Breaking through the £37k of debt

rumpetroll

Another month with mostly just the minimum payments to the CCs with the addition of the sofa finance starting this month too. So March has seen a reduction of £678.

MBNA - £2851 / £6992 (Target = 5/25)
Natwest - £9165 / £9490 (Target = 12/25)
Barclaycard - £3757 / £3911 (Target = 3/26)
Halifax - £8032 / £8888 (Target = 5/26)
Lloyds - £8238 / £9117 (Target = 12/26)
Creation Finance - £2716 / £2774
Total - £34,762 / £41,174

Emergency Fund (Cash ISA) - £7257

Spent some time with my son this week, I don't see him so much now he's back living with his mum, and being 15 he's mostly out with his friends/girlfriend. He'll be taking his GCSEs soon, his mocks were a little disappointing but not surprising, he's very clever but since he's been back at his mums his schoolwork and attitude have spiralled, he started living with me years ago while his mum was living abroad, he grew up there but was getting into a lot of trouble and she was having problems handling his behaviour and so we trialled him living with me and it went really well. 

His mum got divorced a couple of years ago and moved back to the UK and he decided to move back with her. It's frustrating, I know his mum wants the best for them and I think for the most part she is a good mum, but I think she tries to treat our kids as friends more than her children and they don't have any boundaries. And as much as he (and my daughter for the short period she lived with us) protested about our "rules" I think they were both better off for them. And by rules I'm only talking about sensible screen time limits and actual bed times etc.

I didn't mean to go in to all that, but was just going to write about how I'd like to get back doing some go-karting with him, it's something we both really enjoy and he's now old enough, or will soon be old enough to race in the adult races with me. I think it'll do him good to have something to look forward to and will be nice to have something to spend some more time with each other.

rumpetroll

It's been a good couple of months here, family life is feeling very positive at the moment and we had our holiday in Cyprus which was very much needed. I've paid off £3100 from our debts, £1677 in April and £1425 in May, so that's a total of £9516 since the peak of debt 6 months ago.

My daughter has just turned 18 and my son will be 16 this month, so feeling a bit old! It's also meant a couple of relatively expensive birthdays so the debt repayments will probably be a bit less over the next month or 2.

Current figures are:

MBNA - £1000 / £6992 (Target = 5/25)
Natwest - £8983 / £9490 (Target = 12/25)
Barclaycard - £3682 / £3911 (Target = 3/26)
Halifax - £7592 / £8888 (Target = 5/26)
Lloyds - £7800 / £9117 (Target = 12/26)
Creation Finance - £2600 / £2774
Total - £31,658 / £41,174

Emergency Fund (Cash ISA) - £5593
Sinking Funds - £333

The MBNA card is 0% until the end of July so that will be cleared in time, then it's on to paying down Natwest, I'm not sure if I'll be able to clear it completely before the 0% ends, so may have to do another balance transfer later in the year or I might just use the money in my emergency fund to pay it off. As for the emergency fund, you'll notice this has dropped, I realised I was including the money from my sinking funds pot in with this and a lot of the annual bills that the sinking funds are used for go out around April so it's taken a bit of a hit. So I've split these into 2 separate figures now.

rumpetroll

I've been struggling quite a bit lately, very low motivation, tired all the time, being a bit of a grumpy old man and although I'm still sleeping ok I'm a lot more restless overnight than usual. Things are all going pretty good in general at the moment and I'm happy and satisfied with life and things so it's frustrating that I'm feeling like this, I haven't been as physically active for some time as I used to be which is largely down to my sciatica, while it's not too bad at the moment I still suffer most days with pain, but I am trying to be more active and get back to as much normal activity as I can.

Something I've looked into previously but never actually pulled the trigger on is having bloodwork done to determine if I need TRT so I've booked myself in for an appointment with a local clinic, the blood test they do is fairly comprehensive so it'll be interesting to see the results even if it doesn't provide any clues/answers to how I'm feeling at the moment.

rumpetroll

I've just cleared the MBNA card, so down to 4 credit cards now and total debt might just drop under £30k by the end of the month!

I've had to raid the emergency fund for vet bills, hopefully the insurance will reimburse it soon but I think it was a couple of months last time I had to make a claim. If the price for the insurance jumps up in the same way as it did last time then I might have to make the difficult decision to self insure her, it's at the point already where this years premiums are nearly as much as what our claim will be; having doubled in price after the last claim we had to make for her.

rumpetroll

Just a quick monthly roundup for June, I cleared the MBNA card and managed in total to pay off £1624 from the debts. I'm still waiting for the pet insurance to pay out, our oldest dog now needs injections every 4 weeks at a cost of £140 a time so that's a cost we could have done without and no doubt when the insurance renewal comes through it'll be bumped up by at least that much to cover it.

Current figures are:

MBNA - £0 / £6992 (Target = 5/25)
Natwest - £8893 / £9490 (Target = 12/25)
Barclaycard - £3645 / £3911 (Target = 3/26)
Halifax - £7372 / £8888 (Target = 5/26)
Lloyds - £7580 / £9117 (Target = 12/26)
Creation Finance - £2542 / £2774
Total - £30,034 / £41,174

Emergency Fund (Cash ISA) - £5611
Sinking Funds - £1453

rumpetroll

We had a great July, a weekend at a theme park for one of the children's birthdays. And we're just back from a few sunny days in a cabin in Wales, we took all 5 children and both dogs so the drive was a bit cramped but it was well worth it, just beautiful countryside views and a hot tub.

Still awaiting the pet insurance payout, I raided the sinking funds to cover this for now rather than pulling money out of the ISA.

Current figures are:

MBNA - £0 / £6992 (Target = 5/25)
Natwest - £8804 / £9490 (Target = 12/25)
Barclaycard - £3609 / £3911 (Target = 3/26)
Halifax - £7152 / £8888 (Target = 5/26)
Lloyds - £7360 / £9117 (Target = 12/26)
Creation Finance - £2427 / £2774
Total - £29,353 / £41,174

Emergency Fund (Cash ISA) - £5380
Sinking Funds - £1069

It's nice to be under £30k again, just 8 months on from hitting £41k

rumpetroll

August has turned out to be an expensive month, more vet bills and the previous insurance claim not being paid out due to it being an "existing condition" which I completely dispute but not getting anywhere arguing the point, also my wife had a big dental bill and she also managed to scrape the car in a car park.

My daughter has been doing her driving lessons for a while and unfortunately failed her test a few weeks ago so I gave her some money for a few more lessons, her instructor says she is ready for the test still and was unlucky with her fail, frustratingly it's almost impossible to book a driving test, she's managed to book one in January but it's over 100 miles away from where we live, just hoping to get another last minute cancellation which is how she got her first test booked.

I've also been doing a bit of DIY, repainted the hallway and replaced the flooring, we had carpet in there but the dogs had made a mess of it when they were younger and no amount of cleaning was fixing it, so I've put laminate down now.

August Figures

Natwest - £8000 / £9490 (Target = 12/25)
Barclaycard - £3572 / £3911 (Target = 3/26)
Halifax - £6932 / £8888 (Target = 5/26)
Lloyds - £7140 / £9117 (Target = 12/26)
Creation Finance - £2369 / £2774
Total - £28,014 / £41,174

Emergency Fund (Cash ISA) - £2398
Sinking Funds - £2416

Still plodding along with paying down the cards, I managed to clear £1338 in August. The minimum payments come to just over £500 a month at the moment, and I'm considering whether or not to drop down to minimums for a few months, had to have a chat with my wife a few days ago saying I don't think we can afford a holiday abroad next year after looking at how much it's likely to cost us, we're fairly restricted on dates due to school and my step childrens court appointed time with their "dad" (don't get me started on him, safe to say he has a barring order against him to stop him taking us to court over the children) means the weeks available to us are going to cost around £7k for all 7 of us.

I've got a couple of 0%, no fee balance transfers available to me, and I'm going to have to move the Natwest balance as I won't be able to clear it completely by the end of the current 0%. With a hard push I think I could clear all the CCs in around 18 months, I'm thinking if I take 4-5 months at minimums then that'll only add 2-3 months of time to clear with the benefit of topping up the holiday fund