Counting Down from £15K

purplehippo276

@ryanm8655 Oh wow, that's the dream!  My workplace is pretty small, so if all the parents of school-aged kids were furloughed there would be about three people left, which is why they don't want to go down the furlough route.  
@Sarahwithlove Thank you! Ploughing on and looking forward to brighter days.  They are reviewing the schools position here on 2nd Feb.  Hoping at least that nurseries can resume then, which would make my life a little easier.  

ryanm8655

purplehippo276 said:

@ryanm8655 Oh wow, that's the dream!  My workplace is pretty small, so if all the parents of school-aged kids were furloughed there would be about three people left, which is why they don't want to go down the furlough route.  
@Sarahwithlove Thank you! Ploughing on and looking forward to brighter days.  They are reviewing the schools position here on 2nd Feb.  Hoping at least that nurseries can resume then, which would make my life a little easier.  

They're not even furloughed, just get as much leave as they want. Maybe I could claim to have a child...ha

Fingers crossed they do open the schools and nurseries! Being back with the family it was really difficult and that was with 3 adults to take it in turns to help the kids...

purplehippo276

Oh my, I'm just quietly weeping into my coffee here @ryanm8655 at that!  Maybe I need to switch to the civil service!
Made a couple of payments to my credit card, and I'm now in the 3 figures category. £700 to go on the credit card, and then I'm credit card debt free.  Pretty good way to end an otherwise rubbish month!  

ryanm8655

purplehippo276 said:

Oh my, I'm just quietly weeping into my coffee here @ryanm8655 at that!  Maybe I need to switch to the civil service!
Made a couple of payments to my credit card, and I'm now in the 3 figures category. £700 to go on the credit card, and then I'm credit card debt free.  Pretty good way to end an otherwise rubbish month!  

Fantastic :-) 

purplehippo276

Looking back at January, I managed to buy nothing in January (beyond essentials).  Hoping to do the same this month to supercharge my credit card repayments.  £700 to go!  I budget myself £25 a week fun money, but in January I was mostly able to send all of that to debt.  Hoping a final push in February will see all this paid off as long as nothing unexpected pops up.

juicyjackieb

Well done Hippo 💗

purplehippo276

Thank you @juicyjackieb! 

purplehippo276

Paid off a bit more and down to £500 left on the credit card, and then I’ll be credit card debt free for the first time since 2007! It’s SO SO tempting to take the money from my emergency fund, and pay it back, but trying to resist that idea as the debt is 0% interest. I reckon paying into the emergency fund won’t be quite as satisfying as paying off the debt. But such itchy fingers!! 

purplehippo276

Ok, I caved.  I've just taken the £400 left to go on my credit card out of my emergency fund and paid off my Virgin credit card (my last credit card debt).  Feels amazing to sit and look at a £0 balance / no payment required on credit cards for the first time since 2007!

Emergency fund will be replenished by pay day, and then I can tackle my HMRC debt head on.  On my debt free journey, I started off with the snowball method to clear a few smaller loans.  But then I switched to the avalanche method - tackling the biggest debts because I thought what a slog leaving them to last.  This means I've got £475 to put towards my HMRC debt each month.   There's about £1200 to pay, so it should be gone in less than 3 months.  Fingers crossed.  This is the debt I have hated the most - I have hated owing money to HMRC.  

After that is paid off I'll just have £1000 left to pay to Shawbrook Loans.  I pay £45 a month on that one currently, so with the HMRC avalanche money freed up, that will mean I will pay £520 a month to Shawbrook, meaning it will be gone in less than 2 months.  5 months to debt freedom!!  Less, if I can do it faster if freelance work is good to me.  Both of these debts had a repayment end date of 2023 and 2024 (I think, I put my head in the sand about them when I took them out to be honest), so it feels good that I won't be chained to them for that long.  

juicyjackieb

Many congratulations! What a great summer you will have!