to £4000.  The guy that quoted £4000 wasn't going to get the job anyway as he seemed really daunted by the project.  The guy that I liked was really experienced and he thinks £3000 which is what we budgeted for.  Then for the pergola - we have had one carpenter around and he said £2500 first and is now saying £3000.  We have designed it and it is bespoke with wooden slats on the top for privacy.  We have another carpenter coming round on Saturday to quote and one last painter.  It's really hard to know what to do.  We don't know anyone really to recommend anyone to us.
Today's plans include a chiropractor visit and food shopping.  We have lots of things in already so I was going to go to Aldi as we have a lower than normal amount for the week.  I'm going to have get creative this week with our food.
Anyway, trucking along.  Next week we will get the debt down to £5500 which makes me happy.  Then £4950 ish for 1st April, £4400 ish for 1st May, £3850 ish 1st June, £3276 ish 1st July, £2720 ish 1st Aug, £2164 ish 1st Sept, £1608 1st Oct, £1052 on 1st Nov and then £496 on 1st December.  So it will all be gone this year.  Hopefully when we get the garden structures sorted, we can chuck some extra money at it, but I am pleased that so far we are sticking to this plan.
Can't believe 'half term' is nearly over!!
Crunchy x

Ahh the month by month anticipation of what the debt will be - I know that process well!!  Looks good though, the days go slowly but the year will tick by in no time at all!!

crunchy_time

I think we will have to wait for a pergola. Husband is adamant he wants it done but I’m not willing to get into any debt to do it. There are things we can do for privacy that won’t cost as much and be just as effective. We also need to do the fence as well. I’m becoming such a grown up!

I was also looking at our very old car today remembering when we bought it 8 years ago. We paid it off 4 years ago and it has been wonderful to think of it as paid for. I’m wondering whether we are missing a trick with the psychology of our finances. At the moment we aren’t paying off the other car which is 5 years old and has £10k to go until it is paid off. The min payments for both loans are paying off the consumer debt. We also lived in our first house for 7 years interest only mortgage. I’m sounding a bit garbled I know but it feels like putting things off. We are not going to be getting rid of any min payments once we have paid off the consumer debt. Perhaps long term we should be switching stuff around.
Crunchy x

remote_control

Tough decision on the pergola, I think that's the difference with a 'LBM' and not a LBM, do you want to get into more debt? If you can put off until next year you can be in a position to buy it guilt free next year!
We are definitely 'buy now pay later' when it comes to house renovations and cars. I think it's such an expensive time in life though, having babies, buying houses. 

enthusiasticsaver

That will be good to get rid of the consumer debt this year.  Was the car bought on HP or PCP? 

crunchy_time

Morning!
The current loan totals are as follows - husbands £16,699 including about £3500 of interest and mine is £8900 including about £907 of interest They have about 4 years each left to run. All our debt is on these. Husbands has the car £10,082 and then the rest of the consumer debt and interest. We want to pay that off earlier due to the amount of interest. Mine has £5k of house renovations on it and the rest is consumer debt. Together the loan payments are £556 a month. 

Nothing would physically change its just psychologically paying off one debt over the other. If we changed it on our spreadsheet so we count down the car at £356 a month it will be paid off in just over two years. Meanwhile we Chuck extra money at the consumer part of the loan to bring it down. The odd £5 here and there from living more frugally etc. Husband and I seem to work better if we have less available money.  My loan would stay the same for now.
my credit card is offering me 0% for 18 months for a 4% fee. So if we borrowed up to £2k for a fence and other garden stuff we could pay it off in the 18 months for just over £100 a month which we can afford and it would cost us £80. The interest for the loan is more which is why it seems to be a good idea to remit things this way. No pergolq this year but next year and just focus on the other bits.
It would really be a race to pay off the £3k of consumer debt on husbands loan in two years whilst paying off the car so we don’t pay as much interest as has been calculated.
And its finding the best way to do it that serves us psychologically. 

Crunchy x

enthusiasticsaver

Everyone has choices about where to direct their money but personally I would not want to increase your debt by a further £3k for a Pergola when you are already borrowing £2k for fence etc which is a nice to have but not critical and could wait. I like things simple though so would focus on essential house stuff only until the consumer debt and car loans are gone. Are the car values at least equivalent to the debt outstanding on them? What interest rates are you paying on your husbands car? 

crunchy_time

enthusiasticsaver said:

Everyone has choices about where to direct their money but personally I would not want to increase your debt by a further £3k for a Pergola when you are already borrowing £2k for fence etc which is a nice to have but not critical and could wait. I like things simple though so would focus on essential house stuff only until the consumer debt and car loans are gone. Are the car values at least equivalent to the debt outstanding on them? What interest rates are you paying on your husbands car? 

It’s all detailed above.

crunchy_time

Morning all!
We had a very productive day yesterday. I fixed the black weave drive as a patch had sunk a bit. I took up the blocks and put rubble underneath and then sand. It looks very professional. Husband is very impressed with my skills - perhaps a career change is in order! We also took down the awful fence that was around the oil tank. The garden instantly looks larger. We are going to replace it with something greener and less imposing than the fence but we shall do this after we complete the other fence which is down that side. I also had a good weed and tidy up ready for spring. The second carpenter came to do a quote - we liked him better than the last one - hopefully his quote will be better too.

I managed to get a food shop in budget for this week. In fact I only spent £80 in Aldi. Husband gets paid on Friday. 

Plans for today include my long run of about 4 miles and then a roast followed by a walk. Hopefully that will recharge us enough ready for another homeschooling/work week!!
Crunchy x