Tidying up the mess

Hitachi loan £717.40 0%
Lloyds cc £1,265.32 mostly 0 % but 357.75 @17.9%
Overdraft £2,000 0%
Santander cc £3,267.29 0%
Halifax cc £3,135 0%
Barclaycard cc £4,064.46 0% but £2,326.10 @ 16.9%
MBNA cc £5,339.47 0%

Total £19,788.95

Debt reduced by £1,439.13

I will be looking for an overpayment of £61 in the new budget to get another section of the thermometer coloured in, another £500 chunk paid off.

Progress!! :j:j:j:j

We have another chunk of the thermometer coloured in and are on track for yet another one once next month's minimums have come out. :j:j:j More progress! I hate to say it but some of this was a mistake and we have overpaid more than we were really able to. All that cash juggling took it's toll and I think my brain blew a fuse. Never mind though, it feels good to have smaller balances and heading towards under £19k. I've been reading elsewhere that some people work with smaller emergency funds. We have never needed the full £800 we have saved so maybe I will reduce it permanently to £500 and see how we get on.

Time to post the new totals.

Got the Barclaycard statement today. Managed to knock £5 off the interest for next month, still sitting at £30 though. As per usual I have been obsessing about changing my strategy in debt repayment. Barclaycard and MBNA are in OH's name, and we need him to be in good shape for the mortgage renewal (or changing to another bank?) early next year. Using 50% of your available credit is apparently ok and can be helpful in showing you can handle credit. No point in moving balance from Barclaycard to MBNA, MBNA going up way over 50% and Barclaycard way under. Really if they could both be around 50% that would do, then I could get on with knocking out the small debts. Hitachi, for example.

Maybe none of this matters at all. Maybe I'm just needlessly obsessing for no reason. Maybe I need him to apply for a balance transfer card, bad idea so close to a mortgage application.

It's all moving so slowly I can hardly stand it. Thinking hat on for good ideas.

My understanding about the baby steps is that a small emergency fund of $1,000 is baby step 1. This is to be used for all those extra things that crop up that we haven't thought of yet, that might previously have been put on a credit card, including unexpected things like repairs and replacements. It can stay small throughout baby step 2, paying off the debt. Baby step 3 then is saving up 3-6 months of expenses in the emergency fund.

I don't really understand your post Savertobe. You seem to be suggesting I should make it smaller as I don't need it, then saying that actually it needs to be much larger. For the duration of babystep 2 it might not need to be so big.

When I first saved my emergency fund it took all of my focus. In my opinion there is no point sticking £50 in it every month until it's useful because in the meantime, emergencies, repairs and replacements are not covered and I would need to keep using the cards. Much more satisfying to achieve it quickly and experience the safety of having some back up.

Having an emergency fund has been a real revelation to me. It is key to changing behaviour. I know it's unpopular because everyone seems to want to pay off their debt as fast as possible however, it has worked for me.

Thanks for that enthusiastic saver, that's helpful.

Yes our mortgage is with the TSB and during the IT crisis of earlier in the year they were unable to offer new deals to customers whose fixed rate was ending. This went on for several months I believe. There were all kinds of knock on effects from that situation (such as me having to move my business account from the TSB to elsewhere, which was tedious and took weeks as I had outstanding invoices with the TSB details on, and ended up with double book keeping across 2 accounts for more than 2 months) I know I am probably worrying unnecessarily, but I can't seem to help it. I really want us to move to another bank but I know it's likely impossible. And I have no experience of staying with the same bank at the end of a mortgage deal. Is it really so straightforward? I keep trying to find information from other people who have mortgages with them on here, but nothing is being said about it now. Maybe that's a good sign that all is well? I'm worried that we are going to lose our home and that's pretty serious.

I don't plan to get rid of the emergency fund, just constantly thinking about how much it should be. I've noticed you recommend to others that maybe £500 is enough while paying off debt. £1,000 seems like a lot when we don't own a car but being house owners perhaps we do need such a big one.

My head just goes round in circles with it all. Constantly. Staying up so late probably doesn't help.

My Lloyds card is also accruing some interest, around £5 per month, so that is also a priority to pay down. The remaining balance is 0% until November 2020. A £500 chunk of the barclaycard is due to start earning interest in March 2019 so we will need to just keep going with that one. It all just seems to be rushing at me at once. If we knew our mortgage situation was going to be straightforward I could get OH to apply for a balance transfer card. It is just SO hard to know what to do for the best sometimes.

Thanks for listening.