A wedding & 15k worth of debt - Aiming for a Debt Free Married life!

spykey_uk

Grrrr, banks! :mad:

So, I logged into my Natwest internet banking, to see what my overdraft was currently looking like, and it seems they have charged me £28 for going overdrawn a month ago by less than £1 (which I put back into credit almost instantly!)!

My current account is actually with Abbey, I switched a few months back as I was sick of the poor service with Natwest. I am going to write them a complaint letter telling them that I have now moved banks because of their shoddy service and ask them to refund the charge (it probably won't work but you never know unless you ask! )

So, the trouble is, that charge has now taken me into my unauthorised overdraft again, so no doubt the same thing will happen next month! Bloody banks!

Anyway, and breath! That rant has helped actually!

So, I'm off home for lunch in a bit, and am going to do a quick dash around upstairs to make a pile of things to list on ebay tonight - if I can get 7 items then I'll have 30 posted all due to finish this week! :j x

Lemon_Tree

hi, and welcome to the boards
check out the marriage and anniversary board as well, there's loads of tips on saving money for your wedding and lots of support for the trials and tribulations coming up.
Have you done your SOA? You'll find a link at the top of the DFW board and it may help you understand where you might be able to find more money to clear your debts.
check out new current accounts, but otherwise, look to see if you can push back any DD's etc to later in the month. I used to pay £12 in interest but by changing dates of DD's and transfers i reduced this down by £5 and every little helps.
have you had a look at the daily scratch cards? again it's only small amounts but i've had at least £80 since the new year and i don't think that's too bad on a deposit of £10 for less than 5 minutes. you wouldn't get that interest anywhere else in a bank account!
Why don't you ring up Natwest and have a 'chat' with them, sometimes they will refund the odd charge as a courtesy gesture, you won't know unless you ask, and you'll also know if you then need to put the money in next month to cover that charge

spykey_uk

Thanks for the tips Lemontree! I'll have a look at the marriage and weddings board today and see what tips I can pick up! I am doing the daily scratchcards actually, as of last week, like you said its a great way of getting at least 10p free a day! :j

So, day three...I am still feeling really positive, and am watching eagerly all of my ebay sales to see how much they make.

I had a bit of a shock yesterday, a pair of sandals that I bought for £13 sold for £25! Either I got a bargain or they overpaid! :rotfl:

So thats waiting in my paypal account to be paid off the old overdraft! :T

I also posted off the mazuma mobiles yesterday and sold a few more CDs on Music Magpie (think I've made about £13 total on there - not masses but every penny counts!).

I am going to have a hunt around today and see what else I can find! I keep finding that I open another cupboard and find another treasure trove of stuff to sell! :rotfl:

Just waiting for my paypal to be linked to my overdraft so that I can start paying off the debts and I can't wait! Also, still waiting for my internet banking details for my current account. Will be a lot handier when I get that as I can monitor what is going in and out of my account a bit easier.

I've not done a SOA yet, I find it a bit tricky as I split the bills with my OH but if I include his salary I have to include his debts and I'm only concentrating on my own at the moment, and he's concentrating on his! :T Will maybe have a play with it later though, see where else we can cut back! x

spykey_uk

Ooh 25p today on the free daily scratchcard! Yay! x

spykey_uk

Its just occurred to me that in order to be debt free by the wedding I have quite a task ahead of me...so I have set myself a mini target to hit at every stage: -

First Target £1910 by end Sept 2009 (25%) £0.00/£1910
Second Target £3820 by End of Jan 2010 (50%)
Third Target £5730 by End of April 2010(75%)
GOAL £7640 by 20/08/2010 (100%)

I have worked out that automatically through standing orders I should pay off just over £1000 by the end of September, so that's just another £900 to find! Mission impossible? Perhaps, but I'm going to give it a damn good try! x

yukkibear

£900 by end of Sept broken down into three months is £300 per month. This breaks down to £10 per day, which is what a lot of people aim for on the £10 day challenge so it is very ahievable. Have a look there for some ideas. I'm sure you'll do it.

spykey_uk

Thanks yukkibear! I'll have a look at that! I think if I keep focused and keep coming on here every day I should do it hopefully!

Its all about the little steps! Normally I would buy a couple of packs of sandwich filling a week and thinking I was doing a good thing by not buying food in town for lunch. But those filling posts cost me around £6-8 for a week's supply. Yesterday I bought 12 eggs for just under £2 and that's going to do my OH's and my lunches (egg mayo sandwiches) for the week! Much much cheaper!

I'm really looking forward to getting paypal approved on my overdraft now so that I can start chipping away! x

Lemon_Tree

i wouldn't be without online banking, i check mine at least once a week but usually more and just wouldn't be able to survive any more without it.
Good idea to split your targets down, that's the only way i've coped as my number was so high to start with (still is really), i split mine into each debt and then worked on them in order or how much they were costing me or how viable it was to overpay them. ie if i were you the OD would be the first thing to tackle and i would reduce the balance each time i paid a chunk off so it doesn't go back up. But that's just how i had to do it.

spykey_uk

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

i wouldn't be without online banking, i check mine at least once a week but usually more and just wouldn't be able to survive any more without it.
Good idea to split your targets down, that's the only way i've coped as my number was so high to start with (still is really), i split mine into each debt and then worked on them in order or how much they were costing me or how viable it was to overpay them. ie if i were you the OD would be the first thing to tackle and i would reduce the balance each time i paid a chunk off so it doesn't go back up. But that's just how i had to do it.

Yes that's what I was thinking, as soon as I pay off £100 bring my limit up £100 so that I can't make the mistake of going back into it.

I didn't realise last week that unused overdrafts can count against you on your credit limit as well. My OH immediately went and cancelled 3 of his unused overdrafts he has on other accounts (where he has bills paid out of etc). I'm starting to realise there's little point having them unless you really need them. What annoys me is that the banks practically force them on you when you don't need them (my OH had this argument with one of the banks who tried their hardest not to reduce his overdraft at his request!) :mad:

Anyone would think they want you in their debt! :rotfl:

So today has been a NSD so far, which makes it my 4th day in a row, and in my lunchbreak I managed to list three items on green metropolis and one on ebay. I am going to wrap up a couple that have sold tonight and post them tomorrow, and then have a scout around for more stuff to sell tonight if there's time.

Can't wait for my internet banking details to get here so that I can get myself more organised, hopefully it will be tomorrow! x

spykey_uk

All parcels packed and ready to be posted tomorrow! :j

I've got another 22 items finishing this weekend as well, so hopefully that will help reduce the old overdraft. I've finally got my internet password for my current account as well which is good for two reasons: (a) it will help me to transfer money straight from there to my debts whenever I have spare (b) it makes me realise where I am spending all the spare cash! I've wasted so much money this month on silly things! I'll definitely have to rein in the spending on the debit card from now on! :eek: x