The ultimate incentive to get debt free, can I do it by New Years?

Dinah93

Nah I'm the same re payday ROTE, I get so excited!

You get 50p a review, but people rate you back, so I find its usually about 90p. If you write fairly basic reviews its a fairly steady earner, but I have let it fall by the wayside lately tbh.

Hope you feel better soon

Pilchard

Hello everyone

Not been on for a couple of days cos I lost the will to live cos my muscles didn't take too well to a 17 mile walk :eek: Going back to the jogging tomorrow, though, so guess I'll be back at square 1 staggering like an 80 year old!!!! The good news is that between us OH and me raised £220 for the Dog Rescue we were walking for.

I now need to get back on the clicks and dooyoo reviews and work out ways of reducing my debt. I'm having loads of problems at work at the moment and it's making me really down. For the sake of my sanity I may need to go back to my previous job, which is nearer to home and far less taxing but is also a moderate drop in my wage. If I don't I think I'll end up off sick and I don't want that.

On a more positive note, I need some advice - in an effort to save money (and because I fell out with them) I've stopped going to my usual hairdresser and have started going to those express ones in town, just for a trim. I want to colour my hair, though, just a slightly darker shade of brown than it's usual colour but I don't know which product to try. Has anyone used any hair colourants they swear by?

By the way, Dinah, take it steady before your holiday cos I know what it's like to be ill when you're away _pale_

Flower08

Hello everyone,

Lots more pages to catch up on again today!!

Dinah - you must really be looking forward to your holiday! Im not at all jealous....ok maybe just a little bit.

Cinny - yay for your payrise, more money!!

Dinah93

Morning all. Very exciting day today - payday!

So, £200 has gone to grandad as usual.
£140 went into the HSBC saver (usual ammount, old monthly payments to old cards I no longer have)
£26 went into the HSBC saver (petrol money from this month)
£188 went into the HSBC saver (money left from last months wages)
£164 was already in the HSBC saver, meaning when I transfered NIMs £250 to Barclays regular saver and my £250 to my Barclays regular saver, I have £18 left in the HSBC bonus saver.

While the HSBC bonus saver is a dire rate, it's immediate access, and I can easily transfer money between my saver and my current account. For this reason I intend to use this account to ringfence money that will be going into the regular savers (and ISAs when we get them) until it is due. Therefore money will never be in this account for more than 30 days. I'm continuing to transfer money over from other sources as I make it, don't seem to have gotten any lately though! Got some MS payments on the 13th and 20th March, but that's all. Bit rubbish really! Know I have money owing from Amazon and Gap mystery shopping, as well as Quidco, just wish it would hurry up and arrive!

Feels good to be past the 10% towards our house deposit, I like having the % there as even if I only transfer over £5 the % total changes! My latest object of affection http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-24798479.html?backToListURL=%2Fuser%2Fshortlist.html%3Ftype%3DBUYING

(by the way how do I write code so that it is hidden and people just click on the word 'link' or whatever???)

Going into work a bit later today, have a splitting headache and feel very, very sick again. Just waiting for the painkillers to kick in really!

Told this story on another thread, so apologies if some of you have read it twice but I think it's funny. I was talking to NIM in bed a couple of nights ago about how I manage the savings, and how it's going. He looked at me and asked 'what are we doing about savings for the wedding'.... to which I replied 'well that'd be putting the cart before the horse somewhat love, you haven't asked me yet!'. To which he mumbled a bit, looked embarrassed and said he knew there was something he'd missed out! Men!

On the same note though (and I know NIM has gotten lost on the thread so isn't reading at the moment) I think once I have paid off the OD I will be opening an 'other' savings account, for emergencies, special events etc etc, which I can suprise NIM with if the need arises. Doubt it will get much into it though, if First Direct accept us then thats £300 x 2 a month to the ISAs, £250 x 2 a month to the regular savers before we can begin to think of anything else. Not so bad if NIM gets a full time job but until then pretty scary! Worst part is that'd still leave us nearly £10,000 short for our house deposit target!

NIM only has about £200 left in his account, so some of the spending money for Egypt will have to come out of mine, which could make this a very, very tight month. We were planning on selling the two laptop computers to give us our spending money, however NIM is actually using his at the moment after my monitor-on-laptop incident, so we're going to have to have a bit of an ebay session when we get back, as we have a couple of boxes of stuff still to go on. At least this way all the ebay money can go straight into the savers.

I love the 25th, so much money excitement!

Cinny91

I read through your post slowly, nibbling on custard creams, my head is full of sniffles but from what I grasp, it soulds like a very good plan! But how many bank accounts do you have?! I get confused with just my two! Well done on getting over 10% too!

Bless NIM! I thought marriage talk was off the table though?! (or bed, as it would seem)

Was talking to my Dad last night about the possible loan for my bike - I'm quite worried someone else will buy it! - we think we'll be able to get it down to £400 if we pay cash. I can put £200 towards it now, then pay him £100 a month for the next two. I'm getting my birthday box off of my Grandparents this afternoon - I normally get £20 so that will cover my holiday fund monies for this week, and I can move £20 over to the pashley fund. I think I might have too many funds!!

Are you feeling any better today Dinah?

Birdie85

Morning!

I love the house Dinah! And well done for getting past 10%! As always I'm lost thinking about where all your money is but I can see your Debt figure has gone down so it's all looking good!

Pilchard, I can't advise any hair colourants, I don't colour my hair although I should start I suppose, I keep finding grey hairs! Eek!

Oddly enough OH said I wasn't allowed that uber desk... he's so mean! He also claimed that even with all of those boxes I'd still have stuff all over the place, he has no faith in me! Git. If he wants me to show him how messy I can really be I'll gladly show him! I went to see my Mum last night and clung onto her for dear life, somehow a good Mum cuddle makes everything better!

I'll find a DOTD -that's dress, not desk- today since I cruelly deprived you of one yesterday!

Tete_en_l'Air

Good morning! Hope everyone's well! Cinny I made some of your brownies last night, in a proper tin this time instead of cake cases, and with nuts, they are fantastic!! Brought some in to work but yet to hand them out, it's one for elevenses I think! (And as for the bike, if you're going to borrow from your dad to get it before someone else does, maybe you could put it away and not ride it til it's paid for? If you've got the willpower! That way it'll still be like saving for it, if you want to keep that mindset?)

Dinah hope you're over your little episode on the stairs! I really can't keep track of your finances so all I look at is Total Debt and House Deposit % in your sig, and they've gone down and up respectively so :T. That house is lovely too, and pretty cheap for York I'd have thought! Is this going to be a Dream House of the Month feature, every time the deposit fund goes up? Hope so!

Not a lot to say this end. Money all still lost in space til pay day tomorrow. Did 30 lengths towards my challenge last night - felt something 'go' in my foot - it didn't quite 'ping' but I could feel it pulling badly every time I kicked my leg so thought I'd better not push it. Disappointing as I was enjoying it - was lovely and quiet and I'd done those 30 without stopping, could have got to 60 I reckon :rolleyes:

ETA - loved the desk too Birdie, your OH's a spoilsport to not let you have it!

Dinah93

Not really recovered from my stairs woozyness, feeling insanely hot, dizzy and sick this morning still. Not helped by by normal 45min journey to work taking an hour and a half.

Accounts we currently have:

My current HSBC account
NIMs current LTSB account
My HSBC ISA (full)
My HSBC bonus saver (ringfence account ready to move to better payers on appropriate dates)
My HSBC online saver (where the change from transactions goes, not counted until it gets transfered into another account)
My ING saver (£1 balance, waiting for £20 bonus, no current use, likely to become the storage facility for the money to pay off my OD, before transforming into an emergency/special occassions fund)
NIMs ING saver (as mine, likely to be used as an overflow saver if needed)
My Barclays regular saver, £250 a month goes into this towards house deposit
NIMs Barclays regular saver, as above

Future accounts (hopefully!)
First Direct current joint account
My First Direct ISA (£300 a month)
NIMs First Direct ISA (£300 a month)

So yes, I can kind of see how its insanely complicated, hence why I just tell NIM what I'm doing and he asks questions as needed! But it's the easiest way for me to manage the money so we get the best rates. I like using piggy bank banking, lots of pots for different things. If I just had one saver I would get so confused what goes where!

I'll try to restrain myself to a house a month, but I can't promise anything! NIM and I are currently working towards a £200,000 house as our maximum, secretly I'm hoping to get more of a deposit than the £40k in 2 years, don't tell NIM though, poor boy will be terrified! If he gets a full time job basically his wages and our extra incomes would be the savers, and we'd have my whole wage to live off.

Tete_en_l'Air

Poor NIM, does he know what he's got himself into?

All this money talk has got me thinking about my ISA... I'm not sure if it's a fixed rate or not and I'm a bit worried in case it's gone down with the BoE interest rates... Must do some investigating when I get home and can look at the paperwork. If I wanted to move it, I'm not sure how it works... I have about £7k in at the minute, have used up my allowance for this tax year - can I move it still or will that count as contributing to two ISAs in one year? And if I wait til April to move, will I then be able to put more in, or will the moving count as having filled my allowance?? Does anyone have a clue??

Dinah93

Whatever you do don't draw money out of it yourself! A lot of isas accept transfers, you need to find one with a good rate and apply to them to transfer your ISA from this year (assume its either 2 years ISA you have or a cash and stocks and shares ISA from this year to make it to £7000). You may well find the best thing to do is transfer the £7000 to a higher payer, and in April open an ISA with another provider, as often the best rates are for new money only, not transfers, as they know a lot of people will open it then not move it when the rates drop. There are very few fixed rate ISAs unless it was a fixed term one? Even then you need to be sure of when the fixed term ends as the rate at the end of the promotional period is usually sub 1%, so it'll need moving.

Lol poor NIM?! He'd wake up one day to find he'd accidentally spent all his money if I didn't take charge of it! He asked me to take complete control over all our money, and I'm doing just that. He's more excited than me about passing the 10% mark!