Breaking through the debt and life challenges

rumpetroll

Hi everyone,

I read a number of diaries here and I figured it's time I should start a diary of my own as a means to help track my progress on getting rid of the debt and possibly help me vent and unload some of the personal and family life struggles and challenges.

Our position isn't bad but I'd like to clear the debts to give us more disposable income, I'm not going to be making huge sacrifices to pay off as quickly as possible but I also want to be mindful that we are making good inroads to clearing it.

I'm a high earner and most of the debt is from before I met my partner, we bought our forever home 2 years ago and there are a couple of quite expensive bits of work we'd like to do to it but they're going to have to wait a couple more years.

Our current situation is:

CC1 - £2463  (0% until Oct 24)
CC2 - £3104  (0% until Nov 24)
CC3 - £7676  (0% until Nov 23)
CC4 - £12239 (0% until Jun 24)
CC5 - £5751  (0% until Apr 23)
Finance - £2405 (0% paid off Oct 24, new boiler)

Total Debt - £33,642
Savings - £9262 (all for paying off debt at end of 0%)
Total Position - £24,380 owed

Ideally I would like to have paid all of this off by the end of 2024, I think realistically it will take a little bit longer but as long as the majority is paid off towards the end of the 0% rates then I should be able to get another 0% balance transfer to ensure no interest is paid.

Finances aside, I also want to start working towards getting my health and fitness back, making more time in the day for my family and help our children get through the minefield that is a teenagers head in this social media ruled world.

rumpetroll

I'm not going to post a full SOA as I have a spreadsheet with the breakdown but here's the overview from that:
£2895 - Household essentials (mortgage, council tax, utilities etc)
£1000 - Groceries, Dog food, Eating out, Car Fuel
£431   - Sinking fund (insurances, tv license etc)
£291   - Family expenses (Days out, Apple Music, Pocket Money, School Lunches etc)
£170   - Birthday/Christmas gifts
£200   - SIPP & ISA (base investment, sometimes add more)

£4987 - Total monthly outgoings
£6833 - My monthly income (pay rise last month, up from £5440)
£1846 - Available for debt repayment

£495   - Minimum debt payments
£1351 - Available for additional payments

This has reminded me that I need to add in savings for holidays, we haven't really been able to afford one the past couple of years so I wasn't putting any aside for it, but would like to start saving for some now so I will have to work out a sensible budget for that, although holidays abroad are always expensive due to being a large family.

My partner works part time, I don't include her income or expenditure in this, she doesn't spend excessively but I do think she could be a little better with her money, she pays towards clothes, days out, eating out and birthdays/christmas when she can but as it doesn't have any significant impact on our finances it's better just to leave it out.

Assets
House Value  £640,000
Mortgage      -£470,000
2 Cars             £22,000
Debt               -£33,642
Savings             £9,262

I also have some money in an ISA, SIPP and a nicely growing work place pension. I would like to increase the amount I am putting in to the ISA and SIPP but that will come as the debts go down.

rumpetroll

I've added in £400/month to my budget to put away for holidays, we're going to Disneyland Paris in the summer, everything is booked and paid for aside from the park tickets which are going to be around £2100, so 6 months of putting away £400 should get us there and we'll continue putting that away toward next years holiday.

We're a big family with children from both mine and my partners previous relationships so accomodation can be difficult because there's too many of us for a single hotel room and none of the DLP hotels could accomodate us. I found us a hotel nearby though that has joining rooms and even enough space for myself and partner to have our own room, plus there's a pool and play area for the children. Only 5 minutes drive from DLP and not a bad price at £1500 for 4 nights in the summer hols.

I'm now looking at roughly £900 additional to go towards the debts each month, plus the £500 minimum payments, in an ideal world that will be £14k off by the end of the year, however my target is £10k, if we can hit that by the end of the year then we will be in a fantastic position next year and at that stage I think we'll look at whether to keep overpaying the debts or to start putting money away for the renovation work we want doing.

enthusiasticsaver

Sounds like your position is quite good as you have a good income, disposable monthly income, savings and the debt is 0%.  I assume you will be paying off CC5 from savings? 

rumpetroll

Thanks, yes CC5 will be paid off at the end of this month.

The situation now is much better than last year prior to my payrise, I should probably have started a diary then as it was much harder paying off the debts and they mostly stayed static throughout the year but I managed to keep putting it off with the excuses of too busy. This is something I'm now actively working on as I've used the "too busy" excuse to put off way too much to the detriment of my health/fitness and relationships with my friends.

Blackcats

Good that you have started a diary.  There's lots of help and support here and a refreshing lack of judgement.  When you're in it for the long haul chronicling the journey and using your diary to hold yourself accountable makes all the difference.
good luck 

rumpetroll

Thank you Blackcats.

I've just paid off CC5 from the savings pot, so that's the first CC gone, this is a card that I've had for a long time and it's one that's been paid off multiple times and then used again when good BT offers come up, but this time it's gone for good. The next step is to continue building up the savings pot ready to clear CC3 in November, that's around £330/mo to put aside for that one.

March is probably the most expensive month of the year as the majority of our annual bills all seem to fall this month, Car insurance, Home insurance, TV license and Water bill (6 monthly) but these have all been going in to a sinking funds pot so mostly taken care of, although I wasn't expecting our home insurance to almost double since last year.

I went for a run with the dogs today, I jogged around 3.5k and they sprinted back and forth and probably did double what I did! I've not run consistently for quite a while so just building back up slowly, I have a tendency to push things too hard too soon which usually ends up with an old injury flaring up and causing me issues.

Blackcats

well done on clearing CC5 whilst it was still on 0% - that's a hefty balance to clear.

I think that having a plan to tackle debt and a plan to build up fitness will really be good for your health and well-being.  (The dogs sound like they enjoyed the run too)

rumpetroll

Been quiet here as work has been busy and stressful this last week and next week is looking to be the same, there's a bunch of stuff I need to get completed this week before I have some well deserved annual leave. We did have a lovely mothers day last weekend though, took both of our parents out for a meal so a bit of extra spending there.

Now all the big annual expenses have been paid it looks like we'll have paid down around £1200 on the debts this month, I'll post a round up at the end of the month. I'm unsure if I should count the debt as what we owe minus the money stashed away in savings to pay it off or if I should list both separately, as the debt is all 0% I'd rather stick the money in to savings and then pay off large chunks before the 0% is due rather than just paying it down every month.

rumpetroll

Just winding down after a busy but good weekend, we have spent quite a bit of time with my family so that's been nice. I'm supposed to be off work now for the next 2 weeks, although I might have to jump on a little bit early this week just to finish some things up.

From a finance point of view March was quite a spendy month with a lot of our annual bills falling due, but I've still managed to put a decent dent in the debts having cleared £6189 from the debt, a large chunk of that coming from the savings I had set aside for this purpose, so a real total of £1362 cleared this month.

CC1 - £2439 / £2463
CC2 - £3011 / £3104
CC3 - £7600 / £7676
CC4 - £12117 / £12239
CC5 - £0 / £5751  (Cleared March 23)
Finance - £2286 / £2405

Total Debt - £27,452 / £33,642 (18.4%)
Savings - £4434 / £9262
Total Position - £23,018 / £24,380 (5.59%)

The next 2 weeks I'm aiming to put all my focus in to my family, I haven't had a decent break from work for quite a while. It can be hard to get my head out of the work mindset and there's always little things that pop up while I'm supposed to be off, so I'm hoping to be able to ignore those distractions. This is actually a general goal of mine this year, to be able to take a bit of a step back from being so "busy" and appreciate my family life more.

Blackcats

Well done on the debt reduction.
enjoy your 2 weeks off