Back again

shellslife

Hi guys,

Well where to start! I have had a diary before but have decided that I need to start a fresh. 

First a bit about me. I’m married and we have 2 girls.  We both work full time and our wages are ok. We bring home approx £2,800 a month. DH sometimes gets a monthly bonus but we don’t rely on that. I get enhancements in work depending on what shifts I do but once again we don’t want to depend on that. I can also sometimes do extra shifts at work that I will get paid weekly for.

I sat and worked out our debts the other day after letting things slide stupidly.

Our debts as they stand are:
CC1 6228.85 (Think poss 0%)
CC2 6154.57
CC3 4727.88 (0%)
CC4 2485.00
CC5  483.28
Loan 4070.50 (15.9%) final payment 1/7/22
catalogue 798.00

All of the credit cards have direct debits set up to pay more than minimum payment. We also have a car on PCP that we are paying £295 😔😱 a month for. This was taken out in Dec 2018 and is a 4 year deal. We got the car when I was working on community so needed a reliable car for work. Plus DH loved the car. 

We also have a sofa on 0% finance that has 2 payments left which is £58.87 a month. Once this is paid off I will change DD payments to 9ne of the CCs.
We took a mortgage payment holiday after DH was furloughed as we panicked but this allowed us to pay £400 off CC5 plus I have done some extras in work (last week I worked a 70hr week) so have managed to pay another £317 off CC5. I am working a long day on Saturday as an extra shift and also worked Wednesday late so hopefully that will be another £150-200 paid off CC5. I just want to get that cleared and can then concentrate on CC2.

Does this seem like a good plan or would clearing CC4 after CC5 be better?

We are also saving some money each month as the girls activities have been cancelled plus we don’t need to buy travel passes Or are using much fuel, although we have noticed our food bill has increased, so whatever is left each month we will use to pay some of the debts.
We have 4 mobile phone contracts but DH has recently gone sim only and both mine and DD2 contracts expire soon so they will both be going sim only. 

I know I need to also build up some sort of savings which I have been doing at home. We have a little nest egg of just over £600 for emergencies.

shellslife

Spent the day trying to get cheaper car insurance quotes but surprisingly the company I am with the renewal price is much cheaper than anywhere else I have found. I am almost certain that buildings and contents insurance is also up for renewal. Will have to double check that one.

Need to also look at SIM only deals as I can now upgrade my phone and DD2 can next month. Hopefully can shave loads off the 4 mobile bills we have. I know the kids won’t be impressed but I want these CCs paid off sooner rather than later.

Doing an extra shift in work tomorrow as I’m on annual leave. That should hopefully pay around £100 which I will get on Friday.

waiting to get a refund back as well from the school trip DD2 should have been going on to EuroDisney. That is £444 which will go straight off a CC balance. Also a sadly DD1s prom has been cancelled so the ticket money will come back for that. Will have to try and sell her dress but will wait until next year I think for that.
We are due to go on holiday 1st Aug, I’m hoping it will be cancelled as that will be a huge chunk off a CC

Just had left over Scouse for tea and there is still some left that I can take to work with me tomorrow saves me being tempted to go restaurant in work.

I will also have a look round the house to see if I can sell anything, we have 2 bikes that the girls have hardly used for starters.

shellslife

Baked a cake on Friday to take into work with me yesterday.it really went down well and I received loads of compliments about it, so much so that a few of the girls have said I should make cake boxes up and sell online. I am really unsure as to if this would be worth it. I already work full time but as I do 13 1/2 hour shifts it means my working week is only 2-3 days unless I can manage to pick extra shifts up. 

I’ve managed to hopefully convince DH to stop spending the money he makes doing surveys on books. I’m also starting to do surveys so I can chip away at the debts. 

Think tomorrow I will see about getting a sim only deal. 

ryanm8655

Sounds like you’re doing really well in terms of boosting earnings and ploughing it into debts. In terms of the plan on the cards you’re attacking, what are the interest rates? I’d hit them in order of highest interest. Also keep an eye on when the 0% deals expire and try to get ahead of the curve.

You’re doing great.

shellslife

ryanm8655 said:

Sounds like you’re doing really well in terms of boosting earnings and ploughing it into debts. In terms of the plan on the cards you’re attacking, what are the interest rates? I’d hit them in order of highest interest. Also keep an eye on when the 0% deals expire and try to get ahead of the curve.

You’re doing great.

Thanks for the reply 😀 I know CC1 and 3 are both on 0% at the minute so quite happy to pay just above minimum payment on them. I will need to double check for CC4 as it’s in DHs name and he is in a weird mood at the minute. I have looked at CC2 and it says 
“simple standard rate p.a 17.62%(19.1% compound equivalent)
Simple cash rate p.a 24.20% (27.10% compound equivalent)”
I’m not sure what it means 😬 I’m hoping some nice person will come along and let me know.

I have just check the parent pay account for the girls and the refund for the prom ticket for DD1 has come back on to the account so I’ve asked for a refund which will take 2-3 days to hit my bank account but I have straight away paid it off CC5 so that now stands at £446.28. Once I get paid for my extra shifts at work on Friday that will also come off this one. I know i5 might not be the highest amount or even highest apr but will give me a sense of achievement knowing that one of the balances is clear.
That will then give us an extra £50 a month to throw at either CC2 or 4. Then in July my sofa is paid for so that’s another £58.87 that will be coming off the CCs.
DH cashed in for a £15 Amazon voucher which will sit on our account for when we need anything. He didn’t realise he could get a MrS or MrT voucher.
ive looked at trying to get a sim only but at the minute  I can only upgrade if I stay with who I’m with. Yes I could get Sim only with them but it would only save £6 (currently pay £26) a month and that’s for a 2 year plan! I’d rather wait a couple of months so can change provider and get one for £10 a month.

Im still not sure what to do regarding cake boxes. DH doesn’t seem keen on me doing it as he says there are so many others offering the same things.

Im in work the next 2 days both 14 hour shifts. Then I’m off for 2 days so might then look round to see if there is anything I can put on FB selling pages or fleabay. Not sure which one yet. We have 2 kids bikes that have hardly been used for starters.

shellslife

Back from a long day in work (7am-9.15pm) and I’m back in again tomorrow. Picked up some extra shifts for next week so doing an extra 30 hours which I will then pay straight off one of the debts. I know I will be shattered but extras can be very hit and miss so thought I would get them while I can. It also means that I won’t have to get a taxi in on one of the days as I had originally planned due to DH using the car for work.
I will get these debts under control.

shellslife

Off work today and tomorrow and trying to get on top of all the washing. My work clothes have to go in separately so that’s 2 different washes before I even start on the normal family wash which is 2 baskets full!
Just washed all of the dishes as well as emptied the dishwasher and cleaned some of the kitchen. Super annoyed with this as I’ve hardly been home the past couple of days. I’ve literally walked in from work and straight in the shower then off to bed. My girls are so lazy, moreso the oldest. I’m tired of always asking and moaning at them to help more.
DH been back at work almost a week and is really feeling it now. Work for him is busy as the customers think they are back to normal. He went in thinking he would be an extra man to help as it is getting busier but they have then furloughed the other guy in his department. They should have 9 people but they are having to cope with 2. Told him that I would make him a cake today so that should cheer him up a bit I hope. 

Tried the snowballing calculator bu5 I got a bit confused so came off it lol. Will just concentrate on highest interest whilst paying just above minimum on the others.
I also keep checking about holidays as we really don’t want to travel abroad in August but no way do we want to lose all of our money. We could try and postpone but we know this would cost us even more money and we would prefer a refund to put towards the debts.

shellslife

Wahhhh can’t log on to my work account to see my payslip So don’t know how much I will be picking up tomorrow. I know it’s only a few hours until it will be in my bank but I want to know now *being super impatient 😂 I just want to know how much I can pay off CC5.
Also nearly messed my cake up. Opened what I thought was a new bag of self raising flour and added 40g to the other 260g. Put the cake in the oven and went to empty the flour into a container only to discover it was plain flour lol. Cake luckily turned out ok.

ryanm8655

Can completely relate on the kids being lazy front. I’m living with family at the moment and my little cousins are so lazy and reluctant to help that you feel like their personal slave. The 12 year old is good and will always help without moaning. The 9 year old instantly says she has a stomach ache or runs off when asked to do something, she’ll even leave her plate at the table rather than putting it in the dishwasher like everyone else. The 10 year old will help if told but is reluctant. I’m guessing they start to develop more empathy by 12.

You’re doing really well. Keep it up.

shellslife

My 2 should know better as they are nearly 16 and nearly 13. The youngest isn’t that bad and will do things if asked. The oldest said yesterday when I asked her to wash the dishes that they weren’t hers! I could have quite gladly throttled her. Had a stern word with them both last night and they have said they will help more but we shall see! 

Couldn’t sleep last night so was still awake at just after midnight. Checked my bank to see how much I had been paid for the extras and picked up £199.77 so paid this straight off CC5. This now sits at £246.28. Can’t believe that I  have managed to pay almost £1000 off this in less than a month. I know the mortgage holiday has helped. We have 1 more month of the mortgage holiday left so I can use the £400 to pay towards one of the other debts. I am hoping they offer us another 3 months to be honest as that would really help towards clearing some of the balances right down. DH came home from work last night and said redundancies had started happening at his place which has gotten me really worried for his job. The uncertainty is making me even more determined to clear as much debt as possible. 

We aren’t in a position at the minute to get a 0% BT card or a low interest loan so have to keep chipping away at the debts and maybe try again in a few months time.

shellslife

A long day in work for me today (14 hours) followed by Another tomorrow. Tomorrow’s is extra so should hopefully be around another £150 that I can pay off a debt next Friday. Checked the rota and picked up more extras. Total extra hours for this month will be around 65. Hopefully that will equate to £400, could even be more but I’m so tired my brain doesn’t want to work 😂🥱😴 

The good thing about the extra money is as soon as it hits my account it is straight back out clearing the debt down so I’m not tempted to spend any of it.