TestCall's First Steps

boredofbeingathome

I would do a full budget for yourself and go from there. If you can manage without the cards then this is the way to go..they do become a habit.

Have you thought about a card re shuffle? Barclaycard tend to do a lif of balance transfer which would be about 6.9% it would get rid of some of your higher APR cards if you could do this.

TestCall

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Do you really need the £30 health insurance at age 21 and the £100 share options scheme? The BOGOF shares and pension sound sensible tho!! There are health insurance schemes (Bupa/ PruHealth) whereby you effectively get a free gym membership if you attend regularly:

Without being rude it's pretty pointless paying out £50 a month for the gym when you smoke and eat a lot of junk food and takeaways (I am qualified in smoking cessation, nutrition and fitness!).

Good points. The health insurance I'm going to look into getting rid of. The share options scheme works on a save for three years then exercise options or take money. In reality, the last two schemes I cashed in after a year, so acted pretty much as no-interest savings. The only thing that makes me reluctant to pull out is the fact that the share price could rocket and I'd be the one left out! Stupid I know.

Gym-wise it's a recent thing. I had the option of month-by-month membership at £50 or 12 month contract at £39. I have a bad history with gyms so said I'd take the month-by-month for a bit and if I find myself actually using it then transfer to 11 month contract. As part of the losing weight initiative I'm going to try my best to cut out the junk food to make it more worthwhile.

I know what you mean about smoking. I want to lose some weight as my first priority, so in that respect I'm happy with the gym. When it comes to overall fitness I know it's a bit of a contradiction so over time I'll think about quitting. As it is, my job means duty free cigarettes so at least I don't pay too much for them.

Fire_Fox wrote: »

How far into the iPhone contract are you? You can usually drop one level after nine months, and possibly renegotiate the deal entirely if the contract is nearly up? I would recommend you speak to O2 and/ or your landline provider to see if you can get inclusive calls to Ireland in future.

I'm about 7 months in, and it's an 18 month contract, though because I spend so much I should be eligible for upgrade/contract negotiation at the 12 month mark. I'll investigate the international calling options. Ideally, I wish I culd teach my mother how to check her email!

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Car - do you actually need to run this? Is there any possibility you could walk or cycle (instead of gym!), use public transport, car share at work or a combination? I would suggest you add up how much the car actually costs you over the course of the year (tax, MOT, insurance, depreciation, repairs, petrol, loan interest) and see if you'd be better off without it. Often when people have a car to enable a second job the cost of the car negates all the income from the second job - as you say it's taxed at 20%. :rolleyes:.

The car make my life 10000% easier. My job involves working odd hours where public transport is often not available. I actually paid out more on taxis per month than I do on my finance. It's also stopped me getting takeaway so much because I can now *easily* get to a supermarket to get food. The car's staying, though I'm going to try to improve my fuel economy and obviously walk for the short journeys.

Thanks for your help Fire Fox!

TestCall

Righty, been with the family for a few weeks, been lovely, very little money spent. Long drive and ferry over tomorrow, and I'm going to have to start looking after myself again.

I'm going to have to be disciplined and tackle one of my main wastes of money: food! It doesn't help that I can't cook and we don't have a proper freezer. Off to OldStyle I think!

IWantToBeFree_2

Hi TestCall

Just want to say good luck in your debtfree journey!

TestCall

Thanks! Only a day in but trying to get the mindset right!

IWantToBeFree_2

It will come!

The one piece of advice I will give is don't be too hard on yourself, and allow yourself a treat every now and again, if you deprive youself of anything remotely fun, you will end up falling off the wagon big style and do more damage than you would have done allowing yourself to relax every so often. I know, i've been there, and I am now on my 3rd attempt knowing that if I hadn't been so hard on myself a year ago, my debt would have been significantly smaller now!

daily_2

Is the car repair essential?

TestCall

daily wrote: »

Is the car repair essential?

It's pretty obvious damage, quite a bit of paint off the bumper, and one of the wheels is badly scuffed. It's going to have to be done at some stage.

daily_2

If you do it now, you will pay 39.9% apr extra. Plastic bumper/alloys don't rust, so it won't get any worse if you wait a few months.

What is your overdraft limit?

TestCall

Good point, though I'm aiming to have the card debts gone by early 2010, so would hopefully be less.

My overdraft limit's £1500.