Evan's DFW & Wedding Diary

~evanesco~

It's slowly dropping *whoot* that's a bonus, but I did something very, very naughty. I bought P!nk tickets. But, before I get a slap, I'm going to repay it back into my bank out of my pocket money. So I'm now in more debt, and my creditor is..... me. Er, that's not very DFW, but I fully intend to put it back in the pot, which means no treats, so really I'm in the same boat as Shell, and her coats, only her moreso, since she bought one too. Still on track though. My CCJ has gone, disappeared, failed to materialise! BONUS! 6 years, six, evil, vanquis credit rate inducing years. Sooooo happy! I'm still not 0% credit card worthy, I missed a payment on my Next account last year, and have too much available credit until some of these accounts are clear and closed, but I'm building. I also, stupidly, have been contacted by CCS Collections. How much will this affect me? I just kept forgetting to pay my subscription, and then forgetting and forgetting. I've paid it now, but will it go on my file? It was a fist letter from them, and it's 100% definately paid, I did it when I got the letter from them, if only I'd have done it before they contacted me, it wasn't even like I didn't have the money, I did, I just didn't pay it, I have no excuse, or reason. By January the Additions and Gratton will be gone, only 7 left after that. I'm thinking I'll snowball properly and get rid of that Vanquis, it's a burden. Does anyone know how I can unlink it from my Paypal? Do I just delete the card? It's too much temptation. I was going to opposite snowball and go from smallest amount to largest, but I'm going to do it highest interest first. I've set up direct debits for nearly everything, only Grattan wont let me, but I don't care about that, I think there's only 3 payments left. I'm not sure I can do Shelley's Next account, they say it has to be in your own name, but I've sent the DD form, just to see, if not I'll do another from her bank, and Lloyds won't let me either, since that's in her name too. It currently looks like this....

Account Name.....Mimimum Payment.....Balance Remaining

Shell's Next..........£90.00.......................£864.16
Littlewoods..........£214.56.....................£2,095.52
My Next..............£10.00.......................£93.56
Shell's Loan.........£30.95.......................£435.11
Vanquis...............£66.00.......................£1,402.91
Capital One.........£23.22.......................£441.27
Additions.............£31.00.......................£59.41
Simply Yours.......£21.00.......................£205.25
Grattan................£23.00.......................£61.10

Totals..................£509.73.....................£5,658.29

I'm aiming to get the total minimum payments back down to a managable £450.95. I know it's more at the moment, but that's a very hard struglle when we both work a really basic month, with no overtime. Then I'll be super snowballing. And, er, paying for our Civil Partnership. Nothings happening on that front until after Xmas anyway.

~evanesco~

Woohoo, it's dropped. I know it's not technically the end of the 'calendar' month, but it's the end of my bill paying month. And we've cleared £295.18 this month. So it's going down at last. Had a big argument with Littlewoods this morning, they tried to add a default onto my account for an error which was their fault, so I made them lift it. And refund the £12 they tried to charge me. I'm not having things like that on my sparkly credit file. Took me six years to shake off my CCJ you flippers. What happened was, I set up a direct debit, and a couple of weeks later checked my online Littlewoods, which informed me of the amount to be taken by direct debit. Only they didn't, even though it was in the bank. So I e-mailed and they claimed it was my fault. I told them it was theirs. After many arguements I told them I'd send them my statmenes showing that the money was in there, they relented and refunded the charge. So that's that.

We've opened a joint account. The plan is to have all basic wages, tax credits paid into there. That more than covers the outgoings. The tub with brownie subs, bus fares and lunch money will continue, coming out of wages before they are paid into the bank. Into each personal account will go £60 'pocket money'. Then overtime wages will go into my second current account, to be saved for Xmas, birthdays and the wedding. Each week we'll take £60 out for shopping, and if it's gone, tough. I'm hoping this'll make us think twice. For example, if one of us uses the A&L card, we'll have to think first and consider 'if I use this card, what bill or debt won't be getting paid' and if we use the Natwest card 'if I use this card, I'm taking money from the wedding fund'. Think it'll work? I hope so.

OH will be taking 2 weeks off over Xmas, which is fine, because the childminder takes 2 weeks off then, even though she offered to work, but I said it didn't matter, since it's £308 for those 2 weeks. Eeeek, I'm dreading the 6 weeks holidays, £924 childcare bill!!! Still, it'll be budgeted for, so we'll manage.

~evanesco~

Oh, and I don't need to unlink that Vanquis from my paypal, it's expired. They sent me a shiney new card, which has not been signed and will be passed on to my card sitter

hypno06

It sounds as though you are finally making progress :T

(sorry its not a long post, was just about to close my laptop down when I saw you had posted and thought I would nip back on and say Hi!)

mandragora_2

Why don't you just cut it up and send it back to them, and ask them to take you off their database while you're at it? It is SUCH an expensive way to buy things, especially once you get sucked in to making minimum repayments *shudder* - you really don't need the hassle or the temptation any more.

taxi73

You seem to be making the progress now.I've just read this thread from the beginning and can't believe how organised you've become.You must feel loads better.

~evanesco~

mandragora wrote: »

Why don't you just cut it up and send it back to them, and ask them to take you off their database while you're at it? It is SUCH an expensive way to buy things, especially once you get sucked in to making minimum repayments *shudder* - you really don't need the hassle or the temptation any more.

Becaauusee, I don't know. Honestly, I really don't know. I just can't right now. I don't spend on either of them anymore. I just can't bring myself to part from them, in case I really need them. I can't imagine why, we've managed to get them ourselves organised to within an inch of our lives, but, there will always come something.

~evanesco~

hypno06 wrote: »

It sounds as though you are finally making progress :T

(sorry its not a long post, was just about to close my laptop down when I saw you had posted and thought I would nip back on and say Hi!)

Thanks Hypno, I've just had it really. I've seen on our snowball how much the ones we don't spend on anymore have dropped, and I just think, hmmm, if only we didn't spend on all those others.

~evanesco~

taxi73 wrote: »

You seem to be making the progress now.I've just read this thread from the beginning and can't believe how organised you've become.You must feel loads better.

The t(h)reat of impending civil partnership is what's done it.

mandragora_2

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/other-institutions/29943-beware-vanquis-credit-card.html


Why would you ever, ever need anything this badly? Thanks for thanking me - but the real trick is to do it - chop it up!!