Flying gleefully into 2009 - One Fresians adventures in debt-busting

mooomin

Shameless copy and paste from PAD - all advice gratefully received!

Right, people of PAD, I need your help.

I have a laptop which I use for internetting as Mr Fresian is too busy most of the time with killing the zombie hoards to give me my precious internet.

It's old.

I don't mean it's a year old and I want a new one, I think the internet was only accessed by boffins when this thing was new. I once time it from turning on to being able to load MSE (My homepage!) and it takes on average 7-12 minutes. I can't take it anymore and am about to buy a shiny laptop. Ideally this one. I can choose to have it in purple and it's lovely and I want it.

*breathes*

Can I afford it? Sort of is the answer to that. Read on if you dare:

By the time I spec it as I wish (Keeping it essentially the same as the basic lapto but making the case and mouse purple ) it will cost less than £400. I have two options: Buy Now Pay September 2010 or pay on my credit card and take the interest hit.

1. Buy Now Pay September 2010. Tempting, but you get charged £49 for doing this, and if I don't have the funds to pay it then it's a whopping 29.9% APR. Yikes.

2. Pay on my credit card. I have over £100 in my instant access savings account and could add another £50 at least by the end of the month. I am working for 5-6 hours on the bank holiday so double time making about £21 per hour (Woo!) so could put this towards the laptop then PAD my little *ss off to clear £400 in two months (3 max) and I still think that would be less than £49 admin charge.

What do you think?

I really want one *stamps feet* but I don't want to jump into anything I can't afford. Oh yeah, and I can only get the lovely purple one on this deal until the 26th. Nothing like pressure.

Answers on a postcard to:

flying_fresian
Fresian Towers
Edinburgh
M00 MIN

5*shopaholic

i want a new laptop and my bro in laww has told me to wait as new windows is coming out
windows 7 and it is gonna be fantastic but it due for release 23rd oct 2009
dont know whether this helps or hinders lol

[Deleted User]

Hey FF
I love purple and if it was me I would go for it!! Put it on the credit card if you are sure you will be able to clear it in a month or two. It will be less that the £49 extra they are wanting for the buy now pay later deal.

P

mooomin

5*shopaholic wrote: »

i want a new laptop and my bro in laww has told me to wait as new windows is coming out
windows 7 and it is gonna be fantastic but it due for release 23rd oct 2009
dont know whether this helps or hinders lol

Windows 7 upgrade included in price when it comes out....

We have it on our PC and its lovely

tomtombeanie

hi fresian! my thoughts on laptop - if what you will pay on CC interest is less than what you would pay when you have all the money saved (price about 75 more then i think, as it's on offer now?) then i think - go for it! i have only ever paid interest once on my M&S card, for one month only, as i wanted to get flights booked and didn't have all the cash right then but, like you, knew i would in a month. sometimes it's worth taking the hit - this looks like one of them love the purple, BTW, although being a toddler stuck inside the body of a 36 year old, i prob would have gone for the pink one!

mooomin

Another shameless copy and paste:

I bought it

*runs off to Ebay anything in her house that isn't nailed down*

mooomin

Things to Note

I have bought a laptop :j at a cost of nearly £400 :eek: I have paid for this on my Barclaycard so it doesn't get confused with my grocery shopping credit card and Barclaycard is online-friendly anyway which is good.

Barclaycard online banking bookmark added to favourites.

Ebay is going to be my friend over the next week.

6 items listed, one with a bid and 5 total watchers. Early days yet. My username on here is the same as on Ebay if anyone wants a nose.

Money - even without the laptop things were going to be interesting this month I am going to Ebay and Gumtree things though and hopefully make some spare cash. The Grocery Challenge is the place I am most likely to save some cash this month though so it's bargains all the way!

Quick things - would anyone like to be referred to BingoPort? Free bingo for points which can be redeemed for Amazon vouchers/cash on pay bingo sites. I get 3000 points per referral and if I refer loads of folk in August then I can win real prizes (Camcorders etc) PM me for more info.

Gotta run to work now, have a lovely day everyone!

MellyB_2

We recently got a new Dell laptop as our old one (when I say old, I mean 3 years old) got so riddled with random viruses that it started playing music when we were on it. Music we didn't even have on our computer!

Got a Dell one in Pacific Blue which should really be called 'Midnight/Navy blue?! and it actually saved us money as were on about taking it to PC World and getting everything wiped etc.....

It's a lot quicker though and has more memory than the old one so we're quids in I reckon!!

x

mooomin

Money Things:

Spends: £179.09 (Will transfer odd money to my PAD account I think)

PAD: £0 :eek: Need to send some money into that account tomorrow to cover some PADding fun!

Entertainment: £50. Didn't go to the pub tonight, so some money saved!

Groceries: £182.99. I have enough cat-related items to last the month and myself and Mr Fresian can eat frugally so that's not an issue.

Laptop debt: £398.28 :eek:

Days until payday: 30 :eek:

Plan to clear laptop debt!

PAD - obviously the Joy Of PAD will form a big part of my plan. I would like to make every 2nd PAD go to the laptop debt.

Shares - I bought a small amount of shares earlier in the year for 42p each. I sold some today for £1.07 I should receive £211.46, so that's over half of it paid off right away!

Ebay - I have six make-up items listed and my beloved Matthew Wiliamson bag has gone online as of today *sob* but it's for the greater good. I couldn't set a reserve on it though so I hope it goes for more than a fiver...

mooomin

Woo! Major lucky spell on slots on BingoPort mean that I can do my 2nd redeem this week which will add £10 cash equivilent (sp??) to my Foxy Bingo account, yay!!

Must run for early shower as have to hang washing up before work and my friend is coming over early so I can take her picture for our work newsletter. The fun never stops here!!

Ebay update:

One item with a whopping £1.99 bid on it also has four watchers, yay!

Lovely bag *sob* has six watchers and I only listed it last night, so that's hopeful.

Laptop is scheduled for delivery by the end of next week. My current (ancient) laptop is dead. Well, it works but sadly won't connect to the interpipes. I can use my flatmates Macbook, but hate that it has no right mouse button :rotfl: Aiming to pay off new laptop before Barclaycard charge me interest...I like a challenge!!

Going to see Faith No More tonight!! Cannot wait My brother is coming down for the gig and as he's been staying with my parents for the last week he's coming down with a cool bag full of meat and fish for my freezer and also coffee and washing powder. And my mother's home-made hobnobs

Right, must dash!