Hopefully debt free before Mortgage renewal in June 2026

Tezzadp

Hi,

So, My mortgage is due for renewal in June 2026. I bought a house for £190,000 with around a £48,000 deposit on a 5 year fixed rate of 1.63% interest which comes to an end on 30th June 2026. I currently owe £129,363 and pay £517.72 and i have 25 years and 6 months left to pay (i will be 68 when this ends).

I know paying £517 isnt much to most people but i live alone and pay all bills myself, i work full time and i am only on minimum wage and i have debts that i also need to pay too. When my current deal comes to an end in 18 months the interest rate will be a lot higher (eg. £125k @ 4.5% = £710pm) so im looking at finding at least another £200-£300 bare minimum. I am already struggling to pay all my bills as it is and i live on bare minimum. i dont spend money on anything unless i NEED it. I have 18 months to pay my debts off which will then free up money to hopefully allow me to stay in my house and not have to sell it and start again.

Im determined to pay as much off my debts as possible before my mortgage is renewed so here are my current debts:

Tesco Credit card 0% (unsure of 0% end date) = £2273 (currently paying £55 per month)
Virgin Credit Card 0% (ends Sept 2025) = £1230 (min £25 per month)
Hastings Loan 12.70% = £2962.60 (monthly payments of £89.02 with 41 months remaining - May 2028) 

Total = £6465.60

+ £5000 i owe to a family member that eats away at me inside as im unable to pay it yet, but it can wait until my other debts are paid (or my house is sold) whichever happens it will be paid eventually. 

i have been paying extra on the virgin credit card each month (on a weekly basis) i started at £10 and have been paying £1 extra a week on a friday and i am currently due to pay an extra £25 this friday. I am working on trying to get this card clear before the 0% interest rate comes to an end and snowball my payments onto the Hastings loan which is due to end May 2028 . If i can make extra payments towards this loan so that the last payment is before June 2026 then i will be able to put the £89.02 towards the extra cost of my new mortgage. 

I have recently started making very small additional payments towards my Hastings loan on a daily basis. I started on 29th Dec 2024 with a £1.01 payment and have made a new payment each day with an extra penny added (so £1.02, £1.03 etc) per day. i know these are only small but i cant afford to pay big amounts as i dont earn much, and in the long term it reduces the overall interest i have to pay by a fair amount in comparison. Also over time the payments will increase and add up. It also gives me a sense of achievement that im trying to do something to conquer the debts. 

Im not really sure on the best way to tackle it all tbh, my thinking is to try and clear the Virgin Card before the 0% rate ends in Sept and then snowball the payments onto the Hastings loan to try to reduce the length of the loan to finish before June 2026 when my mortgage starts. 

Im unsure of when my Tesco Credit card 0% rate comes to an end as i cant find this information on any paperwork or statements etc, but i will get an email before the rate is due to change and if it comes before i have paid off the Virgin Credit card and i have a lot left to pay off on that card, then i will attempt to move both of the Tesco and Virgin card balances onto a new 0% card and then concentrate on the Hastings loan.

I will use this forum to document my payments and progress in the hope it keeps me focussed and able to succeed in my attempt to be debt free or there abouts before my mortgage renewal in 18 months time. 


Todays Payment £1.09 = Hastings Loan

vampirotoothus

Hi  I think the information you need for Tesco should be on the very last page of the statement at the bottom under the section Summary of balances. Once you have that I would run this through the Snowball calculator and it will work out the best approach for you. Good luck on your journey. V x PS if you have a house could you rent a room out? This may not be ideal, but the idea could give you the safety net you need to stop worrying so much. x

Tezzadp

vampirotoothus said:

Hi  I think the information you need for Tesco should be on the very last page of the statement at the bottom under the section Summary of balances. Once you have that I would run this through the Snowball calculator and it will work out the best approach for you. Good luck on your journey. V x PS if you have a house could you rent a room out? This may not be ideal, but the idea could give you the safety net you need to stop worrying so much. x

Hi, thanks for the reply. I have looked at the section you mentioned under "Summary of balances" and all it says is introductory balance transfers, then has a column for monthly interest rate, another for interest included and finally an outstanding balance. It doesnt give a length of introductory interest period or end date or anything like that. I have even tried to search for "Tesco" in my emails to see if i could find my original sign up documents when i took out the credit card, but i can't find them. My statements on my Tesco Bank app go back to August 2023 and show my original balance transfers onto the card so this is when i started the card. Im not sure how many months the 0% period was for when i took it out, if it is 18 months then that would end around March 2025 which would mean i would probably receive an email in February at some point notifying me that my 0% period will be coming to an end. Then i will look into trying to get another card with a 0% balance transfer to move both the Tesco and Virgin credit card debts onto and concentrate on the Hastings loan to try to bring that down so it was paid off before June 2026. But it could be longer than 18 months as some cards have a weird number of months, i just cant remember for the life of me how many months it was unfortunately. 

When i bought the house it was in need or renovation and i have done most of the work myself but when i first moved here i was at a better paid job and it was before the cost of living crisis, which, living on my own has crippled me, along with have a worse paid job, has left me with hardly any money left from payday to payday. it was originally a 3 bed house but the previous owner had knocked 2 of the bedrooms into 1 to make it a 2 bed house. I have made it back into a 3 bed house and moved the bathroom wall around to hopefully at some stage get a new bathroom fitted (god knows how i will be able to afford that haha - in my dreams i think). But at the moment i have no carpets on the stairs/landing or any of the bedrooms and i need new internal doors upstairs too. I have no money to do this as of yet and i simply cant afford them. i think i need to prioritise getting my debts under control before my mortgage renewal is due, otherwise if i cant afford to stay here and have to sell the house, spending money (that i simply cant afford) on carpets is pointless. And nobody will want to live in a house that has no carpets and no bed or bedroom furniture etc that i cant afford to get either.

 Also im very much a loner and dont have any friends as i simply cant afford to do anything or go anywhere. The only time i see people is at work or when i go to the supermarket to get my shopping for the week. I suffer from anxiety and depression and i simply couldnt share my house with someone who i dont know. im not a people person at all and like my own space. But im hoping my daughter who is grown up might come to live with me before my mortgage is due for renewal and hopefully between us we can pay the extra cost of the mortgage together.

Thank you for your reply and suggestions, im always happy to read other peoples thoughts and any helpful advice they may have.

Tezzadp

Tuesday i have made into supermarket shopping day. I used to go on a Friday or Saturday after work but i have now decided on a Tuesday for a couple of reasons 1. I find the supermarket a lot quieter on a Tuesday than a Fri/Sat 2. i used to buy alcohol on a Fri/Sat with it being the weekend and not having to work for a day or 2 i got the urge to spend more than i should and buy alcohol. But now i am fully focussed on using every penny to pay off my debts asap so i have decided not to buy alcohol and instead use the money i would have spent on it to put towards paying my debts off instead. And i find going on a Tues i dont have the urge to buy alcohol as its not near the weekend and i am more focused on buying food to last me the week and for my sandwiches for work. 

I have decided to try and stick to a strict budget as much as i can of around £30 - £40 per week if possible.

So Todays spending summary: - 

Food shop for the week : Tesco £27.87 (Im happy with that if i can make it last the week - i may have to buy more next week as i didnt get things that i already had enough of this week)

 (i use Tesco as i have a colleague clubcard and can get 10% off (15% on employee payday weekends) as i have a family member who works there who is allowed to give one of their family an additional card. Also i have tried Lidl & Aldi and i just dont like the food. I only buy the cheap brands from Tesco anyway so it is still just as cheap on many items)

Debt payments summary : -

Hastings daily payment : £1.10  - leaving a final payment of £57.57 in May 2028

I will include all my outgoings and incomings going forward daily so i can keep track of where i am and maybe get some advice on what i can save on or anything going forward. 

Tezzadp

Oh also, i didnt buy a chocolate bar (80p) as a little treat for myself for the week as i usually do today as i was trying to save as much as i could. But when i was loading my few items into the car i found a bar in the boot that had fallen out of my shopping bags the week before  so that was a nice little surprise..... it's the small things for me at the moment, im literally surviving right now with very little quality of life, so things like that mean a lot to me 

Sarahwithlove

Is there any chance of picking up any overtime at work? You could contact Tesco direct to find out when your promotional period ends. Always good to know 

Tezzadp

Sarahwithlove said:

Is there any chance of picking up any overtime at work? You could contact Tesco direct to find out when your promotional period ends. Always good to know 

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately not, its salary even tho its min wage. But min wage goes up by 77p an hour in April so that will come in handy. Although, so does Council Tax and so has other bills, energy bills, water bills, food, mortgage, TV licence etc etc. I am open to changing employment even tho i have no skills really so it might be the same old min wage job, so i think its better the devil you know sometimes, as the grass isnt always greener and in my situation i really need stability right now. 

That is a good idea, i might send them an email tomorrow and see what they say. Thanks for that. 

Tezzadp

So i have just this second contacted Tesco and found out that my 0% introductory rate comes to an end on 26th October 2025. Im hoping that my Virgin credit card will be paid off by then and so i will just try and attempt to get another 0% card for the remaining balance on the Tesco card around that time.

No money spent today  Just been straight to work and back. No direct debits leaving my bank today either so all good there.

Debt payments summary : -

Hastings daily payment : £1.11  - leaving a final payment of £55.88 in May 2028

fatbelly

Tezzadp said:

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately not, its salary even tho its min wage. But min wage goes up by 77p an hour in April so that will come in handy. Although, so does Council Tax and so has other bills, energy bills, water bills, food, mortgage, TV licence etc etc.


That is a good idea, i might send them an email tomorrow and see what they say. Thanks for that. 

Well now is a good time to see if you can reduce these

Do you need a tv licence? You can self-declare on their website
Are you on a water meter? Fix leaks. Put a brick in the cistern?
Council tax over 12 months. Maybe check council tax support if you are on a low wage
Fix your elec and gas now. Some cheap mods like draftproofing and foil behind radiators quickly pay for themselves

jokono

When your mortgage fixed rate ends, you should be able to do a product switch without a credit check - assuming this is (partly) why you want to be debt free by then.

Why do you think you'd need to sell the house? 

Tezzadp

fatbelly said:

Well now is a good time to see if you can reduce these

Do you need a tv licence? You can self-declare on their website
Are you on a water meter? Fix leaks. Put a brick in the cistern?
Council tax over 12 months. Maybe check council tax support if you are on a low wage
Fix your elec and gas now. Some cheap mods like draftproofing and foil behind radiators quickly pay for themselves

Thanks for the reply. I have thought about getting rid of my TV Licence tbh. i do sometimes watch live TV but most of the time it is catchup TV even so i know thousands of people never pay their tv licence fees and still watch live tv. Is it still heavily policed like it used to be? is it worth the risk of being caught? or having people come knocking on the door asking awkward questions? is it worth the stress of that? im not so sure, im a worrier and worry about everything and everything. 
Yes im already on a water meter and make big savings compared to not being on a water meter as i use a lot less water than the average household being on my own. 
i have no leaks that im aware of, but never thought about putting a brick in the cistern until you mentioned it, that could be a good idea. altho i tend not to flush the toilet much just to save the water (money), living on my own nobody else sees it so unless its a no 2, then i dont flush until i have used it a number of times. 
I pay my council tax over 10 months so im looking forward to having the extra money in February and March that i can use towards my debts. No im not eligible for council tax support as i earn slightly too much, i have done a benefits check on entitleto which checks council tax support eligibility. 

i have fixed my gas and electricity last summer when it gets lowered before it goes up again in winter. I try not to use much gas for heating, i just wrap up with extra layers and blankets and ride it out. it doesnt last forever and will be spring in a couple of months so it wont be long. 

Thanks for your handy tips and advice