NEW - pay off £20,000 (ish) by Christmas 2009

Batfink

Morning all,

A friend has asked me to lend them some money, and I don't know what to do.

I don't *think* they are the sort of friend to rip me off, and I am able to help, but equally I generally think borrowing money from friends is a very bad thing to do. It's a bit of loose : loose situation. If I don't, I'm likely to sour the friendship, if I do I'm terrible at asking for it back - and he might just be planning to rip me off.

Argh

x

Earthstrong

Hi Batfink,

I think borrowing your friend the money could ruin your relationship if they won't or are unable to return the money. My general rule is..if you could afford to loose the amount of money you intend to borrow and do not need it repaid, but it would be an added bonus if it was, then I would go ahead.

Hope that helps

GoToGal

Finally time for an update: £900 saved to the pot

Iggle_Piggle_2

Sign me up 12.5k. Good luck.

Batfink

Earthstrong wrote: »

I think borrowing your friend the money could ruin your relationship if they won't or are unable to return the money. My general rule is..if you could afford to loose the amount of money you intend to borrow and do not need it repaid, but it would be an added bonus if it was, then I would go ahead.

Thanks Earthstong - knowing how much I've given up to pay off my own debts, without asking anyone else for help, I decided to say no in the end. I feel mean but the fact is this is the first time I've had a bit of money spare in years, and selfishly I want to keep it.

On the good news front - I now have all the stuff from my new NatWest Step account which I'm going to use for my day to day spending. I've setup a £50 per week standing order to the account, and it's just for using for day to day costs - in my case this will mainly be petrol, small gifts, the odd hair cut and if there is any left the odd item of clothes for myself. My 'proper' current account will still pay all my direct debits etc and has a sweep setup to move all the money left each month into my savings account - so I'll let this build up until there is enough to pay off my student loans.

I'm aiming to clear the student loan by the end of August 2010, so I guess I'd better add it to my signature!

Hope you're all okay, it's gone a bit quiet....

x

mel19632

Hi Batfink - I would agree with EarthStrong. Its really difficult to lend money to friends and family, especially if you think they won't give it back! Can you use the excuse of being a student?

I have had quite a good month so far - have cleared the HSBC card of £1,059 and paid £944 to Mint. I am hoping to clear the season tickets as well by the end of the month.

Total paid so far this month is £2,906. Can't wait to clear £3k mark this week.

Also, more very exciting news for me - assuming we keep on target, our "proper debts" - i.e. excluding interest free work loan, will go under £20k this month!! Am very excited about this.

Hope everyone else is ok - it has gone very quiet! x

sarahs999

We're going to be very quiet this month as we're doing up our bedroom (final room in the house to be done... only taken us five years!) so all spare cash is going on that. WIll count the minimum payments as they're made though.

richestorags_2

I'm still here! Updated my sig with a couple of payments.

theskintfamily

£421 off barclayloan, that's it now 'til pay day. have finally passed the £10k mark, can't see me hitting the £20k but very motivational seeing how much I have actually paid off.

sarahs999

Just managed to BT my egg debt to Post Office card at 0% for 12 months. Hurrah! £130 BT fee though which is poop. HAve added that to my total cc debt.

Got to BT the Cap one later this month too. So that means another BT fee which is annoying as it feels like I'm going the wrong way at the moment...