Time to Face The Music

RelievedSheff

The owner of the site was very apologetic this morning as we were leaving. She hadn't realised there had been a noise complaint last night but had several people complaining to her this morning. 

We told her not to worry we would definitely be backto stay again.

Filled the gas up. That cost £10.58.

Decided to fill the diesel when we set off for Scotland as we will be going there anyway to check the tyre pressures on the way.

Farm shop done, supermarket done, grass cut in the back garden, the front seems to have stopped growing. Got the van mats and dogs van blankets in the washing machine, going to hang them out to dry shortly and then put another load of washing in. Going to vacuum out the van in a minute because it is full of grass,  then need to prep dinner.

Then it might be time for a drink I think.

RelievedSheff

£232 paid to Credit Card 5 today.

Other then that it will be a no spends day.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be from stores. Breakfast was crumpets, we have both taken our packed lunches to work and dinner tonight is chicken enchiladas made with the leftovers from yesterdays roast dinner.

Todays jobs include:

• load of washing
• delivering the sister in laws birthday present after work
• walking the dog. 

RelievedSheff

Balances Update 06.09.21

 

Furniture Loan = £0

Debt 1 = £0

Credit Card 1 =£0

Credit Card 2 = £0

Credit Card 3 = £0

Credit Card 4 = £0

Credit Card 5 = £829 (£100 repayment 19% interest)

Credit Card 6 = £3120 (£100 repayment 0% interest until August 2022)

Credit Card 7 = £10726 (£200 repayment 0% interest until November 2024)

 

HP Car Loan = £1670 (£251 repayment final payment February 2022)

HP Motorhome Loan = £22016 (£393 monthly payment final payment March 2026)

 

 Total Debt = £38361

RelievedSheff

It is just over a year ago that I started this diary and back then we had a debt total of £24592 which was made up of credit cards, store cards, debts and the car HP Loan.

Fast forward to today and ignoring the motorhome HP loan for a minute our debt total would be £16345.

Which would mean that in 12 months we have paid off £8247 from our balances.

Of course this is probably the only diary where our debt has in reality jumped up £22k due to a new vehicle loan   

joedenise

As you say ignoring the HP loan for the motorhome your reduction in debt over the last year has been amazing - that's not far short of £800 a month!

Of course with the motorhome in reality your debt has risen but not by as much as it would have done if you hadn't been paying off the rest of the day.  The motorhome is bringing you so much pleasure and you're getting out regularly in it.  Are you planning on using it as much during in the winter?  There's no need not to of course as the heating only needs to warm a relatively small space!  As a regular motorhome user there are a couple of things I would suggest to make winter travel more comfortable:

1.  Park on hard standing and with electric (getting off grass can be really awkward when it's wet and slippery or even icy);
2.  Buy yourself an oil filled radiator to use overnight when it's particularly cold as the van heating can be too warm and quite noisy;
3.  Invest in a couple of blankets to cover your legs in the evenings to save on gas;
4.  If the temperature drops below about 8 degrees make sure you use fridge covers over the vents;
5.  Put a peg of the water valve dump to stop it dumping all the water when it gets very cold (think it's if it goes below 5 degree but not certain on that).
6.  If there is a chance of freezing put a bucket under the open waste water outlet (it's easier to defrost a bucket of water than a tank of water!)

Hope these tips might help you and keep you comfortable when winter motorhoming or if you decide to go off to the Alps skiing at some time in the future!

milann

You have done amazingly well paying off the debts you have in a year RS 👍🥂👏
Thanks for the overwinter motorhome trips Denise….might come in useful if we ever get ours 😏

Sun_Addict

That's a very impressive amount to pay off in a year and have a life at the same time. Brilliant 😁

RelievedSheff

joedenise said:

As you say ignoring the HP loan for the motorhome your reduction in debt over the last year has been amazing - that's not far short of £800 a month!

Of course with the motorhome in reality your debt has risen but not by as much as it would have done if you hadn't been paying off the rest of the day.  The motorhome is bringing you so much pleasure and you're getting out regularly in it.  Are you planning on using it as much during in the winter?  There's no need not to of course as the heating only needs to warm a relatively small space!  As a regular motorhome user there are a couple of things I would suggest to make winter travel more comfortable:

1.  Park on hard standing and with electric (getting off grass can be really awkward when it's wet and slippery or even icy);
2.  Buy yourself an oil filled radiator to use overnight when it's particularly cold as the van heating can be too warm and quite noisy;
3.  Invest in a couple of blankets to cover your legs in the evenings to save on gas;
4.  If the temperature drops below about 8 degrees make sure you use fridge covers over the vents;
5.  Put a peg of the water valve dump to stop it dumping all the water when it gets very cold (think it's if it goes below 5 degree but not certain on that).
6.  If there is a chance of freezing put a bucket under the open waste water outlet (it's easier to defrost a bucket of water than a tank of water!)

Hope these tips might help you and keep you comfortable when winter motorhoming or if you decide to go off to the Alps skiing at some time in the future!

Thanks for the tips. I don't think we will use it quite as much in the winter months as we are doing now. We will have a few winter weekends away though I'm sure.

The waste water tank is heated to prevent it freezing but we would need to be plugged in to use that as it draws quite a lot of power. 

I think the boiler drops it's water if it gets below 5 degrees. With where it is located I think it would have to drop very cold indeed for the valve to activate.

RelievedSheff

Sun_Addict said:

That's a very impressive amount to pay off in a year and have a life at the same time. Brilliant 😁

I hope that with the majority of the credit card debt now on 0% deals that we can make even bigger inroads into paying down the debts this next 12 months. 

joedenise

Is your water dump close to the heater then?  As on a lot of vans they are quite away apart, in fact on opposite sides!  The most we do without EHU is a couple of nights in winter but we can easily do 6 nights without in summer - might even be longer but never tried more than that!  In fact this year is the first year we've stayed in one place for nearly a week; usually we move every day or two!