Sewn's determined to do this........one final time

Sewn

So it's been a month since I updated my diary and we are still paying things down, I had a fab holiday in Portugal which seems a distant memory now but feel things are finally starting to have an impact.

Our total outstanding debt is now down to £26k from £34k in my last post, all of hubby's credit cards were paid off last friday, we just have a sofa in his name (£1100 left to pay but it's interest free) and his Next directory account (£2800) which is actually my debt mostly.

I paid £2k off my vanquis card last friday so I think there is about £500 left on that to pay which will be settled this friday, and then I make a start on the Virgin CC next, the balance on that is £5600 I think, give or take a few ££, with the work I have booked it will be settled by the end of June. 

Then next month it will be my MBNA card (£7500) and the Next account to settle hopefully, which will just leave my Lloyds CC (£4800) and my paypal credit (£2800) then that's it, all gone (apart from the interest free sofa....)

Sounds easy when you say it that quick. I'm reducing my work commitments slightly, for instance I'm working the days and not then doing an extra evening shift aswell!, I'm learning to say no to people as I've recognised that I have worked sooooooo many hours over the last few months it was burning me out, in many ways it's felt like I have worked for nothing, but then I see the massive reduction in debt and the fact I'm working my socks off to pay it off and it makes me more determined to never get into this state again.

I feel like I'm on a countdown now, 8 weeks on friday and this lot should be gone apart from the sofa, we have another holiday to cornwall at the end of August and my aim is to be debt free by then so we can go away and completely relax and enjoy ourselves. I'm beginning to wonder what it will feel like when I make that very last payment and it's cleared, I think I will cry, I don't know. I certainly know by that point I'm going to massively cut my hours back to part time working and hopefully start enjoying some down time

Sewn

Finally been able to create a signature with total debts in and what we've paid off (which is approximates I'll admit as as soon as they were paid off they were deleted from my spreadsheet forever!)

I've just had my vanquis statement through and last months min payment was £238, this month it's down to £72, irrelevant really as it's being cleared tomorrow.

Our joint account is in a state though, I'm really struggling with adjusting to weekly pay being self employed now, hubby is employed and gets the same amount each month and I need to transfer approx £1500 each month additionally to cover everything at the moment (inc minimum debt repayments) despite doing this we still end up near our overdraft limit of £1500 like we have mid week this week and he's had to take £150 out cash from his cleared credit card to cover us until I am paid tomorrow, it's really annoying because when I was employed and paid monthly I could budget much better, even though I check our bank account obsessively and I can see the totals, see what's pending to come off, it still never seems to add up.

I haven't included the overdraft because it's only £1500 and every month it's cleared before utilised again, it's going to be the last thing to be cleared, I've tried clearing it whilst we are reducing our debts but we just end up back in it again so I've decided to leave it for now and get everything else paid off first.

Which brings me to 8 weeks, 8 weeks tomorrow I calculate we will have cleared everything, that's barring any major catastrophe which means I can't work (sickness) or  a big problem with one of the cars etc, but 8 weeks thereabouts is when this is done.

with minimums come off our total is down to £26,444 this morning, by tomorrow it will be just over £25k, £500 to clear the vanquis cc and then £700 off the Virgin, I need to transfer the remaining £1400 coming in into our account to clear the overdraft down and see us out the rest of the month.

The work I've done this week will net me approx another £3.5k next friday, with the plan to pay the majority of that towards the virgin card, that should then be completed cleared by the end of June, I also have a BNPL balance of £300 on my very account due to be settled later this month otherwise it will incur £85 in interest which I obviously want to avoid so am planning to pay that next Friday too.

I'm starting to see a chink of light at the end of that tunnel, the next few weeks through June and July I still have a heavy workload but have reserved every other weekend off with my hubby so no more 17 day stretches!

sunshine_raincloud

Well done on the debt repayments! What do you do for work if you don't mind me asking???? I think I'm in the wrong career! Sounds like you've been working your socks off to get this debt payed though!

Sewn

Thank you sunshine_raincloud, I'm an advanced practitioner, I'm a nurse by background but am equivalently qualified as a doctor at registrar level, I just work locum so yes it's very lucrative and as you can imagine there is a lot of work out there!

So I've been struggling with my cc companies this morning trying to get access to the apps so I can start paying them off, I've settled the vanquis account so that's now gone, but the £700 I was going to take off the virgin card I've taken off the Next account instead, I've since managed to get access to the virgin and lloyds apps so I can start paying them off but the mbna one I have to wait for them to send me a code, I'm leaving lloyds til last as it's the lowest interest rate at 6%.

I'm selling a few things from home too and have made £100 extra today so far which is amazing, I have a huge hobby where I have accumulated a lot over the years, fortunately the community that surrounds my hobby are always happy to buy if you destash so I decided to try and get rid of some of the stuff I know I will never use and have started selling it, there's a lot to get through! but it's a good start, as people are paying me through paypal whatever I'm getting I'm just deducting from my paypal credit balance, it's great to see that number starting to come down now.

So I need to update my balances....

Sewn

work day today, thought I'd catch up on my diary during my lunch break as I leave here at 4 to go to an evening shift til 10pm so a 14 hour day today, I've cut down the evening shifts massively and am only doing 1 a fortnight now, the last few months I've sometimes been doing 2 a week which has just been too much.

The 'selling the hobby stuff' is going well, I've sold enough to reduce my paypal balance by £350 this week, and I haven't even made a dent in what I have, the paypal balance is now £2400 and it's the last thing I'm planning to clear on 5th August but I'm hoping with working through all the stuff I have and picking out bits to sell on I can continue to pay this down over the next 6 weeks or so.

I'm still having days of feeling despondent and today is one of them, the OH keeps telling me to cut back my work further and just relax about paying things off even if it takes a little longer, but I've got my head in this place now where I just want it gone, by Friday next week it should be under £20k left and that's another milestone that should give me a boost. I'm fed up of everything I'm earning going towards this debt now, but it's our mess of our own making and I just have to deal with that.

I'm having a few problems with my car, it desperately needs a service but the last time I had it done (18 months ago) it kept breaking down on me for a few weeks after and took ages to figure out what was wrong, it's been fine since and not let me down (for an 11 year old car) but a wheel bearing is going and needs looking at, I've convinced myself it doesn't like being messed with so I just know once they service it its going to start playing up again and I can't afford a new one right now, I'm putting it off until the end of July as the debt is almost cleared then, it's only a few more weeks and fingers crossed it will keep going until then anyway.

I have the weekend off this weekend which I'm looking forward to, the weather is going to be nice, saturday I'm meeting up with some friends for an afternoon tea and sunday I think we are going to go walking somewhere, away from the crowds as it's fathers day so everywhere is likely to be busy.

Payments this week, I'm due £3264 to be paid on friday, £2700 is coming off the Virgin balance (with the remaining balance to be paid off next week so this will be cleared yay!) £300 going off the Very balance as that's the BNPL balance that's due to be paid by 20th and the remaining £200 is paying for a weekend away in the lakes at the end of the month, that's my next reward to look forward to!

Sewn

Well.....what a morning, I've ended up having to take the morning off work to go into the bank, this extra security you need now for online payments is a pain in the proverbial, my mobile number changed a few years ago and my bad I've not updated it but despite trying to pay my virgin cc this morning, the only alternate number for the code to be sent to is our home phone, and when it rings it's just a dead tone.

So I've spent the last couple of hours at the bank in a queue, updating my mobile number, then the virgin app keeps throwing me out when I try to pay, I swear they are doing their best to stop me overpaying so they can carry on charging me extortionate interest.

Which leads me to interest, I've now managed to get logged onto the MBNA app and I've checked all my interest rates and it's just awful. my plan for paying these things is all in the wrong order, my very account is 39.99% interest, the Virgin card is one of the lowest at 17.48%, MBNA is 29.9%, Next 25.99% and Paypal 25.9%, the Lloyds is only 6.74%, so I've now gone through all the accounts and reordered how I'm going to pay them off and having paid £2k off the virgin card this morning will pay off the very account apart from £609 which is on 0% until March next year and tackle the MBNA. I won't be eligible for any 0% transfers because my credit rating is pants and to be honest it's not worth it when it's going to be paid off in a few weeks.

Anyway, that's been a headache but I guess it's all out in the open now, I have access to everything I need re all my accounts, I'm going to make the most of the sun now I have an impromptu day off

Sewn

Well, what a week, covid got me last weekend, I've managed working in healthcare throughout the pandemic without catching it and it finally gets me, I'm day 6 today and am so up and down, I've been incredibly poorly all week and yesterday felt a lot more like myself but feel slightly worse today, this is a nightmare when I'm self employed, I had to take Monday and Tuesday completely off which lost me £1100 in income but have been able to work remotely for the last couple of days and this weekend is my weekend to work but it's remote too. Monday next week I can work remotely if I'm negative, still showing very positive at the moment alongside feeling quite ropey.

I've also not been paid properly today from one of my contracts, this particular agency is a nightmare for losing timesheets and missing payments and I'm in the process of changing but I'm missing £530 in my account today which should be there and I'm having to chase that too

On a positive note I've paid £1600 off the MBNA this morning so its good to see that balance down, when this £530 is paid I will be paying £1k off the very account which should just leave a BNPL balance at 0% until March so that can then just sit there while I concentrate on everything else.

This puts me back a week or so, there's always a spanner in the works isn't there? DH's car needs MOT in a couple of weeks too, plus some new tyres so thats going to cost around £400, I've not accounted for that yet in my sums but will have to somewhere.

It's good to see the balances almost at £20k now, getting under that £20k mark will give me a massive boost I think and fingers crossed I should see that next week.

Snwps

OMG you're absolutley flying, well done. You're clearing so much so quick, Im jealous lol. You'll be free of debt really soon.

sunshine_raincloud

You're doing so well! Hope you recover from covid quickly. The amount you have paid off in such a short space of time is incredible. Getting below that 20k mark should definitely give you a boost as well!

becky_rtw

Just picking up on this diary - incredible progress. I hope you feel better soon! 

I was wondering about a savings challenge once you are debt free - might help you avoid the crazy spending in future?