Finally going to solve this debt once and for all

daisy_1571

Possibly in that case lesson learned re lending out your stuff. That £90 would be better in your savings or against debt, as you say you aren't getting it back any time soon from your brother so you either need another pot or think twice before lending. A favourite saying of mine (in my head) is no good deed goes unpunished as it often seems that way when you try and do someone a favour

abaka

Oh that lesson has already been learned. It’s added to his debt, I will get it someday but won’t plan on it coming back anytime soon.

I don’t loan people money (although I did lend him money last Sept, which was the only time I’ve ever done that) so it’s very much an anomaly. Just an annoyingly timed one.

Anyway, I’ve now closed off my Virgin card. Another £13,000 of credit closed off which means I’ve closed accounts with limits up to 78k in the last 6 months. That is insanely scary how much credit I had available to me!

For context with the cards that are still open, I have 54,050 available credit limit and using around 15k. So my debt could have been a whole lot worse!!!

Makingabobor2

But that is just the cards isn't it? So it is actually a whole lot worse as you have the loans as well. We had £56k just on cards, apart from around £200 on OD. We were at the limit & there was no way we could have got any more even if we'd wanted it. Its so nice once you know its all being sorted, even if it does take years. No more sleepless nights

abaka

Yeah just the cards.

But I am so thankful I showed a bit of restraint when I did, because I could have ran up £132,000 in credit cards and also had the loans.

Proper sobering thought.

Did another YouGov survey today. Slowly ticking along with those.

Thinking about starting up Swagbucks again as my wife makes decent side hustle on playing games via them!

Makingabobor2

That would have been a horrifying amount!

Hopefully you'll get on Prolific soon. Good money to be made there.

Ylive is worth a look as well, and Opinium.

abaka

Indeed, and I don’t know how I’d have gotten out of this one.

Long boring day in work ahead of me. I was off on Monday and I really only did urgent stuff yesterday so a pile of smaller things piled up for today!

5er a day sent to one of my pots!

I do need to phone the mechanic today to try and get the car in so that will be one of my pots being cleaned out so soon after I started them! I like the thought of having pots of money rather than credit cards! (Is that a sign of change?!?)

abaka

Did my 5er a day to one of my pots today! My nationwide loan also came out today and that leaves me down to bare bones for the rest of the month! Should have enough to continue on the 5er a day! Waiting the balance to update so I can update my S/Sheet, so I can calculate how much was paid off on loan and how much went to interest.

Made up a Beef Caserole in the slow cooker last night for dinner (My wife and I share the cooking) Normally I cook when at home and she cooks when I'm in office, but I like the Caserole done in slow cooker so made it up last night and will be ready with a big bowl of mash potatos when I get home!

Got the car booked in for mechanic next week, have a feeling it's an issue with a fuel sensor on the car, possibly up to £250 to repair, at least I have a healthy car fund pot sitting there and my wife will giving me half of it when she returns to work from Maternity in Nov.

I've also decided to change my approach to the debts (AGAIN). I was planning on ignoring loans, and flip flopped between paying smallest credit card balance or else looking at paying balance which expire soonest(That will be Barclay in Mar 2029) but I've decided I'm going to make smaller payments to my cards and then tackle the smallest debt in order

So I'll be trying to overpay on my smaller Credit Union loan, the min payment is £70 and my wife gives me half of this and will continue to do so even when it's paid so I can use it elsehwere, but I'm aiming to put an extra £140 towards it (Will review this in Jan when I won't be paying as much into my EF, but will be paying more towards childcare) but estimate I can pay this loan off in 12 months time which will be a small win in the early term, and then the £70 I'm paying contractually and the overpayment can then go towards my next smallest balance (which will be Santander when I do the transfer).

I think snowballing from smallest debt is the key for me as those smaller wins will keep me motivated and it means I'll pay off that loan 5 years early so 5 years worth off interest going elsehwere. Means I'll likely have to carry the credit card debt for longer and move more of the balances into other cards come 2029 but should be achievable even with today's figures (and I know my disposable income will improve year on year due to pay increases, changes in childcare and paying off my student loan).

That's enough of my rambles for now.

Makingabobor2

Can't beat a slow cooker meal. I can get 2 meals out of it for the 2 of us, which is great. Also, do batch cooking & freeze stuff. Saves on gas/electric & so much easier to plan

Makingabobor2

I don't think you should take pay rises into account, as everything else will go up as well….fuel, energy, food, insurances, dental charges , etc etc. So a lot of the pay rises will be off set by that.

abaka

My wife has started to freeze stuff, mainly smaller amounts as it's always useful to have something small for the fussy 6 year old. I'm not a person who tends to do leftovers lol!

TBH - The way me and the wife manage our joint accounts/bills is there's plenty of room as a buffer in it so any payrises we get don't tend to require tinkering with the amount in it. The only exception was 2 years ago when we refixed the mortgage deal and the mortgage went up a fair chunk because of a higher rate so we adjusted what we put in then, and there's always a good chunk of money left in there (Basically 4-5 months of mortgage payments) and we both have our own individial savings (I never had that until last year!)

So for example, this year's pay increase was worth £60 in my pocket to me and that £60 will be going completely toward debt (once my pots are at a place I want them to be!),