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First Steps to Solvency
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Sorry to you all in Tier 3/2 after lockdown finishes next Wednesday. Not sure of the reasoning behind it but as we are in Cornwall which is the only mainland Tier 1 so less restrictions than most. Can't see it making much difference tbh as we rarely go to pubs unless eating too and you can do that in Tier 2 anyway. At least the gym can reopen.
@alt80 £400 savings per month is a lot (£4800 over the year) so worth considering making the saving I think. However if you both need a car each then obviously you have budgeted for that now. Striking a balance between paying off debt and living is an age old problem and it really depends on how long you want this round your neck and how tight your budget is. Your monthly credit card repayments are around £1000 I seem to recall and you must have about £30k left now so if you can keep it all at 0% and no overpayments then obviously that is 30 months until it is gone unless you sell more stuff. If you can add the £400 to the credit cards by getting rid of the BMW in February then they will be repaid in under 2 years. Once it is gone you have that £1k or £1.4k per month in your budget again either to reduce the profit taken from BTL or to save for car balloon payments or whatever.I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Debt free Wannabe, Budgeting and Banking and Savings and Investment boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
The 365 Day 1p Challenge 2025 #1 £667.95/£301.35
Save £12k in 2025 #1 £12000/£80002 -
Tier 3 here too. Just as I get allowed out again. I reckon I've put on 5lb since I started self isolating. If your missus ever needs anyone to practice on I'm ready and willing 🤣🤣HSBC Credit Card £6400 now £5587.43 now 5229.9 now £0!!!
Capital One £1500 now £1179.98 now 1079.98
Overdraft was £500 now £0!!!
Family 1 - £3950
Family 2 - squillions
Student loan £10906 now £8571.441 -
I'm in a similar situation to @ryanm8655, previously Tier 1 and one of the lowest rates yet will be going into Tier 2. I expected it TBH but still a blow.
Been saying for a while there will be a mass ban on indoor household mixing because it's been a significant factor in cases for some time.1 -
Snap here, was tier 1 and now going I to tier 2. Sympathies with anyone who is in tier 3 🙈*Dad loan - £5300 - £7200
*Virgin Credit Card - £3552.50 - £0
*Natwest - £1828.35 -£0.00
Barclaycard - £2315.25 - £0.00
Creation Finance - £960.32 £840
*Total debt - £8040/£11641.17*
Savings
*Savings Buffer - £100/£1500
*Emergency Fund - £1500/£1500
New diary- https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6474943/the-three-cs-coffee-clothes-credit-cards/1 -
Jeez Alt8o you really are hard work sometimes - why is everything so dramatic and extreme? The options are not "live in smackheadville with no life" versus living in some massive blinged up mansion eating caviar. The middle ground is having a lovely home, a decent car and a comfortable lifestyle - in essence everything you already have but don't appreciate anywhere near enough (as you've said yourself many times).This not just about the money, it's about you completely changing your values and how you see the world, which you've acknowledges is skewed. Something that I think would help is to connect with a new social circle that will give you a new way of seeing things. Restricting social contacts to property and car people doesn't seem to be helping you break this cycle of spending based on envy and materialism. You say your desire for "things" equates to the drive to succeed but frankly many of us would not see it that way - it feels far more like wanting to flaunt wealth and make others feel impressed and even jealous. Not a particularly attractive quality I hope you agree. Finding new acquaintances might go a long well to helping this change.Please start reading some diaries of people really struggling to make ends meet or feed their kids, who would give their eye teeth for half of what you have. I feel you need some of that balance in your life. Someone successfully feeding a family of 4 on less than £5 a day is not going to be at impressed by a Range Rover bought on credit sitting on your driveway. It still feels that you sometimes come on here either to get validation for a bad decision (unlikely on an MSE forum!) or to get some masochistic pleasure in arguing your case when people disagree with you (I'm especially thinking about cars here). And by the way, making jokey but still rather judgemental comments about other peoples choices such as what car they drive isn't kind (I have no idea what is wrong with a Dacia frankly).If this post comes across as blunt then yes, it was meant to be. Much as these forums are here for support and sympathy, they are also about some tough love from time to time and you appear to need more than most if the message is to sink in. I know you are trying to change - all anyone wants here is to help you do that.
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Tier 2 myself. I know it sounds a bit contrarian but I actually really like it lol. You feel a lot less obligation on you to have to "meet up" and so forth. Quite nice really.3
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Tier 3 definitely got my anger levels rising today lol. Not been too bad really but yeah not gone my way. Oh well no control over it so need to make the best of what we have. @TheAble great way to look at it re obligations etc thanks.
Budget for December now reset. Been through most of the figures apart from the cards. Small £75 sale to also come off the cards. Will post an update on the figures but I know the cards are under £30k, should be just under £29k by end of December - when I update I take the min payments off which come out through the month.
The main issue re car is I need to get the credit cards gone to get the RR balloon together and that was contingent on using the money going on the BMW to initially throw at the cards then all of it into the RR balloon. That’s the only way my RR is getting paid for in full at the end of the term else I’ll have to refinance it. Not getting me a fun car either and still living with the cutbacks in day to day life/ holidays/ special occasions.
Re wife and car she has been looking at an electric Mini through the business £210+vat and 0BIK. But FML. I don’t want that thing on my drive let alone have to use it if she needs to take the dog to the vets etc also means the RR will get more miles put on the clock. I’m actually using the BMW a fair bit at the moment. Would be about 10/12k a year going on the RR if no other car and there’s no chance I’m splitting the mileage and driving an electric Mini around ha, just not for me.
XJS makes a lot more sense to me - could possibly even throw it on 0% card but if not get a personal loan at c3%.
For: 5.3 V12 need say no more, both wife and I like them, wife pulling on my drive in a black XJS probably a few of my teenage fantasies coming true there haha, I’m happy to use it to take a bit of the strain off the RR, depreciation free, can get involved in car stuff again and take my son out at the weekends.
Against: maintenance is definitely going to be a factor to cost in and probably going to cost £3-4k/a for a Jag specialist to look after it properly, another finance commitment which probably means refinancing RR balloon when the times comes and even I need to consider sub10 mpg if I got a PreHE or 10-12 if I get an HE.
@LondonLiz Before I started really reining this in I was spending £3-4k/m more than earning so I’ve had to make some massive cuts, I got rid of my ftype and now living on a restrictive budget. It’s really !!!!!! hard right now. Not gonna lie, I’ve been financially pressured my whole adult life always been in debt personally and leveraged in business so no charmed life here, far from it but yes a lot of lifestyle choices that had I my time again I would have made some different ones. Not all different tbh.
Had I needed to use practically all of my retained to finish this block off, my start to 2021 would have been very grim. If you’ve never been involved with property development I 100 get you wouldn’t understand what the pressure of it can be like when there’s something which hasn’t quite gone to plan. Every now and again it happens not regularly but when things happen big numbers are usually involved. I love the property game but I probably have over spent and had too much of a lifestyle because my business life involves some fairly big numbers and it’s been hard for me to feel £5/12/17k or whatever is much in the grand scheme of things iyswim. Only way I can describe it tbh.
I’ve had so much personal debt in the past before the refinance that there were a few times I put £99 fuel in my car at the pay at pump the night before my direct debit came out because it takes a couple of days to register on the card. I drove so !!!!!! carefully once back from the airport with my family after we’d been on holiday to try to see 20mpg hoping the thing didn’t run out of petrol because the four cards I had on me were absolutely maxed. I know what that’s like and never want to be in that position again so don’t tell me I need a dose of ‘reality’ because believe you me I’ve had that. Do you really think I’m proud to have needed to refinance and now have further debt? I’ll be paying for debts long after someone with £10k on a card and much less income forgets what debt even feels like. The risks I’ve taken over the years have resulted in 7 figures being held over my head in debts and various mortgages/ PGs. Yes I’ve only just faced up to needing to do something about my lifestyle which has been the main driver of my levels of personal debt but what am I meant to do keep beating myself up about it, maybe go on the world’s biggest bender to try to feel better about it? I’ve been in a really dark place with this for a long time and just about trying to keep myself together now. I’m absolutely committed to bringing the level of debt down and choosing a more sustainable future. I can’t even comprehend having no credit card debt, my cars owned outright or just one on finance and no PGs over me but that’s what I’m aiming for long term.
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With the second car for your wife, she's an adult, she contributes to the household, and you admit that you don't always show her the respect she rightly deserves. Show her you respect and value her opinion and let her have the car she wants. If you have to drive it once in awhile then tough luck really.
The fact that it'll save you a fair whack is an added bonus. Save the XJS for when you are in a better position financially
Make £2023 in 2023 (#36) £3479.30/£2023
Make £2024 in 2024...4 -
I agree with annabanana. Let your wife have the car that she wants.1
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Cars again today then is it..?
Your wife's choice seems perfectly sensible, you'll be driving your Range 99% of the time anyway. If that's the one she wants just go with it.3
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