Washing Away My Debts By 2024

LittleMissDetermined

All valid uses of your spare income once the debts are gone. Hubby and I have looked at how our pensions are performing (with dismay) and have discussed buying a second property to rent out instead of upping our pension contributions.

My initial goals now I’ve cleared the debt I’d to build the EF back up, then get 3 months wages saved and then tackle the mortgage.

Obviously it’s horses for courses based on your circumstances 🤷🏻‍♀️

Squirrelz92

Overnight has bene fruitful with a good few of the other surveys completed on Prolific now paying out so I have woken up to £9.77 in my pot. I have transferred this and put it onto CC1 bringing the total now owed for CC1 to £1662.60. 

I really do think I can pay this off over the next two months with no unexpected bills popping out of thin air. I do however have my MOT and full service in June which I have not budgeted for and praying nothing too unexpected and expensive occurs there.

One more day of work after today which is both a god send and a worry Praying I wont come back to anything that throws me off my normal working pattern when I return on the 13th. May have to have a sneaky peak at the state of my inbox the day before so I feel a little less overwhelmed come Tuesday. 

Received my Primark refund but still waiting for Next to cough up! 

Heading across to Scarborough very early Friday morning with the minions to surprise my Dad for his 60th Us girls have contributed towards buying him a grandfather clock collectively and I spent £30 from my birthday pot on a personalised birdhouse from my two which I am sure he will love. Not stopping all day as it is a 3 hour drive there and back and we fly on Sunday. Saturday will be spent driving 90 minutes down south to drop our dog off at my Grandma's before driving back again! Packing and triple checking the passports haven't sprouted legs from my carry on luggage will be priority before cleaning the house as best as we can from top to bottom!

Gemma x

Humdinger1

@Squirrelz92 well done! I do understand that lending the pony out may have been difficult but from a financial point of view, it's the right one, no? Horses are up there with yachts in terms of bleeding humongous sums of money, beautifulas they are.  I hasten to add that I have neither.   Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

Squirrelz92

Humdinger1 said:

@Squirrelz92 well done! I do understand that lending the pony out may have been difficult but from a financial point of view, it's the right one, no? Horses are up there with yachts in terms of bleeding humongous sums of money, beautifulas they are.  I hasten to add that I have neither.   Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

Hi @Humdinger1 Thank you! Yes it was definitely the right decision to make regarding the horse. I feel so much more free both in terms of time and with finances as it has freed up funds to put towards other things. The more time passes, the more I am coming to realise that I don't miss it and I will probably never dabble in the sport again. 

Gemma x

Squirrelz92

Morning all,

Bill day today which includes my £100 DD to CC1 that I have set up. Originally this only needed to be £69 but after clearing my debt with DWP, I figured it was only appropriate to snowball that £31.94 into my next debt hence the £100. This brings my new CC1 balance to £1562.60  

Due my partners bill contribution sum today and Next finally gave me my £41 refund so the current account is looking healthy. Will spend quite a bit on fuel this weekend with over 600 miles to drive but needs must!

Have £4.31 in my Prolific account with £1.43 waiting to clear. Shall aim to get a few more studies done if they pop up and I can fit them in with work as it would be nice to make one more extra payment to CC1 before heading out for a week.

Gemma x

Getridofdebt66

Hello @Squirrelz92
So glad your back! Missed your updates you have done amazingly and i am glad your job is something you can get your teeth into! 
Hope you have had an amazing holiday!

Squirrelz92

Evening all, its been 2 weeks since my last update!

Holiday abroad in Egypt for a week was well needed! Brilliant family time spent. Plenty of excursions including scuba diving, snorkelling, submarine boat, dolphin show and a good swim off the huge jetty out to sea. The food sadly didn't agree with our tummies so we are just coming round from that but otherwise a cracking holiday! I took £300 away with me and returned with £60 so its nice knowing I have a little extra to put towards CC1

Finance wise, not ideal. My car decided to break on the way to the airport, so ended up driving like a learner driver just to try and make it there in one piece. Arrived back 6.30am this Monday just gone to drive the car to the garage. They cleared the break issue but then it returned after collecting from its MOT and full service. The problem was only flagged as an orange advisory and the car has been cleared as safe to drive until next Tuesday (20th) here I shall take it back to get the part fitted. The cost of the MOT, full service and the bits needed to get it to pass amounted to £550.79. Next Tuesday the part needed will cost just short of £400 My emergency fund and spare cash is looking pretty bleak compared to what I had planned in my spreadsheets. Looks like the overpayment of £1000 may have to be whittled down to perhaps half. We shall see.

I have been giving Prolific a good go the last day or so and have managed to make another £17.39. This has gone to CC1

Gemma x

LittleMissDetermined

Well done on the prolific studies, it’s been up and down for me lately.  

My car passed the MOT yesterday and I’m thankful for that. I’m sorry you’re having trouble with yours, but at least you have your EF to use and you’re not having to put it on a credit card. 

So glad you had a great holiday, sounds like you had a blast!  Even better that you were under budget
LMD x

Squirrelz92

Two weeks since the last update and what a two weeks it has been!

Financials first

Mortgage Overpayments
I have decided to temporarily stop making £50 overpayments to my mortgage. I feel this extra money is better suited to being put into paying off my debts

Capital One CC1 
Big movements on this card and better than planned! On pay day eve I managed to make a whopping overpayment of £1,314.85 to this credit card bringing the amount now owed to only £220.49!!! So thrilled at this figure. It hurt sending that amount of money across knowing that I could have put it towards my house renovations but I want to debt free more than renovating another room before Christmas. I have paid off 90.4% thus far and will definitely clear this balance before being paid again on the 25th July. I have a £100 DD set up come out as per on the 1st leaving me with just £120.49 to pay to clear the credit card!

Tesco CC2 - £4397.74/£154 Paid Off 3.4%
As per last months plans, I have continued to just pay the minimum amount owed on this credit card as I continue to max our in overpaying on CC1. Another £43 has bene paid via DD bringing the total amount paid to £197 (4.47% paid). I will clear the remaining balance on the Capital One card on the 24th July so I will begin making large overpayments from this day also. From calculations made so far, it looks as though I will be able to overpay around £800 a month on overage pending other expenses.

Emergency Fund
My focus after paying off my above remaining debt is to open a high interest savings account which will hold my emergency fund. I currently have £500 saved but plan to move any remaining disposable income on pay day eve into this account which will cover my household bills for 3 months. The target fund will be 4k but I may push this to 5k just as an extra buffer. This should take me roughly 4 months to achieve but I am sure something will occur extending this goal.

Work related matters:
Still in my current job. Apparently in Sept there is an annual review of salaries on top of my annual appraisal (January) so hoping I may get a £1-2k bump. I have also looked into salary sacrifice but need to be with the company for 12 months to apply for this so come the end of October I will 100% be taking this up as I have been playing around with pension sums needed for retirement and I need to focus on filling my investment up asap. I will be able to make a 10% on a salary increase of £2.5k and still come out with the same net pay but paying less student loan, NI and tax so winner winner! Will do this for any future pay increases I get.

Had a long weekend away to a lodge in the north west of Scotland to spend time with my sister, her partner and my Dad and step-mum. It was a great few days filled with hikes, food and lots of laughs and late night dancing in the hot tub! Very much hoping to do the same again next year as it was so enjoyable. 

Gemma x

Squirrelz92

Morning all,

Have been incredibly busy the last month with multiple things so haven't given my diary as much love and attention as to what I perhaps should have. I do feel that a monthly update is easier for me as I feel very in control at present. Almost thriving off how quickly I am managing to pay it all off! Huge boost! A true Dave Ramsey supporter (British version) and it is doing wonders for my goals! 

Right, onto the monthly good stuff 

Mortgage Overpayments
I have decided to temporarily stop making £50 overpayments to my mortgage. I feel this extra money is better suited to being put into paying off my debts.

Capital One CC1 - PAID OFF IN FULL!!!! 
After paying off such a large amount last month it put me in a brill position leaving me with only a balance of £220.49 left to pay. After my DD came out on the 1st for £100, I have been sooo eager to pay off the remaining £120.49. Today I did it! My balance for CC1 is now £0!!! So proud of myself that I have managed to clear £2300 of debt in 3 months. This £100 DD will now be cancelled.


Tesco CC2 - £4397.74/£197 Paid Off 3.4%
As per last months plans, I have continued to just pay the minimum amount owed on this credit card as I continued to max out in overpaying on CC1. Another £43 has been paid via DD bringing the total amount paid to £239 (5.43% paid). With me having paid off CC1, the £100 DD I cancelled will be moved across and added to the current minimum payment of £42, bringing my total monthly minimum payment to £142. I managed to use the rest of the money I had left over before payday today to start ripping chunks from this final piece of debt. £831.38 was thrown at this earlier on which leaves me with a balance of £3327.36. I have so far paid off 24.33% of CC2.

Emergency Fund
My focus after paying off my above remaining debt is to open a high interest savings account which will hold my emergency fund. I currently have £500 saved but plan to move any remaining disposable income on pay day eve into this account which will cover my household bills for 3 months. The target fund will be 4k but I may push this to 5k just as an extra buffer. This should take me roughly 5 months to achieve but I am sure something will occur extending this goal.

Work related matters:
I managed to push for a 5k salary increase earlier last week and I was granted this without a fight much to my surprise. This will not come into effect until the 1st Sept as there are a few others who are also receiving one and they would like to process them all at the same time. Yay!


Gemma x