Diary of a reformed shopaholic (I hope)

shoppingobsessed2020

I’m just going to ignore the car issue for now, It’s been a huge bone of contention for us with this diary and it is ridiculous and today proved again that his car is not practical for our needs.  It’s a decent car but for us as a family car it’s not practical.  I’m hoping he sees sense when he is home and does school runs with monkey boy in the front or gets rid of his car and we just go to one and I do all school drop offs and pick ups on the way to work.  Him doing drop offs and pick ups saves me £30 a week when he is home and isn’t doing courses or studying for exams so I need to look back at the parent pay account and see how many he actually did so I can put figures to it.  I’ll not deny 2 cars is handy but how much is it worth really? I know we can afford them both but I detest driving his car and given I have to drive it more than he does then surely it should be a car I enjoy rather than one I drive under protest.  Then by the same token he hates driving my car and loves his, but he doesn’t have to drive mine and I have to drive his.

so the good and bad from today.  Our planned lunch out was £16.  I love this eat out scheme.  We have booked to go again next week but order less as we were greedy and shared lots of food that we didn’t need and I’ve also booked another premier inn breakfast for next week. Costco came in at £52 and the garage was free said I’d drop some brownies off as a thank you.  Costco we got a couple of bits that I wasn’t planning to but did need and I treated monkey boy to a new book.  

The bad is the handyman couldn’t fix the washer, he’s not sure what is wrong with it, the door lock keeps sticking and refuses to release when it’s finished a load, you’ve got to manually unplug it and for some reason that releases the catch.  I’ve messaged a local repair company as this doesn’t sound like it would be covered by the warranty so I will see what they say.  It’s still a really good machine so if I can repair rather than replace I will.  

I still don’t have a huge amount saved in my emergency funds, there is £400 play money for dh, £550 For work courses for him, £300 in car account ( insurances due for both between Christmas and new year) £100 general emergency fund, £50 medical (dentist, prescriptions and opticians) and £116 house stuff (tv licence due November insurances due may) but it’s nice seeing them grow.  I have cleared the present fund as I have bought some presents so I emptied that the other week which is what it’s there for so there is a nice chunk in total but it’s all earmarked for specific things bar the general emergency fund which is pathetically light but the positive is that a few months ago we didn’t have any savings. £1500 in 4 months I’m pleased with.

joedenise

Have you contacted the manufacturers to find out if it would be covered by warranty?  Actually having any work done by non-authorised people will invalidate the warranty usually anyway so think it's best to check with them before getting anyone else fiddling with it.

Why pay someone if you can get it done under warranty?

shoppingobsessed2020

Unfortunately it’s not covered under warranty, it had a 5yr warranty when we bought it, and a 10yr warranty on the motor.  I’ve had it 7years so I either pay Samsung a call out charge and repair cost or speak to the local Repair company and see what they say.  Handyman doesn’t think it’s a big job, he just doesn’t mess too much with electrical things with him not being an electrician.  He looked at it as a favour given he was here doing the fence to see if it was something he could do (something stuck in filter type thing).

Sarahwithlove

Hello so I have just caught up on your diary. Well done on your progress so far. Hopefully you can get other half on board when he's home and you can sit down with the figures and show it to him. 

Are you still overpaying on the mortgage? If so please seriously consider stopping this as the amount you will save on interest on your cars will be worth it in long run. Just think the more you pay off quicker and without interest the more income becomes available to eventually over pay on your loans and mortgage. Again I'd over pay the loans rather than mortgage first. Just think all that money you are currently paying for CC and loans could eventually be put towards overpaying your mortgage. 

Could you try and find a car that you both like to drive and then maybe get a run around for you to use when he's home?

In terms of your credit cards I would list them in terms of highest interest rate and start paying off all you can on that and minimum on others especially the lloyds that's interest free. Because hopefully in a years time would will be much better off financially in terms of debt and be able to get a better BT deal. The 3% you will probably pay to move it again will be a lot less then what you are paying in interest at the moment.

I know that paying off cards and getting rid of them is good mentally but you've done well so far and I often find working out how much I have saved in interest works just as well. Have you done credit scores for you and hubby to see if he gets offered any better deals then you? 

Sarahwithlove

Also in terms of food shopping I always look in freezer and cupboards and work out what can make with what i have and maybe small additions to it and then menu plan from that. Once menu planned write the shopping list and make sure you stick to it. If I want chocolate or sweets or alcohol it comes out my spending money rather then the food shop because its not essential food for me or form part of any meal time. Might be worth conspiring doing similiar 

shoppingobsessed2020

Hi @Sarahwithlove, you will be pleased to know the mortgage overpayment was stopped a couple of months ago when I changed mortgage deal.

we are planning to eat the freezer up over the next couple of weeks as I need a freezer inventory doing so I can do a proper restock as there is lots of junk food meals in the freezer and not lots I can eat so that’s in hand.  Will be a huge top up shop to restock once they are empty or almost empty but I don’t mind as it will be a lot of meat and I’m planning on batch cooking lasagne and things so we have some quick “ready” meals available to us.  I generally do a supermarket shop on a Friday for home delivery as I have a delivery pass and this works well for us as I do meal plan as like everyone else who is juggling lots of different balls you need to be organised or it’s a takeaway which I want to avoid given I can’t eat most of them and still have to cook for me anyway.

cars are honestly the bane of my life and I am ready to scream.  I like a nice car don’t get me wrong but when we were looking for a 2nd car for dh we went from a 3k run around to a practically brand new car in the space of an afternoon.  He isn’t giving up the car battle easily, as both cars are currently in his name and under finance in his name I can’t just sell without his consent as I need to be acting as if I were him with my power of attorney.  Thankfully the car I’m getting is going to be in my name so if worst comes to worst I can just get rid and use his however impractical it is for us as a family rather than getting his consent to trade mine in.

i think the plan is to clear the 3k on the Lloyds card and then keep balance transferring 3k chunks if they continue to give 0percent offers,  I want to then concentrate on the mbna card as I’ve cleared some of my debt in my name so now I need to concentrate on some of his.  

He has some bonuses coming his way so one lot will be going towards his next lot of courses, and then when his company buy back his leave (they’ve said mandatory buy back due to Covid) I’m going to see how much they give him and will throw it at something, most likely I will be paying his car off with it and then anything left will go towards the mbna card.

I know it’s backwards in how I’m paying things off but breaking it into bite size chunks works for me.  I’m hoping to clear 5k by the end of the year which as long as nothing else goes wrong would be doable.

Sarahwithlove

It's not so much that it's backwards it's more that you are paying unnecessary interest and it's not like it's only a small amounts you are paying it on. That means that not even all you pay off is going towards actual debt, doesn't that annoy you? The more you clear off the interest paying card the more offers you will get from other companies. That's where the credit club with me and clearscore are good for credit checks as they tell you what you would be eligible for without needing checks. Can I ask what you now have left and what interest on it is? Paying £250 off the interest ones vs the 0 will save you loads in interest. Why at the companies the money when you could be having it in your own pocket instead? Focus on one card at a time, the highest interest one and focus on how much you are saving in interest each month instead.

Sarahwithlove

I can only budget to pay between £250-300 a month on my credit card so I instead focus on getting it down the next £1000 mark or getting total debt down to a certain level and use those wins instead to motivate me. MBNA is usually a high paying interest rate, maybe have a look on statement to see how much you are actually paying in interest and view it as that extra per month could be going toward your debt. 

Sarahwithlove

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/snowball-calculator.php Try using this calculator it will help you see how much in interest you could save

shoppingobsessed2020

thank you, I needed the wake up re the interest rates and paying it back.  I’m going to get my finger out and get the rates for the mbna card and my Barclays and my next tomorrow.  Debenhams I’m not fussed re the rate s that is being paid off this month anyway.  

I think my plan is going to be £300 to the Lloyds card so I can clear it within the year, then I’m going to throw the £500 “spare” money at the mbna card making it an £800 a month dent after the Debenhams has been paid off.  I’ll be redoing my soa next few weeks once I know exactly what I’m taking home from my new role so it will be nice to have one less credit card on there so I can see the actual balance on what we owe and know exactly how much I can throw at the mbna card.  

Even if another card turns out to have a higher interest rate than the mbna I do want to focus on some of the debt in dh name for a bit now as I’ve cleared a couple of things in my name - granted they were the smaller balances out of everything but it was nice to tidy them away, so it’s only fair given he has more in his name that I blast his as he is the one Historically that gets the 0% offers on cards and not me.  The hope is then that once w huge chunk has gone in his name he will start to get some offers and I can reshuffle things round.

the aim is to clear another 5k by the end of the year, I know I could use the savings pots to help me on the way to that but they are needed as if I don’t have the money then it will just go on a credit card and repeat the cycle so I want to be more organised, obviously I’ve had to raid them for car repairs the other month and Christmas present fund got emptied but at least the money was there and I didn’t put it on credit