10,000 steps, 1 step at a time.

13thlegion

Best laid plans and all that. But at least it’s enough to keep me entertained and not spending additional money on top! 10,000 steps forward to go and a few steps back in that time as well.

Good news. Work on the roof was cheaper than expected taking only one day. The amount saved has been put back into the holiday for this year so that is all paid for. In the coming months the money that would go to that one will go instead towards the emergency fund/overpay pots.

Downsides of the roof work are my emergency fund is depleted and will need to be refilled asap. Also, more extensive damage was discovered, all stemming from bodge jobs in the past by the previous owner. The builders will be back in the summer to repair with a maximum quote of £9000.

Ouch.

In other changes to where I was at the start of the year the 0% that runs out this month has been transferred to a new 0% card with 26 months. I’ll also be able to add the second amount in December to this when the other amount runs out in December. For now, they’re spread across both cards to minimise transfer fees.

MBNA 0% December 2024:

£6162.55

Santandar 0% April 2026:

£2111.50

Pre the roof news the evolving plan was to pay minimum on the April 2026 ending one and as much as I could at the December 2024 one to reduce the fee when that gets swapped over. With bonuses I could be out of both around August next year. Without bonuses it could all have been gone by April 2026. (Joint loan also gone by August 2025)

Now I’m not so sure as I would like to avoid having to take more credit to repair the roof but there may be some of the amount that will have to be. I’ve set CC payments to minimum and cut back on some other monthly figures to get my emergency fund back to my £500 preferred amount in 2 months and if I keep going, I’ll have approx. £1300 in there by the time the roof needs paying for. Leaving me just over £3k short for my half.

What makes me nervous is in the past there has always been something else to spend the money on if it’s sat in a savings account. The past year this has changed a little with the pots protecting amounts that have been earmarked for specific purposes. But I have just raided these pots to pay for the first emergency roof repair.

I’ll end this post by just saying I am in a very lucky position still. My discomfort with adding to debt is a new mindset, and entirely internal as I do have access to a lot of credit currently.

Aimingforthegoodlife

Hi @13thlegion, wow, I am loving the big posts and the way you are breaking things down. Such a shame about the cost of the roof, definitely get at least one other quote, you may be pleasantly surprised. You have already made great progress and I look forward to following your journey!

13thlegion

Aimingforthegoodlife said:

Hi @13thlegion, wow, I am loving the big posts and the way you are breaking things down. Such a shame about the cost of the roof, definitely get at least one other quote, you may be pleasantly surprised. You have already made great progress and I look forward to following your journey!

Thank you. This one will be a shorter post though!

We definitely will be getting more quotes. However we probably won't go for the cheapest but the ones with the best reputation. We've been stung before by dodgy tradesmen and just because they're on a trusted website it doesn't mean very much we've sadly found out. Our home insurance ended up taking one to court and winning. After that we had our windows changed a few years ago and the salesman made a comment that we were not choosing the cheapest options. My response was, "look I never want to see you again, I don't want to have the windows worked on ever again, I want work that will outlast me".

To make myself feel better I've updated the spreadsheet with my 10,000 steps on. CC debt at the start of this diary was £8792.55. 1 step is 88p. As of this morning I'm 589 steps further along.

Current total: £8274.05

13thlegion

Long time silence as life has offered little time to reflect.

First the good news. Using pots has carried on being successful. My emergency fund is at the £500 mark I like it at. Our family holiday is all paid for and we leave in a few days to drive to North France.

Debt wise it is more mixed. The roof repairs have been finished and came in dramatically under budget at £5600 instead of the initial £9000 estimate. The builders have done several things for us, and their usual method seems to be over quote and then charge less rather than quote cheap and come back asking for more money. I did a money transfer on 0% interest. Initially for £4500 which would have been my half of the full quote. When it came in under budget, I repaid it off the MBNA as that 0% period ends soonest.

The debts also increased as I paid my sister a long-held sum. When our mother passed away there wasn’t much of an inheritance. My sister let me keep hold of all of it as I was unemployed and in our mother’s rented house as I had cared for her. On the understanding that she would get her half when she needed it. This was nearly 10 years ago. My sister now has a baby and bought a house of her own. With maternity leave ending soon and childcare costs, and no grandparents to rely on (she is also on the other side of the UK to any other family members) she asked for her half. I of course said yes and have put an extra £2500 on a money transfer card. So less like an increase and more just making it official that I owed that amount to someone.

At this moment my CCs are at £12,803.22

MBNA £3,755.86

Santander £2,028.30

Barclaycard £7,019.06

In positive news, I used my Chase account to create a second current account for bank transfers. So far, I have completed two and earned £350 in switch bonus and £45 from TopCashback for doing so.

I am also getting a bonus in work this month. This is via a profit share as we are an Employee Ownership Trust. The key bit for the profit share is the first £3600 of any pay out is not subject to income tax. This year as it is our first I am getting 1.25 times by monthly salary. This will greatly help the figures! The plan remains to use the vast majority of it to take a chunk of the CC debts.

10,000 steps. Since the last check in I’ve added £7245 to my debt, and then repaid £2716.05. As my total has increased I have to take bigger steps so 10,000 from now is £1.28 per step

13thlegion

Had confirmation today that my Tesco CC account is closed. Automatically because I haven't used it in a long time. Happy for it to go, one less temptation.

13thlegion

Payday and I have stuck to the plan. An additional £2500 has been paid off the CC balances, essentially wiping out the £2500 added in the above post.

With the addition of the regular payments this month has been a marathon 2,238 steps. Next month’s minimum payments comes to 91.5 steps so I will be looking at making as many overpayments as possible.

CC debt reduced to £9,938.46

MBNA £1,121.96

Santander £2,008.01

Barclaycard £6,808.49

Coming back under £10k is a great feeling. And only £1145.91 higher than the start point of this diary.

Sarahwithlove

That's good news about the bonus it will certainly help. 

13thlegion

Another month rolls around.

CC debt reduced to £9,598.38

MBNA £871.96

Santander £1987.93

Barclaycard £6738.49

Moderate success in the last month taking 265 steps towards 10k until free of CC debt. Summer holidays so budgeted for a little extra spending. I have readjusted the payments to no longer be minimums plus any extra, and they all sit at just above last month’s minimum. Basic payments per month is now 93.75 steps per month.

I have a sister’s wedding soon at the end of October; we have no parents left so I have jobs to do! All budgeted for but this will slow down payments. I’d still like to get MBNA gone by the time 0% runs out at the end of December.

And with summer over thoughts go to Xmas planning. Lists are moderate this year and I’ve been saving all year so all should be good there. Food is covered by my in-laws as we spend every year there. We live in the same street so every Sunday as well!

[Deleted User]

I have just caught up again with your diary. So interesting and well written. For somebody like me who likes detail it is very informative and easy to follow. You are doing very well and dealing with all the challenges presented to you extremely effectively. Things like a new roof are sensible investments in your own home.
It is also good to read the diary of another man. Too few men post on these boards in my humble opinion.
I hope you summer went well.
Take care and best wishes.

13thlegion

Another month and fewer steps than recent previous.

CC Debt down to £9478.50 a shift of the minimum 93.75 steps.

 

Bigger expenses, some expected some unexpected and all sister’s wedding related mean I won’t be making overpayments this month.

 

On the plus side despite eBay sales slowing down because I‘m running out of stuff to sell, they are still ticking over and giving a bit of pocket money. I have also abandoned adjusting my food budget each month – weekends are when food is bought so months with 5 of them are more expensive than 4 – and now simply rollover any underspend. This give me a nice buffer for any variations in a shorter month, means I don’t miss the extra needed in a longer month, and when I underspend, it is a nice bonus to the following month.