Debt, Endo but now Pregnancy and a now Reno-d rental

Humdinger1

Congratulations @birdsfoottrefoil! Quite right to focus on the best outcome for you and the baby! Sometimes dudes like the one you describe are only gripped when it becomes too painful for others to ignore. Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

birdsfoottrefoil

Thanks @Humdinger1

All quite exciting and becoming more real! Feel absolutely knackered and sickly.

On the money front had a count up and £24,937!!! So need to set myself a new target.i would like to try and bring things down by £1000 pm and I realise that will be easier as my interest baring debts get less. Probably could do with doing another tot up of debts by interest rates (as some cards have different amounts on different %s) and then working out what to target now. 

 

birdsfoottrefoil

Hi.

Gosh what a long month January was! Been very sick and miserable, we’ve had the first proper scan which was exciting; however I’ll have to have extra scans to monitor the pregnancy. Which is a bit worrying, feel like nothing can ever be straight forward and a little useless as a women. Sickness is still here but has eased to mornings and evenings.

Onto the debt! Not the best month compared to others for repayments, had a tot up today and I’m at £24,449. Still have my Tesco payment to go out but equally will have the interest added on in the next week or so. Had oil tank to fill up and a few bills, however the debt is going down! Would really like to get below £24,000 at least by the end of this month.

Have submitted everything for my change from council tax to business rates (you have to wait till you’re over 70 days let and 140 available before you can apply). However they’ve a minimum 6 month wait to be assessed after that, so I need to check if I go now onto double council tax rates or if it’s once I’ve been out the house 12 months. Either way another expense.

Gosh I’m not very cheery!!

To set myself a plan I’d like to have my debt under £20,000 and more on 0% by June.

in_need_of_direction

you're only allowed to feel a little useless as a woman when you identify the child bearing man!

birdsfoottrefoil

Thanks @in_need_of_direction

Had a count up last night and debt stands at £24,335, which I worked out is about 15% paid off!!

Before I get to excited also worked out that about 3 of my “sections of balance”? (Is that the right word? Most of my credit cards have different amounts with different interest free periods on them) are coming out of 0% periods. I can easily tell on Lloyds as their card statements are straight forward; however Tesco and Santander give you so little info and don’t tell you when the interest free period runs out or how the balance is split, I need to contact them both to get them to provide me with the info. What a faff!!! And hardly helpful for trying to keep on top of finances.

Anyway about £3,500 is coming off 0% on different days over the next two months with Lloyds, they’re also the only card that always offers me 0% balance transfers on what balance is available on the card. So my plan is to focus on paying down Lloyds and then transfer what I can from Tesco to Lloyds on a new 15 months at 0%. Aiming for £1000pm including min payment, ambitious but I’ve worked out every £1000 off is about £20 in interest saved just on that card; that’s before what I can save on my other cards when I do a balance transfer. Fingers crossed they don’t suddenly decide to remove the balance transfer option! Even then it’s still money paid off.

So that’s the plan for the next 3 months, paying the minimum and interest added on all cards then throwing the rest at Lloyds.

Pregnancy wise still throwing up which at 16 weeks I feel is rather unfair!! I do feel I should probably alter my thread title but I’m not sure if that’s possible!

Also had some money in from AirBnB so paid £100 to Lloyds this morning.

birdsfoottrefoil

Just a quick check in.

I’ve paid £620 towards my Lloyds credit card since my last check in, I’m not sure I’ll get to £1000 by the end of the month but still pleased with the amount paid off.

Sickness is still ongoing and I’m still struggling with work, work is not the most helpful.Still covering my ex-boss’s work as well. My colleagues (who all work on a different “side” of our work and aren’t impacted work wise by our boss leaving) are aware of how sick I am, however if they pick up a call for me when I’m out the office instead of saying I am not well etc they just chase me to get back to the enquirer and cc our boss. I’ve started replying to people “apologies I missed your call, I’m sure “X” let you know I’ve been unwell/struggling with sickness in pregnancy” even though I know they haven’t explained why I haven’t been in the office. Spent 30 mins this morning sat in the bathroom retching and then got back to my desk to more grumpy emails.

I’m taking the view now that this is just going to be my pregnancy now.

birdsfoottrefoil

Anyway before I sound far far to self-piteous! I’ve paid £600 off Lloyds since my last post not since the beginning of the month, so I’ve actually paid off about £900!!

birdsfoottrefoil

A bit of a mixed check in this month!

My home insurance was due renewal this month, it came in at £550 for just structure; I’ve changed it to a holiday letting specific policy which is £806; however this includes interiors and pays £2000 pm if something happens and I can’t let the property. I’ve paid it out of my Santander credit card and should pay the amount back onto that before the end of the month. So currently my debt has temporarily increased… I used to pay home insurance monthly but that was going to increase the total cost by £100, while if I pay it back off my card by early next month it won’t cost me anything.

Out of the blue Tesco has offered me 0% on the remaining balance on that; so I’ve had a mass juggle! I transferred £1600 balance from Lloyds to Tesco. That left me with £3000 (also on 0% for 12 months) available on the Lloyds card so I split that between the amount left on Tesco which was paying interest and the same on Santander. I’ve spent the morning been transferred back and forth between AI and a real person at Santander to get them to clarify what the remaining balances interest rate is; the statement is sooo vague. So this has cost me about £200 in balance transfer fees but means I’m back at 0% on Lloyds and Tesco. Aim now is to switch the overpayments to Santander.

Aside from that the cottage is letting really well! I’m now averaging about £2000 per month coming in from it before costs.

Debt stands at £23,594 as of today; so even with all of that down from my last check in.

On the baby front after all the concern of it being small, it’s now measuring as too big on the scan this week 🤣 I’ve got to go for a diabetes test tomorrow.

birdsfoottrefoil

hi!

Debt is standing at £22,651. Slightly steadier reduction than previously. I did have some house costs this month of about £130 for stocks (ie tea towels, cleaning stuff etc) and a few new pans. The mortgage went through at the beginning of the month, no payment has gone out for that this month but I’ll have a double payment taken next month. So I’ve put this months payment in my savings to transfer back in to cover that.

I’ve had a few cancellations this month (I think it’s the economy and what’s going on) so that’s a pain!

On the baby front the diabetes test was negative which was a big relief!

birdsfoottrefoil

hi all!

Had a count up this morning and debt is £22,142.

I’m fairly sure I won’t be under £20,000 by June. Possibly will be in that month but I’m not going to be able to clear £2,000 in just over a month. That said next month is looking my best month so far for bookings so I’ll definitely get it under £21,000.

We were hoping to get away for a short break abroad in May pre baby. But with my BFs work and their being 1/2 term the only week we could go, it isn’t going to happen. Which is good for the budget…. Hopefully we’ll get away in the UK for a night or two in June, I have this absolute desire to be somewhere with an outdoor pool and the sun. We’re really lucky that there’s a public outdoor pool near us at home so I’m probably going to have to make do with that! Much more money saving!