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

Sewn

Thank you so much for your positive posts! and yes a savings challenge will be a fantastic idea, we need to be focussing on some house decorating and renovations once our money is our own again, the bathroom needs a complete refit and some of the other rooms are looking tired but we want to be able to just save and pay cash for these, no more loans!

Our mortgage fix is due for renewal in October, we have been debating for some time on redoing our conservatory, it fully extends the back of the house, the roof is stained and leaks when we get huge downpours, the door frame is broken and ideally we want to change it into an extension with bifolds, it's cold in winter etc, we looked into it about 4 years ago and know the foundations were done properly so would support the change without having to be rebuilt. I've no idea on the cost but we are thinking around £30k which we would need to add to the mortgage, our current mortgage outstanding is around £95k (house value is £250k) and this was one of the main reasons we wanted to get all this unsecured debt paid off as there was no way I wanted to take on more, plus I didn't think we would be able to with £60k of unsecured debt.

As it stands I still don't know if we will be able to, I'm self employed now and I have a default on my file for a debt I don't recognise, Lowell keep writing and emailing me about it, it's £600 and says grattan/freemans, I've never had either, not for over 15 years at the least anyway, well since before the IVA and despite asking them numerous times to show me evidence of this debt they just ignore my requests and instead have now sent me a 'one time offer' of paying £300 to settle it, I could settle it easily tomorrow but will still be left with this default which will affect our mortgage chances I think so I don't know what we will do yet. Plus hubby is 57 this year and whilst he is very fit and well, we would be looking at paying off the mortgage in the next 4 years without doing the extension but wouldn't be able to if we do, it's something we need to think about.

I've struggled physically at work this week and had to cancel an evening clinic last night, covid fatigue is flooring me and getting through the days at work on site have been enough for me this week but each day I'm improving so hopefully will soon feel back to normal.

So tomorrow I will be paying off another £2.2k off the MBNA card which reduces that to around £3k left (the minimum payment of £324 is due to come out too), we will then be finally under the £20k milestone and heading towards £15k, I started this journey in Feb and feel we've come a long way, it's been an incredibly hard few months especially in the early days but it's starting to feel easier now, I'm sleeping better at night and not worrying about work so much. I've been offered a permanent employed position which I've accepted and will probably start that in September, I'm only going to work 3 days a week in this position but think it will help our mortgage chances and give me some security, I'll still do locum inbetween as I'll need to start putting some away for my tax bill, that's going to be fun!

Tomorrow we're going away for the weekend, it's 7 weeks since we went on holiday, I can't quite believe that it's flown by! so I'm looking forward to a couple of days away, it's paid for and should be fairly cheap as we're planning on walking and just having some relaxation time.

Sewn

Happy 1st of July debtbusters! a new month and more milestones reached for us all hopefully.

£2k paid off the MBNA this morning and we are now at £18k owing, it's such a weight lifted being under the £20k mark, I've also paid off another £150 from DH's Next account, I couldn't wait to update my signature this morning, next week with what I've earned this week will be another £2k off the MBNA then that one will be cleared completely the following week.

I woke up this morning thinking.....'next month we will be debt free', wow, that small chink of light is suddenly getting bigger

Sewn

So we had the 'weekend away' it was supposed to be cheap, it was paid for and we were going to go walking, but we also ended up shopping and spending a fortune (ON THE CREDIT CARD) so I was awake at 5am this morning panicking again about money and being mad at myself, both of us, NOTHING we bought we needed, we just got carried away, I'm too embarrassed to say how much we spent, it doesn't matter it just means that this Friday I will need to reduce what I pay off the MBNA to pay £500 off dh's card, he has his car mot this week and we need £400 for 2 tyres for that too.

I'm so mad I don't have the resolve.

It can't be undone, I'm just grateful that we will still just about pay things off on schedule, 5 weeks on Friday. I've booked an extra evening shift at the end of the month which will earn me an additional £200 and dh had some good news today re his pension. His employer (public sector) changed their pensions a few years ago and there has been a court case which has ruled that it shouldn't have happened to their detriment, he is getting a refund in cash of £2650 (it can't be put into his pension fund unfortunately) we don't know when he will get it but hopefully soon, I could clear the paypal balance in full with that.

Until then, we have a straight run now til the end, no more weekends away/shopping sprees (that's my weakness) and we should have this done on time more or less. We are going to cornwall in August for a holiday with the kids and I want this all gone by then, we should be able to do it.

Sewn

I was on a real low yesterday and ended up going to bed early last night, I've spent some of this morning redoing our spreadsheets, at the beginning of this journey back in feb my DFD was 12th July, it looks like it's now going to be 19th Aug due to a few bumps in the road.

I've worked out I have 33 shifts left to work to earn enough money to clear what's left, this work is all booked, some of these are on the same day (ie a day shift and then evening clinic too) I wanted to have cut these down to max 1 a fortnight through July and into August but I've booked a few extra so I have at least one a week now to try to get back on track. I know in the grand scheme of things an extra few weeks is not a big problem but I've got into such a zone of every week seeing it come down massively and that final week being pushed back and back and back and I feel like I've been stuck at '6 weeks til it's all paid off' forever.

Also as I'm self employed currently my work bookings go down massively in September as it stands, this is in some ways deliberate as I'm supposed to be starting this new job and am looking towards a September start but still going through clearances at the moment and so I've kept my diary pretty free for September, if for any reason there are any delays my income will be reduced massively from what I am currently earning so I can't afford to be having much debt hanging over me by then. Plus we are going on holiday at the end of August and I see that as my milestone for being debt free so we can go away and just really relax and enjoy ourselves.

What I've done is created a column on my spreadsheet which shows my new balance going down from every day I work, it's motivating to see at a glance what working today will give me to reduce the outstanding debt before I'm paid it. Our current total balance is £17.9k, but taking out what I'll pay off on friday when I'm paid for work I did last week and the shifts I've done this week so far it's going to be down to £15.5k by the end of today.

So after this week I need to complete another full 4 weeks of work to clear the remaining debt, I guess that's not too bad when I look at it like that.

sunshine_raincloud

Try not to beat yourself up about the spending too much! We all have slip ups. You have still done incredibly well reducing your debt by such a large amount in such a short space of time! Only a few more weeks to go. Have you made a plan for when you are debt free? How are you going to make sure you stay out of debt especially as your income is going to be changing in September like you say? I'm sure would be really helpful for you to have a solid budget in place. Are you closing all your credit accounts as you go? Keep going! You're doing great!

Sewn

@sunshine_raincloud thank you so much for the encouragement, it's really feeling a slog now, I'm tired of working so hard and not having any money in my pocket!, but on the plus side, I can see how far we have come and I could not continue to work at the pace I have indefinitely without becoming ill so I've never got used to having the money that I've been earning if that makes sense.

I do have a budget set, once everything is paid off, DH's salary covers all of our regular monthly bills (except fuel and food) bar £800, I will be bringing home £2078 after tax/NI/Pension for my new job for 3 days a week, any locum I do on top will be staying in the business account to pay towards my tax bill and build up some savings.

We haven't closed off any of the accounts yet, I'm a bit scared to as we have no savings at the moment and any huge expense we would need to use credit for, aside from that I'm trying to improve our credit ratings for when we remortgage in October and anything we close will reduce our credit usage - availability ratio 

The plan is once everything is paid off we will close everything apart from 1 credit card for emergencies, where we have gone wrong in the past is we have spread credit over a few cards and then they have just snowballed, we're determined this time we have the 1 card and that's it.

I sold some more stuff last night so have managed to pay another £45 off the paypal credit today, I am waiting for payments on a few other bits I've sold which come to around £100 and I should have that later this week too. Having covid stalled the selling of things but I'm hoping to sell a lot more of my hobby stuff over the next few weeks

Sewn

So, car failed it's mot - sigh. 2 new tyres and repairs coming to around £800, on top of what we spent last weekend this increases our debt again back up to £20.5k. Tomorrow when I'm paid we will be back down to £18.9k with what I can pay off, annoying but there it is.

This is going to put us back further and now a projected date of 19th Aug when everything is cleared (apart from the sofa that remains on interest free with a year left to run) so back to 6 weeks, the neverending 6 weeks!

I've booked in a couple of extra days of work where I was going to take some time off to try and regain some ground, I do not want this going beyond that date as the following week we go on holiday, I can cope with the continued sofa payment, it's £90 a month and there will be less than £1k on it next month owed so I can clear that after our holiday.

On some good news, I sold a few more bits last night, received around £100 which has covered the MOT test (but not the repairs) so at least that hasn't gone back on the credit card.

When I'm home from work tonight I'm going to list a load more of my hobby stash to sell and will hopefully sell some more, I'm looking at the PAD challenge, I've received £10 this morning for some sales already which I'll take off the paypal balance. I've asked DH to go through the freezer and come up with a meal plan using what we've already got in as he mainly does the food shop and tends to go every 3-4 days but spends around £60 a time, I know we can get that down as the freezer is rammed currently.

And I'm going to try looking at the NSD challenge for this next month to really try and get back on track for this final push, only essential spending for the next month now, let's buckle down and do this thing

Sewn

Payday! and £1645 paid off my MBNA card, this is now down from £7.5k to £1.6k left which will be cleared next Friday, this card has really felt like a noose around my neck as it was the highest balance and to see £7500 of credit card debt with nothing really to show for it sickens me to be honest.

It's also felt tough these last few weeks because prior to this card I was clearing a debt pretty quickly within 2 weeks generally then onto the next one, this one will have taken 5 weeks to clear by next week so while the balance on it has been coming down psychologically it's been hard as it's still been 'there'

Next week I have a large paycheck £3400 due on Friday 15th, the plan is to pay off the remaining balance of the MBNA card, £249 which is another BNPL balance on the Very account otherwise it will incur £79 of interest charges and £1500 of the Next account which will only leave £385 on that.

I listed some more stuff last night and sold quite a lot more, I made around £60 of extra money last night but this has gone into our account as I needed some fuel this morning and I need to get the overdraft down a bit as we're near the limit.

Weekend wise I'm working tomorrow and sunday I'm out for the day with some friends, it's all paid for and we won't be shopping!

Sewn

Happy Monday everyone, start of a new week, so it's been a great weekend, I was working Saturday from home but out at a friends meet up yesterday and had such a good day, I sold a load more of my hobby supplies on Saturday and made over £200 which was amazing, so yesterday I did end up spending £50 on fuel and another £80 as part of the day but at least I had the £200 I made on Saturday which covered it and still some to spare, this is staying in our account for now as we were quite near our overdraft limit and I'm going to use any funds I get from selling stuff to pay that down now.

On the negative side, I had a lovely text from MBNA on Saturday saying they were dropping my credit limit to £2k, this really annoyed me because just as I'm trying to pay everything off and my credit utilisation to credit limit ratio starts to look better, they do this and make me look like I'm near my limit again, it will be cleared on Friday and then I'm closing that account down. Why do they do this? I've paid £6k off that card in the last few weeks. They've also added on another £120 of interest which increases the balance a little too but I will still be able to clear it on Friday and just reduce what I pay off Next this week.

Balances should be down to around £15.5k on Friday woop woop!!

Sewn

Had a bit of a to do with DH a couple of days ago, I think 6 months of solid working is finally getting to me, he has been off work sick for the last 3 weeks after having covid, I was back at work out of necessity after 2 days off and he had 2 weeks off in April when he got it then aswell, he's well enough to be back now but generally been spending his days on his phone while I'm out at work, it's starting to grate.

Whilst the majority of this debt is mine, I feel as though I'm the one doing everything to try and get us out of it and he's not even meeting me a quarter of the way, I am working all hours, I have a side hustle that brings in a little every month which I have to spend time on in the little downtime I have and then on top of that I have been selling a lot of my hobby stuff off to try to bring in extra bits and I just feel he is taking the proverbial. He's had lots of opportunity to do overtime at work over the last 6 months but hasn't because even on overtime his hourly rate doesn't even come to half of mine so he feels it's pointless but it came to a bit of a head a couple of nights back and I told him what I thought about his work ethic, the fact there is so much that needs doing around the house and I feel he is behaving more like a lodger than my husband and the fact that he has a lot of stuff he could sell too, he agreed, he couldn't not to be fair. I think he's returning to work at the end of the week and is going to look at booking in some extra shifts at work.

In the meantime I got home from work last night to find he'd sold some books to the tune of £95 which is awesome!, I listed some more of my stuff last night and sold another £80 worth so this has gone into our account to reduce our overdraft. I should be paid £500 tomorrow as I moved agencies for one of my contracts that I work and they pay me a day earlier, this is coming off the Next account tomorrow and the remaining money I'm due on Friday will clear my MBNA card and should leave us with about £500 left on the next account. 

I'll be back to paying off a debt every 2 weeks now so should start seeing those accounts reducing rapidly now.