I’m 34 and have been in debt since I was 18. It ends now!

GolfR

I’ve finished my three in a row shifts, I’m off tonight and then I’m back in for another two. But after Thursday night’s shift I’m off for 19 days and I cannot wait! Almost had a McDonald’s breakfast this morning on my way home from work but I stopped myself. I went straight to asda and got some polo shirts for the kids when they start back on Thursday and £25 on some food shopping bits. Nothing unnecessary! Went to B&M after and spent £17 on my first Christmas presents of the year and £13 on some miscellaneous things including some food bits, a storage thing for the bathroom which was £5 reduced to £2 and a wall clock which was also reduced to £2.

When I got home I attempted to put the clock on the wall so I put a battery in…didn’t work. Tried another battery…didn’t work!! So I fiddled around with the housing bit at the back that holds the winder and battery and I ended up dislodging the hands, rendering the clock useless I couldn’t not laugh at myself and I was so relieved it was only £2!

I’ve decided to spend £300 each on the kids for Christmas. My daughter wants a £200 iPod and I’ll get some other things as well and I may be going in cahoots with my ex and his parents to put £200 each towards the gaming pc my son is desperate for for Christmas. He’s got £400 in his savings which includes the proceeds of the games I sold for him recently so hopefully this will all work out. I used to spend heck of a lot more than £300 each and buy lots of unwanted rubbish just to bulk it up and I’m doing that no longer.

Myself and my son decluttered his bedroom this evening and we got rid of quite a bit. And some awesome games leftover that hopefully we’ll soon get chance to play. Some science experiment things too that I’ve gotten him for Christmas and birthdays past and I do enjoy a good science experiment!

I sold my sons car seat the other morning which got me £15 and I’ve got someone who seems very keen coming for my dogs old playpen tomorrow before I go to work so that will be £35. Got a few things to put on marketplace on the weekend too so hopefully some more cash to be made and more stuff to get out of the house.

GolfR

So I’m thinking of changing my car now. My polo is just too small really and my kids (and I) absolutely loved the mokka I had as a courtesy car when my turbo blew a few months ago so I’m thinking of getting one for around 4/5k and trying to sell mine for about 11k and then any profits left from the sale of mine will go towards my loan. If I had say 6k to go towards my loan I would owe £8500 on my other loan which I would just pay off monthly and start saving for a house deposit in the meantime. This 6k would pretty much clear my one loan and the other I only pay £190 a month on so I would try and get a mortgage while still paying this off.

I’m quite confident I could manage to save around 8k in a year to 18 months for my deposit. And because I’m 35 at the end of the year I’m worrying about not being able to get a mortgage once I pass 35. I don’t think I’d need more than 8k or so as I’m hoping to get a house for around 80k - house prices are very low in my area.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? As I’m still in two minds.

Legs21

You’re doing absolutely amazing with the debt busting. Well done 👏

I wouldn’t worry about the mortgage as I had to start all over again with a mortgage at the age of 45. Had no issues getting one at that age either and with only a 10% deposit. 

mark55man

Agreed, I think they only start getting worried when your mortgage trips into pension age, and even that's not a huge deal.

Go for a 25 year term, and then make a decision on overpaying - better to have a low standard repayment and OP as that is more flexible if circumstances change and you struggle to keep up a higher basic payment

TheAble

Do these "bank shifts" really pay £350 - after tax? Isn't it worth just bashing out as many as you can to get the debts cleared?

GolfR

Thanks for your replies. TheAble, yes they do due to current staff shortages with covid. I had £377 net for one shift a couple of months ago. I could do loads more if I wanted but I have two kids who I wouldn’t see much if I did a lot of shifts and I don’t want that.

Legs, that’s really interesting to know! I would have thought that once you hit the age of 60 at the end of your mortgage time period that they wouldn’t entertain you. That makes me feel better

Mark - do you mean making overpayments on the mortgage once I have one?

I really feel like I should be sensible and sell my car and get a cheaper one so that I can pay off one of my loans but I’m afraid what will happen before will happen again, where I ended up selling my 20k car for a cheap 3k car which had at least £200 of repair work needing doing each month. I really can’t decide what to do. Doesn’t help either that I’m pretty sure I got caught doing 70 in a 50 zone coming home from work this morning

TheAble

I think the car idea is a good one. Make sure you use a reputable dealer to transact with and pick one with a low mileage. 

And slow down! You seem to be spending a lot on fuel. Dropping your speed to the mid-50s when on motorways etc makes a huge difference to fuel economy. Notwithstanding speeding fines and risks to the licence (and life - not wanting to preach to you but doing 70 in a 50 is bad news).

On the overtime. Yes you'd see your kids less for a while but £377 per shift is big money. One of those every week plus the money from your car sale and you'll be out of debt in no time, and building your house deposit. The eBay stuff's a worthy endeavour but financially small beer in comparison.

mark55man

Yes.  OP's are a personal thing, not right for everyone, but people on the MFW board go a bundle on them.  It's a balance - they are better than spending on extra coffees, but not as good (return wise) as investing in ISA/Pension (but that's a whole other thread and people's views vary).

But, in terms of mortgage only, the general advice is to make you mandatory payments as low as possible, and then have a strategy for overpaying to reduce the term (a small OP makes a lot of difference).  Usually but not always there is a cap of 10% of the balance for OPs but that's still quite a lot for most people.  

If you want to know more look at the MFW threads (maybe wait until you are closer to your savings target) - I'm older and later so I am doing it differently, but I would have been glad to have got rid earlier

GolfR

I’ve not posted for a few days, it’s been a busy time! I’ve been finishing off my shifts in work and tidying up my messy house post 5 nights in 6 days! Mark - I’d definitely be making overpayments on my mortgage, that sounds like something that’s right up my alley. I didn’t realise even a small amount made such a big difference. 

TheAble - I may start doing some more shifts, I don’t think I’ll do one every week though as my shifts can be all over the place and my job is tiring enough as it is without doing 48 hours a week every week.

I’ve still not decided what to do about the car. I just keep thinking how much I’ve spent on this car in the year I’ve had it (uprated clutch at £900 as mine was slipping, remap at £600, new front tyres a few months ago at £250) and what it’s had done under warranty (thermostat housing which is a common issue and new turbo - both expensive jobs) and I’m really afraid what happened with the other cheap car will happen again - even if I picked a lower mileage mokka - when I’ve spent so much already on the polo. I’m worried any gain I’ll make on the difference would be quickly negated by jobs that need doing. So I’m going to leave it for now.

I’ve put a good few things on marketplace yesterday and three have sold already. I have a folding bike here which I was going to keep but I’ve decided to sell it instead and get it out of the house. The only problem is the tyres are both completely flat. I’ve tried googling what it could be but none of the answers have solved it. So if I don’t figure it out soon I’ll have to put it on as it is and take a hit on the sale value.

As said above I spent yesterday cleaning. I tidied up lots, mopped all my floors and washed my uniform ready for when I go back to work in a few weeks. It was super warm out though so I struggled to do much more. I went to the tip Friday morning and when I was there I saw a donation bin for books which I’ve been looking for for ages so I’ve booked to go again Monday morning with all the unwanted books in my house, kids toys and a few other bits. I dread to think how I would have ever moved house with all the clutter I had here before. I even went through my Christmas decorations yesterday! I’ve decided to get rid of my cd’s as well to a donation bin at the tip. I don’t have a CD player and I use Amazon music which all those cd’s are on so it seems silly keeping them and taking up valuable space.

It’s my sons birthday today so we have the trampoline park in the afternoon and then I’ve let him decide on our cuisine for the evening which is going to be chinese so I’m looking forward to a good day hopefully!

Buffythedebtslayer

You really are making such amazing progress. It is incredible. I wish I had your energy and drive. It is brilliant! 

(and I agree about the car, I have a "cheap" car a Polo funnily enough! and it has needed a fair few repairs.)