Emma's mainly debt-related witterings (with probable tangents!)

Auntyem

Hello ! :santa2:
I have been a massive fan of this site for absolutely yonks and have always read as much as I can. My favourite section is the diaries and there are loads I subscribe to. I actually think I am far more absorbed in the diary happenings than corrie or enders sometimes!

I know there are already dozens and dozens of diaries around but I have fancied one for ages. I always have so much wizzing round in my head that I think it would be good to [STRIKE]bore other people stupid with my ramblings instead[/STRIKE] get it down on paper.

So here goes and I will apologise now that I have a very bad habit of rambling on and on... I know DH will be grateful if I am posting instead of wittering on to him. :rotfl:

As for me I have approx £15.5k unsecured debt. No flash cars or handbags though. Just one rather unfortunately timed property purchase which ironically I was very proud of at the time. On one hand I count myself very lucky that I have been able to sell it and buy dream home with lovely DH :smileyhea- (sorry I am a bit soppy about him, he is simply the most excellent husband a girl could wish for), on the other hand I am left with a mountain of debt which does get me down at times.

I have nicked loads of ideas from this site and have done most of them I would say at one time or another. Daily clicks, ebay, scratchcards, bingo, mystery shopping, matched betting, piggybanking, snowballing, batch cooking, meal planning, stardrops, you name it I have had a go! Even before I bought my pad I was budgeting and trying to be MSE so I am in good habits. Its just life seems to throw expenses at me just when I think I have things covered or a nice amount saved up ready to go off a debt. I am hoping this diary will make me more determined to keep going and I welcome all suggestions for ideas I could be missing.

I will try to update regularly and please poke me if I don't!!
Em x

Auntyem

Sooo... Main headlines from Em land...
- I have average salary but wages are for the most part wiped out by contribution to joint account and min payments. I might have £100 leftover per month which I always plan to put into debt pot but always seems to get eaten away
- Our joint account is fairly well MSE'd although there are probably non-essentials in there. But I don't feel its fair to start cutting out stuff which affects DH and the kids because DH puts way more into the JA than me. I try to work the JA calculations based on percentages of our income so it feels fair. I do my own mini grocery challenge and anything left over will go to debts (well thats the plan but the problem seems to be there is always something else cropping up it is needed for :rolleyes:)
- I keep all my MSE type earnings separate to chuck at debts. I am also totally obsessed by spreadsheets so I know exactly how much I have made from MSE type actvity, by category and date, and exactly how much I have paid off which debt and when... yes I am a bit of a GEEK. Sadly all this spreadsheeting does not appear to have helped in reducing the debt stakes but it does seem to calm me down if I feel things are out of control

- I have the best of intentions but life seems to get in my way. For example at the beginning of december I decided rather than chucking MSE earnings straight at my highest APR, I would put them in a pot as I feared I may need extra to help me with xmas expenses. I was quite pleased to have £61.25 put away by the 3rd from various bits and pieces coming in: £15 free virgin bingo, £10 mystery shopping payment, £22 Quidco and £14.25 from another free scratchcard site (managed to win a fiver one day :T otherwise I normally withdraw at £10).

However on the 4th I had a panic as my car needed its MOT so that I could tax it :mad: it needed [insert name of something car related which DH understood] doing also so bang went the £60. Also even though I *try* to be good and put away a monthly amount in our SOA to pay for car expenses, it just so happens that the [insert essential car part] on DH's car had needed replacing in September so the car pot was severly depleted. This means I only had £30 saved for my tax so £50 had to come out of my own December funds. So basically I am always chasing my tail


My debts:

1. Unsecured loan leftover from old mortgage - £11,547 APR 12.79%
2. Extra borrowing for house sale - £1141 (was £2005 in September:T) APR 21.9% :eek: ( I know this is very very bad but it was the only quick source of a relatively low-amount loan I could get at the time as DH already had account with this provider and it was just a few clicks online )
3. Overdraft on my current account £750 APR 19%. This is only since we moved as had massive outgoings around that time. It does not increase month on month infact I try to reduce it if poss. Even though its not highest interest rate I may think about trying to thwart it after christmas as this may help psychologically hmmmm.
4. Wedding credit card - £1664 (was £2200 in August :T) - This is on 0%. I'm actually ok about this one as I think thats not a bad amount for what was a truely lovely wedding. We set out to be really sensible and had an absolutely amazing time on what I think is a lot lower budget than some people. My folks helped a lot too but I'm pleased with the amount spent. Most things were from ebay .
5. Other credit card - £450 - bits and pieces of extra expense :o:o no excuse really. APR 16.9%

Seeing that all typed out makes me think maybe I should be making more of an effort to move some of it to lower rates. My credit rating is fine but I just feel unable to tackle this. Maybe its because the overdraft and CC min payments are only £20 combined and I just keep thinking I will find a way of getting rid of them soon . Will have a think about this issue.

Auntyem

hmmm interesting idea closed, will have a ponder on that.

Long day in the office ahead for me so going to catch up with [STRIKE]a bit of matched betting[/STRIKE] lots of work related tasks.

chops22

Hi Em lovely new diary!!!

Do you find matched betting easy? I keep having a look but am too scared to put my money where my mouth is so to speak!!

Nottoobadyet

Oh, shiny new diary!

Best of luck auntyem (love the name!). Though the numbers look daunting, like you say you did get into debt paying for all the right things. It will be so great to clear your debt while getting to keep your husband and dream home in the deal!:rotfl:

Auntyem

Hiya, thanks for saying hi Nottoobadyet!

hmmm Chops I wouldn't say I find the matched betting "easy" because it can be quite time consuming looking for offers and researching. But its not hard in the same way as long division :rotfl:(you see the sort of level I'm on )
I have to admit I am not great with maths so I rely on the downloadable spreadsheets and I always double check my figures but I haven't had any problems so far.

I did a bit of matched betting last year and got up to about £300 then emptied the pot to put towards wedding. I only started up again in October but I did found it all came back to me quite quickly. So far I'm up to £644 :T so very pleased with that.

Debtbusting progress so far today... erm... not much . I tidied up my records confirming I made £8.68 from a little reload and £18.08 from the first of a basket of freebets yesterday. They will both be recorded as yesterday's wins though. Today's is looking rather blank. I have another batch of qualifiers I need to do and I can see some decent matches but I'm a bit worried about the impact of the snow on the potential games so I have decided to hold off for now.

This morning I completed / got screened out of all my surveys. I do try to make myself do this every day but they are soooooooo boring :rolleyes:. I let myself have weekends off this inane job. I do regular audits on my list of sites and I scrap any that I think are not worth the time so thats what keeps me going with these. Also ever since I started free daily scratchards, I allow myself to delete every 10p survey invite I get .

Also as a result of one of today's surveys I may receive some feminine hygiene product to test :rolleyes::D double bonus.

Auntyem

Hello diary land! Its been snowing here again this morning, sooooo exciting to see the big flakes falling down .

Got home yesterday to find a mystery package had come in the post, turns out I am a runner up in a competition I entered from the comps board (must go and thank them), I have won a jar of goose fat :rotfl:.
So now no excuses for not trying to do proper roasties this xmas! Looked online and could not believe that to buy the same jar would cost £18 :eek:

jo1972

Wow em, congrats on the £18 goose fat :rotfl:

Great to see your diary, sounds like you are motivated, best time of year to be cos you can start the new year on the right footing!

I got into matched betting 2 years ago, started with £100, over a couple of months got it up to £700 then blew the lot :rolleyes:

I shall watch with interest!

Auntyem

Hi Jo thanks for the encouragement!

I sometimes look at my little MB spreadsheet and think hmmmm how many pairs of river island jeans could I get with that :rotfl::o. But determined to keep going and chuck it at debts instead. Anyway my 1998 jeans are still going strong :rotfl: apart from the holes where the belt loops should be fasten at the bottom of the waistband, but with the fashion for long jumpers this can be easily disguised;)

My plan with the MB fund was to try and get to £1k and then start skimming. But I promised to contibute to some building work we are having done in the attic so I have had to cream some money off today. Not too bad as I was supposed to put in £250 but I managed to find £118 of that lurking in my winnings from bingo britain. I did 30 days for me and 30 days for DH, but we had been out for a pizza with some of the winnings last month .
Anyway it will be worth is as once the attic is done DH can have a study which means we get the spare room back for people to stay over

Double scratch day today so 4 x10p:D . Plus got to £5 on Virgin so have requested withdrawal there.

Hope everyone reading is ok xxxx

Auntyem

Morning Morning hope everyone is full of festive cheer on this christmas eve eve :T

I've had a bit of a slack week so far debtbusting, christmas should be no excuse lol. Had a few problems trying to withdraw from various MB accounts to get sticky mitts on my attic contribution. I managed to get it all to moneybookers but then I wasn't sure how to get it out of there . The only free withdrawal option is Visa but my one Visa card failed registration due to "security reasons" which I emailed them about and they came back with a bit of a fluffy answer so I am none the wiser. So today I am going to try and register my other Visa card instead. If that doesn't work I will have to go for a chargeable bank transfer which isn't ideal . But I suppose its free money in the first place so just has to be notched up as an operating cost .

Anyway so faffing about moving money around / withdrawing means I haven't made much progress. My one basket I am working through needed more funds at the exchange which I am waiting on arriving. The other one I need to do qualifiers 4 and 5 for. I am hoping to get these on today.

I also need to try and sort out our January budget today to make sure that is organised before the chaos starts otherwise I will just think about it when I should be [STRIKE]stuffing my face with chocolates and wine[/STRIKE] spending quality time with my family

edinburgher

full of festive cheer on this christmas eve eve

We are thanks Em Also, kudos for the use of the expression "Christmas eve eve" (I thought I invented it ), being a MSE nerd and using spreadsheets - all good!

As a fellow nerd who has faced similar issues ('pots' emptying themselves etc.) I thought I'd chuck in a few suggestions and then subscribe so that I can lurk in future.

1. Are your budgets realistic? If your spreadsheets are showing unrealistic or overly optimistic figures they're not worth the pixels they're printed on. It's taken me 18 months of budgeting to get to the point where I know exactly what's going to be in my current account the day before payday. Look at what you're actually spending and try to update the figures - be brutally honest and try not to worry (there's normally something non-essential you can trim).

2. Willpower, willpower, willpower (this is the bit I struggle with). I use quite a few pots/sub accounts to manage my monies and in the last couple of months I've completely changed my approach to managing them. It's a bit '1984' actually - you need to convince yourself that, while there is money in the pots, it cannot be used under any circumstances. This isn't meant to be patronising and I know the approach won't work for everybody, but programming myself to believe that these funds are sacrosanct is the only way I've been able to grow them. Basically whatever I do, I try not to access saved funds - they're there for a genuine emergency, not because I fancy a tenner for a book and a coffee

Have a great Christmas :santa2: