Starting All Over Again

crunchy_time

Great news about your reduced commute!!! That will save you a fortune!
xx

ZaSa1418

Just got a letter from the HMRC and hubby has overpaid tax so he is getting a refund of just under £250 yay. He has said I can do whatever with the money so I think I will pay it towards the credit card.

I have been having weak thoughts but not to spend on stuff I don't need but to pay off the last bit of my credit card with our emergency fund. I know that it would be a stupid idea but having £1k in a bank account jut sitting there is doing my head in a little.

Naomim

ZaSa1418 said:

Just got a letter from the HMRC and hubby has overpaid tax so he is getting a refund of just under £250 yay. He has said I can do whatever with the money so I think I will pay it towards the credit card.

I have been having weak thoughts but not to spend on stuff I don't need but to pay off the last bit of my credit card with our emergency fund. I know that it would be a stupid idea but having £1k in a bank account jut sitting there is doing my head in a little.

Are you paying interest on the credit card and can you clear it in full?  How much do you pay to the credit card monthly and how long would it take you to build up the emergency pot to £1000 again?  At the moment whilst we all need an emergency fund, if they're in a savings account they aren't earning anything.  It could be worth paying the card off if you are organised enough to replace the emergency fund with the credit card payment + what you already put into your emergency fund monthly.

ZaSa1418

Naomim said:

ZaSa1418 said:

Just got a letter from the HMRC and hubby has overpaid tax so he is getting a refund of just under £250 yay. He has said I can do whatever with the money so I think I will pay it towards the credit card.

I have been having weak thoughts but not to spend on stuff I don't need but to pay off the last bit of my credit card with our emergency fund. I know that it would be a stupid idea but having £1k in a bank account jut sitting there is doing my head in a little.

Are you paying interest on the credit card and can you clear it in full?  How much do you pay to the credit card monthly and how long would it take you to build up the emergency pot to £1000 again?  At the moment whilst we all need an emergency fund, if they're in a savings account they aren't earning anything.  It could be worth paying the card off if you are organised enough to replace the emergency fund with the credit card payment + what you already put into your emergency fund monthly.

If i used the emergency fund i could clear it in full, it is charging interest and is the highest interest rate of all the debts.
I pay just over the minimum on the others and chuck everything else at this one at the moment. 
I am not paying anything in to my emergency fund as it is at the £1000 mark but if i used it to pay off the credit card then i would need to replace and that would then take money away from credit card overpayments.
There is so much conflicting advice about emergency funds as it does seem mad i have £1000 in a bank account not doing anything when i have debts that are charging interest. 

natsplatnat

Play around with an interest calculator / snowball calculator!

1) you might be surprised at how much interest it saves you.

2) you might find paying a figure below the full balance makes more sense to you as it would leave you with some EF but reduce the interest and time taken to clear the card.

ZaSa1418

natsplatnat said:

Play around with an interest calculator / snowball calculator!

1) you might be surprised at how much interest it saves you.

2) you might find paying a figure below the full balance makes more sense to you as it would leave you with some EF but reduce the interest and time taken to clear the card.

Thank you, I am going to have a play around with the numbers and see what works. 

ZaSa1418

So I havent touched the emergency fund. Got paid yesterday and hubby gets paid Friday. I have made a couple of small overpayments to the credit card so there is exactly 1k left.  The minimum payment comes out this week too so will take it under 1k. 
I am hoping i can clear it in full by the end of September.

ZaSa1418

Direct Debit came out and i added a payment to take the balance down to £700. I am still hoping I can clear this by the end of the month. 

In other news i have bought all the stuff for my daughters birthday and used vouchers (bar a few quid for balloons and a card) that i had from my birthday and Christmas last year. Yes i should be using them on me blah blah but it's done now and i feel better. 

ZaSa1418

Paid off another little bit so £558.80 left which will definitely be paid off by the end of the month.  I am so happy that my highest interest rate card will be gone soon. I am also secretly hoping for a balance transfer offer but i doubt it  

I was a little bit upset the other day as it seems my boss has done a u-turn about working from home until the new year which is annoying but i have a parking space i can use and the times of work are flexible so i can travel off peak. I do think that once he has seen everyone he will happily let us stay at home. 

Apart from the annoyance of having to spend money on the commute which i have not missed i am feeling extremely anxious about travelling on the train, my train line has very old trains and i am a bit of a germaphobe as it is so i have no idea what i will be like especially as i have stayed indoors or only gone to large outside spaces e.g. country parks since March.

RelievedSheff

Well done on getting that card so close to cleared.

I'm counting down to the 1st of October when the balance on one of my debts is cleared