Half a world away

no1disneymum

Yay to the new car

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you to hit your debt repayment target at the end of the year. Good luck!

cybertortoise

Thanks @no1disneymum hope things are going well for you.

I had a bit of extra money left over so paid off CCI as well today.

Makingabobor2

Just found your diary and will now be a regular subscriber. Good luck on your journey. Ours debt is slightly more than yours...at £35000 approx, plus a small mortgage we are trying to get paid quicker than the 4 years it has to run. So I know how hard things can be. Keep up the good work and know that we are all behind you. 

cybertortoise

Paid off my lowest Capital One, it's a defaulted account so they won't reopen it. Probably for the best.

Not a great day today, I had nothing really in the house so had to buy lunch at work. In my half hour break, the only place open was Costa. Also bought McDonalds for tea as I was finished late and so tired. But I'm happy with my progress so far. I think this diary is keeping me accountable. I'm definitely posting more regularly here than I do on any of the challenges I join.

Hi @Makingabobor2 welcome! Rooting for you to get your mortgage paid off quickly. I hope the new changes coming in won't affect you too badly, I was reading about it today and glad I'm not a homeowner yet.

cybertortoise

Ooh I also managed to finally get a payment plan set up on my last debt to Specialist Motor Finance. Such a relief to have plans on everything even when most of them are £5 per month, the balances will go down slowly but at least they'll be going down!

Turns out we will have to pay all of the council tax unless I fancy doing a discretionary application for help. My income is too high for them to agree to that, so for now we will just have to pay up. My son is paying the majority of the council tax as it's due to him leaving college that we're being charged at all. Of course, that means he's not paying anything to board etc but it's a big help knowing that is mostly covered each month.

I've managed to make a couple of freezer meals, and plan to do some more batch cooking next week when all of my uni classes are online and I'll be at home.

I have signed my 2 school aged children up for extra tuition at the local centre, 1 is doing his GCSE year so the extra help is an investment in his future. The other is struggling a little with the move up to bigger school. But my childcare grant will pay for 85% of her tuition fees so a minor cost for her. It's an extra bill, and will reduce the amount of extra money available to pay towards debts a little.

Squirrelz92

Excellent news regarding paying off CC1 @cybertortoise 🎉
It's great that your two children are able to get a little extra help with tuition! Such an invaluable spend at their age and time of life with exams etc. Congrats on finding a car! It's so hard to find what you are after at the right price nowadays. x

bigbeff

Awesome work paying off CC1! Keep it going!

no1disneymum

That tuition centre sounds like a great idea. I was looking at something like this for our youngest. Definitely an investment in their future.

cybertortoise

@Squirrelz92 it was a nightmare, seemed everything had done 200,000 miles, had only 6 days MOT or had a fault. I think so far it seems we've got a good one. I can't wait to be able to go and meet my newest nephew, he's already a few months old!

Thanks @bigbeff i'm hoping it will keep me motivated now that I have paid a few off!

@no1disneymum there's no way I could afford it without the various financial help bringing the cost down but I hope they enjoy themselves and get some benefit from it.

cybertortoise

I logged in to Lowell to make a small additional payment and all of my accounts were on hold. And 3 had discounts available.

£105 - reduced to £26.25

£200 - reduced to £80

£270 reduced to £216

So not quite what I hoped but a result nonetheless. I paid the 2 smaller off and arranged a plan to clear the largest over 12 months, using the monthly money I'd normally put towards the 2 I just paid off.

So I paid £106.25 and cleared £305 worth of debt. That's two more debts paid off in full. Now they'll only be partially satisifed but those debts are years old and don't even show on my credit file any more so I was more than happy to accept that.