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

Nintud

LouisaAlmighty said:

It doesn't sound like you've had you LBM yet. 
I really think you need to revaluate all the travel etc whilst you're in this level of debt - especially with so many children and outgoings. 

My children range from 32 to 15, the eldest four are financially independent and only my 15 and 17 year olds live with me. I have 50/50 shared care with my ex. My next oldest child is 25, with his own house and a good career.

i have cut back on the travel for 2025. Just two weekends away and the big trip to India. I will also travel to visit my Dad as he moved abroad when he retired. My Mum has passed, and I am an only child, so he needs those visits. They are financially neutral as he gives me the flight money when I get there. He’s in his 80s and his health is declining.

A couple of years ago, I was very ill, and faced the real possibility of death at any moment. I had pulmonary embolisms and my consultant described my condition as a ticking time bomb.  I have recovered, but am more susceptible to PEs now. Conscious of this, I decided to live life while I still have my health, and to me, living life means travelling the world (I take blood thinners when I fly and I am the annoying passenger that gets up and paces the aisle to reduce the risk of developing a DVT). I can’t afford the debt, but I also feel that I can’t afford to turn down too many opportunities to travel.  If I wait until I am debt free, I may not get the opportunity to see these places again. The fomo is real!

I am considering changing my car for something cheaper, possibly something I can buy outright from the sale of this one. That would free up a chunk of money each month for debt repayments. While car shopping with my daughter, I will keep an eye out for a suitable runaround for me.  I mainly work from home, and this car was an expensive vanity purchase when I separated from my husband.

i am hopeful that the flickering lightbulb will hold fast.

Nintud

No debt repayment on Friday. My Vinted payments haven’t arrived, and it’s too close to payday to spend all of my last tenner.  3 days until payday.

I did a small top up shop of milk and yellow stickered salad and pitta Wraps and made fajita chicken and salad wraps with reduced price chicken breasts from my freezer. Dinner for three for a total of £2.50. Full bellies, plus I got some lettuce into my sons 😁

Last time my boys were here they went through 42 pints of milk in a week 😱

liselle

At last someone else who supports white goods insurance! I swear by it and was beginning to think that I was the only one on the planet!

I believe in insurance in general; I once had occasion to use a policy I had for being unable to work.
Very best wishes for your debt free journey and for living a full life too! My ex was of the opinion that every spare penny should go towards the debts,putting your life on hold, whereas my argument was that you have to live your life too! Sadly he never did see that.

MFWannabe

Nintud said:

MFWannabe said:

Nintud said:

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 1

Number of children in household......... 2

Number of cars owned.................... 1[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 3675

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

Benefits................................ 170

Other income............................ 389[b]

Total monthly income.................... 4234[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 749

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 347

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 135

Council tax............................. 125

Electricity............................. 58.5 - Is this your bill payments or direct debit amounts? 

Gas..................................... 58.5 - As above 

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 50

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 78 - Wow this is huge, are you in contract? If not look at sim only for way less than this 

TV Licence.............................. 15

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 18 - Do you really need this? 

Internet Services....................... 40 - Are you in contract? If not then shop around for cheaper deal 

Groceries etc. ......................... 350 - You should be able to trim some off this, do you write a list? Meal plan? 

Clothing................................ 100 - This is high, could you cut in half? 

Petrol/diesel........................... 65

Road tax................................ 2.5

Car Insurance........................... 165 - Wow this is huge! Can this be cut? When are you due renewal? 

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25

Car parking............................. 5

Other travel............................ 150

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 150. - What is this for? 

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 35

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20

Buildings insurance..................... 0

Contents insurance...................... 10

Life assurance ......................... 35

Other insurance......................... 16. - What is this for? 

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 175 - This is way too much, cut at least by half 

Haircuts................................ 10

Entertainment........................... 0

Holiday................................. 175 - Important to you so not touching this 

Emergency fund.......................... 5 - You seriously need t8 increase this by cutting back elsewhere. You need to build some emergency fund to stop your reliance on credit. £50? 

TU, Bins, Misc.......................... 75[b] - What is this for? 

Total monthly expenses.................. 3242.5[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 10

House value (Gross)..................... 172000

Shares and bonds........................ 525

Car(s).................................. 8500

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 181035[/b]

[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 108572...(749)......4.5

Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 5562.....(347)......0[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 114134....-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Very...........................943.......168.......42.9

MBNA cc........................13953.....124.......23.76

Santander cc...................10638.....203.......21.66

Omni Loan......................5200......261.......11.5

Nationwide cc..................189.......5.........39.9

Santander OD...................2900......50........39.94

Nationwide cc..................465.......25........16.9[b]

Total unsecured debts..........34288.....836.......-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 4,234

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,242.5

Available for debt repayments........... 991.5

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 836[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 155.5[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 181,035

Total HP & Secured debt................. -114,134

Total Unsecured debt.................... -34,288[b]

Net Assets.............................. 32,613[/b]

Morning 
I’ve made some comments above in your soa, there are definitely some cutbacks to be made 
You need to build an emergency fund of say £500 to stop your reliance on credit 
Stop the overpayments to the mortgage as the interest rate on that is 4.5% anyway and you can move onto another deal with current lender when that comes up for renewal. 

Your focus needs to be cutting these debts. I would pay off the Nationwide cc at 39% in month 1 so one less card, then focus on Very and then Santander od with those eye watering interest rates 😱

Thank you for taking the time to go through my SOA.  I’ll expand on the figures a bit more.

Gas & electricity are on DD. As I live in an apartment with no line drying facility, I use my tumble dryer a lot.  Too compensate for this, I work from home in the kitchen and do not use my central heating. 

The £78 mobile bill is for three phones. My sons’ phones are rented from Music Magpie and Sim only, and this bill also includes a rented iPad. My bill includes unlimited data. I can go sim only from June. - so how much are the individual items costing you? You really need to look into this as that’s a huge amount of money even on 3 phones 

The satellite bill is Netflix. Other than travel, this is my only entertainment. I have two jobs and work 44 hours per week. June and July, I take on a third job and work 72 hours per week. I’m too tired to socialise etc! - so that’s top package for Nextflix? Could halve it by changing to basic package 

I totally agree on the emergency fund. I will try and carboot on Sundays to increase this. - Sell anything unwanted on Ebay or Vinted 

Broadband includes a landline. I rarely use the phone, so this is something I could change.  I need a seamless transition between providers as I mainly work from home. - Have a look online you should be able to get it cheaper, we’ve just done ours and it’s only £28 broadband only as don’t need or use house phone 

The other insurance is for my white goods and vacuum cleaner.  I have had two replacement dishwashers, a washing machine repair and a vacuum cleaner repair, in the last 3 years. I think this insurance is worth the fee, at least until I have an emergency fund. My vacuum cleaner I needs repairing again, so I will use the insurance for a repair or replacement on Monday.

Miscellaneous includes my trade union and political party subscriptions (both necessary for my work), wheelie bin cleaning (I cannot do this myself as I live in a third floor apartment and don’t have access to an outside tap), saving for new passports for myself and one son as both run out in May, plus a buffer for things like stamps and charging cables (which I seem to break monthly!)

clothing includes school uniform, underwear and footwear, which my sons go through at an alarming rate. - That’s still a lot of money especially as you co parent. do they have old stuff you could sell on vinted? 

 presents bill is high because I have 6 children. The oldest four have partners, and I have four grandchildren.  Including my Dad and secret Santa too. I buy birthday presents for 15 people and Christmas presents for 20. Included in that is Christmas presents (generally food items) for my neighbours. One puts my bin out every week, and all of the neighbours put up with my dogs barking at least twice a day when we go out for our walks. - You really need to cut this down as that’s a huge amount of money, your children will understand if you can’t buy for everyone, change to just buying for grandchildren? 

i have also included Easter eggs in the present costs, and rewarding my sons for good grades and good emails/calls home from school (far too rare!).

The other child related expenses include Xbox and play station subs, pocket money, and money for extra chores (son helps me with some basic tasks for my work, and I loathe sorting socks!) - £150 a month is huge! How much are these subs? How much do you give in pocket money? You need to look at these, even if you cut it down to £100 that’s another £50 to throw at debts 

car insurance is high because I added my daughter to it. She chauffeurs me to and from the airport when I travel and uses my car for most of the summer.  We are car shopping for her tomorrow, so this monthly cost should decrease very soon. At least it will until I put number 3 son on the insurance! - Hopefully this will change soon then. Do you really need a car? You don’t seem to spend much on fuel and you work from home? 

Morning. I’ve made some suggestions above. You really need to look at cutting your costs if you’re serious about paying off the debts , while you have this level of debt it’s crazy to be spending like this.
You could make some easy cutbacks which would give you more money to throw at these debts 
Especially the high interest ones 😱 and living in your overdraft is never good as the bank could remove that at any time 

Nintud

liselle said:

At last someone else who supports white goods insurance! I swear by it and was beginning to think that I was the only one on the planet!

I believe in insurance in general; I once had occasion to use a policy I had for being unable to work.
Very best wishes for your debt free journey and for living a full life too! My ex was of the opinion that every spare penny should go towards the debts,putting your life on hold, whereas my argument was that you have to live your life too! Sadly he never did see that.

Thank you for dropping by.

Ive spent so much money on washing machines and tumble dryers over the years, it would be daft for me not to insure them.  When all six children lived at home, plus weekends with stepchildren too,  was running everything at least twice a day.  It’s less now, but I’m still on my third dishwasher since I moved in to my apartment. 

I’m too old to let life pass me by now. This debt has to be repaid while I am still enjoying life.  That said, cuts can and will be made.

Nintud

MFWannabe said:

Nintud said:

MFWannabe said:

Nintud said:

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 1

Number of children in household......... 2

Number of cars owned.................... 1[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 3675

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

Benefits................................ 170

Other income............................ 389[b]

Total monthly income.................... 4234[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 749

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 347

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 135

Council tax............................. 125

Electricity............................. 58.5 - Is this your bill payments or direct debit amounts? 

Gas..................................... 58.5 - As above 

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 50

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 78 - Wow this is huge, are you in contract? If not look at sim only for way less than this 

TV Licence.............................. 15

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 18 - Do you really need this? 

Internet Services....................... 40 - Are you in contract? If not then shop around for cheaper deal 

Groceries etc. ......................... 350 - You should be able to trim some off this, do you write a list? Meal plan? 

Clothing................................ 100 - This is high, could you cut in half? 

Petrol/diesel........................... 65

Road tax................................ 2.5

Car Insurance........................... 165 - Wow this is huge! Can this be cut? When are you due renewal? 

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25

Car parking............................. 5

Other travel............................ 150

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 150. - What is this for? 

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 35

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20

Buildings insurance..................... 0

Contents insurance...................... 10

Life assurance ......................... 35

Other insurance......................... 16. - What is this for? 

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 175 - This is way too much, cut at least by half 

Haircuts................................ 10

Entertainment........................... 0

Holiday................................. 175 - Important to you so not touching this 

Emergency fund.......................... 5 - You seriously need t8 increase this by cutting back elsewhere. You need to build some emergency fund to stop your reliance on credit. £50? 

TU, Bins, Misc.......................... 75[b] - What is this for? 

Total monthly expenses.................. 3242.5[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 10

House value (Gross)..................... 172000

Shares and bonds........................ 525

Car(s).................................. 8500

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 181035[/b]

[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 108572...(749)......4.5

Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 5562.....(347)......0[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 114134....-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Very...........................943.......168.......42.9

MBNA cc........................13953.....124.......23.76

Santander cc...................10638.....203.......21.66

Omni Loan......................5200......261.......11.5

Nationwide cc..................189.......5.........39.9

Santander OD...................2900......50........39.94

Nationwide cc..................465.......25........16.9[b]

Total unsecured debts..........34288.....836.......-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 4,234

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,242.5

Available for debt repayments........... 991.5

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 836[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 155.5[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 181,035

Total HP & Secured debt................. -114,134

Total Unsecured debt.................... -34,288[b]

Net Assets.............................. 32,613[/b]

Morning 
I’ve made some comments above in your soa, there are definitely some cutbacks to be made 
You need to build an emergency fund of say £500 to stop your reliance on credit 
Stop the overpayments to the mortgage as the interest rate on that is 4.5% anyway and you can move onto another deal with current lender when that comes up for renewal. 

Your focus needs to be cutting these debts. I would pay off the Nationwide cc at 39% in month 1 so one less card, then focus on Very and then Santander od with those eye watering interest rates 😱

Thank you for taking the time to go through my SOA.  I’ll expand on the figures a bit more.

Gas & electricity are on DD. As I live in an apartment with no line drying facility, I use my tumble dryer a lot.  Too compensate for this, I work from home in the kitchen and do not use my central heating. 

The £78 mobile bill is for three phones. My sons’ phones are rented from Music Magpie and Sim only, and this bill also includes a rented iPad. My bill includes unlimited data. I can go sim only from June. - so how much are the individual items costing you? You really need to look into this as that’s a huge amount of money even on 3 phones 

The satellite bill is Netflix. Other than travel, this is my only entertainment. I have two jobs and work 44 hours per week. June and July, I take on a third job and work 72 hours per week. I’m too tired to socialise etc! - so that’s top package for Nextflix? Could halve it by changing to basic package 

I totally agree on the emergency fund. I will try and carboot on Sundays to increase this. - Sell anything unwanted on Ebay or Vinted 

Broadband includes a landline. I rarely use the phone, so this is something I could change.  I need a seamless transition between providers as I mainly work from home. - Have a look online you should be able to get it cheaper, we’ve just done ours and it’s only £28 broadband only as don’t need or use house phone 

The other insurance is for my white goods and vacuum cleaner.  I have had two replacement dishwashers, a washing machine repair and a vacuum cleaner repair, in the last 3 years. I think this insurance is worth the fee, at least until I have an emergency fund. My vacuum cleaner I needs repairing again, so I will use the insurance for a repair or replacement on Monday.

Miscellaneous includes my trade union and political party subscriptions (both necessary for my work), wheelie bin cleaning (I cannot do this myself as I live in a third floor apartment and don’t have access to an outside tap), saving for new passports for myself and one son as both run out in May, plus a buffer for things like stamps and charging cables (which I seem to break monthly!)

clothing includes school uniform, underwear and footwear, which my sons go through at an alarming rate. - That’s still a lot of money especially as you co parent. do they have old stuff you could sell on vinted? 

 presents bill is high because I have 6 children. The oldest four have partners, and I have four grandchildren.  Including my Dad and secret Santa too. I buy birthday presents for 15 people and Christmas presents for 20. Included in that is Christmas presents (generally food items) for my neighbours. One puts my bin out every week, and all of the neighbours put up with my dogs barking at least twice a day when we go out for our walks. - You really need to cut this down as that’s a huge amount of money, your children will understand if you can’t buy for everyone, change to just buying for grandchildren? 

i have also included Easter eggs in the present costs, and rewarding my sons for good grades and good emails/calls home from school (far too rare!).

The other child related expenses include Xbox and play station subs, pocket money, and money for extra chores (son helps me with some basic tasks for my work, and I loathe sorting socks!) - £150 a month is huge! How much are these subs? How much do you give in pocket money? You need to look at these, even if you cut it down to £100 that’s another £50 to throw at debts 

car insurance is high because I added my daughter to it. She chauffeurs me to and from the airport when I travel and uses my car for most of the summer.  We are car shopping for her tomorrow, so this monthly cost should decrease very soon. At least it will until I put number 3 son on the insurance! - Hopefully this will change soon then. Do you really need a car? You don’t seem to spend much on fuel and you work from home? 

Morning. I’ve made some suggestions above. You really need to look at cutting your costs if you’re serious about paying off the debts , while you have this level of debt it’s crazy to be spending like this.
You could make some easy cutbacks which would give you more money to throw at these debts 
Especially the high interest ones 😱 and living in your overdraft is never good as the bank could remove that at any time 

The prospect of overdraft removal is always on my mind. I’m lowering each by £50 per month, but will try £75 per month for Santander. I call the bank every payday and lower the limit.

im going to cut £20 off the present budget for 9 of the people that I buy for. That will save £180. I may be able to go lower on two youngest sons, but one turns 18 next year and will be getting his last generous birthday gift (until he’s 21 anyway)

The clothes budget won’t all be spent. Aug-Sept was very expensive as youngest had a completely new set of uniform and a full wardrobe of clothes (mainly from Vinted, but don’t tell him that!) so won’t need anything until his footwear is ruined or he needs summer shorts.  He has a full set of uniform at both houses as this reduces the immense stress of something being left behind when he moves every Sunday.

I buy all of my clothes from Vinted and have way too many. I’ve put a lot on Vinted already and have bags full to go on this weekend.

car shopping for daughter has been postponed as I had a work meeting at 11am and she has her toddler for the rest of the day. Hopefully we’ll find some work and children time during the week.

Although I am based at home, I have to travel most days to meetings in different places. Fuel is low because I claim the mileage on work trips for one job and have a £40 monthly fuel allowance for my second job. I probably pay less than £65 per month for my personal mileage.  I could not do either job without a car, it’s currently full of boxes of promotional items!

My sons wear their clothes to death, nothing could go on Vinted, I can’t even donate as they are really hard on their clothes. The youngest has grown at an alarming rate over the past year and now wears an adult large, hence the recent total wardrobe replacement. He couldn’t get his arms in his blazer after the summer hols! No idea how I’ve produced such large boys, I’m under 5ft tall 😆

I give the youngest two £20 each per month pocket money. Subs for gaming are the main expense. I’ve told child no5 that he takes over his subs when he turns 18, he is NEET and needs to get a job, it’s an ongoing battle.

I’m going to check my Netflix package and investigate broadband now.

RisingPhoenix1

For Netflix do you have any family members that could add you on as an extra household? That's what I'm in the process of trying to sort out and it appears to cost £4.99 a month. Judging from Netflix' website you should get the benefits of whatever package they are on, you still run your own account and you could just transfer them the cost. That would save you £13 without having to have the basic subscription

Nintud

Broadband switched 😁
£25 per month. £24 Quidco cash back £75 credit onto the broadband account , so first 3 months will be free.

Total saving over the next 12 of £207. Must remember to switch again in 18 months time.

Thanks for the kick up the backside MFW!

Nintud

Netflix downgraded to the basic package. £13 saved per month. £156 over the next 12 months.

Nintud

£1.50 payment from Vinted. Straight to Very. Chipping tiny grains off until payday.