Clearing my debts 1% at a time

londoner2019

Just caught up with your diary - excellent work! Must be great to see the number of creditors reduce. You're SO CLOSE! 

Keep going - if you can hit the start of December, what a way to roll into the Christmas season. But also, don't get too disheartened if something pops up that knocks you back a month. Once that student loan goes, you'll feel such a weight off your shoulders, and then it's the final straight.

Rud0lf

The money from the bank switch is now in my account ahead of the switch on Monday. I decided to use some of it to round some of the accounts and have kept some for a treat. I've paid £35 to bank of mum, £38.22 to SLC,5 to very and 10 to cc2 to round the numbers it brings me under £5500 with a payment of 129 due to SLC on the 15th, then I might make another little payment to round the numbers again. 

I'm going to use the rest to get my hair done which is long overdue and maybe for another little payment near the end of the month if everything is ticking over nicely.

Thanks for stopping by @londoner2019 it would be great to see it all gone in Novembers pay so that December is a debt free month.

Rud0lf

Remembering the title of my thread prompted me to look at how far I have come. Originally I had £36,677.67 of debt on a dmp. While this started off ticking along with a payment of £198, as I got better at budgeting and with small pay rises etc and other bills coming to an end I eventually increased my payments to £496. 

During my dmp I still had access to a very account with an interest free bnpl option and a small credit card with a limit of 1200 which I used when there was something urgent which cropped up but was managed fairly well. The student loan which has been in the background slowly getting paid off for 20 years was ticking along and the only other access to money I had was via my parents who sold their house at auction and moved in to a rented flat 11 years ago. 

Whilst on the dmp some major house renovations needed doing including a new roof and so money was borrowed from my parents £5000, £1221 very was used for some Christmas presents/birthday presents as was cc2 £1250 and I switched my student loan £2252 from coming slowly out of my pay to paying directly. Altogether this totalled 9723.

My dmp was paid off a little while ago leaving me paying off this 9723. At the moment I'm down to 5540 so I'm going to make my new 1% £55.40. I'm hoping to have all of this gone by the 1st of December and never need credit again. My emergency pots for the house and car are starting to increase and my Christmas pot is going to have enough in and possibly some to move. Holidays are staying within my monthly budgeted amount and being arranged for when I can afford them not just whenever I feel like.

I feel like I've truly turned a corner with how I've relied on credit. Once I was down to non dmp debt I decided to look at how much I need to pay off before interest is added etc and have divided the totals by the number of months I want them paid off in. The student loan and Cc2 will be gone with the end of July's payday. Bank of mum and very will be gone on the end of Novembers payday.

Looking forward to the 15th so start reducing the new 100%

Lonelygambler

Great work on the savings pots. I'm nearly in the 40's and have to be one of the worst savers on the planet. 

Once debt free I will have to sort this out....

Rud0lf

I've only just got the hang of my savings pots in the last 6 months and I'll be 42 next birthday. I did make sure I opened a lifetime ISA before my 40th birthday but have only started paying the full amount in this year. 

Rud0lf

Had a refund from the kitchen company for a few left over small items sent so I've sent another £21 to SLC and £10 to very. Have also paid the deposit to a holiday in October for the four of us, we'll be going to Holland and total cost for hotels and theme park etc is less than £1000. Hopefully we'll be able to get a good chunk off the cost of the Eurotunnel with Tesco vouchers and then shouldn't need too much in the way of spends.

Would still like to chip away at debts and get them paid off as soon as possible, have had a reshuffle and should be able to pay very off by the end of October.

Next big target is the end of July when SLC and Cc2 should be gone.

Rud0lf

Have split money for the month into £100 per week to cover any incidentals, must cover anything from petrol to top up shops, presents or a drink with friends. This helps stop me from spending all money in one week and struggling for the rest of the month, this week has been a relatively low spend week so have used the remaining £50 to fill the car with fuel and then made a £9 payment to very.

My new week starts tomorrow, this week's allowance needs to pay for 2x father's day gifts and a birthday gift for my mum, this is doable. Taking mum to the garden centre on Saturday so I will buy her some plants and pay for lunch. Dad will have a cake for father's day as with Alzheimer's amongst other conditions it is the thing he most appreciates. Not sure what the kids want to get for hubby but most likely will include chocolate in some form.

Rud0lf

Had a very kind gift off £200 from mum so going to split it between £100 for holiday spends which it was intended for and £100 off my student loan which means I'll have paid that off next month before I go away. I'll feel better having fun with one less debt to think about. 

So I have sent £111 to SLC and the 129 direct debit will go tomorrow as it should have gone yesterday but didn't because of the weekend. That leaves £300 plus a few pounds interest to be paid on payday and then it will be gone. The focus will then turn to cc2 and very before tackling bank of mum and dad before Christmas. 

Lonelygambler

Hey - How's it going?

Rud0lf

Thanks for checking in @Lonelygambler unfortunately I had a run in with some concrete which resulted in my tooth cutting all of the way through my face just under my nose, it was the result of a challenging pupil in school intentionally tripping me so I'm a bit shook up if I'm honest. I did start a post when I was in A&E waiting to be stitched up by a facial surgeon but I just felt numb. On the positive side I have no broken bones and my teeth are in tact. On the down side I'm achy and tired.