Counting Down from £15K

purplehippo276

@ryanm8655 It's been so frustrating! £170 lighter right now, negating my emergency fund progress. Onwards and upwards from here though, right?! 

alt80

@purplehippo276 from what I can tell banks are very reluctant to lend right now.

FOMO_overspender

Just read through your diary and you're doing amazingly! Annoying about the EF but a win that it didn't result in any CC usage or adding to your debt. 

Sarahwithlove

I find it can take a couple months for my credit score to catch up with the amount paid off in cards. Also its about utilisation so if that's over 50% on any of your cards it doesn't look good. I've kept all my cards open for now but locked them away in my safe. Once I have paid them all off I will just keep the one that's still 0% for another 18 months in case of emergency that can't be covered by my emergency fund. Also have you had any other changes that could have caused a search? I.e I switched bank accounts recently and mine dropped 11 points because of that. 

purplehippo276

A few wins since my last update.  Barclaycard is now at £380 to go.  I get paid on the 22nd so will clear half of the balance then, and then the card will be paid off next month - a great way to end the year!  My total debt is now in the £4K territory (just), and my emergency fund now is sitting at just over £1K despite having to pay out for gas repairs.   I also made my 1st ever overpayment to HMRC.  

On the downside, I have ended up spending on my Virgin card - I ended up doing most of my Christmas shopping last weekend, because of a) shops closing and b) delivery services struggling to cope with online deliveries.  I did manage to use the money I had saved, so didn't hit the card too hard, but it's still a bit of a backwards step.  However I do have a clear plan to pay the entire card off by my original date of 22nd March, and my debt free date of July 22nd 2021 still stands.

Trying not to be too hard on myself - I have to remind myself sometimes that I have managed to pay off £10K off my debts this year.  A really difficult year when it would have been so easy to say sod it, and treat myself to nice things.  

ryanm8655

purplehippo276 said:

A few wins since my last update.  Barclaycard is now at £380 to go.  I get paid on the 22nd so will clear half of the balance then, and then the card will be paid off next month - a great way to end the year!  My total debt is now in the £4K territory (just), and my emergency fund now is sitting at just over £1K despite having to pay out for gas repairs.   I also made my 1st ever overpayment to HMRC.  

On the downside, I have ended up spending on my Virgin card - I ended up doing most of my Christmas shopping last weekend, because of a) shops closing and b) delivery services struggling to cope with online deliveries.  I did manage to use the money I had saved, so didn't hit the card too hard, but it's still a bit of a backwards step.  However I do have a clear plan to pay the entire card off by my original date of 22nd March, and my debt free date of July 22nd 2021 still stands.

Trying not to be too hard on myself - I have to remind myself sometimes that I have managed to pay off £10K off my debts this year.  A really difficult year when it would have been so easy to say sod it, and treat myself to nice things.  

Great work! Amazing on the emergency fund progress...I've been hit with a heft bill post MOT so feel your pain in that being decimated ha.

purplehippo276

Had my head down since my last update. Freelance work has really taken an uptick - this quarter is normally my busiest one but earlier in October I was saying to my husband that this year didn't didn't feel like it was going to be as busy as other years. Got that one wrong, so beavering away at nights, weekends, and the one weekday I have set aside for freelance stuff. If I could make what I do this quarter in the other three quarters then I really could work solely for myself, rather than have to work my day job (which I don't really enjoy). Something to work to, and something that will be more feasible once the debt is gone, so a good incentive to keep on debt busting!  

Anyway, was able to send £200 from freelance profits to Barclaycard today, and I'm on course to clear the remaining balance (£167) a month earlier than anticipated - this payday weekend actually. Adios Barclaycard! 

As I mentioned, the balance on my Virgin card has gone up due to various spends, but now Barclaycard is out of the picture I'll be attacking the balance hard. I'm using the debt avalanche method, so the £150 I was paying to Barclaycard a month will now be put towards clearing the Virgin card. I was paying £150 a month to Virgin, so this now means I'll pay £300 a month towards the Virgin card, as a minimum, as well as anything else I can throw at it. Should be clear by March, if not earlier, all being well. Giddy at the thought of it - think the last time I had zero credit card debt to my name was over 13 years ago!

purplehippo276

Spent the morning tinkering with my budget spreadsheet (aka my happy place).  Deleted Barclaycard from it, which was an enormous relief, as it was my biggest debt, and adjusted the figures for Virgin to reflect my avalanche payment.  Also realised that I hadn't updated my HMRC figures to reflect the £75 p/m overpayment that I'm making so did that too.  Debt free date has moved forward from 22nd July 2021 to 22nd June 2021. Don't mind me, I'm just doing a little happy dance over here!

Four_Seasons

well done!! x

rugbymadfamily

Congrats that's really good news!