I finally did it...

lynzpower

Mela barrie,

A sterling start if I may say so, great to have you on board! :beer:

It really makes sense to do that, I dont know how i managed before i did it ( well i didnt lol) Any sign of OH coming on board yet?

Lynz

CosmoCat

lynzpower wrote:

Mela barrie,

A sterling start if I may say so, great to have you on board! :beer:

It really makes sense to do that, I dont know how i managed before i did it ( well i didnt lol) Any sign of OH coming on board yet?

Lynz

not yet, will have to ease him in slowly. i suppose he might have to when i ask him to send his £650 to the new account. That way I will ask him for half of whatever bill comes up for the house.

I have one pending of £520 (service charge and ground rent), he offered me a cheque for £200 hoping i would pay the rest, but i'm sticking firm to needing £260. so i'll be looking for his first extra deposit of £260 to my brand spanking new account (if i get it!):T

brranger

well done!!

beanielou

Way to go girl!

beautifulgorgeous_2

nice one, keep at it and encouraging? OH

CosmoCat

brranger, beanielou and beautifulgorgeous Thank you so much for your words of encouragement. I am awake today full of determination and drive.

Am still trying to have a no spend day today. cooked loads yesterday so have lots of food for today. i think that will be my biggest challenge is the grocery, because i like to buy all the gourmet ingredients to cook with. but as you all rightfully say, it's better to be debt-free, so defo will cut down.

so just saying goodmorning and welcome to day 2 of my debt free challenge! Cap One card paid off (no more 24% interest) and calling them today to cancel card or change it for their 0% bt platinum card. That £350 less off my debt. so getting there.

thanks again everyone

brranger

Good morning,
Well done on the cap one what is your current limiton that card?
Thay may just lower the rate on that?

[STRIKE]Capital One - £361 at 24% apr paying £50/month[/STRIKE]
Barclaycard - £3098 at 19.9% apr paying £100/month
Virgin - £3430 at 15.9% apr paying £100/month
mint - £116 at 15.9% apr paying £50/ month
Lloyds tsb - £3000 at 14.9% apr paying £100/mth
Egg Loan - £6756 at 7.7% paying £247/month

Leave the mint where it is you can clear that nxt month maybe depending on transfers.

If you can get the barclay card to a lower rate on Cap one that would be great if they wont give you 0% ask for a life of balance as this may be better in the long term as more breating space.

Once sorted with above you may want to pay min on lower rate cards and use the remainder of the £400 against the highest rate card will save abit of time and money on intrest.

Sorry got carried away.

brranger

This is a link to the snowball calculater a great tool.
http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx
Put in all cards and it will give you an idea where best to start and how much you can save .

Tony_Hendrix

melabarrie wrote:

I finally faced up to my debts today, in an effort to see why I'm always getting into my overdraft and why I've sooo much credit card debt. The answer I came to was that I am incredibly indisciplined.

My income isn't that stable, in that what I make weekly depends on the job I'm doing at the time, if i am in fact doing a job at all. but it doesn't excuse the fact that I spend an incredible amount of money on foolishness and really should be paying off my debts.

So this is my lightbulb moment, not that I was unaware of my debt, but that I am making myself accountable for it. and finally ready to do something about it.

Income - £730 a week (with this new job, until October 2006 unless something goes right)
Partner contributions - £650 per month

Monthly outgoings

Mortgage - £915
Gas - £45
Electric - £34
Phone/Broadband - £55
Mobile - £25
Courses - £63
Charity - £18
Council tax - £81
Grocery - £255
Travel - £89

Unneccessary spend
Misc (shopping and other foolishness) - £750
Food and Drink - £195
Cash withdrawals (for taxis and other foolishness) - £315

Debts

Capital One - £361 at 24% apr paying £50/month
Barclaycard - £3098 at 19.9% apr paying £100/month
Virgin - £3430 at 15.9% apr paying £100/month
mint - £116 at 15.9% apr paying £50/ month
Lloyds tsb - £3000 at 14.9% apr paying £100/mth
Egg Loan - £6756 at 7.7% paying £247/month

There you go. That's it. all listed. Some bills aren't listed as they are taken care of by my husband. I've listed birthday and clothes spend in the miscellaneous section. I know my repayments are achieveable on my salary. but it doesn't make being in debt any easier to stand. So I'm here, holding my hands up, ready to receive (the advice, abuse, whatever). And ready to share my story on my way to being debt free.

Thanks guys.

Just read your post,sorry for the delay.

Right,first things first,can you possibly put away £10.00 a week for 6 months?

If so,see in your local library if there is a credit union near where you live.

Instead of paying huge interest on your cards,as long as you have around 5 to 6 hundred pounds in your account,you can take out a small loan of say up to £1,500,the total you will pay back is roughly £1,700.

As long as you pay shares weekly,say even if it a couple of pounds,that keeps them happy.

Therefor you would be paying back weekly £15.00 +£2.00 shares=£17.00. Simple as that,the more shares you have,the better for you,just as long as it is payed in.

Then again,if you have saved £1.000.they will give you a £3.000.loan i think that is the maximum,though it may have changed recently.

Good luck.

lynzpower

Hi love

Great to hear you are still at it! Definatley stick tight with your OH, your in the right after all. Besides if he realises how much its all costing, maybe he will be a bit more on baord with cutting back a bit.

I love cooking too, and gourmet ingredients, still possible on a budget, still entirely possible. I did a dinner for 4 the other day with Free range chicken & organic mustard wrapped in organic bacon, with potato douphinoise and roasted vegetables, and profiteroles. ( which went a bit wrong for some reason!) The trick is a) using up what youve got in b) shopping around for the cheapest shops. Fair enough, Im not buying porcini mushrooms as much as I used to, but Im not ruling them out! And all on 100 a month!!