Small Business, Big Debts

OldTimer2023

Time for the first full update of the year!

	LBM Oct-23	Jan-25	Repaid	Repaid %
Bank Loan	£12,263.16	£8,725.71	£3,537.45	29%
Bank CC	£971.95	£0.00	£971.95	100%
CC1 (Bcard)	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00
CC2.1 (Virgin)	£7,375.50	£7,209.82	£165.68	2%
CC2.2 (Haifax)	£1,470.00	£0.00	£1,470.00	100%
CC3.1 (MBNA)	£12,388.88	£9,914.81	£2,474.07	20%
Bounceback Loan	£48,315.97	£39,288.34	£9,027.63	19%
TOTAL	£82,785.46	£65,138.68	£17,646.78	21%
Challenge Total	£34,469.49	£25,850.34	£8,619.15	25%
Emergency Fund	£1,000.00	£1,000.00	£1,000.00	100%

As per my quick update from earlier in the month, my Emergency Fund is now fully topped-up to £1k, and the £1k of summer borrowing has been paid-off, meaning that I closed 2024 at 25% repaid for my Challenge Debt - which is great!  Could it have been more?  Well, yes, probably, but overall I'm really happy with the balance I found on my debt repayments and on the year that I had - so I'm chalking 2024 up as a win!

Looking forward to 2025, I think I've got most of the big stuff in the Budget, and having the £1k Emergency Fund away is helping me to not panic about some of those "oh sugar" moments.

I've added another £100 to my monthly snowball payment, and then I'm not planning to make any further overpayments until my item (finally) sells.  I had a few lowball offers before Christmas, but would rather wait until the middle of the year before taking any action on the price.

I guess part of me is it a bit disappointed that I won't be able to make any (planned) overpayments for a while, but just need to remind myself that it's better to chip away at the debts consistently, rather than going between feast and famine.

Still no movement on my Credit Score ("Good"), but that's never been the primary goal here.  I have to say though that I am feeling a little disappointed that it hasn't moved in the last 4 months, but, hey, at least it didn't go down!

Also nice that my Bounceback Loan is (nearly) 20% paid off too.  I don't really include that debt in my totals, as it is a business debt rather than a personal one, but that is the only one of my debts that keeps me up at night sometimes, because it just feels so large/overwhelming, so it's nice to see it coming down, albeit it (very) slowly.

Ok, that's everything from my end.

Hope everyone is having a great start to 2025 so far!

Take care,
Old Timer

OldTimer2023

Ok update time again!

	LBM Oct-23	Feb-25	Repaid	Repaid %
Bank Loan	£12,263.16	£8,489.88	£3,773.28	31%
Bank CC	£971.95	£0.00	£971.95	100%
CC1 (Bcard)	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00
CC2.1 (Virgin)	£7,375.50	£7,009.82	£365.68	5%
CC2.2 (Haifax)	£1,470.00	£0.00	£1,470.00	100%
CC3.1 (MBNA)	£12,388.88	£9,614.81	£2,774.07	22%
Bounceback Loan	£48,315.97	£38,715.42	£9,600.55	20%
TOTAL	£82,785.46	£63,829.93	£18,955.53	23%
Challenge Total	£34,469.49	£25,114.51	£9,354.98	27%
Emergency Fund	£1,000.00	£1,000.00	£1,000.00	100%

Still just chipping away, as per the plan.  Upped my snowball by £100, and I've not had to dip into the EF yet, which are both positive.

Slightly less positive (at least financially), I had some friends visiting for the last few weeks, and I spent wayyyyy much more than I thought I would with them (like more than double what I had budgeted).

Similar situation to my trip home last summer, but whereas then I said "I spent too much, but it's ok, the memories will last forever", this time I feel that I actually could have acted with a bit more restraint, so that's a lesson learnt.  I definitely don't regret the spend, but it was mainly on food and drink, which are areas that I've worked really hard to control my spending in (esp. alcoholic drinks), so it has the feel of a 'splurge' about it - and an extended 3-week splurge at that.

Anyway, moving on, I can recoup it over the coming months, and should be able to get by without dipping in to my EF, which means I got away with it this time.

Other than that, not much else to report.  I thought my item had sold... but then the Buyer went flaky on me (grrr), so I'll have to wait a bit longer there, but no rush.

Hope everyone else is doing well!  I'll go catch-up on other diaries now.

Take care all,
Old Timer

OldTimer2023

Hello everyone!

I'm a bit late posting this month, but it's really important for me to keep the discipline up and hold myself accountable - so better late than never

	LBM Oct-23	Mar-25	Repaid	Repaid %
Bank Loan	£12,263.16	£8,254.05	£4,009.11	33%
Bank CC	£971.95	£0.00	£971.95	100%
CC1 (Bcard)	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00
CC2.1 (Virgin)	£7,375.50	£6,809.82	£565.68	8%
CC2.2 (Halifax)	£1,470.00	£0.00	£1,470.00	100%
CC3.1 (MBNA)	£12,388.88	£9,314.81	£3,074.07	25%
Bounceback Loan	£48,315.97	£38,133.33	£10,182.64	21%
TOTAL	£82,785.46	£62,512.01	£20,273.45	24%
Challenge Total	£34,469.49	£24,378.68	£10,090.81	29%
Emergency Fund	£1,000.00	£1,000.00	£1,000.00	100%

No additional payments this month, but I've hit a few milestones which feel quite big.

I've now paid £10k off my Challenge Debts and £10k off my Bounceback Loan meaning a whopping £20k off my debts in total - which is amazing!!!

I've still got a (really) long way to go, but I'm almost 30% of the way through my Challenge Debts, and 25% through my Total Debt, so it's happening, slowly but surely, they are going down.

My Credit Score (finally!) went up by a few points this month too!  I'm still in the same 'good' category, but just glad to see that I'm being rewarded a bit for closing accounts and getting my balances down.

Not much else to report, really.

I don't know if anyone else on here feels the same way, but my outlook towards my debt and money situation really depends on how I choose to look at it.  So, on that note, when I focus on hitting the £10/20k milestone, and know that I've just got to get through the rest of 2025 and 2026 in the same way then I actually feel quite positive and fired up...

... but when I think about how much more I still have to pay off, and all the things I would rather do with that money instead, well, I'd be lying if I said it didn't get me down from time to time.

I guess, as I've said many times before, I've just got to channel that energy into fixing my behaviours when it comes to money, and making sure that I don't get myself into the same situation again.

Ok self pep talk over.

Have a great day everyone!
Old Timer

vampirotoothus

Hi Old_Timer you are doing great, just keep going. V x

Lonelygambler

Smashing it mate. I’ll keep checking in. You keep up updating… 

OldTimer2023

Update time again, folks, and I'm doing it on time this month (for the first time in a while) 

	LBM Oct-23	Apr-25	Repaid	Repaid %
Bank Loan	£12,263.16	£8,018.22	£4,244.94	35%
Bank CC	£971.95	£0.00	£971.95	100%
CC1 (Bcard)	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00
CC2.1 (Virgin)	£7,375.50	£6,609.82	£765.68	10%
CC2.2 (Halifax)	£1,470.00	£0.00	£1,470.00	100%
CC3.1 (MBNA)	£12,388.88	£9,014.81	£3,374.07	27%
Bounceback Loan	£48,315.97	£37,557.96	£10,758.01	22%
TOTAL	£82,785.46	£61,200.81	£21,584.65	26%
Challenge Total	£34,469.49	£23,642.85	£10,826.64	31%
Emergency Fund	£1,000.00	£1,000.00	£1,000.00	100%

I'm having a bit of a wobble this month...

I decided to book my flights home for Christmas (before they get crazy expensive), so that means I'll have to dip into my Emergency Fund to pay for them once the Credit Card statement hits.  In the long-term, this should be a sound financial decision, because the flight could feasibly double (I checked the online flight algorithm thingy, which said "book now!"), but I'm beating myself up that I couldn't free-up the cash without dipping into my EF.

My EF has given me a real sense of security over the last few months, so I really need to focus on re-building it over the next few months - and probably even adding to it (£1.5-2k?).

I'm also about to have a pretty expensive few months, with my 2024 Accounts to pay for and a bit of work-related travel - plus I'm also determined not to cancel a 'big trip' that I had planned for my 40th last year, but had to cancel due to money reasons.  I've already de-scoped the trip quite a bit, to get the budget down as low as possible, but I'm still having to pause the overpayments on one of my CCs just to make sure I don't run into any problems.

All of which means my Debt-Free Date is now looking like December 2026 - an entire year longer than I initially hoped for.

I'm also getting frustrated because my forward numbers always looks great (like 3+ months out)... but then, in the real-world, 'stuff happens' in that 0-3 month window and I never get to that future place of building healthy surpluses each month.  So, for that reason, I need to really focus on having a 'spend-free' Q4, and also looking at which areas I can cut-back in (likely to be food, as I know that I eat out way too much***).

So, yeh, I'm actually tempted not to post this update, as I'm having a bit of a down day, and could probably re-write it later in the week with a more positive spin, but I guess that's the whole point of a journal, right?!

Looking forward to the end of 2025, I'm still set to be 50% paid off on my Challenge Debts, plus I will have had a nice trip over the Summer and a trip home at Christmas (my first time in 5+ years) - AND - I will only have one more year of living this debt-reduction lifestyle before finally being debt-free again.

Ok (finally!) a little bit of positivity towards the end there

Take care everyone,
Old Timer

***PS before I get judged/savaged on the eating out comment, a friendly reminder that I don't live in the UK, and it can actually be cheaper to eat out where I am based hahaha

vampirotoothus

Hi stop beating yourself up. Time is a more valuable commodity in my opinion and you are not creating new debts. So what if the timeline slips, life goes on and the debt is going down. Enjoy what you have booked. V x

OldTimer2023

vampirotoothus said:

Hi stop beating yourself up. Time is a more valuable commodity in my opinion and you are not creating new debts. So what if the timeline slips, life goes on and the debt is going down. Enjoy what you have booked. V x

Thanks V!  I definitely needed to hear that, and I do genuinely agree with you.

I'm feeling much better now (2 days on from the last post), and I was able to identify a couple of areas that had gotten a bit out of control spend-wise, so I feel better for taking some positive action there.

I also 100% agree that time is the most valuable commodity we have, and I said right at the start of my latest DFD that I was seeking some 'balance' in my repayment journey, so thank you very much for helping remind me of that - it is very much appreciated :-)

vampirotoothus

Glad to see you are feeling brighter today It is always good to review our spending and check in with ourselves on where our money is going - feeling good right now, or feeling good in the future. It is great when we get a good balance of that V x

OldTimer2023

Good day all,

Bit late posting again this month, but all looking ok from my side, just chipping away as usual.

	LBM Oct-23	May-25	Repaid	Repaid %
Bank Loan	£12,263.16	£7,782.39	£4,480.77	37%
Bank CC	£971.95	£0.00	£971.95	100%
CC1 (Bcard)	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00
CC2.1 (Virgin)	£7,375.50	£6,509.82	£865.68	12%
CC2.2 (Halifax)	£1,470.00	£0.00	£1,470.00	100%
CC3.1 (MBNA)	£12,388.88	£8,714.81	£3,674.07	30%
Bounceback Loan	£48,315.97	£36,978.79	£11,337.18	23%
TOTAL	£82,785.46	£59,985.81	£22,799.65	28%
Challenge Total	£34,469.49	£23,007.02	£11,462.47	33%
Emergency Fund	£1,000.00	£1,000.00	£1,000.00	100%

Feels great to have that total balance starting with a '5' for the first time - and I'm now 1/3rd through my Challenge Total too!  Hitting those big milestones on the way down always gives me a bit of a boost

I've got a few shuffles coming up over the next few weeks, with the 0% Balance Transfer offers on both my Virgin and MBNA card expiring soon.  Sooo, the big plan is to consolidate both of these balances on to my Halifax card, meaning I will then only have one Credit Card balance to attack going forward.

Given that this will leave me with zero balances on my Virgin and MBNA cards, I'm also seriously considering doing a 0% Money Transfer in order to pay off my Bank Loan, which was taken out at 10.9% APR (yikes!!!).  I reckon I could save maybe £750 in interest by 'paying off' the Loan early, so even after a ~£250 BT fee that would still leave me ~£500 better off, which is equal to about two months worth of payments.  I would MUCH rather have that money in my pocket than First Direct's!

Either way, the Bank Loan will become my lowest balance after this next round of Balance Transfers are all done, meaning that I can then throw everything at it to make sure I get it paid off before the BT offer expires, which shouldn't be a problem.

Crazy to think that by this time next year I might have only one debt balance left!!!  I mean, ok, it will be a bloody big balance, but progress is progress

I've had a bit of a rocky start to this year, financially, but I feel like I'm starting to turn the corner now and getting back on track.  My big ticket items for the rest of the year are all in the budget already, so I just need to work on building up my Emergency Fund again (after I withdraw it next month to pay off my Xmas Flights) so that I'm ready(ish) when the next 'issue' inevitably comes along to bite me in the rear (my bets are on having to replace my poor old mobile phone before the end of the year).

Ok, that's me I think.

Bit of a late post but better late than never!

Take care everyone,
Old Timer