Gattina's Diary

gattina

Hello! I'm happy to see this sub forum up here.
It's good to talk about these things to get motivated.
My downfall was big spending - sticking a holiday to the Maldives on a credit card and then living on overdraft, credit card for university, then getting loan to pay that off, etc etc..

anyway - Started paying off Debts a year ago when I finished university and managed to reduce it quite a bit so far..

This is my plan

I have around £2500 on my credit card which is interest free until December 09. I plan to move this again at this time. I'm trying to pay £100 on this but this often goes down to £50 or £100 depending on what else I have to pay for that month...

I have just ove £1000 on egg loan which automatically finishes in October 2010 which isn't that far away:j

I've got a £1500 overdraft of which £500 starts charging interest September 2010 - so my plan is to start saving £55 from January 2010 (to pay £500 off by Sept 2010 and then bump this up to £100 from November 2010 (after Egg Loan has finished)

Then a little one I have a Sainsbury's card which has around £75 - paying £15 a month on that so 6 months to go

I'm happy that I've paid off all my debts to my OH and for the first time in a while I haven't borrowed anything which is great.

This month I have resisted going out for lunch - Instead I've bought wraps with low fat dressing, fresh herbs, ham and veggies (raw mushrooms, avocados, baby tomatoes, lots of things for variation)

Since I've got my bike I have elliminated travel work costs which is really good. The thing is the the credit card - perhaps I should set up a DD to stop myself chickening out with the minimum repayment!

Finally I have my student loan which I'm still confused over. Been trying to contact them to arrange the deductions which they said might take a few months - in the meantime I have logged on and seen that i can make payments manually to cover interest - great!

gattina

oh and Friday I had my appraisal at work which was really positive but the recession means I'm unable to get decent payrise... I think it's better than nothing but I was hoping for a bit of extra help with my debts!

gattina

back again!

feling quite positive about debt today - added 2 year monthly plan to myspread sheet which totals everything up... So will be able to see it go down

I wanetd to enroll in AS level italian but found a much cheaper course (1/4 of the price) so going for that instead - I got a new 0% to pay for it and going to transfer my balance

Wish I hadn't done that as if I'd waited until my virgin one runs out in Nov then could have got the benefit of the extra few months but not to worry..

Gave in and went for lunch at pizza Exress last week - it was £12 (50% discount with taste london card) and I owed it to my friend anyway but no more lunches out this month! That's my weekness..

Things I'm looking forward to - Painting my kitchen in 2 weeks (payday) that will keep me out of trouble and make me feel like wanting to spend more time at home :-D

Family wants to go on holiday in September so I need to budget for that - will be a welcomed break though

total debt other than Student loan £5093.96

gattina

hello! It's been a long while since I came on here
this time last yr I think.
But happy to say my debt is now around £3300. at the moment my overdraft ~ £1350 ~is going down bit by bit and same with credit card ~ £2018.
I'm comfortably paying off around £250 a month with a final date to get rid of the above two as November 2011.
Which is pretty good! I've decided that each year ~ if I get a payrise ~ to increase this amount by £50 each month and switch debt paying into savings from next year.
Cycling to work and bringing lunches in is helping

gattina

by the way
every time i call my bank to reduce my overdraft ~ even if it's just £50
they seem to be quite reluctant to do it! always try to talk me out of it.
:money:

have to be a little more blunt each month

the last £500 of it is intrest free for the next yr but actually it's £350 now, so got to get rid of that £350 as a priority :rotfl:

gattina

It's been almost a year since I posted last! and I have been pretty busy since then!

Natwest Card £2018.
Overdraft £1350.00
Total = £3368.00

At this point I have paid off my overdraft and I have £883.00 left on my credit card.

This will be gone by the end of the year so I'm really happy about this!! :beer:

Seeing as I'm used to putting £400+ on debt each month I will keep doing this after the NY and try to get some savings together

Happy Times!

gattina

ooh and my £833.00 will be gone as the following

30/11/2011 £416.5
30/12/2011 £416.5

so 55 days til debt free!

yay!!! :j

sephrenia

You're so close now to your DFD!

Well done on clearing all the debt

gattina

yeh I know! Didn't think I would ever get there

Even looking at ISAs now! Strange feeling :-)

thanks!

sephrenia

I have an ISA. It's got all of £1 in it, but I have it!

I've got a way to go yet before I reach your level, but I'll get there knowing that people like you managed to do it before me

gattina

Cycled in today so that saves me £5 a day when I do that - I much prefer cycling anyway!!

Pasta and pesto for lunch - cheapy cheap.

Trying to go on spending strike for the week.

I have italian lessons on Monday night which is always good so looking forward to that :-)