Monthly income 2030 (Savings CU 3650, SSIA)
Transfer to joint account 700/month
Phone 70/month
VHI 38/month
Leaves 1222 per month
Loans
CU balance 5500 repayment 80/week=240 pm
Bank loan 1625 repayment 81/month
Leaves 901 per month
Credit Card balance 1500
Purchase 20/month
Overdraft 600 (10.5% interest)
Monthly savings
SSIA 100/month
CU 80/month
Hi havana,
Just a personal opinion, but this is what I would do:
1. Send back (or at least stop using) the credit card
2. Take 1500 out of your CU savings and pay off your credit card bill. This leaves 2150 in your CU (40% of your borrowings) It also frees up the amount you would be paying on the credit card bill each month and saves you punitive interest.
3. Talk to the credit union about whether they would let you take another 600 out of your savings to pay off your overdraft. This would leave 1550 in the CU savings, 28% of your borrowings. Most CUs will allow loans of 3 times the amount of your shares and this isn't far off. They really should let you do this, too. If they do let you pay off the overdraft, cancel it (or at least don't use it). This saves you interest and bank charges.
3. Stop saving the extra 80 per month into your credit union; put it all towards paying off whichever remaining loan has the highest rate (whether this is your CU loan, bank loan or the purchase agreement).
4. Don't worry about the savings thing. You still have 1550 (at least) in the credit union and also your SSIA will be matured in 3 years or so. I personally would keep paying into the SSIA. That way you are still building up something for yourself.
The new sums are :
Monthly income 2030 (Savings CU 1550, SSIA)
Less joint account 700/month, phone 70/month, VHI 38/month, SSIA 100/month
Leaves 1122 per month
Loans outstanding
CU balance 5500 repayment 80/week=240 pm
Bank loan 1625 repayment 81/month
Purchase 20/month
Credit Card balance nil
Overdraft nil
Leaves 781 per month.
Of course, it always looks a lot easier on paper than it is in real life.
Good luck with it.
ted