Katy has got her financial incontinence pants on!

Katy83

Have just (finally) managed to get an up to date balance on my virgin card and natwest cards. Turns out I owe £150 less than I thought, yipee!

Job interview went well too, is very early stages of the process but fingers crossed I get through to the next stage. I am trying not to get too excited but the possibility of this new job has certainly cheered me up.

Need it today as well, the weather here is so miserable, it's hardly even got light yet.

redsquirrel80

Glad to hear it went well - I hate job interviews so always nice to hear of one going smoothly

Katy83

It is still cold, wet, dark and miserable here. Honestly, makes the idea of moving to a hot country seem far more tempting...or at least one where it feels like it gets light in the winter!

Had fish and chips for dinner last night really shouldn't have but it was raining, cold, I hit my head and got a huge lump and then got soaked and I have a cold coming on. Really shouldn't have, particularly because it was supposed to be a NSD but needed to feel better somehow!

Keep thinking about my debts now, am seriously considering extra ways of paying off my credit cards. The first thing I'm thinking of it getting the balance off my virgin card. They have offered me 0% on any new balance transfers. If i get the £2250 off there, then transfer it back on at 0% it will save me £35/month in interest - money I could pay off my debt. My egg card has a £2000 credit limit on it and no balance, so I could use that for the transfer then I would only need to find about £350.

Think I could just about manage this out of my next wage packet. Tax disc doesn't run out till 30th November, so I can renew it in December if I need to. By which time hopefully I'll have to money back on my egg card.

I reckon with the flat rented out I can pay virgin off by February, that's £35 a month for 4 months - £140, think it might be worth it.

The only thing is i am a bit worried about if virgin withdraw that offer...it doesn't say it is conditional though...

Katy83

I got a second interview!

Yipee!! :j

Zipedeedodah!!!! :beer:

dallas85

Congrats Katy! :T

Katy83

Have just made my PAD for £3 - takes my debt total down to a nice round number of £16390. God, it's a lot.

£2284 left on the virgin card though, that's the one I need to focus my energy on. That's the one that will be the first debt I have ever managed to truly clear in full.

I did clear my next card but that was only for £300 and I'd only had it a couple of months so I am not really counting it. But I have had balances on credit cards for years and I've been consolidating and running them back up for all that time. I need to get rid of this bloody thing to really show that I am beating this debt back.

So, I am setting myself to have it done by the end of January. That gives me about 100 days from today. Ooh, that's an idea - could go and check out the 1 debt vs. 100 days challenge.

If I get the flat finished this weekend and rented out soon then that will be the biggest help. Then any money I get for Christmas or for my birthday in January can go straight on it too. Also, if I get my finger out and actually get around to ebaying stuff, then that will all go into the pot as well.

So, there is my goal 31st of January to clear that card - £3 paid today.

Wish me luck!

Katy83

Aww, shame, the 100 days challenge is for a specified set of dates.

Okay well this is my own 100 day challenge - £2284 clear by 31st of January, start the clock!

redsquirrel80

Good luck!

EssexHebridean

Good luck indeed Katy - you're doing so well and huge congrats on the payrise - that'll give you such a boost won't it!

A couple of thoughts for you....regarding the "weakness" question at an interview - I was told that it's actually better to admit to a weakness but then immediately follow up by demonstrating how you have dealt with that - for example mine is a terrible memory, so I have learnt to write everything down....the positive to that is that more times than I care to count, important information has been salvaged months down the line from one of my notebooks - purely because I scribble stuff down all the time to avoid any risk of forgetting it. Apparently some interviewers can see a claim of no weaknesses as arrogance. Also, with regard to any money you may get for christmas/birthdays - cut yourself some slack here, there surely must be "things" that you want or need to buy for yourself - better to use cash given to you as a present to buy these so that if asked you can say "Oh thanks so much - I shall put that towards the ******* I have been wanting for ages!" makes people feel they have contributed to the lift you are having, not the one you have had already?

Last year I included on my Christmas list (we have always done lists in my family - makes life so much simpler!) all manner of bits and bobs that I would otherwise have had to buy for myself, or bought much cheaper versions of for myself - so things like toiletries, hair stuff, even things like socks! I also intend to put together a box of things like that for part of MrEH's present for christmas this year.

I hope the fish & chips was yummy? We're trying to cut back on takeaways again (oh dear, I may have ommitted to mention that to MrEH yet!) here so things like that will be on the back burner for a while. Love a nice bit of fish & chips though. :drool: I think sometimes you just have a night where you NEED something like that - and there are plenty of worse ways you could have made yourself feel better after a rough day. Is your head OK now?

Katy83

Sleepy sleepy sleepy...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Have been making huge progress on the flat this weekend, am really pleased. We are really close to getting it finished now, think I should be able to start advertising it for rent by the end of the week.

It will be such a huge relief to finally get it rented out, will really feel like we are starting to move on and make progress. Will make a big difference to the finances too.

Think I gave OH a bit to think about this morning. He was talking about how he is getting worried about the size of his credit card bill and the overdraft. He owes about £5000, not as much as me but still enough for him to want to pay it back. So this morning I was telling him all about snowballing and piggybanking and general DFW-ness. Think he was a bit "who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend" :rotfl:

We were talking about how we can cut our outgoings so we've decided no takeaways for a month is a start. We've got friends coming up to visit on 22nd November so we are going to stay away from the takeaways till then. We are also going to try car sharing, we work quite close to each other but start and finish at different times. They aren't wildly different though so we should be able to make it work...well we are going to try anyway.

It's nice to have him a bit more on board. I mean, he has always been supportive but to be going through the same thing together is quite comforting. Means that we can demotivate each other when we want to eat out or buy stuff.