Amy and Jon bite the bullet to get debt free.....

amyandjon

Morning all day 2 of mydiary a day when i can spend no money because il be locked into work all day and im taking all my food that i need with me yipeee.... we are aiming to pay another extra 10 pounds on each cc before the next bill....anything we save from holiday spend again on a cc so im feeling pretty positive.... im crossing fingers for oh hoping that virgin now lower his intrest yipeee look forward to hearing from people today Amy x:o

GeorgeUK

Good moaning.


Council tax............................. 75
if paying over 10 months can you ask to pay over 12?


Electricity............................. 47

Gas..................................... 31
This is a bit high - have a look at the comparison sites for a better deal. (uswitch, moneysupermarket)


Mobile phone............................ 80
Stop talking!!! - PAYG when contract allows?


Telephone (land line)................... 27

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 22

Internet Services....................... 0
No internet? Can you combine these in a package ?


Groceries etc. ......................... 140
Have a look at the old style board for meal plans etc and possibly move down a brand.


Haircuts................................ 0
Bald? (sorry )

Hopefully there are a few savings to be made there. It looks like you have about £150 left over after all the minimum payments have been made. I think you should try snowballing and maybe Jon can be the tart.

There is a snowball calculator that will show you howw much you can save by paying the minimum on all your debts and throwing everything else at the debt with the highest APR. This could run into thousands by the time you pay off everything so you should be paying as little interest as possible.
https://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Tarting is where you may be able to use the existing limits of your cards to transfer a higher rate debt to a lower rate. Although this helps, you may then be able to get a promotional offer from the cleared card as an incentive to not close it. If you have any cards with a decent limit but not much left to pay, it may be an idea to try to clear this card and hopefully get offerred eother a 0% or LOB deal. As this is an existing card, they will go by their payment history records rather than a credit search. Remember though there is a 3% BT fee so you need to allow for that in your calculations.

The one thing you need to be very careful of with these cards is that you don't purchase anything on them and always make sure the monthly payments are made or you could lose the promotional rate.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/cut-credit-card-interest

amyandjon

Hello, i have internet but it is free through sky... food shopping is 35 per week at aldi amnd lidl... im growing my hair for my wedding next year so havent needed any haircutting as of yet....myself or jon cant get any other cc and our credit card limits arent enough to cover some of the bigger payments to do a balance transfer..... when you say old style board where do you mean could you paste a link ??? Im just enjoying my break at work rushed off my feet starting to feel better about debt... hopefully oh has spoken to his cc companys for intrest reduction.... speak soon Amy x

GeorgeUK

Old style board: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33
Even if you can't transfer the full amount, transferring high interest debt to a card on a lower APR should still save you money - even accounting for the 3% BT fee.
Do you have any cards with a good limit but less than half to pay off? It might be worth transferring this to another card even if it isn't one of the higher APR's, just to try to get a LOB or 0% offer.
Not sure if there's a calculator around for this but i'll have a look see.

amyandjon

Thanks George, il have a look when i get home we could pay off the small credits first then transfer balances to it thats at a lower intrest.... will be able to do more once im at home.... thanks for the advice x

amyandjon

Hellllo I am home, ive managed to get through the day without spending a penny woo hoo tomorrow me and oh are leaflet delivery to build up his range of customers hopefully that will bring in some customers yay !! we are going to work at paying oh's low credit card with low intrest then transfer debts from the cards until we can get them all down... i should get a payrise next month an extra 500 a year also oh hopefully will get the new manger post finds out in sept a minimum of an extra 200 pm yaaay Amy

amyandjon

Good morning all today ive managed to spend 80 pound paying bills, my bank still shows me i have plenty left which is bizzare :P for me so my saving and tighteneing the belt is working i shall wait till the end of the month and make a lump payment again somewhere wooopeee its quite fun been on a little challenge well for a few years keeps me going some days id like to just go crazy and spend.... ive nearly done some silly things but luckily i gave my credit cards to my mum lol so i can nay get near them for silly spending goood thinking batgirl :cool:

amyandjon

OOOO ive just joined a payment a day and paid 9.01 on a debt to round my current account up to a nice sum i can happily do this daily it will make me feel positive.... so everything i fancy buying il write down and the sum total will be transferred to a debt im talking cans of pop not brand new tvs lol :P lets be reasonable here

amyandjon

Wooo wooo, ive been very productive and rounded all my credit cards to even figures makes me feel better when i see rounded figures oooo this is fun :P

gar123

nice to see someone happy and positive about getting free of debt

i try do that paying a little off everyday, if i save a few bob on something or get a cheaper lunch i pay even a few pound off bills online and it really adds up and put value to the hard work

good luck