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enthusiasticsaver

You could be right on moving the balance being better given you do not know when you will get the refund.  I would imagine when the refund comses through you need to phone the credit card company and arrange for this to be sent to you presumably through BACS.  Do you have a direct debit mandate active on it? The interest on £2280 is approx £56.80 per month at 29.9%

shellslife

Thank you Enthusiasticsaver.  Yep we have direct debits set up for all the cards. 

I have messaged the person we booked holiday through so will see what she says about it tomorrow. If it’s looking likely to be months rather than weeks then I will do the BT.Then I can just throw most of the extra payments at CC2 to clear the interest accruing balance. I’m so eager to clear as much debt as possible. 

DH was Sick yesterday, think it was something he ate, but he was worrying about not being able to go into work as they are making some people redundant. 

Covid has really made us take stock of all our debts and how stupid we have been with money. The uncertainty of being furloughed and now redundancies has shaken us up a bit. 

shellslife

Holiday woman got back to me yesterday and said about 6 weeks for a refund. Don’t know if it’s worth transferring or not.

Also might not be debt free in 2 years now. DH told me yesterday that they are thinking of centralising his company so that would mean even more redundancies or relocation. His boss has said that he will be ok but there is still that risk. Relocation for us would mean that I’m out of a job and Vacancies for my role in the nhs don’t come up that often. He does earn more than me by about £200 a month but I’d say my job is a bit more stable than his. I’m keeping everything crossed that his position will be safe but also trying to make plans if it’s not. At least we have made huge progress in getting the debts down.
One option that we might have to save money is me looking at getting out of the PCP on my car. It’s a 4 year plan and we are almost 2 years into it. We don’t intend to keep the car at the end of the 4 years. I don’t know how easy it is to get out of PCP deals but it is an option. 

shellslife

Did the balance transfer. To late for the direct debit that is coming out in 2 days so I have left that amount outstanding on the card. Will keep a check on it to make sure I don’t get a shock with added interest coming out. It cost less than £50 to do the transfer so will save me money in interest and I can now concentrate on the £1160 which is on 19.9%. Even though we are getting the holiday money back I still want to make as much overpayments as I can.
Finally getting DH to cancel the buildings and contents insurance so I can get the £105 one rather than £235 lol. 

Next job is to get the mobile phones sorted. DHs is sim only at £10 a month but mine and the girls are £25-30 a month each. Mine and DD2 I can do now but DD1 won’t be until December although she wants a job and has said she will pay her own phone contract! 

Also need to sort child benefit out as DD1 is 16 in a few weeks but hasn’t decided if she is staying in 6th form or college.

shellslife

Direct debit for the remaining £177 on CC4 was supposed to go out today but it wasn’t taken. This is the 2nd month this has happened. I will pay it manually when DH gets home from work. Wonder why it hasn’t taken it out again.
Got paid for a bank shift that I did last week. Was only a short shift but that’s an extra £79.70 I can pay off CC2.
Also the last payment for the sofa came out today so I can redirect that money to pay the credit cards. It’s only £58 a month but it will all help.
I sat and rewrote our outgoings last night and it really is a shock to see how much we pay out on debts/finance compared to essential bills. 

Really excited to get the holiday refund now so I can get the debts down to 3 0% cards. That way I will know that everything I am paying out will be bringing the debts down without worrying about the interest being piled on top.

shellslife

Just changed my mobile phone contract to sim only. I’ve stayed with the same provider and gone from £28 a month to £14. That’s 2 out of the 4 contracts on SIM only deals. 

shellslife

Well today is my birthday and my dad gave me £100. I have put this in my emergency box as there is nothing I want/need at the minute.
Not much has changed regarding debt levels as there have been no extra shifts in work.
We have gone overdrawn on our current account, stupid spends 😔 Will have to get this cleared and cancel the overdraft facility.
Still no holiday refund 🙁

Payday for me in a week and DH 9 days so will make sure to split the money into separate pots to make sure we don’t go overdrawn again.
Do have to get school uniforms which is quite expensive as only available at certain shops and also birthday presents for both my girls And my DH as well as my niece and nephew. July/August is always expensive. I need to set up a savings pot specifically for that for next year. 

DH has said car needs 2 new tyres soon as well.

shellslife

Keep checking one of the credit card accounts to see if the holiday refund has come back even though I have been told 6 weeks lol. I think I am just excited with the idea of reducing the debts significantly.  I’ve made a note of when the 6 weeks is up (17th August) Just so I can keep an eye on things.
I was hoping to be able to do an extra shift in work today but the manager didn’t get back to me. Gutted as it could have been an extra £100+ towards being debt free. Although I have woken up this morning with a migraine 😭 yet again. I think I need to get a prescription for the preventative tablets I usually take.

My older daughter has just read the letter from school that says what to expect from GCSE results day. When I told her that I couldn’t go in with her she looked about ready to cry. She does suffer with her mental health and also knows that she won’t have done that well as she failed her mocks. 

WinterWarrior

a belated happy birthday! 

Does your daughter need to show her face for the results? 

shellslife

Suzanne54321B said:

a belated happy birthday! 

Does your daughter need to show her face for the results? 

Thank you.
I'm going to email the school and see If they will let either me or her dad just go in with her to collect the envelope. Her anxiety will be through the roof. I think it already is as she has self harmed again recently 😔 When asked she said she doesn’t know whey she did it. I know some girls do the for attention sadly as they cut in places people can see but she has done it the tops of her legs. She was having counselling sessions arranged through school which stopped before Covid hit.Alls we can do for her is remind her that we love her and will always be here if she needs to talk. 

On the money front I have just checked credit cards and the holiday refund came back. This was just short of £10,000. I need to pay my dad his holiday money back out of that first so ours is around £7200. That means that all the credit cards with balances remaining are interest free. I have messaged the 2 cards the refunds have gone to asking how to get the money paid into my account. Sadly I can’t phone as they are DHs cards. Once the money hits the bank I will get a settlement figure on the loan which is looking to be around £3900. When everything is done I will change the direct debits for the 3 remaining cards to include the money we were paying on the loan and the other cards and sofa.

Is it sad that I’m looking forward to just having the 3 0% cards left? It will still mean we are about £14000 in debt but it’s much better than  The Over £25000 When I started this diary.