Buddiebabe's new beginnings....

Seaxwyn

Hi buddiebabe. I agree with Mrs Porridge - you totally deserve that dress. Stop feeling guilty and start looking forward to how beautiful you will look and feel on the big day.

But feeling bad after buying something is no fun. If you can't cut up the cards, could you discipline yourself to always wait 24 hours before buying something?

How is work at the moment (main job)? You mentioned a while ago your job was changing. How has that worked out? Is there any potential for promotion? If you and/or your fianc! could increase your wages, that would make life so much easier.

MrsPorridge

Hi Buddiebabe - how are things going?

Seaxwyn

Hope you're enjoying the election work. Down here turnout is massive, people are queueing down the streets to vote! If it's the same where you are you will be working hard and have a lot of votes to count!

buddiebabe

Hey

Well i know i said things wouldn't be good but i didn't expect them to be this bad. Things haven't been going too well due to mum and dad moving house. We have been constantly bailing them out and its been costing me to do it but i didn't feel like i had any choice. They have now moved and are settled in their new flat. They have been given the money from the sale of the house and are in the process of paying off all their debts. They have given me and my fiance back the money they have borrowed so i now need to put that back in the different accounts its been taken from.

Our television decided to die last Tuesday so that meant we had to buy a new one.... i know its not a necessity but i work hard in both my jobs and i couldn't face coming home and not being able to sit down and relax watching tv for a while. So a new tv cost us £429.99 we looked at alot of different ones before deciding on this one. It was one of the cheaper ones we looked at but that had everything we needed. I know its alot of money for a tv but im 32 and its the first brand new tv that i have ever bought so i don't feel so bad about it. My fiance was going to give me half the money for it but he is going to pay for the fence and the shed and i will pay him back when i can... so the money for the tv will go towards my share of the fence and shed.

So the worst of it is as follows:

OVERDRAFTS:

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND £800.00 no change

LOANS:

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND £7280.16 now £7029.12
HOUSE SAVINGS £62.03 now £60.86

CREDIT CARDS:

DEBENHAMS £1690.00 now £1629.96
MBNA £3870.00 now £3860.00
ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND MC 1 £7487.00 now £9084.57 :eek:
ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND MC 2 £4510.00 now £4495.40
TESCO £2300.00 now £2270.00
SANTANDER ZERO £460.00 now £440.00

TOTALS:
OVERDRAFTS £800.00 no change
LOANS £7342.19 now £7089.98
CREDIT CARDS £20317.00 now £21779.93

TOTAL OUTSTANDING APRIL £28459.19 now £29669.91 :eek:
Total paid off last month was £-1210.72 :eek: Total paid off since 1st January 2010 is £-786.63 :mad: :eek: :mad:

I can't quite believe it but then again i have paid £580 as a deposit for my dress and another £430 for a tv so all in all i can explain where most of it has gone but its just not good. I know that my debt is probably not going to go down much this year due to saving for the wedding but it not good that its going up by that much.

I have updated the snowball calculator and it now gives me my debt free date as February 2016 which is 69 months away which is just under 6 years but its still too long.

Okay so here are the positives for last month:

- I have chosen my wedding dress and paid for half of it
- We have a nice new tv
- My mum, dad and sister are settled in their new flat
- by the end of this month my mum and dad should be debt free
- I did the election count so am due to get £100 for that
- Did a carboot sale at the weekend and made £160 and cleared some clutter

Thats about it for now. Im going to go get my dinner and then will have another look at my accounts and see what i can do with them. I have some money left from the carboot sale and also from the money my mum has given me back so will see where i need to put that and then work out a budget for the rest of this month and hope i'll be able to stick to it better. I have removed the credit cards from my wallet and will be dealing with cash only from now on.... unless we are paying for something large for the wedding where the card will cover us if anything goes wrong but we will be using fiance's card for it and paying it in full when the statement comes in.

Will try and update again soon

Buddiebabe x

Seaxwyn

Well that is a good list of positives - especially good that your family are settled in their flat, that must be a huge relief for all of you after the worry.

And £160 is amazing for a carboot sale. Well done!

Hope you can soon get back below your January total.

MrsPorridge

Buddiebabe - being realistic is half the battle I am sure. I am glad you got your new TV. I know its sad but I love my TV - DH calls me "square eyes" but I don't care

Well done on the car boot - that's amazing. We have loads of clutter and are going to do a car boot but just can't get our act together to fix a date and just go and do it.

Off now to watch a bit of Heston B and his 80's feast.

Take care.

buddiebabe

Hey

Sorry i've not updated all week but have been back at work so not had time to do much else. Here's an up to date picture of what i owe:

OVERDRAFTS:

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND £800.00 no change

LOANS:

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND £7280.16 now £7029.12 now £6778.08
HOUSE SAVINGS £62.03 now £60.86 no change

CREDIT CARDS:

DEBENHAMS £1690.00 now £1629.96 still to be paid
MBNA £3870.00 now £3860.00 now £3830.00
ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND MC 1 £7487.00 now £9084.57 :eek: now £9000.00 (by the time the interest had been added and i had a few transactions i had missed my actual outstanding balance was £9265.75 so i have paid £265.75 to this last week)
ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND MC 2 £4510.00 now £4495.40 now £4491.00
TESCO £2300.00 now £2270.00 now £2265.00
SANTANDER ZERO £460.00 now £440.00 now £435.00

TOTALS:
OVERDRAFTS £800.00 no change
LOANS £7342.19 now £7089.98 now £6838.94
CREDIT CARDS £20317.00 now £21779.93 now £21641.00

TOTAL OUTSTANDING APRIL £28459.19 now £29669.91 (now £29279.94)

so i have managed to pay something back to the debt so im feeling a bit better about things. I have managed to pay everything i can this month am still waiting for 3 statements to come through so i can pay these and i have the money put aside for them so i don't really have anything to worry about paying this month. I have also paid everything back to the savings i had borrowed and paid this months as well.

I still have my 2nd job wages to get for the next two weeks plus money from my fiance to get which i can use to buy food, petrol and any other expenses.

My savings are as follows:

House account £523.19
Car account £100.66
TV Licence card £82.50
My wedding savings £274.68
Work Savings Account £125.15
Joint Wedding Savings £5993.18

My mum and dad gave us £5000 today to go towards the wedding which is going to help us so much i still cant quite believe it. The only problem now is deciding how to spend it.

Im working again 2moro so am just going to go for a nice relaxing bath and then try and get some sleep cause i can feel myself nodding off sitting on the couch.

I have £50 left in my purse and i have £45 in my bank to last me until i get my money from my fiance on Thursday and my wages on Friday so i think i might just be able to manage. I need to try and work out a realistic budget for day to day expenses so i know exactly how much of a short fall i have every month / week cause even though i always manage to pay everything i struggle to get by without using the credit card and i really don't want to have to resort to using that again.

Going to go for my bath i might update later if i can work out a budget but am probably just going to go to bed

Buddiebabe x

Seaxwyn

Why not pay some of the 5k off your highest interest debts, to reduce interest in the meantime. When you have worked out what you need to spend on the wedding, you can maybe borrow it again at a lower interest rate. eg if you pay off a credit card now, they will very likely offer you 0% to start using it again later on.

buddiebabe

Thanks Seaxwyn i did think about doing that but i probably wouldnt get the credit when i need it so i don't really want to take the chance. I am going to take the money out that i have spent on my dress and decide where im going to pay that back to. I might use it to pay off my smaller credit card but i will wait until the money has cleared next week and then decide.

I did do a budget this morning before i went to work and things aren't looking good. My outgoings are £200 more than my incomings and that didn't include any money for food or petrol (which on average costs me £40 a week :eek:) so thats not great am going to have to look into other ways of increasing my income and reducing my outgoings.... not much i can reduce so its going to be a struggle

Buddiebabe x

Seaxwyn

I totally sympathise. At least you know roughly what the shortfall is, I haven't managed to work ours out, but we are consistently having more going out than in every month. Very, very depressing. If you have any brainwaves as to how to increase income or decrease outgoings, please do let me know!