81 weeks to debt freedom

Caspeia · 14 June 2019 at 2:19PM

For a while I've struggled a lot with my mental health, I have gotten help for this and I now feel in a position where I can start to make my life a lot better. There are many areas of my life I have neglected and I want to get myself back on track. I have made a new diary as a fresh start.

The highest our debt has been is £15955.83 which was in March. Currently we are at £14904.40!

Our debt is made up of the following:
Sofa £607.88 - 0% interest until its paid off. The last payment is in June 2020.
Halifax CC £4051.59 - 0% interest until 12/01/20 then 19.45%
Lloyds CC: £605.10 - 0% interest until 01/10/19 then 26.45%
MBNA CC: £1236.52 - 0% interest until 09/08/20 then 27.93%
Loan: £8403.31 - 11.9% interest

Total: £14904.40

The highest our debt has been at was £15955.83 so we've managed to reduce it a lot. My goal is to pay this off by 31/12/20. This gives us 81 weeks,

We are discussing having a third baby, if we pay our debts off we'll start trying next year!

Socajam · 14 June 2019 at 2:58PM

Caspeia wrote: »

For a while I've struggled a lot with my mental health, I have gotten help for this and I now feel in a position where I can start to make my life a lot better. There are many areas of my life I have neglected and I want to get myself back on track. I have made a new diary as a fresh start.

The highest our debt has been is £15955.83 which was in March. Currently we are at £14904.40!

Our debt is made up of the following:
Sofa £607.88 - 0% interest until its paid off. The last payment is in June 2020. - I would clear this now - First

Halifax CC £4051.59 - 0% interest until 12/01/20 then 19.45% - put sofa, Lloyds and MBNA money - Fourth

Lloyds CC: £605.10 - 0% interest until 01/10/19 then 26.45% - I would clear this - Second

MBNA CC: £1236.52 - 0% interest until 09/08/20 then 27.93% - Put Sofa and Lloyds money on this - Third

Loan: £8403.31 - 11.9% interest - Put all the money from those above and pay off loan

Total: £14904.40

The highest our debt has been at was £15955.83 so we've managed to reduce it a lot. My goal is to pay this off by 31/12/20. This gives us 81 weeks,

We are discussing having a third baby, if we pay our debts off we'll start trying next year!

This is just my personal opinion, but getting rid of the smallest will give you a sense that you are slowly getting there.
If you do not already have these, before even trying to bring another child into the world, pump money into a life happens and emergency fund.
Also you need to sit down and create a budget, to see where other savings can be made and maybe have a baby fund

Caspeia · 14 June 2019 at 3:17PM

I was planning on focusing on the loan first as its the only one thats currently has any interest being added, I hate looking at it to see that £90 has been added each month! Lloyds CC will be next, then halifax CC and then mbna. sofa will run its natural course until its completed.
As I said baby will be next year, that will be after the debts are paid off. It's just nice to have something to look forward to!
My debt isnt because we can't afford things, my debt is because I have terrible impulse control which is worse when my mental health isn't the best. I spend money like crazy at these times. Now I'm on sertaline, I can control my impulses a lot better. I'm a lot more stable!
Going to make some smaller goals for myself soon

Caspeia · 15 June 2019 at 10:22AM

One habit I need to break is buying my food at work from the vending machines. I often forget to bring food so end up eating all my food from the vending machines which is expensive and also very unhealthy!
Today I've brought myself some porridge for my first break. For second break I've brought leftover paella from last nights tea. I've left my purse in my car so its harder for me to just grab a chocolate bar if I'm tempted

Caspeia · 16 June 2019 at 2:58PM

Two days in a row I've brought my food to work, feel so much better for it aswell!
I got an email from ebay giving me a £5 voucher, we use reusable nappies (just ebay cheapies) and I'd been eyeing up one of the new designs in the past few weeks. I've used the voucher so I have got a new nappy for 49p! Feel like I've spoiled myself without spending much! Sad life I have when buying nappies is exciting haha

Caspeia · 17 June 2019 at 10:50AM

I'm going to set myself some goals for this week.

1. Go to the gym at least once, I really love to weightlift and managed to lose 2 stone going to the gym regularly (still very overweight right now!). When my mental health got worse I stopped going as I didn't want people to see me/speak to me, I've been discussing with my GP that I'm too anxious to walk back into the gym as I'm worried people will ask why I haven't been and she's challenged me to try and go back before my next appointment.
2. Two NSDs
3. Open up starling accounts for me and husband. I'm hoping having a joint spending account will help track money. We currently have a joint account where the bills come out, we then transfer money out as and when we need it into our personal accounts. This means we have a lot of money unaccounted for! I've already done my application, just need husband to do his.
4. Move the cats insurance direct debits into the main bills account, this will mean all the bills are coming out the one account.
5. No takeaways and no buying from vending machines this week!
6. Book car in for service - I pay for a service plan and its due this month

Caspeia · 18 June 2019 at 10:13AM

So I managed to switch the direct debits over and the car is booked in for its service, couldnt get a time to suit until mid July!
I've brought my own food to work again today, porridge with honey. This honey had been in my cupboard for a longtime! I will have a chicken wrap at home when I finish.
Can't think what to have for tea, I have no clue what we have in but I'm determined today will be a NSD.
I think there is some bolognese in the freezer so we'll possibly have that

Caspeia · 18 June 2019 at 8:15PM

Today has been a NSD! First day in a very long time. I was really craving something sweet and was about to go and get chocolate. I decided to make chocolate cupcakes - even if my flour was best before July 2017! I had everything I needed though, made way too much buttercream icing so a tub full of that is in the fridge. I'm not sure how long this will last in the fridge though.
On my search for flour in the cupboard I discovered I have two open bags of oats and one completely unopened bag! I really need to use up the food we actually have, most of the stuff in the cupboard has been in there for a long time. Same with the freezer, I tend to buy food then realise I won't eat it in time so it gets chucked in the freezer.For tomorrow I've taken out some chicken from the freezer, I'm thinking to make a curry for tea tomorrow. I'm going to go for a second NSD in a row.
We have £77 on my debit card and £14 in cash to last us until pay day on the 28th. I think this month we'll be left with money.

We've also put £100 into a savings account for emergency savings, I want to get this to at least £500 as a minimum. Aiming closer to £1000.
Back in March I opened a 'money box' account, I set it up to transfer £5 in a week and to round up the pennies from our bills, about £5 to £8 tends to go in a week. I liked how it wasn't connected to my bank accounts so I can't easily access the money. I've just checked it and there is £93.15 in there! There's also £8.70 as a pending investment so that will be over £100 in there as well. I'm wondering if I should put this up to £10 a week. I don't really have a plan for this money, I'm trying not to think about it too much and just let it build up so I do have some savings.

So across my two savings accounts I have about £200.

I'm having trouble setting up my starling account, they don't seem to like my proof of ID! I'm hoping it can be set up before payday so we can start using it from there.

I also have to plan for our holiday that is in 17 days. We're staying in a caravan so planning on cooking most of our food when we are there.

Caspeia · 19 June 2019 at 2:57PM

I almost caved and spent money today. I finished work and really wanted a sausage supper from the chip shop as it would be quick and easy. I convinced myself not to, I ended up having a quick meal of spaghetti, peas, sweetcorn and cheese. £4.50 I would have spent but didnt!

Also my starling account has been confirmed now, just need to wait for the husbands to be set up.

My 49p resuable nappy came today aswell - so happy with it!

enthusiasticsaver · 19 June 2019 at 5:21PM

A great start on opening an emergency fund which is a definite must even if you go for £500 rather than £1000. I think the money box account is good too. You could use it for xmas or holiday fund or even a new baby fund to tide you over the maternity leave although personally I would get to grips with the debt first but it is whatever will motivate you to carry on. Also good you are being creative with the food you have in.

How old is your youngest? Presumably you have childcare costs for him/her so having too small a gap may mean double childcare costs?

You seem to have reduced the debt by around £1000k since March which is good so I guess you are paying around £350 a month towards the loan and cards combined? Unless you can up that though it will not clear by the end of next year. You would need to be paying closer to £800 a month to get it cleared.

I can see why you are targeting the loan first as that is a relatively high interest rate. The Lloyds card deal expires in October and then goes to a much higher rate although the balance is not that high and I am guessing even minimums up to October will take it down to a level where you could clear it in one month by not overpaying your loan? Alternatively you could target that first and overpay that for the next few months then snowball the payment you were making on that to the loan. Read about debt snowballing on this forum.

I would let the sofa payment run its course. It is 0% so no reason to clear that early. The Halifax is worrying because it is the highest and the deal expires next January which is just 6 months away.

If you struggle with your mental health I would focus on getting rid of the debt and you have the feeling of being debt free and lots of spare money each month to look forward to.

Caspeia · 19 June 2019 at 8:09PM

Thanks euathastic saver for coming ti my diary. childcare costs are about to get a lot cheaper for me as my youngest will move to the same nursery as my eldest in September. As off the 28th of this month I won't have any childcare to pay until the start of September. My plan is overpay all of the money we would have spent on childcare normally on debt instead. When they go back to nursery we'll be roughly £400 better off per month. Next year will be even better as oldest will be at school and youngest will get his preschool funding, reducing our childcare lots.

I'm not too bothered about the credit cards right now as I've managed to jump them from 0% interest rate cards easily. I'm fairly confident I'll be able to transfer most of them to another card at the end of the period.
I also feel incredibly guilty of the interest being generated on my loan. The loan was a purely selfish choice. My old car had been constantly breaking and I did need a new one but the day I bought my new car I hadn't been having a good day. My mental health was rock bottom and my car broke again, I said f*** it and drove to the nearest dealership and bought the car I liked the most. I managed to apply for the loan on my phone and within 30 minutes I had taken out a loan and bought the car. I didn't need to get such an expensive car but at the time I didn't care about that. Its a much better car and I'm happy that I have a car that isn't getting fixed constantly but I feel so guilty that I made such a huge purchase without thinking about it.

For tea tonight we were meant to have the chicken for a curry but when it defrosted it was really slimy so I wasn't comfortable using it. Instead I used some veggies and a tin of chickpeas in the curry. It was lovely! It was a winner with everyone aswell.
Today has been another NSD. Tomorrow will be interesting, we end up being really busy on thursdays and ending up in Mcdonalds for tea. I'm determined that won't happen this week.

81 weeks to debt freedom

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