Time to get serious

warby68

I too would throw extra money at loan 1. Its expensive and will be hanging around for quite a while after you buy your flat.

Perhaps you could split any extra money between overpaying this and savings as a compromise? The 0% stuff I would settle for repayments which are sufficient to clear by the time the 0% expires.

Its quite a lot of debt to be going into a first property purchase with so hard as it might be, I would also postpone any large spends on your flat for a while too. Just have it liveable and consider 2nd hand for the time being.

Good luck,you're obviously working very hard with 2 jobs plus overtime and can really turn your situation around as a result if you stay disciplined.

enthusiasticsaver

@warby68 suggests a good plan. Work out how much you need to pay on loan 2 and the credit card to clear it by the time the 0% ends and split spare disposable income between loan 1 and savings. Doing two jobs is brill to try and improve your finances particularly if you are not getting RL support too. Things will look completely different in a few years but you are trying to do a lot all at once. Buy a flat, increase pension payments and clear debt. Well done on your progress so far and don’t be tempted to go mad once you move into your first home. Are there white goods there? Freecycle, Facebook marketplace and Olio are great for getting stuff to tide you over. 

LoGetsSerious

April Wrap-up:

April was decent, but I noticed that I was spending slightly more money than I initially anticipated. Guessing because the weather is warming up and I'm going out a little more with my friends the allocated £50 a month for fun is not quite stretching and  I had to dip into my misc funds. All in all, I did not fall into the red so I cannot complain. I'm thinking about increasing my "fun" fund or just tightening my belt a little more. I'll see how May goes first.

I listened to advice from @enthusiasticsaver regarding tackling loan 1 first and paid an extra £560 so a total of £1140, that extra payment took a month off from my repayments (final repayment was around £800)  so I'm really glad I took that advice and will continue to follow that plan.
Two more payments left for loan 2 and I'll probably be moving into the new house towards the end of June so might not get to pump extra money from loan 2 into loan 1 as that extra will be going towards the mortgage. I'm pretty much saving every extra penny I get from working overtime because the house will need to be furnished.


Random tidbit:
After sitting down and calculating how much money I have in individual stocks and all savings combined. My net worth is around 19k so I am finally in the green!! This has made me even more determined to get my debt down.

Debt Wrap-up: 
MBNA Card: £3581 - 0% interest
Loan 1: £13994 - 19% interest
Loan 2: £680 - 0%
Total = £18255 (minus interest), down £1329

LoGetsSerious

I have not updated this in a few months mainly because life changed drastically. 

Life update: 
Found out I was pregnant after my last update. This obviously threw me for a loop. My boyfriend and I decided to get a property together so I pulled out of my property purchase. I was also very unwell so I have been unable to do any overtime. I also found out that I had underpaid taxes by quite a bit so my take-home had decreased a bit.
In August, I moved in with my boyfriend's parents (mainly due to how unwell I had been) and that freed up money from Rent and Food. We are still waiting to exchange and close on our house which doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon as the tenants in the property have decided not to move out anymore due to how bad the rental market is at the moment so the owner is going through the official channels to sort that out.

Baby should be here towards the end of December/early January and that really motivated me to throw everything I had into my loans.

Debt Wrap-up: 
MBNA Card: £2881 - 0% interest
Loan 1: £1516 - 19% interest
Loan 2: £0 - 0%
Total = £4397 (minus interest), down £13858

What I have been doing differently:
I have decreased my debts significantly, as soon as I found out I was pregnant I began throwing everything at the debt. After pulling out of my flat purchase, I used a significant chunk of my savings to throw into the debt, having extra money from not officially paying rent at my in-law's place also meant extra money to put towards the debt.
The aim was to clear all the debt before the baby arrives as my maternity entitlement is not the best and would not want to still be paying a large chunk towards servicing a debt.
I should be able to clear loan 1 by the end of November when I get paid and have MBNA card cleared by the end of January. 
I am super proud of myself for getting this debt down so significantly, and I do acknowledge the massive privilege I currently have of living rent-free.
I hope my next update will be a debt-free scream! and here's to never going into significant amounts of debt again!

Chemtrails

Hi I have just read through your diary. Congratulations on your news and well done for your debt progress, especially that loan 1, it must feel good knowing you’re not paying as much interest on that.
fingers crossed that you are able to move in to your new home sometime soon!