Flip Flop Flo is fighting to be fancy free

flipflopflo

I'm trying to get debt free and build an emergency fund and house deposit. At current levels I am looking December '21 until I am debt free. I started out at £25k and am currently have around £8k. My husband works for the local authority but it's on a contract basis, though he started 3 years ago on a 6 month contract and is still there working contract to contract. I hate the uncertainty, it scares me silly but it's a good wage and he gets some good perks and he is getting his name known so we are hoping for a permanent  job soon. We are in a rented property and we've started saving for a house deposit. I am 55 and my husband is 45 and we have 3 children, my eldest is going to university this year (hopefully). We lived abroad for 10 years and should have come back to the UK with a fund to buy a house but we were screwed over and came home with nothing. We accrued the debt flying home and finding a rental property and various other bits and pieces. I started work when we got back in a supermarket but have since become seriously disabled so can no longer work. I am trying to set up my own business so I can work from home.

OK to the debts
CC1 £80.22/£900
CC2 £647.24/£1000
CC3 £4259.16/£6000
Bike loan (through employer) £340
OD1 £388.23/£1000
OD2 £2000
Credit Union Loan £506.16/£1000
SAVINGS
Credit Union £590.70
Help to Buy ISA £380
At the moment I am trying to clear CC1  then on to CC2 and also OD1 and onto OD2. The bike loan will be paid off by October through salary sacrifice. The CU loan has a SO of £120 a month and will be mostly paid off in November and then I will transfer from savings the little bit that is left to clear it. CC3 has a SO of £250 and then as funds start to come free I will hammer that.
Hopefully all that is doable and I can clear it all quickly and then save, save, save.
We have the added 'problem' that tax credits and child benefit will be reduced at the end of August so there will be less money around plus we will have the extra expence of a uni student.
So that is me lets see if we can do this.

foxgloves

Good luck with your debt busting, Flipflopflo. It is surprising what can be achieved when you really put your mind to it. I spent all of my Spendy Decades without an emergency fund & feel much more secure now that we have one in place. Am determined not to touch it unless I absolutely have no choice. It's an amazing feeling to become debt-free & well worth fighting for.
Good luck!
F

flipflopflo

Thank you Foxglove. I am just so pee'd off that the money I am paying off debt with could have been used for a deposit but on the flip side I know that when we came back to the UK with no jobs and no accommodation and vertualy no money we had to do what we had to do and it wasn't money pee'd up the wall. Just annoyed we were put in the situation. 

I've just had a letter to say that my child benefit will be reduced in September so I'll have to look at replacing that with another source of income.

flipflopflo

Today I added £20 to the CU savings so that stands at £610 now. £40 went into the Help to Buy ISA so that is at £420. Also £10 into OD1 but I am now being charged interest on this as of Friday at 37p a day so that stands at £329.34 so it looks like I'm going to have to rejig what money goes where and maybe do £15 to CU and £15 to OD1 to get rid of the OD quicker. Though I think I'm going to try and hammer OD1 and see if I can clear it by the end of August.

Bizzywizard

Hi,
Why not use your savings to pay off your overdraft? Savings are at an all time low and interest incurring debt is not helping you. Check out Martin Lewis’s main page about savings verses debt, he explains how you are loosing money by saving, when you have interest incurring debt. His explanation is so much better then mine.
Good luck with your debt busting journey.
Bizzy

flipflopflo

Bizzywizard I am trying to build an emergency fund up as my husbands contract is up in October and we don't know whether it will be renewed or not and if not whether he will get another job in the current climate. Also we will have to replace the car before the end of the year and it will need to be a wheelchair specific one which you can't pick up for £250 to get you by. Also the wheelchair also will need replacing within the next 12 months. So I want to get as much under our belt as possible so I am not too reliant on credit.

Today I've managed to chuck £50 at OD1 (had 36p interest today) so my total stands at £279.70 and £10 at CC1 so the total now is £70.22. I'm hoping I can clear both of them by the end of August.

flipflopflo

Just a note on Credit Unions, they will lend you up to 3 times your savings but they will check your SoA to see whether the repayments are affordable for you. They also ask that you have a certain level of savings in your account for the duration of the loan.
I've signed up today to Prolific, Swagbucks and Appen so I am hoping that I can get some pennies coming in that way. 

flipflopflo

I've just transfered £25 to my bank account from Topcashback so that will go to OD1 when it clears.

flipflopflo

Well I've just royally mucked up     I haven't checked my bank account since Thursday as life has been rather hectic. I've just checked and a yearly DD that I thought I had cancelled went out for £150 which has messed things up abit. It definitely is cancelled now.

So OD1 now stands at £417.34 after the £150 plus interest since last week minus £15 that went in on Monday.
CU savings are now £625 as £15 went in there.
Help to Buy is now £460 as £40 went towards that.

Think I may have to transfer some out of the CU savings  into OD1. I'm still waiting for the Topcashback refund. There is about £15 in my Swagbucks and I'm working my way to £25 before I will transfer that. I also have the vast amount of £1.52 in Prolific which hasn't been very prolific as I've only had 3 surveys.

flipflopflo

I've just rung the CU and they've made a little booboo. Somehow the weekly money I've been paying to go to my savings has been switched to my loan for some reason. Sooooooo at the moment my savings stand at £450.72 and the loan at £369.40. After a discussion we've decided to let it stand like that and just get it cleared so the last payment will be in September.

I've had a flurry of Prolific surveys through nd if they all get accepted then that'll be £5 to transfer into my account.

flipflopflo

The £25 from Topcashback landed in my account and I've just transfered it to OD1 so that now stands at £392.80. So going back in the right direction.