Mid 40s - need to sort it

Emmenelle

Ok, brief scene setting and history.. I’m 44 and DH is 42. We have 2 kids A, 14 and B, 12 and we’ve lived in rented accommodation since 2006 when we had to declare bankruptcy and give our house back to the bank. We live in an expensive part of the country but in recent years our joint basic salaries have totalled £90k but prior to that, we managed to run up further debt. We had to move to a more expensive rental in 2016 and this coincided with a share windfall being thwarted due to brexit - a windfall I was relying on to pay back £20k of debt, so basically it was rocky until 2018. Now we can live comfortably alongside our debt payments, however Covid-19 has seen DH furloughed and losing £800 per month - we can live with this as outgoings are currently minimal but there is a high chance he will be made redundant and I want to get a grip once and for all and get this debt well on its way to zero by the end of 2021. 

Not playing the blame game but DH is terrible with money and thinks nothing of chucking a takeaway on the card with the intention of paying back when we get paid, which obviously never happens.  I’m much more frugal but until the last couple of years have given in to keep the peace but now no more and nothing frivolous now goes on the card.

i will be successful this time. Will post later with some facts and figures to draw a line in the sand and move forward. Wish me luck. 

WhySeaEm

Best of luck Emmenelle

Emmenelle

I’ve known to the penny what I’ve owed for a while, so no surprises, but I wanted to put it down here;

Loan £9499.56 @ £430.01 per month (25 months to run)
Barclaycard £6410.81 - 18.7% APR
Lloyds £5217.45 - 0% (runs out August 2020)
Nationwide £4271.86 - 0% (runs out August 2020)
MBNA £3948.45 - 0% (runs out Nov 2020)
TOTAL £29348.13

I’ve downloaded a couple of debt apps as and it predicts I will be debt free April 2024, which I’m quite surprised about as I thought it would be worse.  DH’s company has announced today they are restructuring and redundancies are due.... will have to see what that brings.

Tahlullah.H

Fingers crossed it is good news.

Emmenelle

Lovely sunny Sunday, so I’m having a ‘self care’ day.  Done Day 8 of a 30 day Yoga programme on YouTube, now sitting in the garden and updating my diary before I read my book. 

DH got a pay adjustment in his furlough salary this month which was £300 in his favour. Before furlough, he would have £500 to himself every month, which has now had to be reduced to £250. He immediately suggested he have £100 of it with £200 back to the house - I showed him a screenshot of the debt app totalling what we owe... it just doesn’t go in with him. Yesterday, I took DD to the coast and on the way back he texted to suggest we get a curry - I mean !!!!!!?!? How will I ever get him on board 🙄

Emmenelle

Feel like after the drama of 2020, with both DH and I having been at risk of redundancy and having, so far, come out the other side, that it was time to renew my focus on shifting this debt.

Using one of the debt apps, my predicted debt free date is June 2024. Both DH and I are approaching our mid 40s and would like to try and buy somewhere small in 3 years tine - children will be 18 and 15 then.  I’m also doing a share save scheme at work which matures August 2023, which will give us a minimum of £9k towards paying the remainder of the debt / house deposit.

The debt app is so good at keeping me on track and accountable. I’m hoping to get a modest bonus in February so I’m looking forward to adding that to the app and revising the debt free date down a little.