Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

I had a personal loan offer from Tesco on 3.9% (my current personal loan is on 8.9%) but after doing the sums it looks like I would be saving around £5 a month if I switched and kept the repayment term the same. I'm not sure it is worth the hit to my credit rating to do it for such a small saving, especially when I have two 0% deals expiring early 2019. On the other hand, saying no to saving £100? Oh, also I have a repayment bonus of £165-ish on the existing personal loan which would be lost if I repaid early. Argh! I think I will just shelve this idea and concentrate on my Barclaycard.

I did a focus group this week, really interesting and really well paid at £95. I think that is the highest paid one I've done so far. I've got a decent balance in my Prolific Academic account (£20 payable and £50 pending); and the £25 cashback from my contents insurance purchase back in January has finally been confirmed, so just waiting for it to be payable to withdraw. I redeemed £10 in Amazon vouchers from Ipsos i-Say too, which went towards my sister's birthday present.
All in all, May has been a pretty good month for "bonus" money :T

redofromstart wrote: »

That is good going on the bonus money!

Popped over to say thanks for the recommendation on The Ordinary stuff. I did a 'feelunique' order the other day as they had 20% off the TIGI bulk packs that I needed, and I frittered £4ish on the Salicylic Acid solution to take me over the £15 for free P&P. Its really good and my slow to heal face looks better already. They had very little else by them in stock but worth keeping an eye out, especially if you did the 'pick n mix' samples order first to get the £3.95 credit back against your planned order.

I'm really glad you like it I really love The Ordinary stuff I've tried so far. I'll keep in mind about the pick n mix samples on feel unique, that's a good way to try new things

This month I'm celebrating the debt getting under £30,000. The next landmark is getting to the 50% point on the personal loan which will happen in September.

I was offered a 0% balance transfer from Tesco so I've shifted just under £1000 of my 18.6% Barclaycard debt over.

I've been doing more sums and revisiting the idea of moving house in April next year. I think we might wait until the end of 2019 and use the extra time on cheaper rent to build up some savings / pay down a bit more debt. The extra travel costs will potentially be double what I originally estimated depending on which zone we pick, so that's added another factor to consider. Still undecided on this though ...

Total debt is £29772.60

HSBC Personal Loan : £7574.84
Interest rate 8.9%, 20 payments left
44.44% Paid

Credit Account Balances

Barclaycard £7588.80
£6442.15 @ 6.9% (until paid off)
£1146.65@ 18.6%
22.38% paid

Very 1 £100.00
Interest rate 0%, until 28 Sept 2018
76.69% paid

Very 2 £800.00
Interest rate 0%, until 30 April 2019
1.11% paid

Paypal £1400.00
Interest rate 17.9%
25.43% paid

Lloyds £3215
Interest rate 0%, promo rate ends January 2019
10.82% paid

Tesco 1 £1075.00
Interest rate 0%, promo rate ends 8 Feb 2019
55.07% paid

Tesco 2 £997.50
Interest rate 0%, promo rate ends 31 May 2020
0% paid

MBNA £7021.50
£2806.22 @ 6.9% (rate ends 9th July 2019)
£4215.28 @ 6.9% (rate ends 2nd Dec 2019)
14.33% paid

Priorities and Goals

2018

#1. Barclaycard 18.6% Balance

#2 Very - Pay Off 0% Offers Before Expiry (Very 1 Exp 28 Sept 2018 / Very 2 Exp 31 May 2019)

#3 is Paypal - 17.9% Balance

#4 Continue to add to emergency fund

#5 Stop stressing over other balances. Eyes on the teaspoon, not the lake!

2019 Goals

I've redone the sums on our moving costs. We might wait until the end of 2019 to move rather than April, to give us extra time to save for increased expenses.

#1 Pay upfront for insurance policies in early 2019

#2 Move house! We're budgeting for a £250 pcm rent increase and additional travel costs of around £500 per year

#3 Pay off Student Loan. I'm continuing with PAYE deductions until April 2019, then I'll revisit and look at switching to Direct Debit. I think that I'll have repaid my Student Loan by the end of 2019.