Making 2026 a debt busting year

YORKSHIRELASS

So, debts currently stand at £29,923, compared to £38,115 at 31/12/24 and they were previously much higher. I am pleased that the balance is under £30k but there is much more work to do.

We have two card balances totalling £4,500 that we pay interest on, a whopping £88 a month! So I will do a balance transfer today to sort those out.

We have £1,020 in the house improvement fund, a paltry £60 in the heating oil fund (we topped up the oil and emptied the pot a few weeks ago) and £200 in the car repair fund. My car has had quite a bit spent on it recently and DHs car goes for MOT next week so that pot hasn't been enough, but we will look at that going forward. We also have £1,689 in the emergency fund and some money set aside for DS1 which I can't access at the moment.

In total we have around £5,000 to go towards the balance for the wood burning stove and the new waste treatment plant (which will be around £10k). At the moment I am splitting whatever is left each month after essential bills have been paid and putting half towards the debts and half into this fund. I would rather put it all towards the debts but we don't have much choice.

A further update will follow, I want to summarise my first quarterly spending next.