Third Time’s The Charm

enthusiasticsaver

Your DD may be interested in regular saver accounts.  They pay the best rates.  The Marcus savings  account is the best rate I can find with instant access. 

Baileys_Babe

You sound so in control I think a lot of people reading will benefit from your explanation of how it went wrong before and what you are doing this time around to stop you falling into the same trap.

When is you debt free date?

Narola1976

Hello everyone, so sorry I have been quiet of late, a combination of being a bit busy and also nothing much on the financial front to report. All the debt payments have gone out, its just a waiting game for the interest to be applied before I can tally the amount the debt has gone down by. What I cannot work out is how come the interest can increase when the card is not being used (and never has) for purchases and the minimum monthly is going down by a few pounds. Not by many, but I would not have expected the estimated interest to be more than it was the previous month. Any ideas?

My DFD @Baileys_Babe is November 2024. I am hoping to improve on this but I also realise the importance of saving for my true expenses so that I do not end up using credit again. I am shocked when I see that I have circa £1500 in my bank accounts for all the various savings pots - there are many but when I think at the beginning of the year I was in my overdraft it does boggle the mind. I am doing all sorts of savings challenges, 1p x 2 for Christmas and my overseas trip to see mum next June, £2 challenge (this is where you add £2 to every month, not a massive amount saved, but better than nothing) amongst others. I am also saving up for an EF, but as I am saving for so many pots, the EF is small but that is OK because unless something drastic happens, I am unlikely to need it as I do save for all the major stuff. Granted the pots are small as the money is finite, but it all helps. 

It has been a spendy couple of days as I prepared for DD’s birthday. She is 18 today and I am pleased to say I only spent what I had saved up. We started the morning with a lovely fry up, and opening of presents. A few decorations, balloons and such made the living room quite festive. Bless her though she has gone off to work so we will enjoy a nice takeaway and birthday cake this evening. OH has given the money for that so I don’t have to worry on that front. 

The house is nice and quiet so I am going to get off with a few chores. The bathroom needs cleaning desperately, and I need to tidy the kitchen, and hoover the landing and stairs. But if I can do these jobs pretty sharpish I might get time for a little lie down with a book before I need to fetch her. I managed to tidy the lounge and dining room yesterday on my day off - I am going to work hard to keep it tidy - I always say this and it never works out but I really really must! 

I also must claim my expenses from HMRC - I started but did not finish the application and if I don’t do it today, I will have to restart it from scratch. 

Anyway must dash, hope you are all well.

Narola x

Baileys_Babe

What a turn around from using your overdraft at the beginning of the year to now having savings

I think that is a good plan to build a strong foundation for your new financial life with savings, then you can start working at bringing your DFD nearer.

Kakiste

Read and subscribed to your diary. It must be so reassuring to see your daughter being so financially savvy- well done for teaching her so well. 

enthusiasticsaver

If the interest is increasing on the credit cards in spite of paying the minimums then the minimum is set too low which does happen. There will be fluctuations depending on how many days in a month. I would suggest you up the payments on the cards this is happening on even by a small amount.

good work on the savings pots and hope your daughter enjoys her day. 

Newstart3

Narola1976 said:

Hello everyone, so sorry I have been quiet of late, a combination of being a bit busy and also nothing much on the financial front to report. All the debt payments have gone out, its just a waiting game for the interest to be applied before I can tally the amount the debt has gone down by. What I cannot work out is how come the interest can increase when the card is not being used (and never has) for purchases and the minimum monthly is going down by a few pounds. Not by many, but I would not have expected the estimated interest to be more than it was the previous month. Any ideas?

My DFD @Baileys_Babe is November 2024. I am hoping to improve on this but I also realise the importance of saving for my true expenses so that I do not end up using credit again. I am shocked when I see that I have circa £1500 in my bank accounts for all the various savings pots - there are many but when I think at the beginning of the year I was in my overdraft it does boggle the mind. I am doing all sorts of savings challenges, 1p x 2 for Christmas and my overseas trip to see mum next June, £2 challenge (this is where you add £2 to every month, not a massive amount saved, but better than nothing) amongst others. I am also saving up for an EF, but as I am saving for so many pots, the EF is small but that is OK because unless something drastic happens, I am unlikely to need it as I do save for all the major stuff. Granted the pots are small as the money is finite, but it all helps. 

It has been a spendy couple of days as I prepared for DD’s birthday. She is 18 today and I am pleased to say I only spent what I had saved up. We started the morning with a lovely fry up, and opening of presents. A few decorations, balloons and such made the living room quite festive. Bless her though she has gone off to work so we will enjoy a nice takeaway and birthday cake this evening. OH has given the money for that so I don’t have to worry on that front. 

The house is nice and quiet so I am going to get off with a few chores. The bathroom needs cleaning desperately, and I need to tidy the kitchen, and hoover the landing and stairs. But if I can do these jobs pretty sharpish I might get time for a little lie down with a book before I need to fetch her. I managed to tidy the lounge and dining room yesterday on my day off - I am going to work hard to keep it tidy - I always say this and it never works out but I really really must! 

I also must claim my expenses from HMRC - I started but did not finish the application and if I don’t do it today, I will have to restart it from scratch. 

Anyway must dash, hope you are all well.

Narola x

Definitely set your payment amounts rather than paying the minimum amounts as these will creep down as the balance reduces. Even if you are just rounding up by a few pounds eg £57 minimum payment, round it up to £60. It’s not a lot but it’ll make a difference over time. Good luck on your journey x 

Narola1976

Morning, been awol for a few days as rather busy. So a little round up is in order.

I don’t like uncertainty so taking on board advice given, I have set the minimum CC payments at a set amount (Only a few ££’s more) and will leave this in place so that a) I know exactly what the payments will be (hate waiting for statements to arrive to tell me the min payments) and b) it will hopefully have a positive effect on bringing down the balances faster. 

So for the figures now that all debts have been paid and interest applied:

Starting Total : £35156.29
Current Total: £33818.18
Total Paid Off: £1338.11

So far I have paid off over 3% (£1054.69) of my total debt. Not quite at the 4% mark (£1406.25) but progress none the less. 

So quite a bit of spending this month so category balances have taken a bit of a beating, but at least debt has not increased. Cat needed her annual vaccination and also flea and worming treatment, so that was an £85 bill. I paid for the 3 month treatment as there was evidence of flea dirt. I can’t understand where she gets fleas as she is an indoor cat. So also needed to get the flea spray for the house but managed to get this on Amaz*n for a significantly cheaper amount than the vet wanted to charge. DD also needs new glasses as her eyesight has deteriorated, and as I don’t have much in this category yet I had to drain my meagre EF plus pull money from other categories. Painful but necessary expenses. And this prompted another round of lectures to DD around importance of saving monthly for these less frequent but predictable expenses LOL. 

Work is very hectic at the moment and deadlines abound, so I foresee a few late evenings. I worked last night until 7:30 but that’s because I had a 2 hour break in the middle of the day to deal with family drama - my sister’s I hasten to add, not my own! My sister bless her has lost the plot after her husband of 25 years decided to move onto pastures new. She is doing things so out of character as she is hurt and can’t see past her own pain and its affecting her kids. So I had my niece on the phone expressing her upset and then after that hour, I needed to let off steam so I called my other sister who is also at a loss on how to get our sister to see her choices are really not sensible or safe. Not sure how this will all pan out. I am on the other side of the world so can’t really be there for them in the way I would like. 

Right must press on, work in a few minutes.  Have a good day.

Narola1976

Well it has been a while since I last posted. Rest assured, I remain on the straight and narrow Debt busting is a rather tedious journey with lots of nothing in between payments. I admire those posters who are able to give a really good accounting of what they have been up to such as foxgloves and CCL. I am sorry to say my diary is as dull as dishwater!=  mostly because apart from work there isn’t much else going on and it still feels weird airing my dirty laundry lol

So where to start? At the moment finances are ticking over reasonably well.I am lucky that I have enough to pay all the bills and save a little as well. I struggle to stick to the food budget but not massively overspending either.  The snowball is going well, if only slow, but I suppose better not to wish time away. DFD is now September 2024, an improvement on March 2025. I am hoping that this will improve as OH has agreed to take over the broadband and phone costs -  it means a saving of £64 per month for me. I have cancelled cable TV as we mostly use Netflix. So because I know how this goes, I have decided to add this £64 straight to the snowball amount. The reason for this is that if I use it to top up the true expense categories, I can easily see the money slipping away if I overspend in one category and then have to move money around. I have been paying this amount for years, so continuing to do so won’t hurt. I just know it will frittered away somehow.  I wish I can get another BT offer but no joy. Or rather, I have one, but on an account with no available credit but on another card where I have credit (same bank) no offer available. Makes absolutely no sense. I can only hope with time this might improve. I decided to close my credit union saving account as it seemed pointless to leave the money there with almost no interest payable. So I moved the small savings over to my other savings account which at least pays 0.75%. I will continue to save the monthly amount I was saving but this gets used up every so often as I pay for DD’s insurance to practice In my car in between lessons that she pays for. 

One of the questions plaguing me at the moment is whether to cancel what I believe to be a rather useless life cover policy. I did raise a thread about this but didn’t really get an answer to my question. I can’t get the kind of life cover I would like due to health (I have tried) but years ago I got cover for £15,000. However, I pay £31.13 per month and will continue to pay until I am 70 years. If I die before I just get £15,000. If I don’t die before 70 years, I get back 100% of the premiums less admin fee. I have no way of knowing how much that will be but I know the fee right now is circa £400.  So one wonder what might that look like in 26 years?? So the question is do I continue paying for another 26 years to get a return of £15,000 if I die before, or approximately £11000 if I live past 70. So far I have paid well over £3000. It’s like a savings plan with a fee for saving!  £15,000 would just about cover a funeral, it wouldn’t pay my debt off. I just don’t know if I should throw away the last 11 years (!!!!!) of paying, effectively 3K to offset the next 26 years of paying. Can anyone advise? I do have a more detailed post if anyone cares to read on the insurance page. A part of me feels I could save that £30 myself, or add to the debt snowball amount as really my family would be better served by me not leaving them with debt.  OH could probably afford a funeral if needs be. I have life cover for the mortgage which we took out at the time of getting the mortgage with the bank so if I did kick the bucket, the house would be paid for. I would love some advice. I know its all risk - if I died tomorrow or next year I would benefit but chances are that I won’t?

Right that is me, for now. I need to get on with a few bits and bobs as I also have to do some work that I won’t have time for next week as busy with a big project too.  Shame we don’t get overtime. I would be debt free by now with the extra hours I work lol.

Have a good weekend, and enjoy the sunshine

Baileys_Babe

I have no expertise, but I would ditch the life cover and put the monthly amount towards clearing your debts to bring your debt-free date closer.

If once your debt is cleared you wanted to save a lump sum to pay for your funeral you could start saving some or all of the money that is currently paying off the debt to reach your savings goal.

Do you get death in service payment from your employer/pension provider if you die whilst employed by them?

How are your emergency pot savings building?