Take 2, a shopaholics diary

[Deleted User]

That’s an impressive monthly income. Have you identified reasons for your accumulating that large amount of unsecured debt and taken the necessary actions to ensure it never happens again? 

Is housing less expensive in your area? Just curious that you say your house value is only £150000. Sorry about the questions, but just surprises me that with such a good income you have so much debt.
Things like £400 a month entertainment a month and £1000 set aside for hen and stag don’t sit right with me when you are in so much debt.  As I say just my view . Best wishes.

shoppingobsessed2020

we have spent a lot and i mean a ton of money on my husbands qualifications over the past 15yrs.  he had to take a 1K pay cut to move company, and then had had just over a year at the reduced salary.  this is his promotion salary, prior to this it was 3.5K a month and before that it was 4.5K so its been a big drop then a big jump.

the qualifications he now wants to do are a few hundred rather than the thousands previously, and he is aiming for promotion within 2years which should then given him an additional salary bump.  this is also why i have the work account section of my budget so we can put money aside for those things each month and when he wants to do a course he can just do it.  although he has had a fair few paid by the new company which is good.

we made the decision when looking for houses all those years ago to buy something we could afford on my wage should the worst happen, which is why we have the smaller house & mortgage, we dont drive flash cars either thankfully. decent but not flash.  couldnt put a jag on the drive where we live, but a new toyota etc isnt out of place.

the funds need to be committed for fun money as i know for us both if we dont have something aside then it will just get whacked on a card and im not doing that.  hen and stag costs well this is the first wedding we have been to since we got married all those years ago and its a family wedding so we have to show face.  prior to that the plan was to take a loan holiday to pay for them so id rather the expense refund money be used to that.

i think though that with what we have coming in and a couple of loans getting paid of this summer through normal payments my budget isnt unrealistic for our income, we dont want to scrimp and save and be miserable and eat food just because its cheap.  i have a few health issues which are not cheap to manage food wise so whilst im in a good place at the moment, things like our food budget and my gym cant be reduced much, we got rid of sky ages ago, dont have a tv licence, we just pay for amazon prime and netflix, we have 3 x sim only mobile phones and shop around for gas and electric.

enthusiasticsaver

Oh dear the debt is £16k higher now than a year ago. Is that all down to his courses? 

I do remember your diary and your husbands propensity to expensive courses which do increase his income but the debt as well. 

 How many of those loans are debt consolidation loans? As you don’t have expensive cars I presume all of them? Good you can still get 0% cards but bear in mind if you don’t repay within the deal periods that will mean another BT fee so I would aim to get them repaid by the time the 0% ends. Is that feasible with the 6 cards you have? 

I would tackle the overdrafts first as they are costing you 40% interest presumably? Then cancel them. On that income you don’t need them. Why the packaged bank account? I think if you are committed to the holiday then saving for it is priority so well done for doing that. Allocating yourself fun money is ok. 

You are paying £2k just on debt repayments so that in itself would be annoying to me. On that income though you could still live comfortably while paying high amounts to repay the debt but I think it will need you both to be on the same page and prioritise getting rid of it once and for all. 

outoftheviciouscircle

I did the Natwest switch about a month ago. As soon as I paid the £1200 into it or whatever it was I had the £200 within a couple of days. DH did one too so £400 for basically doing nothing.

I agree you need to have fun money too. I have a simular amount of debt to you and I think if we didn't treat ourselves every now and again it would be easy to become demotivated and lose focus altogether.

I do agree with some comments though, if you really have that much left over every month (which I'm guessing you don't) the debt will soon be gone.

shoppingobsessed2020

the increase in debt i can semi justify, the tsb loan is a new car loan, still waiting on the insurance settling for his old car as the car that went into him was stolen but their insurance company is arguing about not covering as the owner had left the car on the street with the keys in it whilst it was deicing and they were inside the house!  hoping when they finally settle that will get at least 7k back, his car was very good condition, low milage so to replace it like for like was near impossible and he wouldnt wait and make do so went and bought a brand new car!  the stupidity is unreal, but he isnt where I am in this journey yet and being honest, i dont think he will ever be where i am.

we also had 6 weeks without his pay due to a muck up on on the office's part.  they messed up his leave days and didnt tell him that he had ran out of leave, so instead of going back, he thought he had the time banked to do a course, but only realised he hadnt when they didnt pay him!  

this may pay day at the end of the month is the first month of his new salary, prior to that we were on 3.5K plus my income so i havent just been wasting the 2\K surplus, this is the first month where its actually going to happen rather than just covering everything and using cards.

debt consolidation, 3 of the loans are debt consolidation and so are both mbna cards i think when i look back at everything.  like ive said course wise everything big has now been done, and the next few that he wants to do are a few hundred rather than thousand which is easier to budget for.

the overdrafts, this is the first couple of months we have gone into them due to the no leave pay. prior to that, we had maybe used £50/100 of the joint tsb overdraft in the last couple of days before pay day, so they are on a hit list but i dont know what the interest will be and i know its awful of me to say, but i dont really care as i know they will be gone in the next 6ish weeks.

re the packaged bank account we use a lot of the benefits and it would cost more to cover us if we downgraded the account and bought them elsewhere.  i have full uk breakdown coverage for both me and hubby in our own cars and if we are passengers in any car.  i use the mobile phone insurance, we buy our phones outright and pay sim only, so we have 3 pretty decent smart phones insured, travel insurance, covers us uk and abroad even for a 1 night stay in a hotel and we have ended up using it in the past when husbands flights have been cancelled for courses hes booked himself, it has been something we have looked at, but those would cost us more elsewhere and i also get |£500 intrest free overdraft so that is something although usually we dont actually use the dratted thing

i forgot my lunch today so ended up spending money at work, i had credit on my lunch account so technically a no spend day.

hoping to get to the weekend without spending any money, ive taken apple pay off my phone and i am leaving my cards at home.  if i need anything work wise, i have a works credit card so as long as i have that on me im good.

GeorgianaCavendish

Ah yeah, Virgin does have some cashback but it is only from a limited number of retailers. But still - any free money is good!  

You could also do a couple of receipt apps if you have the patience. I use Storewards and Shoppix - I think I made £70 last year just from taking pictures of receipts. 

Most of the switches I did were really easy and fast to pay out. The only one that took a long time was Santander (and you have to pay £3 a month fee for the account while you wait!) and that took almost 3 months. 

CRANKY40

The Motor Insurers Bureau compensates people who are in an accident with an uninsured vehicle. Contact them and see if they have any advice or if they can take up the case on your behalf?

shoppingobsessed2020

day 2 and another no spend day  

ive emailed the husband re the motor insurance bureau and asked him to give them a call.  

tried signing up for prolific and im on the waitlist.  i do amazon shopping receipt submissions and get £5 a month in amazon vouchers which is something, although it goes nowhere as i have a few regular subscribe and save items on amazon.  

tomorrow is a spendy no spend day for want of a better phrase.  i need to go shopping for work so that will be on the company card, ive got a few things to pick up that have been ordered and paid for so technically a no spend day, and im meeting a friend for a coffee, but i have a free drink on my costa card so woohoo.

friday is also planned for a no spend day, saturday is a spend day.  im going out for a friends 40th so just a meal, parking, soft drinks and babysitter to pay for, there wont be much change from £60/70.  if i can keep under £60 I will be happy as my babysitter will be at least £25.   then sunday i have my weekly grocery shop coming and thats \£47 on my credit card.

virgin balance transfer has been accepted which is good, nat west switch is in progress, 

roll on pay day next week so i can start making inroads.

shoppingobsessed2020

TSB............................13675.....281.9.....0

His MBNA.......................16598.....165.......0

tesco loan.....................1447......361.7.....0 - last payment september 23

my mbna........................7552......190.......0

next...........................3000.........100.........0 - clear september 23

barclays card..................900......100.......0 - clear august 23

tsb overdraft..................2000......0.........0 clear may 23

lloyds overdraft...............850.......0.........0 - clear june 23

lloyds loan 2..................11700.....332.4.....0 clear december 23

lloyds loan ...................2900......448.8.....0 clear july 23

lloyds credit card.............3500......50........0 - clear August 23

virgin money 0% card - 7000 - 200 - 

ok lets plan.

2K may pay day surplus - clear tsb overdraft
2K june pay day surplus - clear lloyds overdraft & 1200 on lloyds credit card
2K July pay day surplus - clear tsb loan - then remainder of surplus 500 to lloyds credit card
2.5K August pay day surplus - clear lloyds credit card (1800) remainder of £700 surplus to barclays credit card.
3K september pay day surplus - clear next
redo budget and evaluate surplus
3K october pay day surplus - pay lloyds loan 2
3K November pay day surplus - pay lloyds loan 2
3K |December pay day surplus - pay lloyds loan 2 - should be paid off or just about.

2024 redo budget and evaluate

all being well should have the following outstanding come 1st January 2024
His MBNA 15K
tsb loan 11.7K
my |MBNA 7K
Virgin Money card - 5.5K

feels achievable, especially as i plan on doing some small additional payments to loans and mortgages to make it a round number an the pence figure on loans and mortgages etc that i can see when i log into bank accounts annoys me.

shoppingobsessed2020

i managed to spend a fortune on saturday, had no change from £100, meal for me, takeaway for monkey boy, babysitter, parking and soft drinks.  then i had a £48 grocery shop on sunday.  today i spent £5 on a group present and then tomorrow is £20 on the gardener who is due.

pay day for me is friday and it cant come quick enough, feel like im in a holding pattern and nothing major is happening and i cant make inroads into anything right now.  thankfully we seem to get paid every 2 weeks as my pay day is mid month and his is at the end of the month.

other than the gardener this week im only planning on sundays grocery shop, next week is a bit more spendy as i have some beauty things booked which will come out my fun money.  tried doing my own hair and nails and i just make a mess and it takes far too long.