Busting this debt before 42

Cherryfudge

I was neutral about which loan you put the money to, till you said you were thinking of paying off the laptop and part of me suddenly wanted to shout 'reconsider that!' Well, you don't have to, and you may already have made the payment, and it wasn't even a considered response from me, just a gut reaction - but do the sums about how much you could save in interest by paying towards the car loan. That's money you can't avoid paying, other than by reducing the amount owed - and this would be an opportunity to do that, whereas paying off the laptop loan would feel nice, but leave you with a larger than necessary outgoing for the car. It works exactly the same as overpaying a mortgage - and it was a really nice feeling when we paid off our mortgage four years early. 😊

Chocolatefund

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81957486#Comment_81957486

When it comes down to it, it's the Avalanche vs the Snowball method of paying off debt.

Maths wise, I don't think one month of not overpaying the car loan is going to make a dramatic difference. Its more the momentum of keeping the overpayments going that I'd like to keep.

I wont be making the overpayment till I get paid at the end of April, so there's time for it to sit with me before I decide.

Having a look at the NaffWest app, it won't let me make an overpayment online that's less then the direct debit (£460) I'd have to ring to pay a smaller amount.

Another possibility is the ISA that I've got which has £1500 in it. I could pull a small amount from that since I'm not fussed about contributing to it till the loan is gone. But again, need to sit on that thought process for a bit.

Chocolatefund

End of week update.

My total spends for the week; £84 petrol, £28 food, £0 Eating out/Fun and £4 Miscellaneous which was parking in town.

Super happy with the week. Going to keep it up for the next two and a half weeks till payday. The potential of overpaying both loans is giving me motivation to not buy anything except food and transport.

An update to the NaffWest app has given the ability to create 'pots' on the current account. I don't think I'll be using this for general spending but it's good to see the high street bank catch up with the onlines ones.

Still going back and forth about whether to pay off the laptop loan and pull a little from the ISA or emergency fund to chuck off some car loan as well.

Chocolatefund

Third week of April done. Enjoying a nice mild weekend with family.

Lots of good money stuff to talk about, grab popcorn.

Spends for the week; £45 food, £52 petrol, £28 eating out and £28 Miscellaneous which was sorting train tickets in advance for my London trip next month. Pretty happy with the week.

Taking Martin Lewis' advice on this website, I've fixed my energy cost for a year as I'd been on a price cap thingy for a while. I'm switching energy providers as my current one has rubbish tariffs. So in a couple of weeks I'll be switching over to the 'dancing orange blob' company. (If you know, you know)

My new direct debit for my gas and electric will be £124 a month, £1 less for a fix then my current non fixed tariff, so no brainer, super happy with this. £20 cashback as well.

I switched up the address for my car insurance and got a refund of £18. Considering there's only about a month left before my renewal, I'm very hopeful the price won't give me a heat attack since I made a claim last year, fingers crossed.

Work claims and energy refund have come in too. I've done some maths and I'll be able to put about £1600 towards the debt come payday. I'm leaning now towards taking a chunk out of the car loan and leaving the laptop loan alone. Still haven't made my mind up yet on that

Planning my London trip, I've got £1000 saved in the Shiny Fund. The hotel for four nights is £715, train ticket paid for, about £8 a day for the underground, which leaves me £253 for food and shopping. Ill see what the numbers are like come payday to see if I can put an extra £50 or something, but it's feels good to have the money for it there all accounted for.

Should get my car and home insurance renewal quotes next week which will determine my final figures for the end of the month.

Chocolatefund

First Laptop payment came out today, so that's now down to £1375. It's not letting me change the direct debit date yet so will give it a couple of days.

New broadband is all in and set up. That payment won't come out for two weeks which will be after payday. Works for me. Won't be able to change that payment date yet till after that first bill has gone. New SIM is all working and my number transferred over, first bill is on the 22nd and I'll will move that direct debit also.

Love how it's so easy to switch providers. Gone are the days where I remember ringing every company up to do everything.

Stock market has gone back up. Checked the SIPP account and it's now sitting at a pretty £7,600 ish. Very excited for this to hit 8k next month.