Diary of a reformed shopaholic (I hope)

Sarahwithlove

The problem with doing the course now is he will end up l extending the debt. Maybe suggest that you review the situation in 6 months time and see how things stand and make a plan of action then as to how much you'd need to save and when he could realistically take it. Or tell him to give up the car to pay for it. 

enthusiasticsaver

The thing is that you have done really well over the last few months to budget properly but you still have £70k approx of debt (including the cars) and have sacrificed a lot to pay off £7k approx which is brilliant.  This has been done however with him being away and by your own admission when he gets back he is likely to increase that debt back again as he will not watch his spending.  Hopefully his bonus will help but if he is talking about more  courses (the reason for some of the current debt) any headway made is likely to be wiped out. The £70k must actually be similar to your annual income so it is already being lent at a high percentage interest rate and if you cannot get good deals there is every likelihood you will have to pay high interest  on any new cards so it will cost you more.  Good for you for saying you are not happy to consider it until 2022 at least. Sarah makes a good point about him giving up the car to pay for it. 

shoppingobsessed2020

I will win the war on debt, I might not win the battle but I will win the war.   Going to ignore the masters course for the time being and let him get on with it in his head.  He doesn’t have time to do it this trip home and we can’t plan for him being home to do it as look how well that works out.

He has emailed to say he’s applied for study leave (where the company pay for the exam and prep course) but there’s no guarantee he gets it.  The company gave him study leave for his last exam but it still took us financing it for 2 attempts as it took years to get the study leave approved and was only given after he told them he was applying to a new company.  No reflection on him it’s just a very hard exam and you can be asked anything even if you don’t sail in that neck of the woods.  Arctic shipping rules inside out when you said predominantly out the Middle East type thing.  Study leave is good but it means he is committed to staying with the company for x amount of time or paying back a percentage which isn’t a bad thing but like I said there is no guarantee you will get it.

todays plan on this beautiful bank holiday is ikea, I broke a plate last night so we are down to 3.  Normally this would mean buying a new matching set but I’m going to just go to ikea and buy some cheap plates to top the set up, we can have mismatched fro a while, it won’t kill me.

then to Costco as I need wrapping paper and a cake for meeting up with friends tomorrow. Have told monkey boy he can have a Costco lunch so he is bouncing at the thought of a hot dog.  

Then the rest of the day is going to be pottering round the house.  I might valet his lordships car this afternoon as it is a bit minging.

Drawingaline

I agree with either exam debt or car debt. He needs to start prioritising things, he can't afford everything! Professional development is important, and he certainly seems to be the kind of person who is ambitious which is not a bad thing, but atm, he needs to give something up in order to do the progression. 

My husband is a bit similar in the wanting to progress and earn more money, but then he wants to be able to afford all the things with his hard won wages. We are in a slightly different position to you debt wise, but we have four kids instead! For my husband the bigger nicer house with a games room is the payoff for all the hard work he is doing. I would he happier with a cheaper house tbh, but compromise is needed in a relationship right? And your husband needs to make some for his family. I would he really firm, 2022, cars paid off then exam. Or 2021 and he gets rid of his car. 

GeorgianaCavendish

I sympathise with your husband to some extent because I used to live in this world of incredibly optimistic calculations of how much debt my future bonus / income would pay off. The problem was that I would then start thinking it was already paid off, and the spending never slowed down, and also, I never got to "enjoy" the bonus because I was always stressed about it. 

Can he wait until the bonuses etc have been paid, and the debt has been reduced, before working out a plan together about how to finance the Masters? I like the suggestion of giving up a car to pay for the course, even if that isn't a serious consideration, showing him a few different budget calculations with the cost of the course offset against something else he wants/needs (like the car) might help. I also found the Snowball Calculators a great motivational tool, seeing the difference that an overpayment in X  month makes to the debt free date is really motivating and it goes the other way too. There is a website called Lemon Fool that has a good snowball calculator. 

Another idea is that he could always start some of the studying before enrolling on the course and paying fees. I am taking a professional qualification next summer and I was able to get the text books this summer for £130, but I'm not planning to enrol on the course until early next year (course fees are £1390 and exam fees £140). So I'm able to get on with some of the studying independently while I've got extra time thanks to working from home (no commute etc), and I'll enrol on the course and pay the exam fees when I've got some more funds built up in my budget. And, if it turns out that I didn't have much time to study this year then I can decide whether I need to defer the exams again, so I won't be deciding that when I'm £1500 poorer.
 These are courses where the materials are quite self-explanatory though, I understand that might not be an option for his masters. 

shoppingobsessed2020

Ikea trip and Costco trip done and dusted, all under £100 for both which was amazing.  Got my winter stock up candles as well whilst we were at ikea and also got a couple of towels in Costco as mine are getting very threadbare so felt replacing a couple was needed.  It was a want more than a need I’ll admit but my current ones are coming on for 15yrs old so we do get long wear out them.  I’d like to get a few more but I’ll do that gradually over the next 6 months.  I did also top up his lordships car whilst I was there as I’m using his rather than mine at the moment.

I ordered Dave Ramsey’s book last night on the kindle and started reading it.  Very hippy dippy but I’m enjoying it so far, only read a couple of chapters but I don’t think it will be for me.  A variation of it I can do as I have my various pots for things which I feel takes care of the short term emergency fund, and definitely getting on board with paying off highest interest rate to lowest,  I do need to look into everything and get actual interest rates are bar my new car loan, the Lloyds credit card and his Barclays card all my interest rates are proper guesses.  Need to sort that out and get it put down on paper. Regardless of interest rate though I think it’s going to be w combination of highest rate and smallest balances to pay things off.

shoppingobsessed2020

So that’s the Debenhams card paid off, another one bites the dust, although not really as I did balance transfer!  I’ve also balance transferred £500 of my next account to my tsb card as that offered me a 0% balance transfer for a year.  I did use the childcare savings pot and the childcare activities pots to pay off some of my next, haven’t touched swimming as that is going to be starting up again soon all being well.

Debenhams will be fully paid off next month as I’m assuming some residual interest to be added then the account will be closed.  I have closed the very, capital one, fluid (which I didn’t even use) and the Debenhams will be heading that way as will the tsb account eventually.  I know I wanted to keep a credit card but really I can’t be trusted with one.  If I need a credit card I’ll just ask his lordship to get me a card on his Lloyds going forward so we just use the one card between us once everything is paid off and closed down.

i also want to lower the overdraft on the joint account, I am not using it but i have 1k available should I need to use it, that’s too much and there’s 1k available on dh sole account so I should lower that as well.  One small saving grace is we are not using the overdrafts as I know the interest rates are now horrific.  Ok occasionally we use the overdrafts but it generally is a payments taken us into the overdraft that we didn’t realise and we have to do the money shuffle but the past few months that hasn’t happened which is a good thing now that I’m budgeting properly.

so accounts that we now hold are 1 x tsb (Interest free for a year) 1 x Lloyds (interest free for a year) 1 x mbna, 2 x Barclays (1 x interest free for approx 18 months) 1 x next, 2 x car loans and 2 actual loans.

next month the plan is to throw all available cash at the mbna card and keep doing that. I get my new car hopefully this week so I need to take some money out the car fund as I’ve a little bit on the insurance to pay to change car and I also need to pay the dvla to transfer my plate to the new car.

food wise we are eating up the freezer, we did have lunch out yesterday so need to stop that going forward as we went out with friends, ended up being £15 and really we could have done sandwiches for less but everyone else wanted to eat in a restaurant and I easily led so we joined in.

The freezers are starting to get bare as is the fridge, the cupboards are ok semi ok, but I can see me needing to do a huge stock up shop at the end of the month. I will need more protein powder and chicken in the next few weeks so it’s not going to be a cheap top up shop.  Next payday for his lordship is going to be a funny one as I don’t think I now get paid for another 6 weeks due to my role change at work and transferring between different businesses even though they are under the same parent company they are on different pay cycles.  I think it’s going to be mid October before I’m next paid rather than the start of October so that’s going to be interesting to see how the budget works.  It will be for 6 weeks rather than 4 so hopefully everything will work out without me needing to reach for a card.  Most of the card payments for debt come out of my wages so with payment dates I shouldn’t miss anything, If it looks like I’m going to I will just raid dh play money account or similar.

He still isn’t home so that is a bit rubbish and it’s really starting to get to me but I’m consoling myself with the longer he’s away the more bonus he gets and the higher the possibility is that he is home for Christmas.  We can but hope and it’s a small price to pay to ensure he gets Christmas at home although the way our luck is that’s probably not going to happen.  Next week that is 7 months away and it’s the longest trip he has ever had away.

i have had to use my next account, monkey boy has needed a new coat for school and some new pe T-shirt’s so the balance has increased slightly, to be honest I really don’t care about putting another £100 on that as it’s nothing compared to what is already on there and the other cards plus it’s school related so I can handle that.  It’s so handy as well as I despite my user name do actually hate trailing round the shops to find clothes or furniture or anything really.  The only shopping I like doing is skincare and make up, and I’ll happily spend hours shopping in person for that but the rest nope.

Sainsbury's delivery saver is also due to be renewed in a couple of weeks so thats £60 that comes out the account, but when I’ve looked back over our grocery shops the past year we have had 42 shops in a year so far (mainly on a Friday or Saturday) do delivery cost works out well and generally cheaper than the cost it would be for me to drive there and back so I’m happy to continue to pay that for now.

now that the weather has really turned we are going into hibernation mode, I can’t see us doing much in the way of soft play activities and things so it will be play dates with friends at the house or their houses so I’m going to be making sure I can pull a lunch out quickly rather than resorting to a restaurant or takeaway if we are hosting.  I know we all share the cost but we are all conscious of finances in our own ways especially as my friends are mainly self employed so they have also been hit financially so I’m going to take the lead and try steer us all towards a family style sharing lunch.  Even a bag of oven chips and a pack of chicken dippers in the oven for us all to share is cheaper than a £40 lunch for 3 families.

This weeks plan is to continue to eat up the freezer, I have got my meal plan sorted so we know what we are having and I’m about to crack on and do the ironing and get both our work and school clothes ready for the week ahead.

Sarahwithlove

Well done on getting it balance transferred it will save on interest that's what counts. Do you have any cards or accounts left that are charging interest as I'd hit those next. Loans I think you will just have to keep paying until you have cleared all your cards but I guess when you took loan out you expected to pay interest. Good luck with the rest. 

shoppingobsessed2020

Yeah I do have some being charged interest but I’m hopeful that with getting some interest free offers we will be able to do some major juggling once the mbna card and his car is paid off to try get more on interest free, We have the mbna card that’s being charged interest, my next account and my Barclays credit card.  I don’t mind the loans in the grand scheme of things as they have an end date so they are lower down my priority list to pay off. 

alt80

Hope you don't mind me following you on here, you contributed to my post earlier. 

Thanks.