1st post and 1st step to clearing £19k in 18 month

enthusiasticsaver · 26 March 2018 at 5:27PM

Yes, company car tax can be expensive, my DH had a company car for years. However at least you don't need to worry about maintenance or car insurance for it so it is swings and roundabouts.

The biggest incentive for you to clear the expensive debt is that it is costing you around £1600 per year in interest. The loans are really expensive as is the AO and the Next and Halifax. You can afford a reasonable amount each month towards it though so as you say if you can keep to a budget for the next year and a bit and your boyfriend moves in then it could be cleared by September 2019. That involves financial discipline though. It might be better not to book any more holidays until it is gone.

MissF87 · 26 March 2018 at 6:54PM

I'm wrong about the tax threshold, it is £45k and my OTE is £44k but this FY I've done really well on commission and had some special awards whsih has meant my effective income has been almost £54k hence the higher payment so for April's wage that should have gone down again, phew! Makes me sick to think where all that money has gone this last FY though.

First on my list to pay off are the high interest items, with commission I've got coming in May and bf moving in I will have cleared all the interest items with the exception of the larger of the loan by the end of the year hopefully, then the larger loan comes next, then the MBNA card as that has the longest interest free period. I'm determined it's going to happen.

scoobysnax40 · 28 March 2018 at 2:24PM

Hey OP,

New to the forum and in a similar situation to yourself, debt wise (well, I'm at £25k) so thought I would stop by and lend some moral support.

After being in a bit of a vicious cycle for the past few years, I'm only now starting to assess my current situation and take stock of the various loans and cards that I've managed to accumulate.

Well done on taking the steps to tackle the situation. I've also decided to set myself a goal of clearing all the bills by next July. Time will tell if it's realistic.

I'm using the snowball method of debt payment as my guide. I'll be paying minimum on everything else except the card with the lowest balance (assuming it's not interest free) where I'll be throwing the majority of my payments. I think I'll need these little wins in the beginning to keep me motivated to move onto the next debt and even the one after that.

Best of luck with your journey. Let's hope 2019 is brighter for both of us

justmeonlyme · 28 March 2018 at 2:42PM

MissF87

I wish my grandson was like you, taking the bull by the horns and making inroads into you debts. You are organised enough to sort it out, just plod on till the end.

Scoobysnax40, good luck to you.

MissF87 · 28 March 2018 at 10:13PM

Hi scoobysnax !

Will be great to have someone to complete the journey with - good luck! I'm pretty much doing the same with the snowballing method to get the highest interest rates cleared quicker. I'm just praying my bf is offered the job next week so we finally know when he'll be moving in and I know when more cash will be coming in!! He has some debts too so we can work together on those too.

Justme - how old is your grandson? I've been here 3 times, so as much as I'm sorting it now I'm a repeat offender. I'm proud of myself for making progress and taking action though and this time I know I'm going to get it sorted. It's been motivating to see that in January 2020 when we have both cleared absolutely everything that we will have a really nice pot of cash, that's keeping me going. We are gonna need it for the Pinterest wedding I already have planned!!!!

scoobysnax40 · 27 April 2018 at 11:50AM

Hey MissF.

A month down, how are you getting on so far?

I've had some ups and downs. Managed to bring my debt down by a few thousand from cashing in some stocks, but then had a very expensive two weeks and ran it back up again - not as high as it had been but still almost 2 grand up!

May will be my month where I'm aiming to bring myself below 19k. It's taking a lot of sacrifice but I'm determined. I got a little bonus recently of finding an old savings account that had almost 1k in it. Took a few weeks to get online access but it's not in the process of being transferred into my current account and when it hits next week, it will be paid of some bills.

Any progress on your end? Hope you're still feeling positive. It's not easy somedays.

Scooby.

MissF87 · 8 May 2018 at 9:17AM

Hey!

My boyfriend hasn't found a job yet, so I'm still a bit down on where I would like to be, we're trying though.

I've now paid off 2 small credit cards so that's a tick. I've also got a very nice commission coming in my wage next Tuesday (not 100% certain yet as 1 bonus is a pot of £50k split between a number of employee's who hit a certain criteria, nobody knows how many people that is!) pontentially taking honme an extra £1,500 - £2,000 so that will make a bit dent too - I need to take out a few bits for my holiday from this, but the rest will be going onto debts.

I also got a small payrise last week, so that's about an extra £40 a month - every little helps.

Work has been crazy busy, but I'm looking at doing another statement of affairs next week to reasses where I'm at. Also thinking of working the whole thing out again based on BF not being here, so then when he does move in the extra £500 a month will be a massive bonus & will help to get things paid
off.

I've been doing mystery shopping for GBW but they haven't paid me, having a nightmare with them, which is annoying as I'd worked out I could be getting about an extra £100 a month from them

Glad things are going ok for you - still feeling positive?

Soundgirlrocks · 8 May 2018 at 2:57PM

Just one thought, you mentioned you bought a flat, but you don't seem to have a service charge payment?

scoobysnax40 · 8 May 2018 at 5:48PM

Hey MissF.

I'm sorry to read about the boyfriend and the job situation. I was hoping he would have had some luck by now. Is he looking for something quite specific, or something more general? Some jobs seem more plentiful than others, but they're the ones that don't pay very well.

I think you are right to just focus on the money you have at the moment and not the extra that the boyfriend will contribute when he does move in. As you say, it's going to be a bonus then and will definitely help to make things easier, I hope.

Great news on the bonus and the payrise. Every little helps. I wish my job gave bonuses; I could do with the odd windfall every now and then. My best friend in school went on to become a stockbroker and in the good old days, he was getting 50k bonuses and living the high life. What I couldn't do with that money now! He was moaning to me a few weeks back that his bonus this year was only 15k. Needless to say he got no sympathy from me :rotfl:

I'm still feeling quite positive. I paid off the smaller of the two credit cards last Thursday and closed the account so I was quite pleased about that. Got the e-mail yesterday confirming the account closure. I only had 2 cards, but I've had them for years so it's a little scary being down to just one card. But I know it's also progress. I've worked out that if I knuckle down for the next few months, I should be able to clear the second card by July. The problem will be keeping that at 0 though. While I'm tempted to cancel it, it does come in useful for booking flights home, hotels, car hire, etc so I will keep it and just try to discipline myself into using cash when possible and paying it off when I do incur a balance.

Next on the list will be the personal loan. I just did up a plan of action on that last night. Throwing all spare cash towards it (balance is currently 7k), I should hopefully be making the last payment in September, 3 years before it's actually due to finish.

Then one more loan to go after that and I can finally start saving for that mortgage, which is the main reason for all my penny pinching and spend diary keeping. You're a homeowner; is it worth all the sacrifice just to have a place of your own? I've rented since I was in college and thought I would forever, but now that I'm married, it just seems like the next most logical step. My wife got very excited back in March the night of my LBM when I asked her about possibly buying in the future; it's certainly something that she's wanted to do for a long time.

Witht the progress that I have been making and will hopefully be making over the next few months, I might even be able to bring my DFD forward by a few months. The whole debt payment process is so painstakingly slow, but it has certainly made me realise that this is a situation I don't want to be in again.

Hope you get things sorted with GBW. The mystery shopper thing sounded like a great gig, but I knew there had to be a catch!

Keep me in the loop on your progress. Will be sure to do the same.

Best of luck with it

MissF87 · 8 May 2018 at 10:01PM

@soundgirl - I bought a house, no fees :-)

@scooby 1million percent worth it owning a house! Every month that goes by and every payment is an investment for sure. It's frustrating at times, especially with an older house, but I would say it's definitely worth it.

It's a totally life move for my BF, he's moving to live with me so it has to be something he wants to do and will enjoy as it's a big step. He's looking for similar roles with similar or better pay than what he's getting currently. There's been some issues with how his cv has uploaded on a couple of job sites though which we've discovered/fixed this weekend so fingers crossed that's the ticket now and he'll see some progress. Someone at his current work has suggested a few ideas he pitch to them to see if he can keep doing what he's doing/evolve the role so that he can work from home/be on the road so that's another idea to try. Hopefully not too long now.

Getting my new statement of affairs done tomorrow I think now, today got away with me a bit. Still keeping positive though, where there is a will there is a way!!!

It sounds like you're making really good progress. With the credit card thing - could you keep one but keep the credit limit down perhaps? Or can you save some money in a separate account which you won't touch, for those occasions perhaps? I'd be rubbish at that though but I guess that's what this whole process is about.

1st post and 1st step to clearing £19k in 18 month

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