Don't hit me with those negative waves Moriarity

rachmac3

Woohoo for the 4k though!! That's pretty good going, especially with everything else. With the savings I reckon round it all up and you're 6k better off!
It's definitely worth thinking about. You're not adding to your debt if you do it. My loan front loaded the interest so there's no benefit to me paying more off or swapping it.

LzzyIsGod

Proud Mary - Tina Turner

I've had this song in my head allllllll day today.

Another NSD from my personal spends today and managed to eek another day out diesal wise. I have ordered something on behalf of youngest yoof for a school project which I have agreed to go halves on (bless him, he was gping to fund it entirely from his pocket money). 

In true MSE style I've been thinking about my car insurance which is due for renewal at the end of the month - last year I just stuck with the same insurer but today I went on a price comparison site and was pleased to see i could definitely get a better deal. I think though any savings made would go into the car fund pot - that would start to cover the excess or next years renewal (as opposed to monthly payments)

I'm still deliberating on the idea of refinancing the loan for a cheaper APR ...... might wait til ive sorted the car insurance first..... but it may be a sensible idea and less interest can't be a bad thing.

Big wheel keep on turning, Proud Mary keep on burning .....

LzzyIsGod

rachmac3 said:

Woohoo for the 4k though!! That's pretty good going, especially with everything else. With the savings I reckon round it all up and you're 6k better off!
It's definitely worth thinking about. You're not adding to your debt if you do it. My loan front loaded the interest so there's no benefit to me paying more off or swapping it.

Yes 4k off! EF 1.7k and 1k in the holiday fund saved plus everything I have paid for without credit!

Would have been another 4k off if it had all gone towards the debts  but such is life (and EFs help us sleep better at night) 😭🤣

LzzyIsGod

Good riddance (time of your life) Green Day

I love this song especially for the lines "another turning point, a fork stuck in the road. Time grabs you by the hand, directs you where to go"

Early entry from me today as I've got a busy evening tonight side hustling. Talking of which another £20 extra earnt today side hustling which I paid into the bank rather than having the cash lying around.

I did stick my head above the parapet on the other side of the DF wannabe board to ask a qu and its challenged my thinking about my approach tbh. I almost wondered whether I'd return here but part of being an adult is taking criticism on the chin and being able to analyse it. I do admit to feeling a bit low about it all.

To top the day off I took the car for the previously mentioned new tyre only to find 3 needed doing and the tracking. It's wiped the car maintenance pot totally out and more and with the mot and water pump coming up this month I will need some funds from the EF. But before this diary all that would have gone on a CC and today it hasn't.

Magic wand anyone?
Lzzy xx

FootyFanDan

Sounds like a tough day @LzzyIsGod. The positive is that your car maintenance pot and other pots have served their purpose and kept you from putting this stuff on the CC. This journey is as much about clearing the debt as it is trying to learn ways to prevent getting back into it, sometimes a different perspective can open up a route you might not have previously thought about. Sorry to hear it has left you feeling a bit meh, ultimately you need to choose a route that works for you and gets you where you want to be. For some this means going full out attack on the debt and putting every spare penny into that - that approach doesn't work for everyone. no one journey is the same. 

Looking at how far you have come should give you some real joy - keep going you have got this

warby68

Don't forget it takes time to turn your tanker around and that the often forgotten step in clearing debt is to stop it continuing to increase in the first place.

The second one of those is often the cause of failure of some wannabes' strategies because they haven't got control of the budget before starting the reductions, and it doesn't get talked about as much as I'd expect. Its a double whammy after all, starting to spend within your means to stop it rising and then spending even less than your means to get rid. i even see a third step where you start to save in advance (often by way of pots) for future bills.

You're a long way along with these steps and the all important mindset change  - yes, there are ways to go bigger and you have been given some food for thought. There are some members who particularly dislike finance for cars but it is often a necessary evil in my view because its a big item to get fully ahead of, particularly when you need to rely on it for work and heavy mileage. 

You'll bounce back, no doubt with some new plans as well. Don't forget its a road full of bumps and windy, steep bits and not a lovely linear graph of perfectly managed debt reduction by a date. 

lucielle

As the fabulous @beanielou says keep plodding 
L

Sarahwithlove

I think it's a good idea to see if you can get a better rate for the loan just as long as you don't add any extra. But you need to check what your loan settlement amount would be. I'd also consider paying whatever the difference is as an Overpayment towards the new loan to bring that closer to end date and hopefully pay less interest. 

LzzyIsGod

Go your own way - Fleetwood Mac

I am, by nature, a bit of an overthinker (or deep thinker as I prefer to call it) and when you drive as much as I do it's very easy to find the time to think a lot. Sometimes maybe a little too much to the point where you end up tying yourself in knots 🤣  Today I have done a lot of driving and a lot of pondering ...... and I've decided to continue to ponder on for now.

The usual payments have started going out so hopefully things will start going down again.

While waiting for Mr T delivery tonight I was on the scrounge for loose change or shrapnel as we call it here. If you've got kids you know we are into Summer Fayre and raffle ticket season and pitching up with notes to these things isn't particularly welcomed! Having checked my purse which wasn't very forthcoming,  I ended up raiding a very old pot of loose change coins. It got me reminiscing that years ago everyone had a pot at home they chucked their discarded change into (remember the trend of giant bottles of spirits!)  - I guess the modern day equivalent is the banks Save the change or padding.

Anyway I found an old pot.that we'd never got round to emptying ..... so old it's has old £1 coins and £5 notes in. But enough 20 and 50ps which will cover the summer fayre and when I started adding the rest of the change up I was at £79 which I was super chuffed with! 

Thank you for everyone's comments, I do read and consider each one. I guess everyone's circumstances are different (and im sure there will always be nuances that aren't/cant be divulged on a public forum) and everyone's journey and approach will have similarities and differences too.

But sometimes it's ok to Go your Own Way (even if it makes no sense to anyone else!) 

LzzyIsGod

EDIT cardinal sin ..... I used the "journey" word. Shoot me now 🤣🤣