My Debt Free Diary..

MrsPitcher2b

Ok so i thought i would jump on the band wagon and start a DFW Diary. Although my debts may not seem much to some, they are alot to me and in this current climate i am finding it hard to get any kind of credit, which does shock me when i see how much credit my sister has.. but anyway, i will take it as a good thing that i cant get any cos then i cant spend it!!

Basically we are trying to get debt free to get a decent mortgage, and save for our wedding. I have posted a few times on here (see here and here for my two main posts to catch up!) And although our monthly outgoings do not exceed our incomings, we always found that we never had enough money for the month.

Have since discovered, we dont stop shopping!! We both got paid last Tuesday, and this weekend we moved into a new rented place, as we cannot get a mortgage. And since wednesday, we have spent £40.Not including rent/direct debits for bills though. But that £40 was on food still. So I am so proud because by now we would have usually been lakeside/bluewater/any shopping center, and spent the majority of our wages and just hop we scrape by the month. So we are learning! I also paid a lump sum off of one of the credit cards (£700) and actually today i looked at our bank balances and actually decided that even if worse case scenario we used a full tank of petrol every week until next pay day, and we spend £100 a week on food for the next 3 weeks, we could actually pay some more off the card - so i whacked another £100 on it. We are quite lucky that OH has just gotten a pay rise and we get quite a decent amount, but the debts mounted when OH lost his job and we didnt change our lifestyle to suit...

So we have finally taken hold of the situation since OH has been back in work for atleast a year and we havent done too much about it. Well we have but nothing serious, and my credit rating seems to be getting worse... We are hoping to be clear of debt by about May next year, and today i actually done something i didnt think was possible.

I lowered my credit card limit!! I have never been brave enough to do this, even when i got a new credit card and transfered the balance, i kept the higher limit and ended up racking that bill up again too. But this time, i mean business :rotfl: So i lowered the card limit down to 900!! And i will continue to lower it as the balance goes down.

On a plus, have got about 12 things for sale on ebay, and i have already made about £140 from them all, with at least 2 days to go on most and i also took a company to court today :T Long story but i paid for some goods in July, and still havent received them, have been fobbed off for months and finally had enough, and took them through money claim yesterday, which was issued today. That will be another £450 to pay off my debts

Apart from that. i am just taking my own lunches, not taking money to work (i take my debit card incase of emergancies but i cannot get to a cash machine easily from work so theres not much chance of me using it TBH) I have even started charging my phone at work.. Not on purpose it just seemed to happen, and i thought well why not!!

I am so glad i finally stepped up and delt with my finances, i feel so much happier this month just because i know that we are dealing with it all!!

Roll on 2009... :beer:

halight

Hi
you have done great so far. Keep up the good work and please keep us updated with how you get on

All the best and good luck

MummyOnAMission_2

Well done on starting your diary! Doing great already! Good luck!

hayley11

Hi Rachael

I've just been reading your other posts, you seem very determined to get on top of this which is great :T

With regards to your wedding, have you thought anymore about what other people said? I mean spending £8500 on the food alone is just insane when you're in debt. Well actually I think it's insane even if you're NOT in debt.

That £8500 could be put towards a deposit on a house and you could still have a lovely wedding. I think you'd be proving a lot more to people if you had a intimate, personal wedding rather than a glitzy affair that has cost you £10k+. I don't mean to sound harsh but by having an expensive wedding just to "show off" to your friends and family is very shallow and isn't what getting married is all about IMHO.

Why don't you go and look at the Celebration board, there's loads of tips over there about saving money on weddings.

Good luck xx

savingholmes

Hi Rachael - just stopping by to wish you luck and congratulate you on the progress made so far. I also agree with the previous poster that you should look at the wedding section of the special occasions board. My sister has brought her wedding forward and halved her budget thro tips on there....

MrsPitcher2b

Hey guys

thank you all for your replies hayley11 and savingholmes thank you for your comments on the wedding, i no it is a lot of money just for food so we have re-assessed everything and although we are staying at our venue we will be doing the whole thing for 8grand. This may still be alot to some, but considering we will be having 150 day guests, 200 evening guest this includes their food drinks a toastmaster the wedding fees etc my dress choco fountain etc etc - basically everything we could ever wanted, and i no most people have spend over 15 grand to get all this! Our venue have done us a good deal because even though they consider october to be in season they have reduced the price for us so we should be ok

hayley11

MrsPitcher2b wrote: »

Hey guys

thank you all for your replies hayley11 and savingholmes thank you for your comments on the wedding, i no it is a lot of money just for food so we have re-assessed everything and although we are staying at our venue we will be doing the whole thing for 8grand. This may still be alot to some, but considering we will be having 150 day guests, 200 evening guest this includes their food drinks a toastmaster the wedding fees etc my dress choco fountain etc etc - basically everything we could ever wanted, and i no most people have spend over 15 grand to get all this! Our venue have done us a good deal because even though they consider october to be in season they have reduced the price for us so we should be ok

Hi Racheal

So you're whole wedding is costing £8k? That's a huge improvement then! At the end of the day hun, it's your day (and your OH's I suppose:rotfl:) so it is up to you what you do and how much spend. It just seemed totally mad to be paying £8500 for food :eek: I think I'd want gold plated lobster for that!

So is it next October? I love weddings, i'd love to be a wedding planner one day...I can dream

MrsPitcher2b

Okies.. Back to the diary, how have i done?

Ok i think..Have lowered my credit card limit on the nationwide one again, to the lowest it will go to - and have also sold loads of stuff/selling loads of stuff on ebay - so far made £180!! so that money is gonna go straight on the credit card.

Have also got about £250 left in my account once i take out money for food bills petrol living etc for the rest of the month - so am hoping to put that on the card, but i dont want to do it yet incase something drastic goes wrong as it usually does!

All cards have been destroyed! Argos sent through a replacement store card and that got cut up straight away Am trying to do the 'a payment a day' thing too, so far have paid off about £10 extra in the last few days, its not much but it all helps!

Am currently listing more things on ebay so hopefully will make some more money! The court case to claim back the money from goods not received since June doesnt seem to be going very far though - the company received the court case/claim and have now insisted they will be posting the goods. which i supose is ok but TBH i just wanted the money back. Am aiming to make enough money on ebay etc to pay off our nationwide card by the end of this month... i hope!!

Apart from that things seem to be going ok. Also using my tesco clubcard vouchers (and very kindly my mums) saving them up for either out honeymoon or our wedding rings..depending on how much we get!


So far so good i think, although work has been getting to me i wanted to walk out today although i convinced myself not to after i had been doing so well clearing the debts!!

it really does feel so much easier/happier in the house now between me and OH knowing that we are clearing the debts, its liek a weight has been lifted seriously it feels as good knowing your clearing them as it does buying new stuff!! im addicted!!

Have been thinking though, if i do sick to this, will i ever go back to 'overspending' I no thats not what i wanna do, but what i mean is, will i always be looking at a pair of shoes for say £50 and thinking oh no i'm not going to get them i can get them here for say £5, and that money could be used elsewhere. I no its not a bad thing to save that extra X amount anyway, but will it put me off buying anything because of the cost!! I no people now who really dont like buying clothes, and hardly do, because they have been in debt and consider it not a necesity. So i hope i will manage to find a steady 'middle' where i buy what i can afford, but dont put off spending!

MrsPitcher2b

hayley11 wrote: »

Hi Racheal

So you're whole wedding is costing £8k? That's a huge improvement then! At the end of the day hun, it's your day (and your OH's I suppose:rotfl:) so it is up to you what you do and how much spend. It just seemed totally mad to be paying £8500 for food :eek: I think I'd want gold plated lobster for that!

So is it next October? I love weddings, i'd love to be a wedding planner one day...I can dream

LOL yeh it does seem alot now when you consider they have halved that cost!!

Yeh its next october :T I would love to be a wedding planner too!! Although i wouldnt no where to start lol

We can dream together

hayley11

MrsPitcher2b wrote: »

LOL yeh it does seem alot now when you consider they have halved that cost!!

Yeh its next october :T I would love to be a wedding planner too!! Although i wouldnt no where to start lol

We can dream together

Oooh less than 12 months...very exciting! So you got everything booked and sorted? I got married 2 and a half years ago but it didn't work out, should never have got married to be honest, was a lovely wedding though, cost a fortune, hence the huge debt i'm in now

I actually looked into being a wedding planner early last year, even got as far as a name, did some market research, did my own website etc but just couldn't get it going, it was hard because I don't drive and I think you kind of need to do it properly, or at least have somebody available to drive you about. But one day when i'm older and wiser (and hopefully richer!) I think i'll give it another go.

You're doing so well with your debts, it is very addictive isn't it? I spend so much time on MSE, always looking for new ways to save/make money :rotfl:

MrsPitcher2b

Thought i better update this although not much new happening...

Have managed to put some more money on the credit card (bringin it down to £565) PLUS i have got £110 on its way to my bank account from paypal (from ebay sales) which i will be paying off the nationwide card, and also have £90.00 in ebay pending (An e-cheque from someone) which should clear on 19th so that will go straight on the credit card too!! I have also just found my old bank card for an old standard cash account, i thought was empty but just looked and has now got £90 in the account - so that will be going on the credit card too!! That means i could bring the Nationwide card down to £275!! OH MY GOD!

I know i should probably be spreading the money out on both cards, but i have paid £150 off the Virgin Card this month and would rather just clear one card at a time cos that makes me feel better!! SO THE NATIONWIDE CARD COULD BE CLEAR BY NEXT MONTH?!! you dont no how happy that makes me... i have had this card for about 3 years and it has never been lower than £950 - i am so proud

Also, hoping to get £430 refund still - the court case is underway and they have 14 days to respond (whihc i think is now only 7 days ) so that should hopefully come through, and that will be a nice chunk off the Virgin card!

I have been thinking about how much i used to chuck money away.. And i mean literally i would chuck money away!! Any coppers/5p's maybe even 10p's and 20p's i found in my room if i was tidying it i used to just chuck somewhere (mainly in the bin!!) and ignore them.. or if i dropped money in the street i would just leave it.. (OK not anything big but it still all adds up) And i used to use the cash machines that charge you? Why!! I just used to think oh its only X it doesnt matter.. Well yes it does, cos all that money could have gone towards clearing my credit card!!

I am hoping to clear the nationwide card by the end of the month, and have at least half of the virgin card gone by Xmas. I have managed to clear so much off the nationwide card cos i have had so much rubbish i could sell on ebay.. so dont think i will have as much money to clear next month but i will try and find soem things!