Cutting up the cards and saving for a house - one debt at a time!

stokegal

Morning all!

After falling asleep at 7pm last night and then waking at 10pm I knew a night of broken sleep was on the cards! I managed to get back asleep at 1am, awake at 2.30am, back asleep at 3am, awake again since 5am! - I’m sure I’ll end up having a nap at lunch time to make up for it! Luckily I’m not back in work until tomorrow.

Money wise - most DD have been taken today so will update signature on outstanding debt (I get far too excited to do this!)

Lego train on eBay is now at £66 with 34 watchers and due to end in 3 days.

I have been thinking about my current account and the OD interest on this. Currently I live in my overdraft for approx 2 weeks of the month after all debt repayments have been paid. However because I’m now putting money into seperate accounts and my salary will be reducing in July I’m likely to live in my OD - which is charged at 39.9% or £1.75 a day if I max out my £1600 limit. £1.75 a day is over £50 a month so I’m now thinking that the priority is to get out of my overdraft before going on maternity leave over paying my credit card off (currently at 24.4%) I’m also hoping that I can shift this CC to 0% BT before July too.
I had got an additional £600 marked to pay off my credit card this month but will use this to pay off OD and then will aim to pay off the remaining £1000 over the next 2 months. Ive seen a few people on here mention about not having debt who you bank with so think this is a good option - I can also then see if there are any switching incentives as I won’t be tied to looking for a bank that offers an overdraft facility.

I’m not sure how OD appears on Credit File (Credit Karma just shows a balance of £0 rather than the negative amount) Does  anyone have any feedback on this or whether I would be better off getting CC utilisation down?

savingholmes

I would prioritise clearing the OD and build up at least a £1K Emergency Fund.

stokegal

Thank @savingholmes - I did have an £800 EF but then used it to clear a card last month. Thought I would be better off using it to save on interest payments rather than keeping it up 🤦‍♀️ Now to build it up again.

Today has been a mixed day. I had my 12 weeks scan and thankfully everything is fine but going to my scan alone was really emotional. Even if I could call OH straight after I was so worried going into the appointment.
We have said we are going to do another private scan at the end of the month so we can find out the gender and so OH can see the baby. A local clinic has this on sale for £45 and OH came home having sold some scrap metal through work for £40 so he gave me the money for this. (Or in his words... just take the money as I’ll only spend it on junk if it sits in my wallet 🤦‍♀️)

Money wise
I went food shopping, my budget was £40 and total came to £30.41 which was great as a couple of treats for DS whilst he’s learning from home made its way into my trolley.
I needed to buy a new blade for my cutting machine needed replacing which was £26.48 for 2 blades 🤦‍♀️

So total spend for the day was £56.89.

Money in was £14 for 2 items sold on market place and my eBay listing is now up to £72 - whoop!

I had stashed an additional £70 away to take DS shopping for his birthday, this was to buy new clothes and lunch but as it looks like we are going into full lockdown again I will use some of this to get us a birthday takeaway, make him a cake and then put the rest into EF

Im back at work tomorrow as I’m in my office I’m more likely to be motivated to do some marketing for my small business - I had a shipment of acrylic milk cartons just before Christmas which I need to add a design to and I think they will sell really well.

Hope everyone else is having a good day!

savingholmes

The craft stuff sounds nice. What kind of things do you do?

rocks+mountains

So glad your scan went ok! I feel so sorry for everyone going by themselves, I was bricking it when I went for mine with my partner. I can't imagine how awful it would be to go by yourself.

And it's good you have decent Mat pay. I had enhanced for 3 months at least before dropping down but when that drop came it was shocking! About £600 a month so just covered my half of the bills. Like you say though far better than in Americaz somebody I know from uni only took 3 months before she had to go back to work. Just can't imagine it!

I do think the living in your OD will possibly show. Think you are best getting yourself back to being in credit constantly. I know the paying CC so your interest is down is an aim but I think the OD will be a negative.

What is your aim for when you finish? Do you intend to have a savings fund again by the date you finish or the date your pay drops after 4 months?

Parkyp

It’s awful that partners aren’t allowed in for hospital appointments it’s their baby to. I’m sure your son will still have a special birthday being in lockdown. Good sales made today . 

stokegal

savingholmes said:

The craft stuff sounds nice. What kind of things do you do?

After seeing everyone went crazy for the personalised labels in lockdown I bought a second hand vinyl cutter and started making personalised shampoo / conditioner / body wash bottles - I sold 150 in a matter of weeks and this paid for the machine.  My OH boss then asked if I could make them some bespoke promotional items - I did them 100 tote bags and some personalised golf umbrella with their logo on which then covered the cost of the heat press I had to buy and the materials I had bought so far. Alongside this I offered personalised vinyl labels on ebay, etsy and facebook - At Halloween I printed labels for pumpkins and  kids mugs, at Christmas I did Elf Isolation stickers (gets rid of those pesky elves for a few days lol) and stickers for hot chocolate stations.
What I should be doing now is offering "Get organised" packs - the Instagram generation (myself included) are going crazy over labelling everything lol


I then looked into sublimation printers - this is where press special ink onto garments.  Again I bought a second hand machine, printed a few personalised tea towels but have had a nightmare with the colour settings - there are so points of failure that I hate this but I know I just need to practise as the mark up on this is crazy and would be a good second income.

stokegal

rocks+mountains said:

So glad your scan went ok! I feel so sorry for everyone going by themselves, I was bricking it when I went for mine with my partner. I can't imagine how awful it would be to go by yourself.

And it's good you have decent Mat pay. I had enhanced for 3 months at least before dropping down but when that drop came it was shocking! About £600 a month so just covered my half of the bills. Like you say though far better than in Americaz somebody I know from uni only took 3 months before she had to go back to work. Just can't imagine it!

I do think the living in your OD will possibly show. Think you are best getting yourself back to being in credit constantly. I know the paying CC so your interest is down is an aim but I think the OD will be a negative.

What is your aim for when you finish? Do you intend to have a savings fund again by the date you finish or the date your pay drops after 4 months?

It's crazy over there isn't it.  I work within a US team so have daily calls with the rest of my team and they find our NHS system mind-blowing- they don't understand how we don't get a bill for going to the doctor / hospital and often tell me how much things like that cost.

I've got a Spreadsheet which shows my outgoings for the next year - After calculating what OH currently puts to the house and was my ex pays for CMS all my bills and debt repayments come to negative balance of £900 a month (excluding food / petrol / adhoc) As I'm commission based I have no idea what I'll be paid in my qualifying weeks but just based on my basic salary I should pick up a minimum of £1800 a month based on 90% for 4 months I will save the excess to top up the remaining 2 months at SMP. (I should also have a month of holidays to cover as I don't intend to take much time of before then - again thanks COVID - so may be able to get away with just 1 month of SMP) OH has just started in a Sales based role and his salary is uncapped so he is saving any commission that he gets to put towards the house as this is his only outgoing (company car / company phone / no debt etc) 

I've decided that paying the OD off is the sensible thing to do and hope to pay £600 this month, £300 Feb, £300 March and £400 April then the only interest accruing debt I will have will be my credit card (aside form caravan which is on a low 5.9% APR interest)

stokegal

Parkyp said:

It’s awful that partners aren’t allowed in for hospital appointments it’s their baby to. I’m sure your son will still have a special birthday being in lockdown. Good sales made today . 

Thanks Parkyp - he can come in for the 20 week scan and for the birth so at least that's something - I could see he was really happy when I told him that the baby had been wriggling about on the scan but he was also sad that he missed it.
DS is quite an introvert so doesn't like a huge fuss for his birthday.  He'll be homeschooling in the day and be at his dads in the evening (as he will wake up with me) so I'll try and do something nice at lunch time with him!

rocks+mountains

stokegal said:

It's crazy over there isn't it.  I work within a US team so have daily calls with the rest of my team and they find our NHS system mind-blowing- they don't understand how we don't get a bill for going to the doctor / hospital and often tell me how much things like that cost.

I've got a Spreadsheet which shows my outgoings for the next year - After calculating what OH currently puts to the house and was my ex pays for CMS all my bills and debt repayments come to negative balance of £900 a month (excluding food / petrol / adhoc) As I'm commission based I have no idea what I'll be paid in my qualifying weeks but just based on my basic salary I should pick up a minimum of £1800 a month based on 90% for 4 months I will save the excess to top up the remaining 2 months at SMP. (I should also have a month of holidays to cover as I don't intend to take much time of before then - again thanks COVID - so may be able to get away with just 1 month of SMP) OH has just started in a Sales based role and his salary is uncapped so he is saving any commission that he gets to put towards the house as this is his only outgoing (company car / company phone / no debt etc) 

I've decided that paying the OD off is the sensible thing to do and hope to pay £600 this month, £300 Feb, £300 March and £400 April then the only interest accruing debt I will have will be my credit card (aside form caravan which is on a low 5.9% APR interest)

That sounds like a good plan I think for you and pretty realistic. I think if you can pay your OD down so it's clear for you from April should be really positive for you to not be relying on it each month. Then if you get your CC down as well when you can  especially if in the next month or two you can get a transfer should be looking good for when you go on Mat leave.

I know you said you were planning on having 6 months off. What are you intending on doing when you go back with the little one? I ask as mine has just started nursery and goodness me it is flipping expensive! I wish I had looked more about cost before and got myself more straight with money than what I did. Nursery fees are the same as our mortgage a month! So whilst I'm back at work earning, taking nursery fees into account we've got so little disposable income to try and really clear our debt which is just such a pain.

And your label things look amazing! Brilliant idea, and yes especially with instagram and stuff bet people love them. Have you been doing them through etsy and stuff or just local to you? And yes if that's something you can do  especially when you are on mat leave potentially will be great to keep topping you up a bit.