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Breaking through the £37k of debt
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Well the Easter break was good, didn't go quite as planned but still had some good days out. However, things haven't been great since, tensions are running high and me and my partner have been arguing a bit. We tried to sort it out last night but we just seem to be going round in circles. I'm starting to feel like nothing I say or do is good enough.The arguments aren't even over anything specific, we're both stressed and frustrated which in a large part stems from the behaviour of one of OHs children which itself stems from what can only be described as parental alienation by their father, this has been rumbling on for a long time and despite all efforts is just getting worse and having a huge effect on our family life.I'll update on the finance at the end of the month, I'm not sure how good this month is going to look as I've bought the park tickets for Disneyland so will have to pinch a bit of money from the savings pot and then will replenish that with the £400/month that is due to be set aside for holidays.0
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Sorry you’re having some tensions at the moment. I know very well how behaviour can impact the whole family so I sympathise. We’re in a sweet spot at the moment but I realise it could all flip in a heartbeat.
How exciting you’ve booked some holiday stuff though. We need to wait a few weeks until we book our summer break but I’m already champing at the bit!28/12/24
Deep savings: £14,492.28/£20,000.00
Mortgage balance: £157,183.78
MFW #53 £7.66/£10,000.001 -
Thanks Flossymuldoo, It's been a better week and everything has been fairly calm at home.Our spending this month must have been better than normal as despite £2100 spent on the Disneyland tickets we've still managed to make a small dent in the debt with a total of £370 reduced.CC1 - £2414 / £2463Total Debt - £27,019 / £33,642 (19.7%)
CC2 - £2921 / £3104
CC3 - £7524 / £7676
CC4 - £11996 / £12239
CC5 - £0 / £5751 (Cleared March 23)
Finance - £2165 / £2405
Savings - £4371 / £9262Total Position - £22,648 / £24,380 (7.1%)The finances are looking ok but I haven't done so well with my health and fitness, I'm getting out for the occassional run but day to day movement is still relatively low and my eating could be a bit better. So my focus for May is just getting out a bit more, maybe go out on the bike a bit and be more consistent with running.2 -
Hope everyone had a nice coronation weekend.I've been thinking about the CCs and the need to pay them off as quickly as possible, as I've mentioned before there's some work we want doing on the house, my rough guess is it'll be around the £50k mark. So my thinking is, should we throw all the money at the CCs or should I just continue to build up the savings pots so that we can get the work done earlier and then just continue to gradually pay down the CCs with 0% BTs when required. For now while there is still 6 months before the next 0% expires I will just continue putting the money in to the savings pot and we can decide what to do in November.Another consideration is solar panels, we use roughly 6500kWh a year, I put all the figures in to a speadsheet a year or so ago, we'd save a fair bit but obviously there is a hefty upfront cost, I remember with all the doomsday energy prices our payback was relatively short but given the easing off of electric now it could be a couple of years longer. We've been offered a hot tub for free but I'm not inclined to take it unless we have solar as I've seen just how much they cost to heat.To fit in with the above I've also been considering replacing my car, I've had it 7 years and bought it when it was a year old, it's still a decent car but it's the oldest car I've owned in a long time and I'm very much a car guy. I've been going back and forth on this for months, I can get the EV that I want through salary sacrifice which will be a net deduction of around £300/month (Given that I fall in to the 60% deemed tax band due to losing my personal allowance over £100k). I know it doesn't make financial sense to get a new car at the moment but it's very tempting, my current car is worth around £6-7k and my thinking here is that that could go towards the solar panels. I know at some point in the next handful of years that my car will be replaced and I'm looking at doing it now before I start getting issues with it.In my head Solar PV + Battery + EV Car + Hot Tub strikes a decent balance but I do need to redo the numbers for solar, I think we have a high enough usage that a battery makes sense.Well that's my ramblings of the things that have been running through my head lately, definitely some number crunching to do.1
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Feels like it's been a decent week, I think a mix of the weather getting better and work being relatively stress free at the moment. I've also finally got myself back to the gym this week, I've been putting it off for so long, always with the excuse that I haven't got the time to go and my goals always being too big, so I've told myself that I don't need to go 4 times a week with the best plan in the world, once or twice a week with a simple full body workout is enough to get me going. I also went for a run earlier in the week.Had a lovely day out with OH yesterday, just the 2 of us so had a nice lunch out and walk in the sunshine.Financially it's been an expensive week, DD is turning 16 soon and has been asking for a moped, that's all bought and paid for now. DDs mum has said she'll put some money towards it but I have no idea how much or when I'll be seeing that. This might mean that we don't see any reduction in the debt this month, but atleast I know we won't be taking on more debt.Today is looking to be a day of dog walks and gardening, I love our garden but it takes so much upkeep.0
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It's been a little longer than planned for an update, we've only made £192 debt reduction this month, but with the moped for DD's 16th I think that's not too bad going, I also spoke to her mum and she is planning on paying me back for half of it but it could be some time before I see that so when that comes in it'll be a nice little bonus.CC1 - £2389 / £2463
CC2 - £2833 / £3104
CC3 - £7449 / £7676
CC4 - £11876 / £12239
CC5 - £0 / £5751 (Cleared March 23)
Finance - £2045 / £2405Total Debt - £26,591 / £33,642 (21%)
Savings - £4135 / £9262
Total Position - £22,456 / £24,380 (7.9%)I was looking at what fee free BT cards were available yesterday and ended up doing an eligability check for the N@twest 19 months 0% with no fee and was pre-approved with a £10k limit, so although the next 0% isn't due to expire until November and I am hoping to have enough to pay it off come that time I decided to apply for the N@twest card. I do all my spending on a cashback CC and then pay it off in full each month, so I'm going to BT this to the new card during the first 3 months rather than paying it off and instead put the amount that I would have been paying in to my saver for a bit of stoozing and then transfer as much of CC3 as possible to the new card. This will give me some stoozed interest and push back the next 0% expiry to June 24.I've thought more about the electric car and have decided to take the sensible approach and just stick to the current car, while we've got these debts it just doesn't make sense to be spending £300+ a month on a car that won't actually make any difference to our lives, instead this money could be put towards holidays or house reno. Solar panels and the hot tub are still a possibility though.Fitness has been going ok, have managed to get back to the gym a couple of times and a handful of runs and bike rides, I love getting out on my mountain bike when the weather is like this.1 -
Quick update here, looks like it's going to be another expensive month which is frustrating as I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. Our garage door broke last week and has cost £250 to repair. We've also had to order a new fridge/freezer, we noticed last summer that it wasn't getting cold enough and everything was going bad very quickly but as the weather cooled in to Autumn it was just about doing ok so we made do, but now it's got hot again the fridge won't get below around 12c so everything is going bad too quickly again. So new FF is being delivered next week which has cost us £649.Aside from this I've been managing to keep up with some exercise, another couple of runs done this week plus some strength training and I'm planning on a decent bike ride tomorrow.0
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An end of month update that I didn't want to see, looking at the numbers we've taken a big step back, this was an expensive month with the new fridge and the repair of the garage door. There's also been birthday gifts for DS, spent more than normal on clothes and we've also spent quite a lot on eating out this month. But even with all this I hadn't expected the backwards step we've taken.CC1 - £2364 / £2463 (4%)
CC2 - £2748 / £3104 (11.5%)
CC3 - £7374 / £7676 (4%)
CC4 - £11757 / £12239 (4%)
CC5 - £0 / £5751 (Cleared March 23)
CC6 - £5903 (Opened June 23)
Finance - £1925 / £2405 (20%)Total Debt - £32,071 / £33,642 (4.7%)
Savings - £8244
Total Position - £23,827 / £24,380 (7.9%)That's nearly £1200 extra debt from last month!You'll see CC6 has been added and already has a hefty balance, some of that is a knock on effect of last months big expenses as I did a balance transfer to my CC that I use for regular spending. I've put as much of that as an offset in the savings account and it now has enough to cover CC3 where the 0% rate expires in November.Next month should be considerably better and I'm hoping to knock a big chunk off.
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A little late in posting the July roundup, we've had some devastating news and the last couple of weeks have been very tough and emotional.The debts were reduced by £1287 this month, well the "debt" figure has gone up but offset by the increase in the savings account.CC1 - £2339 / £2463 (5%)
CC2 - £2666 / £3104 (14.1%)
CC3 - £7300 / £7676 (4.9%)
CC4 - £11640 / £12239 (4.9%)
CC5 - £0 / £5751 (Cleared March 23)
CC6 - £8317 (Opened June 23)
Finance - £1804 / £2405 (25%)Total Debt - £34,065 / £33,642 (-1.26%)
Savings - £11526
Total Position - £22,540 / £24,380 (7.55%)I think August will be much the same and ideally we'll knock off a bit more than we did in July.Had a nice surprise from my boss and have an opportunity to earn an extra £10k bonus over the next few months if we hit a couple of targets, this is in addition to the £5k-£10k bonus that I would normally get in the new year, I'm pretty confident of hitting all the targets required so that should help to knock a chunk off the debts, although I'm considering putting some/most of it in to my pension, but I'll run the figures when it's due.0 -
Just started to read your diary. Good luck with the debts. If you've has some devastating news then it might take a while for you to get back on the debt reducing wagon. I'll follow your updates.1
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