Divorce debt be gone!

biggerpickle

Have recovered from reeling at the car bill but it keeps on giving. Have a family do 5 hrs away in a couple of months so have bought train tickets as dont think I can cope with the stress of driving and then having more issues, fortunately bought a heavily reduced 3 year family railcard 18 months ago so actually tickets won't cost much more than petrol plus my pay per mile insurance. 

Been an expensive payday - balance of service charge cleared plus took teenmonsters out to my previously favourite restaurant as a start of summer holiday treat and was underwhelmed, used to go regularly in the married days but not been for 3 years so can scratch future expenses there off the list! 

Today is mainly being a supportive partner by helping at agm for the health charity bf chairs - he has same condition so part of today is me learning more from others about what his (our) future holds. Discovered yesterday wheelchairs cost not much less than the cost of some cars!!

biggerpickle

I've prematurely updated my signature for August as have all payments either paid or going out on the 1st - OK, so still not got through that ever-elusive £10k barrier but that'll be the car. Will attempt it for the next payday, depending what damage the school holidays do to the accounts. There's a big family birthday do in a couple of weeks and then our annual visit to the family overseas but the accom and travel for both of those are paid for, just the food, activities and booze while away to consider. Will also be spending a weekend with the bf next weekend but we both need to make that a cheap one. 

Edit to add: the DD's on 1st include the final one to the lovely folks at revenue & customs from owed tax so now down to juggling 6 payments a month, Very will be gone with Sept payday and the school trips with Oct payday.

beanielou

Well done. You could get rid of Very quite quickly? 

biggerpickle

beanielou said:

Well done. You could get rid of Very quite quickly? 

I could but it's interest free (for another 2 months) so makes sense to use more money to clear the interest bearing accounts (Halifax). Hmm, you've not got me thinking about looking at another overseas card though if it's a cheaper rate than Halifax.

joedenise

Not sure if the Nationwide CC would be of interest to you.  If you apply at the moment for their purchase card then it's 15 months interest free.  Not sure what the rate would be after that but maybe worth a look.

I use my Nationwide one when we're abroad but always pay off in full so not really looked at the interest rate.

biggerpickle

Had a look at Martin's overseas cards guide and the "pay in full" each month is the deal breaker, I can't do that at the moment and another account to juggle is not appealing. Keep on plodding on the current path it is!

biggerpickle

"Momentous" day here - the last dd for HMRC debt has gone so columns off my spreadsheet!!

I ran the rest through a snowball calculator and it does indeed suggest paying off Very next month so you were right @beanielou! I'd set the minimum payments on both other credit cards to £100 but the snowball suggests setting to actual minimum (works out to less than half that) and chucking all the other money at Halifax so changing those payments now.

And in other news, think my downstairs neighbour has a sudden new hearing defect - their telly is on so loud I can hear the hum from it 18 hours a day I discovered when wfh yesterday!

beanielou

Good news on the last payment. 

Sarahwithlove

I'd round it up to nearest £5 above minimum on others, otherwise the minimum goes down every month and it's easy for the extra to get caught up in other spending then go on debts. Also looks better for credit score, though not sure if that's something your considering atm? I know you said for work you cant have defaults but not sure if you need a good credit score or not. 

biggerpickle

@Sarahwithlove - Ive actually done that, ones next payment will be £63 so rounding to a fixed £65, for about 7 months, the other just under £20 so fixing at that for about 4 months.