10 years later yikes

1stTimer

I decided I need to try and get some motivation back, I know the car is still having issues but I really needed to see that this year hasn’t been a huge write off. So I asked copilot about my loan

Here’s your full impact from the very start of the loan → now (£3,446 left, 15 months remaining):

📊 Big-picture impact (start → now)

✅ 1. You’ve paid off most of the loan already

• Started with: £10,793
• Now remaining: £3,446

👉 You’ve cleared: £7,347 (≈ 68% of the loan)

That’s a strong position — you’re now well into the final third.

⏱ 2. You’ve shortened the loan significantly

• Original term: 60 months
• Now remaining: 15 months

👉 That implies:

• You’ve effectively cut the total duration down toward ~45 months or less
• You’re finishing well ahead of schedule
  

💷 3. Massive interest savings

From your tracker:

• Estimated interest originally: ~£3,321.74
• Interest already saved earlier: ~£2,620

With your latest progress: 👉 Your final total interest will likely land far below £700 overall

Meaning:

• You’ve avoided around 75–85% of the interest you would’ve paid

This is the biggest financial win.

📉 4. Overpayments have completely changed the loan shape

At the start:

• Payments were interest-heavy
• Balance reduced slowly

Now:

• Payments are almost all principal
• Balance drops fast every month

👉 This is why your recent extra payments have had outsized impact

🚀 5. You’re now in the “high-efficiency zone”

At this stage:

• Interest per month is very low
• Each £1 overpayment ≈ £1 off the debt

So:

Early overpayments saved interest
Current overpayments destroy the balance

📌 Simple summary

Since starting the loan, you’ve turned a £10.8k, interest-heavy 5-year loan into a ~£3.4k short-term payoff with minimal interest left.

• ✅ ~68% paid off
• ✅ Months cut down significantly
• ✅ ~£2.6k+ interest saved
• ✅ Now finishing fast

You’ve essentially converted a long expensive loan into a short, cheap one — which is exactly the goal

1stTimer

Happy to see my goal of paying under £1000 interest has at least been achieved:-)

1stTimer

Finally the car has been fixed! They had it for 2 days and being without it was not great with the weather being what it is at the moment.

I am happy that it is now back and fully functional but will def be getting rid of it asap, I have lost all faith in it and there is nothing worse than not trusting your car. The plan now is to pay off the final bit of the loan and then see if I can part ex it for another. What this car has taught me is now I know what I don’t want 😂

I don’t want a new car where it is so reliant on all the technology again, I want a car that still has AC buttons and none of this lane assist nonsense (I swear that will kill someone soon). I want a car with AC vents in the back seats which I admit I thought was standard in all cars but apparently not as the current car doesn’t have them so not great for the dog. I also am not enjoying the SUV size/shape. Much more comfortable in saloons or even hatchbacks

1stTimer

So I paid the car off. Great but not sure on what I will do now, the good news is I have time and need to not do anything on a whim like I am known to do.
The year is going by so fast and 2026 hasn’t been as great financially as 2025 was. so my main goal is to set myself up for a good 2027.

The days are getting cooler and it’s dark now when we wake up in the morning so we are finally sleeping better which I think is helping my mentality.

vampirotoothus

Great news on the car loan, well done. V x

1stTimer

It’s been a really refreshing month! I love just having the knowledge that I don’t have the car loan coming out and I think it has given me a boost. I’ve managed to earn some little extras too this month so I finally feel like things are back going in the right direction.

I have decided my wardrobe needs a slight overhaul, I have clothes in my wardrobe that I haven’t worn in over 2 years and so I decided I was going to throw them out, in the process of doing that I actually noticed how worn and old some of my regular clothes are 😂 I can’t believe I am still wearing jeans I bought when I was in my 20’s (I’m 43 now)

So! I’ve made a list to find replacements a little at a time over the next couple of months. I now have 1/2 a wardrobe filled with clothes I wear rather than a full wardrobe of items never worn/worn once etc.

1stTimer

I managed to find some replacement hoodies and vests in Primark so now have 3 new hoodies and 4 vests and all the old ones have gone in the bin. Just need to find some jeans now and possibly some autumn shirts for work.

I’m also down to one drawer of socks (from 3 drawers😂)

Last week I thought I’d try and see what could be done with the garden, unfortunately the grass has been ruined over the years as anyone with a big dog will understand. I guess I could say I have more mud than grass now, so I decided to try my luck and buy some seed. I threw it down last Monday and threw some top soil over it not really expecting much but my god has it grown!🥳

It actually looks fake as it is so green and fresh! I’m absolutely amazed at how quick it’s grown and slightly frustrated I only tried a patch and didn’t just do the whole thing. Trouble is, it has been hard keeping pup away from it so it was probably for the best.

Anyway I decided to do another patch today and will just try and do it little by little so then the dog can still go out and I only have to worry about a small bit at a time.

daisy_1571

If pup has a tendency to either dig or burn the grass i can recommend making your own turf patches. Any plastic food tray, bit of earth and some seed and yiu will always have an oblong of turf to replace a hole or a burn

1stTimer

Oh that’s a great idea @daisy_1571! Thank you so much I will try and get a few trays ready this weekend

daisy_1571

Very welcome. We had weeds or bits where a girl dog burned the grass so were forever cultivating little patches. Once we thought of making our own little turfs we couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it before 😀