Floozie does Frugal 2010

mooomin

Intergalactic_Floozie wrote: »

I owe £2795 (less £105 + interest) at the moment. I think it;s 16.9% with a 2% minimum payment.

I have gazillions of other, empty, credit cards but none of them write to me to tell me they've got special offers on balance transfers.

Depending on who they are, call and ask to close them. You will often find that this is when they will offer you a good deal. I got offered 6.9% LOB rate from Halifax last time I closed one of their cards down. if you want to keep the available credit, it's worth calling each company and say that you're looking for a LOB rate and can they do you a deal. If you don't ask you don't get!!

Intergalactic_Floozie

Oh nice one! I'll do that and let you know how I get on.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Right - have phoned Natwest and they have given 0% for six months with a 3% handling fee reverting to 14.9% after the six months however the maximum they could do was £2134 (including the handling fee, which I think was about £48). Payments are also 2.25% as opposed to the 2% Tesco collect so it means paying a bit more, £48 and after six months I would have paid off £288.

This still leaves £660 on my Tesco Card, and Post Office Credit Card have offered me 0% for five months, reverting to 19.9% afterwards with 2.98% handing fee and min payments of 2.5%. This would be £17 (and after five months would have only paid off £85). I haven't done this yet though.

moo2moo

The Natwest offer sounds good. The post office one not so good and besides its £660 which is co-incidently about what you have in the car fund.

I'd transfer the maximum you can to Natwest and then clear the Tesco card immediately and shut it down. You're immediately better off as you wouldn't have paid for the transfer. After that start clearing the Natwest card by PADing and take the post office up on their balance transfer offer in six months time when your 0% on NatWest runs out.

That also gives you six months to replenish your car fund.

Verbatim

moo2moo wrote: »

The Natwest offer sounds good. The post office one not so good and besides its £660 which is co-incidently about what you have in the car fund.

I'd transfer the maximum you can to Natwest and then clear the Tesco card immediately and shut it down. You're immediately better off as you wouldn't have paid for the transfer. After that start clearing the Natwest card by PADing and take the post office up on their balance transfer offer in six months time when your 0% on NatWest runs out.

That also gives you six months to replenish your car fund.

Sounds sound to me.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 1 (YAYYYYY)
Money in bank :£ -64.66
Money in purse: £7.06
Grand Total: £-57.60

Money spent since last update: £2.49
£2.49 - mystery shopping purchase

Grocery budget: £280.00 / £0.00 remaining
Petrol Budget: £110.00 / £0.00 remaining
Everything else budget: £147.00 / £-57.60 remaining

OnePoll: Balance £11.80
Mystery shopping: No new shops available, nothing pending for me to do.
Lightspeed: On Friday night DS1 got offered (through my account) a survey about music which was 160 points, so I am now on 500 points (£3 paypal is 345 points)!!
Toluna: 22135 points - 2700 added since Friday -
Advantage Card Points: Still on 830.

Have done nothing but think long and hard about the credit card dilemma. I think I will wait until the next Tesco statement is due and see how I feel.

My main problem is that I see the money that is leftover in the Car Fund as a buffer. If DH were to lose his job he'd get no notice or redundancy pay, and that money (even though it's called Car Fund) would pay one month's worth of loan payments. Also I don't want to risk going too much overdrawn in case one of the banks decides to call it in. So, I think I'm in favour of PAD-ing the Tesco CC at the moment but my mind changes like the weather.

Looking on a positive note, yes I have finished £57 overdrawn however I think it's very good given that I ended up spending £112.41 on gifts, and nearly £25 on re-imburseable expenses of which only £3 actually got re-imbursed in this pay period, as well as my own personal spending being £75 so if I make a MASSIVE effort next month, I reckon I could actually save something!

Verbatim

You could still use the 0% offers to transfer what you can. You can keep the car fund/ buffer and you'll still pay less interest and pay off the cc's sooner. As long as the BT fee is less than the interest would have been over the 6 months and 5 months periods.

Intergalactic_Floozie

This may change over the next few days I am always hideously confused on payday!!!

Days to payday: 28
Money in bank : 274.15
Money in purse: £97.06
Grand Total: £371.21

Money spent since last update: £111.02
£23.61 - Morrisons on groceries
£29.41 - discount freezer shop
£58.00 - petrol station (£55.50 on petrol and £2.50 on ketchup & Mayo)

Grocery budget: £220.00 / £164.48 remaining
Petrol Budget: £110.00 / £54.50 remaining
Everything else budget: £152.23 / £152.23 remaining

OnePoll: Balance £11.80
Mystery shopping: No new shops available, nothing pending for me to do.
Lightspeed: 500 points
Toluna: 22555 points - 420 added since yesterday
Advantage Card Points: Still on 830.

YAY - payday (it's taken some blooming working out!!!)

Have to blow my own trumpet that my Xmas 2010 account now stands at £91.41! I was paid £25.82 by the mystery shopping company (this is wages + reimbursed expenses) and also because it's school holiday's this week I was able to transfer £24.25 across, which is one week's school dinner money at £7.25, I don't have to buy a full month's pass as I am only at work for three weeks out of four so I shall just pay daily which saves me £11, and ditto for DS1 which saves me £6.

Scary things I will have to shell out for this month
1. DH is going to the dentist so that's likely to cost anything up to £198 depending on what he needs doing! He hasn't been able to get an NHS dentist but was recently allocated one, so he has to have a check up. His appointment is next Tuesday where he will only have to pay the check up fee of £17 so if he needs any treatment I will have to ask him to make the appointment for the next pay period.
2. DH & I have a fancy dress party to go to on 27th Feb. I have decided to drive over which will immediately save us £20 in taxis. *say £30*
3. Mother's Day falls on 14th March. I have to buy for DH's mum as well as my own mum. Then we have five cards to buy (for Grandma's as well) *say £20*.
4. No big birthdays this month, as well as Mother's Day cards just have to buy 1 birthday card, 1 congratulations on the birth of your baby boy card, and possibly another birth congratulations but hopefully she will go over into the next payday LOL. (say £3*)

Which leaves me out of my everything else money £82.00

maman

Intergalactic_Floozie wrote: »

Mother's Day falls on 14th March. I have to buy for DH's mum as well as my own mum. Then we have five cards to buy (for Grandma's as well) *say £20*.

Hi Floozie, what about the DSs making cards for the grandmas. They're always appreciated and I'm sure they could do it for next to nothing. Get them thinking about it while they're on HT holiday.

Good luck with your shiny new month's budget!

Intergalactic_Floozie

Hey Maman, when I was in Morrisons earlier I did see some 'make your own mother's day' cards kids for £1 each. I think I'll buy two and get DS2 on the job.