My story - determined

Lister_2

Ha! I'm in the middle of Gamebookers too. :rotfl:
Well done for grabbing an arb. Never found one yet on there, or Partybets. Have so far managed to keep within my 2% loss though.

I know what you mean about it being time consuming and stressfull though. I messed up yesterday when the bookie odds changed and the back didn't place properly 2 mins before kickoff. Left my lay open for a £500 risk!! Managed to back in play at the exchange in the end for a £7 loss but was mega stressed and annoyed with myself.

I've done 18 bookies so not doing too bad for money I guess, just taking me way longer than most people it seems. I suppose I should post on the procrastination thread over there. :rotfl:

determined1_2

Just had a lightbulb moment!

I've always had a £234 (how I ended up at this figure, I don't know ) float for my work expenses in my current account. I then put in a claim and they are paid back to me by half way through the following month. So, I've just thought, why don't I put all this expenditure on my CC and then pay it back the following month after I get the money back from work. I'll leave about £50 in my current account for items I can't put on CC (e.g. bus), and then put the £184 into the mortgage.

I've given this some thought but cannot see any problems. The CC is also 0% at the moment, so even if work pay a little late, it won't be much of an issue.

Can anyone think of any flaws in my idea?? I know its not much, but as you all know, every little helps!

Thanks in advance

Determined

Lister_2

Have you got any savings you can draw on in case of emergency? I'm sure you have but the wording in your post makes it sound like you're operating pretty close to the bone.

Other than that it sounds like a plan. You'll also benefit from points/cashback whatever on your CC for work expenses!

determined1_2

As you sensibly say, I do have savings that I can draw down upon if needed. However, the £234 and £50 I refer to is just an additional buffer amount I always have in my account for any necessary work expenses. I.e. if I get to a £240 balance, I only have £6 left to spend. I would also have my normal current account funds to use if needed. I've always kept it as a seperate amount as it helps with my monthly budgeting and record keeping. I think I must have got to a figure of £234 through some 'clever accounting' :rotfl:

I think I've decided I'll put the £184 on top of my 1 March overpayment and put the expenses on my CC.

Any more advice welcomed though!

Cheers

Determined

determined1_2

Hi all :hello:

Been a while since I've posted here. Been working away for the most of last week. Almost felt as if I was missing the forum

It's almost that time again! Mortgage payment goes out tomorrow (well monday and back dated) along with my overpayment. I won't reveal how much. I'll save that for the stats update tomorrow. Don't want to ruin the surprise :rolleyes: (n.b. council tax free month Didn't get this last month as our payments were more spread out where we moved in during May)

Can't beleive how much time has been flying by. These mortgage payments have been flying out. Feel like I'm making good progress. Was looking at some short term goals and was thinking of setting a target of £135k for 1 April, but this is just a bit too much of a push as I would have to overpay by £1,140 on the 1 April. The only way I could make this is my deferring some of my normal spending on my 0% CC and then make a lower OP on 1 May and then pay off the deferred expenses. Hmmmmmm. The only reason I'm thinking of this is for the motivation of reaching £135k. What do you guys think? It would mean deferring ~£400 of expenditure.

Well done everyone on your progress. I've just been catching up on all your diaries.

Cheers

determined1_2

Hi all

Stats below for overpayment made, "interest saved" that month, "interest saved" to date, and months taken off (denoted as OP/interest saved that month/total interest saved/months saved).

Mar 09: £1,000/£4,588.67/£33,209.26/50
Feb 09: £740/£3,538.81/£28,620.59/43
Jan 09: £2,030/£10,364.53/£25,081.78/37
Dec 08: £2,380/£13,508.64/£14,717.25/22
Nov 08: £100/£605.23/£1,208.61/2
Oct 08: £100/£603.28/£603.28/1

It takes a couple of days for the balance online to sort itself out, so will update my signiture once this has happened.

The £1,000 is quite high because of no council tax this month and also includes the £184 in post #35

I've still not decided whether to defer any expenses as per my previous post

thanks

StuartGMC

Good to hear of your planning. Regarding expenses and credit card, I've always done this and in fact as I offset, as soon as the expenses show online I can print off and submit claim. The cash is in the current a/c earlier than waiting on the bill to arrive and so offsets that much longer.

Regarding targets, I would suggest the best way to work is on a fully detailed basis of household expenditure so you can gauge what your baseline is with comfort and plan targets around those. Then if you can improve on this it will be a positive "buzz" rather than missing a target which was likely to unachievable.

Best wishes

setmefree2

well done on your progress :T

Lister_2

Jeepers! Those are some massive overpayments you're making mate. Fantastic! :money::money:

Don't think I'll be able to match those (when I finally get debt free :rolleyes:) unless I can persuade the missus to join in .:D

Congrats. :beer:

determined1_2

Stuart - thanks for your comments. I agree it's best to set a goal that is achievable, but also at a challenge. I've currently got a budgeting process in place that has seemed to work well for the past 6 or so months. I simply have my balance at the start of the month, take off any budgeted expenses, leave a buffer and the the remainder goes as an overpayments rounded to the nearest £10 or so.

setmefree2 - thanks also for your support

Lister - Not sure if you've read from the start but Dec 08 and Jan 09 OPs does include some stoozed money so will have to pay this back later in the year (or transfer to another card). I have found having this diary has really upped my aggression (maybe obsession ) with making OPs

More good news, been speaking with a colleague at work and have agreed to start car sharing. Its a ~40 round trip so that should help cut some costs. Also good for the environment :T Anyone any experience with this?

I've also been considering withdrawing some funds from my match betting float to hit the £135k mark next month (Balance not £137,459.47 as per signiture, waiting for online balance to sort itself out. Will edit when done). Would mean taking about £400 of this out. Bit hesitant to do this as this money (£1,100 of mine plus ~£1,400 profit btw) is working quite hard for me at the mo (see signiture :cool: )

Thanks