📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

A different pace of life

Options
13

Comments

  • elsien said:
    Sounds like a plan.
    Good luck. :) 

    Thanks, elsien.  :)
  • Do you have anything you could sell on fb, Ebay or vinted to get more funds towards the CC? With the different pay days I'd be tempted to try and get a month ahead so that when wages come in throughout the month you could move them into a saver and then at beginning of month move your whole salary. Would probably make budgeting much easier. 
    *Dad loan - £5300 - £7200
    *Virgin Credit Card - £3552.50 - £0
    *Natwest - £1828.35 -£400

    Barclaycard - £2315.25 - £0.00

    Creation Finance - £960.32 £840
    *Total debt - £8440/£11641.17*


    Savings
    *Savings Buffer - £1000/£1500
    *Emergency Fund - £1010/£1500


    New diary- https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6474943/the-three-cs-coffee-clothes-credit-cards/
  • Hi Sarahwithlove

    Thanks for your comments. It's always useful to have a think about every possibility. The car is on HP. I'm fairly sure the settlement amount would be a bit less than continuing to pay monthly, but not much. I did request the settlement amount a few times last year and it just didn't seem worth it. I love the car but I'd never do anything like that again. It was not a sole decision - my circumstances were different back then. We live and learn. I had a quick look at your diary. It seems you prefer keeping a savings pot, too, rather than paying it all off debt. It does make you feel better, right? We live in precarious times. 

    I don't really feel at risk of losing my job now. I'm able to work from home and even if my current employment came to an end, I could increase the self-employment until I found something else. Mostly I just need to build my confidence.

     


    Yes I'm holding it in my saver until the 0% ends and then will pay it off. Figure I might as well get some interest from it. My plan is to hopefully increase my emergency fund at some point to £2k but that probably won't happen until I have paid my credit cards off. 

    Ref the car you have to make whatever decision is best for you at end of the day. If you feel better having it in a saver and happy to pay the interest then I'd keep it in saver. Same with when your cards come to end of it's 0% if you are happy to pay the balance transfer fee and you can get another 0% then that's what's best for you. 
    *Dad loan - £5300 - £7200
    *Virgin Credit Card - £3552.50 - £0
    *Natwest - £1828.35 -£400

    Barclaycard - £2315.25 - £0.00

    Creation Finance - £960.32 £840
    *Total debt - £8440/£11641.17*


    Savings
    *Savings Buffer - £1000/£1500
    *Emergency Fund - £1010/£1500


    New diary- https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6474943/the-three-cs-coffee-clothes-credit-cards/
  • Hi Sarahwithlove

    I have a few bags that I don't use any more that might be worth trying to sell. I had them on gumtree a while ago but no takers. Maybe I'll try again. Other than that, I'm fairly minimalist and only buy stuff I really need so there's not much to be sold. I enjoy a clutter-free home. 

    My goal of creating a buffer for my current account is about trying to pay myself ahead of time so yes, exactly what you said!

    My savings earn me roughly £20 per month in interest. It will cost me £58 maximum to move the MBNA card to 0% for 18 months. Financially it makes sense to do that. Also, having cash in the bank helps me feel safe. 

    The car is a different thing altogether. If I lose my job I can hand it back and the payments stop. No problem. It has always felt different in that I have something valuable I can sell to pay off the HP. The outstanding balance is similar to the value of the car, meaning all extra fees were likely paid in the first year (when ex-OH paid it). I'd have preferred to buy a £2k car outright, but I do love my car and it suits my different abilities. For now, I'm happy with the arrangement. Maybe I can overpay it once the EF is topped back up, the sinking funds are working well and the credit cards are paid off. I'll see. 

    Thanks for your input. You are helping me figure this all out. 
  • I'd try vinted or fb marketplace they tend to be better for that sort of thing. Or Ebay if designer. 

    If you can gain more interest then it make sense to do that as the cash again would still be there to pay them off if you were to lose a source of income. 

    Will you own the car at the end of it? How long is left on it? Again if something were to happen instead of handing it back you'd also have option of paying it off with savings and then selling in future if needed. But I'd definitely consider overpaying once CC are paid off and you are settled with rest of your finances as that essentially brings you one step closer to being debt free and more money in your pocket in the long run. 
    *Dad loan - £5300 - £7200
    *Virgin Credit Card - £3552.50 - £0
    *Natwest - £1828.35 -£400

    Barclaycard - £2315.25 - £0.00

    Creation Finance - £960.32 £840
    *Total debt - £8440/£11641.17*


    Savings
    *Savings Buffer - £1000/£1500
    *Emergency Fund - £1010/£1500


    New diary- https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6474943/the-three-cs-coffee-clothes-credit-cards/
  • I will own the car at the end of it. And there is just over 2.5 years left to pay it, so quite a long time really. I will probably decide to overpay once the credit cards are gone. 

    A random invoice was paid yesterday so another £50 added to the sinking funds pot which is now at £125. When I get paid next Wednesday I might just have enough to get my professional fees paid off. That would be good, but if it takes another week that'd be fine, too. We'll see. My largest wage arrives a week on Friday so maybe it will get done then. 


  • My wages come in throughout the month with 5 different paydays plus random invoices that usually get paid in the first week. This is probably why cashflow is tricky - I may have been using my EF to smooth that over.

    So, I need to increase sinking funds to anticipate the big expenses. Also, increase my EF again and not touch it unless it's an actual emergency. Also, build a buffer in my current account so I can start the month with a full wage in there.   

    With all this saving going on, I'm not sure how I'll get my MBNA card down to £1k before December so that's another difficulty. 

    3 month plan
    • Save enough to cover professional fees and upcoming work on the car
    • Increase my EF
    • Start saving buffer in current account
    • Reduce MBNA 1 to £1k
    I enjoy a challenge.  :smile:
    I'm having a look at my goals to see how I got on this month. 

    I've paid my professional fees. I did it last week with my Wednesday wage. I still have £100 in the sinking fund to get started saving for the next car-related bill, the advisory or the road tax. 

    I've put £106.75 into my EF this month. It's not much but I know I won't need to withdraw it again to cover any bills. 

    I'm going into the new month with £1,000 in my current account. Last month it was £640 and the month before it was £690 so I'm doing better with my current account buffer, too. 

    MBNA 1 has had a couple of small overpayments and the regular payment and is now £1,573.19. 

    It's all moving in the right direction.
  • Sarahwithlove
    Sarahwithlove Posts: 3,331 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    How much of a current account buffer are you aiming for? 
    *Dad loan - £5300 - £7200
    *Virgin Credit Card - £3552.50 - £0
    *Natwest - £1828.35 -£400

    Barclaycard - £2315.25 - £0.00

    Creation Finance - £960.32 £840
    *Total debt - £8440/£11641.17*


    Savings
    *Savings Buffer - £1000/£1500
    *Emergency Fund - £1010/£1500


    New diary- https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6474943/the-three-cs-coffee-clothes-credit-cards/
  • How much of a current account buffer are you aiming for? 
    I'm not sure. I can't decide between how much I need, how much I want (!), how much helps me feel safe and how much I should have in different savings pots. But I was aiming for a whole months worth of cash ready on the 1st of the month, that would be around £2k. 

    At the moment, the long term savings are equivalent to 3 months' expenses. So, it's a fully-funded EF that could be doubled to £10k for extra safety. The £1k I usually keep and use as an EF could actually be my current account buffer, giving me a whole months worth of expenses at the start of every month, before my wages come in. Except, there's not £1k in there just now, only about £300.

    Maybe that's a better way to think about it. I could get rid of the smaller £1k EF, use that savings account for something else, and keep a buffer in my current account. At the moment I empty it to £0 every month.   

    I'll keep trying to organise this better. 
  • I stopped on the way home from work to get petrol. I've noticed that picking up some chocolate and a packet of crisps can add quite a bit to the budget. I made a deliberate effort not to, and I managed, but it was way more difficult than I expected.  :/
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351.1K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.6K Spending & Discounts
  • 244.1K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 599K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177K Life & Family
  • 257.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.