Paying off £37065 unsecured debt by July 2027 while continuing to travel this amazing world

Nintud

£44.81 available to use on my credit card.

The additions I’ve made to that over the last 3-4 days will be paid from CM. I will then pay the minimum, the interest, and a token gesture overpayment on payday.

£8 expected from Vinted in a couple of days if buyers collect and accept their items. That will go straight to Very.

Need to post a small sale I’ve made. Every £1.50 counts!

Sarahwithlove

When is your car insurance due? Will you save enough after admin fee to make it worthwhile? Also you'll lose that years no claim potentially. Best time to do comparison is 23-28 days before it's due.

Nintud

Sarahwithlove said:

When is your car insurance due? Will you save enough after admin fee to make it worthwhile? Also you'll lose that years no claim potentially. Best time to do comparison is 23-28 days before it's due.

I’ve just checked and the cancellation fee would be £45. My payment s for November and December would be £307.20 with current insurer and £128 with new insurer. I need to call them to see if there would be any credit charges.

MFWannabe

Nintud said:

MFWannabe said:

Your journey is a long one; as debts are paid off it will look better 
You’ve only started this month and made great progress with Very 
I agree with others reference white goods insurance 
Theres still areas where you could make cutbacks I.e mobiles, misc expenses, car insurance 
How is your daughter’s search for a car coming along? 

Daughter collected her car last Thursday. Taking her off my current insurance saves a grand total of £1.37 across two monthly payments after the £20 admin charge!!

im due to renew on December 23rd. October payment has gone out, so just November and December to pay at £153. I’ve done a comparison search and can get my insurance for around £64. Can I cancel current insurance (admin charge likely), and start with a new insurer now (or mid November, seeing as I’ve recently made a payment)? Would I get a partial refund on the recent payment if I cancelled today?

as For mobiles, youngest has dropped his down the loo 🤦‍♀️ it won’t switch on. It’s rented from music magpie at £11.99 per month (his Dad puts credit on it). It won’t switch on, and I think I will have to return it and pay a damage charge. That was a 3am shock waking by a raging teenager. Used his phone as a torch as switching the hall light on wakes me up, then dropped his phone in the loo whilst basically sleep walking.  Of course, his brother hadn’t flushed when he went earlier in the night.

Personally I’d keep car insurance as it is and then take daughter off when you renew rather than paying the admin fee 
What phone is it that costs £11.99 rental and then still has to have credit put on it? How much credit is put on it? Would it not be cheaper for his dad to get him a contract phone? Or for his dad to buy a phone and buy a sim only deal? 

MFWannabe

Nintud said:

It’s an enforced no spend day. I have no money to spend!

I need ex to pay in the child maintenance tomorrow morning as I am driving on fumes. No need to drive until 11.30 tomorrow, but ex has to be reminded (with my bank details) every month, and holds out until just before midnight before he pays it into my account. I would walk the 40 minutes to the meeting location, but I’ll have 3 year old grandson with me, and that 40 minutes would become a looooong stop start hour each way, at least.  It’s a work meeting with an understanding colleague who is fine about grandson tagging along. I’ll have to pay for coffee and cake on my cc…. Need to check I have any of my limit left. Will probably have to put a fiver worth of fuel in my tank too, or we may not get home.  I’m not willing to grovel to ex for timely payment. It’s bad enough that I’ll have to contact him with a reminder.

No need to grovel to ex just send a message with a reminder; say you’re doing it now so you don’t forget / you’re busy later 

Nintud

MFWannabe said:

Nintud said:

MFWannabe said:

Your journey is a long one; as debts are paid off it will look better 
You’ve only started this month and made great progress with Very 
I agree with others reference white goods insurance 
Theres still areas where you could make cutbacks I.e mobiles, misc expenses, car insurance 
How is your daughter’s search for a car coming along? 

Daughter collected her car last Thursday. Taking her off my current insurance saves a grand total of £1.37 across two monthly payments after the £20 admin charge!!

im due to renew on December 23rd. October payment has gone out, so just November and December to pay at £153. I’ve done a comparison search and can get my insurance for around £64. Can I cancel current insurance (admin charge likely), and start with a new insurer now (or mid November, seeing as I’ve recently made a payment)? Would I get a partial refund on the recent payment if I cancelled today?

as For mobiles, youngest has dropped his down the loo 🤦‍♀️ it won’t switch on. It’s rented from music magpie at £11.99 per month (his Dad puts credit on it). It won’t switch on, and I think I will have to return it and pay a damage charge. That was a 3am shock waking by a raging teenager. Used his phone as a torch as switching the hall light on wakes me up, then dropped his phone in the loo whilst basically sleep walking.  Of course, his brother hadn’t flushed when he went earlier in the night.

Personally I’d keep car insurance as it is and then take daughter off when you renew rather than paying the admin fee 
What phone is it that costs £11.99 rental and then still has to have credit put on it? How much credit is put on it? Would it not be cheaper for his dad to get him a contract phone? Or for his dad to buy a phone and buy a sim only deal? 

I’m not entirely sure I’ve done the right thing but here goes.

Old policy was £153.40 per month. When I tried (again) to remove daughter and reduce annual mileage, provider wanted to ADD £1.46 to the remaining two months of the policy. Phone call got the monthly fee down to £97 per month, but that’s still £30 more than elsewhere has quoted.

Current policy cancelled and will pay £38.58 x 3 months in charges for the pleasure (total cost £115.74)

New policy 67.27 per month for 11 months and £59.82 today with £45 Cashback sometime next year.

Now for the maths:
Old policy £153.40 (paid 18/10/24) so I’m allowing £94.02 for cover used, and £59.38 incurred cost for being an idiot and not making the change on the 17th of November 🤦‍♀️ 

Cost to change is therefore £115.74 + £59.38 (lost insured days) + (59.82 new insurance deposit) = £234.50.

£306.80 (Nov/Dec) old Insurance minus 
£134.54 (Nov/Dec) new insurance = £172.26 saved.

£172.26 reduced monthly cost - £234.50 (cost to change) + £45 Cashback = -£17.24. 

If my maths is right, overall, I’m paying £17.24 for the luxury of reducing my November and December payment to original insurance provider.whilst hiking up October (£59.82 to cc but I put £67 from India savings across to CC so no interest incurred in that and it came from saving). Looks daft, but it balances my Christmas budget  and there is the potential to overpay the monthly insurance premium (from the £86 ongoing monthly reduction from February. I’m not counting the £48 reduction in January as my brain is crying over processing all these numbers!) to reduce the interest (£7.50 per month) and claw back the £17.24.

In my little head there is a small overall benefit of making the change now. £47 extra in the November and December budget (made up from the lower insurance payment minus the first two months of fees to change) added to the £420 I’m expecting in back pay puts a cash Christmas within reach.

(I’ve looked at this again and the £97 odd new premium would have resulted in £56 less to budget for in Nov/Dec, but overall costs from a straightforward renewal with old provider outweigh this £18 benefit to Christmas pot).

To be honest, I’m completely confubbled by what I have just done, and the primary motivation for cancelling my policy was the audacity the insurer had to increase my premium whilst my change in drivers and mileage reduced the risk.

oh, I do get ‘free’ breakdown cover, which is another small saving if I can get a reimbursement on the cover I paid for in September.

ive just realised I didn’t factor in reduced payments of £56 in Nov and Dec if I stayed with first insurance company, (and no leaving fee, lost days or payment to new insurer for days I was already covered for).

Let’s try the maths again. These were the options:

New annual cost; Old insurer cost to change £234.50 ( including first payment to new insurer which effectively means I’ve paid twice for 1st-17th November) plus new insurer 11 months @ 67.27 = £974.47

Projected cost with old insurer; 12 months @ £97.34 = £1168.08. So, £193.61 saved by switching even with the costs added and despite the potential reduction from negotiated reduced premium from old provider.

Renew with old provider at adjusted premium now and then change (postponing fees until the change);  (97.34X 2) + (10 x 67.27) = £867.18 with an unknown leaving cost to switch provider after 2 months potentially cancelling out the £107.29  saving of switching later rather than switching today.

Do nothing and renew on renewal date (153.40 X 2) + (67.27 x 10) = £979.50

974.47-979.5 = £-£5.03.

Making the switch early has saved me the grand total of £5.03 across the year 😂 Not knowing the hidden cancellation costs (£45 to insurer + unknown to finance provider) means I can’t do an accurate calculation of potential losses or gains for the renew at new premium then switch after 2 months option, but I have a sneaky feeling that the finance provider admin cost and random interest calculation could have cost the extra £72 to equal out the options even without being daft and changing insurers mid-payment month as I have done.

After all that, I think you were right. I should have kept daughter on and just changed provider at my renewal date, if only to have saved myself from all these calculations 🤣

Nintud

Appliance cover will be cancelled and that money put into EF. Need to put a reminder on my phone to cancel the small payments before the DDs go out.

I hope my appliances weren’t’listening’ to that 😆

Nintud

MFWannabe said:

Nintud said:

It’s an enforced no spend day. I have no money to spend!

I need ex to pay in the child maintenance tomorrow morning as I am driving on fumes. No need to drive until 11.30 tomorrow, but ex has to be reminded (with my bank details) every month, and holds out until just before midnight before he pays it into my account. I would walk the 40 minutes to the meeting location, but I’ll have 3 year old grandson with me, and that 40 minutes would become a looooong stop start hour each way, at least.  It’s a work meeting with an understanding colleague who is fine about grandson tagging along. I’ll have to pay for coffee and cake on my cc…. Need to check I have any of my limit left. Will probably have to put a fiver worth of fuel in my tank too, or we may not get home.  I’m not willing to grovel to ex for timely payment. It’s bad enough that I’ll have to contact him with a reminder.

No need to grovel to ex just send a message with a reminder; say you’re doing it now so you don’t forget / you’re busy later 

Guess what, no response to text message and no CM paid in yet. This man is on £72k per year plus state pension. Every damn month he pays in one minute before I can officially complain. It’s so controlling.

im His third wife, and he’s living with prospective wife number four. Wife number two tried to warn her, wanted me to join an ex-wife vendetta! I said no, we need to co-parent civilly (we Co-parent very well), but he pushes me further towards the idea every month!!

BudgetingBelinda

I have the same issue with my ex aubergine. I know it’s a common theme. Always been useless. He’s now gone self employed and only taking ‘essentials’ out of his business of which CM is not one it seems! He’s been late for the last 3 months and sporadically goes through these phases. I’ve thankfully gotten to the point of budgeting without his CM and with an EF/surplus so that I’m not reliant on it. That way it feels like it’s less controlling. Still annoying though and I’m sure there’s an huge element of control that plays into it. 

This month I’m going to ask once and then contact CMS if it’s over a week late. Haven’t gone through them before as he just coasts on the edge of the boundary of paying and does pay but is a 💯 🍆 about it. My patience has worn thin as any communication with him is draining and I’d rather not have extra. 

backinbusiness

Grr - in the end it's their children that they are disadvantaging really - makes me mad! BiB x