The Three C's - Coffee, Clothes & Credit Cards

Sarahwithlove

It's official I have a new car wahooo! Cost me £37.65 to insure it. Tax is £35 for the year. My dad gave me £1k which he didn't want me to take off the loan but have as a gift. 
£200 went towards the car as that's how much they knocked off part exchange quote. I was kind of expecting it tbh. But I took my car for a test drive and I love it. Will take some getting used to though as button ignition, gear stick further back and no reversing cameras. Oh well. Car has just under half a tank will be interesting to see how much it costs to fill it. I have enough in travel account to fill old car before end of month so will be fine for this one. 

Remainder of dad's money was used to top up household Fund so now i have a full Sinking fund and then the rest put in credit card payment pot. This has taken the VM CC monthly Overpayment pot to £75 a month rather than £125. Wahooo. Though I will keep putting in as much as I can so that I will be able to hopefully clear both cards sooner. 

Payslips have also gone up and my small amount of mileage has been paid so extra £15 to come which combined with the £10 unallocated funds means I will have an additional £25 to spend. May put it in the travel pot as a buffer for any future work travel. 

I have decided with my everyday spending pots I will allow them to roll over. I will pay fixed amount into 3 categories groceries, travel and personal spends. The other 2 categories I will top up as and when I spend it the next payday and I have allocated £50 a month to cover both these pots but the months it doesnt get used it will go off the card instead. This is because these are flexible pots that may or may not get used each month. 

With the increase in the loan from my dad I am now going to focus on a new debt free date for credit cards only. Both me and my dad are happy to allow the loan to tick over. The additional £100 helps him live a comfortable life without dipping into his lump sum savings. He also keeps reminding me that if i don't repay it before he dies then he considers the remaining loan void once he's gone. He even offered to loan me more money today but I said no. 51 months of repayments is plenty for me. 

Off to make a new plan of action and will no doubt update you with my new debt free date soon! 

liselle

Congratulations on your shiny new car! And you’re really sorting your budget.

Re.white goods, I have mine insured, it’s well worth it as quite low cost and gives you peace of mind (I don’t work in insurance,honestly!)

Sarahwithlove

liselle said:

Congratulations on your shiny new car! And you’re really sorting your budget.

Re.white goods, I have mine insured, it’s well worth it as quite low cost and gives you peace of mind (I don’t work in insurance,honestly!)

Thanks. My white goods are probably too old for that now. Both are 5 years old. I'm leaving the household Fund at £500 for now as I have my 1k emergency fund if both were to go wrong at the same time. 

liselle

I can’t remember how old mine were when I took the insurance out but they certainly weren’t new.Great you have the Household Fund

Sarahwithlove

liselle said:

I can’t remember how old mine were when I took the insurance out but they certainly weren’t new.Great you have the Household Fund

I'm not a fan of those types of insurances tbh as usually some kind of clause or reason why they can't pay. Rather put the money into an account instead. 

Sarahwithlove

So by my calculations I should be credit card free by July at latest. Potentially earlier as I hadn't taken into account my payrise which is still being negotiated at the moment. Even if they end up agreeing on original offer which they have done last 3 years that will be about £500 back pay and extra £60 a month going forward. It usually gets paid at end of Dec, so basically Jan's pay. So may even be able to bring it forward a month or two. Something to aim for! In fact my goal I've decided is going to April. It's decided. 

On way back from getting car taxed I stopped for petrol 2/3 of a tank was £40. My current car is about £70 for that. Will be interesting to see over next few months how much I save on fuel. 

Chocolatefund

How exciting on your new car. 

I bought my current car brand new. Not very mse of course. I was shopping for a 4-5 year old, then the new model came out, and dammit I just had to give it a test drive didn't I?

No regrets though. 7 years later and still going strong. Has given me no trouble except new tires and a replacement fog light.

Hoping I can keep it till it falls apart!

Sarahwithlove

Chocolatefund said:

How exciting on your new car. 

I bought my current car brand new. Not very mse of course. I was shopping for a 4-5 year old, then the new model came out, and dammit I just had to give it a test drive didn't I?

No regrets though. 7 years later and still going strong. Has given me no trouble except new tires and a replacement fog light.

Hoping I can keep it till it falls apart!

I'd have loved to of had a newer car but I didn't want that kind of debt this time round. Hopefully this one will last me 4 or 5 years and I'll have no debt and a lump sum to pay towards it hopefully. That's my plan anyway. Brand new cars are OK as long as you intend to keep it long term. But they do lose alot of value the moment you drive it off the forecourt. 

Chocolatefund

Oh how I was non the wiser back then. Thankfully it's a Honda Civic. So not Mercedes S class levels of finance. XD 

badmemory

I've been lucky enough to be able to buy new cars since the first in 1991.  Sounds a lot doesn't it, but the next was 2003 & the current one 2015.  The best thing is that you always really know what they have been through & had done & not had done.  The current one has only ever had tyres.  In fact that is all any of them have had since I stopped letting repair type garages do the MOTs.  One of the very first things I learnt from MSE a very long time ago.