Breaking through the debt and life challenges

rumpetroll

I think this thread is mostly just me logging this for myself now. November hasn't been great, have had a disagreement with DS which has resulted in me and my ex falling out, I've bit my tongue and bent over backwards to support her and our children since we split up over 10 years ago and we've always "got on", but I'm well and truly done with her now, the kids are old enough that she doesn't need to be involved in my involvement in their lives any more.

- November 2023 -

Debt

I made the final 0% balance transfer this month, so this should be the last month the debt figure goes up. I hate seeing the debt figure so high, and even worse is that it's £3k higher than when I started this log, but I'm excited to see this figure come down now. It will likely only be decreasing by the minimum payments until after the wedding, which at the moment is just under £700 a month.

CC1 - £2239 / £2463 (9%)
CC2 - £2360 / £3104 (24%)
CC3 - £10939 / £7676 (-42.5%)
CC4 - £11181 / £12239 (8.65%)
CC6 - £9068 (4.5%)
Finance - £1323 / £2405 (45%)

Total Debt - £37,110 / £33,642 (-10%)

Wedding

The wedding budget is pretty much funded now, sorted the suits out and a couple of other things are now booked/bought. The only major thing that hasn't been sorted yet is the florist, so I'm not expecting any big expenses for the next few months when final payments all become due. I've put a bunch of the savings in to a cash isa for now as I'm getting close to the limit for interest free savings this year.

Target Fund - £22,000
Already Paid - £6283
Savings - £15,207
Total - £21,490 / £22,000 (97%)

lucielle

I’m reading but don’t post that much. Keep going. 

L

Chemtrails

I’m reading too! You seem to be organised and managing well with savings and 0% interest free on the debts.

How far off is the wedding? 

rumpetroll

Thanks @lucielle and @Chemtrails it's nice to know that there are some people reading my ramblings

The wedding is less than 7 months away now, it's all pretty calm at the moment now that all the big stuff is booked, but still quite a few little things to get sorted.

rumpetroll

That's a wrap for work now until next year, I'm already feeling more relaxed knowing that I've got this break and nothing to think or worry about.

I had resigned myself to not seeing the money my ex owes me after our falling out last month but out of the blue she sent the full amount to me yesterday, I'm glad that's all closed now and I don't have to chase her for it.

Also had a call this morning and the new car arrived today so we're picking that up next week so need to get insurance sorted and get my old car sold.

The budget is looking pretty good this month and the debts are finally starting to go down so hoping to have a good round up at the end of this month.

rumpetroll

Hope everyone had a good Christmas break. I enjoyed just taking things easy and trying not to stress about anything, although I've suffered with a sore throat for the past few days but haven't felt ill so just getting on. First day back working today so catching up on the backlog of emails at the moment.

2023 had some big ups and downs but overall fairly positive. We're getting married this year and I've got a feeling that the time is going to fly by, I've got a list of things that I need to do over the next couple of weeks, most importantly we need to get our invites done and sent out.

- December 2023 -

Debt

Finally back on track with this with a lower balance than last month, as expected, it's only the minimum payments for now while money is being put aside for the wedding and all the cards are on 0%.

CC1 - £2214 / £2463 (10%)
CC2 - £2289 / £3104 (26%)
CC3 - £10666 / £7676 (-39%)
CC4 - £11069 / £12239 (9.5%)
CC6 - £8978 (5.5%)
Finance - £1203 / £2405 (50%)

Total Debt - £36,418 / £33,642 (-8.25%)

Wedding

No money was spent in December towards the wedding but my savings pot is now big enough to cover the whole costs. I have booked the flights for our honeymoon but that's coming out of the holiday fund so I'm not including it in these figures. So given that the wedding fund is now at 100% I'll add an additional savings total below and this will be going towards paying off the CCs when the 0% deals expire.

Target Fund - £22,000
Already Paid - £6283
Savings - £16,847
Total - £22,000 / £22,000 (100%)

Additional Savings Pot - £1,130 - this will probably be wiped out this month as I have to pay my self assessment tax which is a little over £2k, this is made up from having to repay the child benefit that we receive.

rumpetroll

2024

I'm not one for making new years resolutions but I do have a number of things that I want to get done this year.

Finance

The next 0% to expire is CC4 which runs out in June this year, so just 5 months away and it's also the biggest balance. My plan with this is to pay off as much as I can and then hopefully BT the rest, I've got an empty CC that normally has 0% deals on and a big enough limit to transfer the whole amount if required but I think I should be able to pay off at least £5k in July and an ideal target of £7k. 

After that I want to be able to pay off an additional £500-£1000 a month to the CCs as CC1 and 2 both expire towards the end of the year and that extra should be enough to clear those in time. The finance will be cleared in October so that frees up another £120 a month.

• Clear CC1
  
• Clear CC2
• Pay off a minimum of £5k from CC4 and balance transfer the remaining to a new 0% deal
• Clear Finance

In total I'd like to clear £14k from my debts this year, I'm currently at £36,418 so by the end of 2024 I'd like to have less than £22,000 remaining.

Personal

• Get married
• Maintain the consistency of going to the gym that I've managed over the past 3 months, since the start of October I've been getting 3-4 weight sessions in at the gym every week, I took the Christmas break off but will be back at it this week.
• Get back to cycling, no serious goals here but I'd like to get in at least a couple of rides a week, I love mountain biking and I also have an indoor trainer that I use for Zwift rides (and the odd race).

Home

I don't think we've got any big plans for the home this year but there are multiple rooms that need tidying up with new paint.

• Get garden looking tidy again, we have a large garden and the plants, weeds and hedges have all got away from me over the past year and so getting this looking good again is a priority. This will likely involve getting a gardener in to do some of the work, particularly sorting the hedges out as even with my long reach hedge trimmer I can't reach the top of them.
• Paint hallway and dining room
• Paint our bedroom and ensuite ceiling
• Paint youngest step daughters bedroom
  

Baron_Dale

This is totally my opinion and I respect your decision about the wedding but I cannot understand at all a £22000 wedding when you have debt of £36000. 
For me a wedding is about two people agreeing lifetime commitment and that's it.
In reality it could be done for thousands less. Simple ceremony and an evening meal for friends and family.
As I said just my personal view.
Best wishes.

rumpetroll

I get where you are coming from @Baron_Dale and no doubt we could get married for significantly less, we could also have spent significantly more on the wedding. Effectively we have £13k of debt and are borrowing £22k for the wedding, as if it wasn't for the wedding that's how much the debt would essentially be. We're also getting a generous gift from OHs parents which will actually reduce the cost to us significantly but I wanted to do all the figures as though we were paying for it until the money actually hits my account.

In an ideal world we would have done the wedding a year later and cleared as much debt beforehand as possible but with OHs mother having terminal cancer we are doing it as soon as possible.

The other consideration is that although the debt figure is high it's well within our means of paying off and we're not struggling to meet the repayments, I also have a reasonable S&S ISA that I don't include in the numbers as unless it's an emergency I don't want to touch it and I have a decent and fast growing pension (both workplace and SIPP).

Having said that, I want to pay off the debts quickly and we've agreed that that is the focus after the wedding, that'll give us an extra £700/month disposable income and the thought of having that is very compelling.

rumpetroll

Where has the time gone? I'm a bit late in posting this, I'd like to start posting on here a bit more regularly but sometimes find it hard to know what to write.

January has been extremely busy with work, we've got a big project being completed this week that my team have been working on for some time so quite excited to see that go live although it's not quite in the position I'd have liked it to be in so some extra work for a couple of the guys over the next few weeks.

I sold my old car, I've always sold cars privately in the past but tried motorway with this one and was impressed, I got pretty much what I'd have expected to get for a quick private sale without the headache of having to deal with all the time wasters. We've had the new car for just over a month now and we both love it, I haven't worked out exactly how much we're saving in fuel but a rough guess is the electric cost of charging it is around £50 a month less than the diesel we were using before.

I had a payrise in January and with the salary sacrifice for the car I think I'm still up a little bit on take home from before having the car.

- January 2024 -

Debt

The credit cards are slowly starting to go back in the right direction with a £681 this month. The 0% is due to expire on CC4 in 4 months and I've been offered a 2 year 0% BT on CC2, there's enough on there to transfer about £3500 which would leave around £7k to clear in June, I said before I'd like to pay off at least £5k from this and BT the rest, I'm going to hold out for a couple of months to do the BT so hopefully the offer will still be available.

CC1 - £2189 / £2463 (11%)
CC2 - £2221 / £3104 (28%)
CC3 - £10399 / £7676 (-35%)
CC4 - £10959 / £12239 (10%)
CC6 - £8979 / £9500 (6%)
Finance - £1083 / £2405 (55%)

Total Debt - £35,737 / £33,642 (-6%)

Wedding

A few more things wrapped up for the wedding, in January we bought our rings, got the invites all sorted (although still need to deliver a few), we have bought the bridesmaids dresses, finally found someone to do the flowers and booked the car for OH. We have also booked the hotel for our honeymoon.

Target Fund - £22,000
Already Paid - £7621
Savings - £17,263
Total - £22,000 / £22,000 (100%)

Additional Savings Pot - £2884 (+£1754) - This will be used to pay off CCs when the 0% deals expire