Corona007's random ramblings

Corona007

Evening all. Not too much to report today. I'm still spending more money than the American government (and probably have more debt too) but nobody said this would be easy. I also have an expensive weekend coming up and so I've decided that desperate measures are called for. I've therefore cut back on Starbucks/Pret/Lovely food at lunch time and have decided to take my own food and coffee into work. Rather enjoyed my cheese, pickle and pork pie lunch today though if I'm honest

Sadly no legal news to report but GreedyLL has another 12 days to respond so there is still time for a miracle to happen. On the plus side I've done so much research into civil court cases recently that I could start a new career as a lawyer :rotfl:

Corona007

Howdy everyone. Surprisingly I'm feeling rather frugal at the moment - I've been pretty disciplined at work by taking in my own lunch and coffee and saved myself a packet in doing so. My colleagues think I've gone mad as I'm normally the one spending money like it is going out of fashion.

I had a day off today too and spent ages listing a load of unwanted DVDs and CDs for sale on Amazon. Only problem is I forgot how much I hate the whole polava of buying jiffy bags and traipsing down to the post office to offload them and I've already sold 3 things which need sorting out :mad:.

Never mind, it'll help offset the damage I did earlier this month.

Oh and I applied to the BA wine club for that offer in the end. Anyone else interested can also apply at http://www.bawineclub.co.uk/wineoffer

Corona007

OK, so here we are at the end of month 2 and I've just been updating my finances spreadsheet (otherwise known as my guilt inducer) and despite being more tight fisted towards the end of the month I hopelessly overspent my Feb budget by £125.69. A lot of that was on tickets to watch the football and rugby and far too much for the shortest month. Furthermore I also spent £100 on legal costs which I'll have to write off if the little I]insert naughty word of your choice[/I doesn't pay me back and to cap it all off I just got a horror of an electric bill (£243) which means my DD will go up next month no doubt. But on the plus side that means more nectar points I guess.

Anyway, my debt total is now a respectable £16,540 which means that I have paid off £1,625 this month (mostly to the evil Halifax card) and therefore a grand total of £2,345 since my LBM. Sounds good but for the eagle eyed, in reality I barely paid off anything over and above the shares I sold.

So overall as my teachers used to say to me, a B-. Tried hard but could do better.

Corona007

Hi all. I keep dwelling on the progress I've made on my debt clearance over the last couple of months and I keep telling myself I should be pleased. I've cleared in excess of £1k a month and in the last two days I've not spent a single penny - something I've probably not done since my income was otherwise known as "pocket money". But truth be told I'm on a real downer at the moment. I can't get my head around how long this is going to take.

As an example, last weekend I spent hours listing stuff for sale on Amazon and then subsequently spent hours packaging it and taking it to the post office to offload. I thought I had done really well but in total after all the postage costs and "fees" were deducted I made a £32 profit. Nice, but not enough to pay the interest building up on one of my credit cards this month - in fact I would need to do that every week just to tread water against the ever increasing interest overall let alone clear any of it.

Over the last eight weeks I have spent hours looking at my finance spreadsheet tweaking numbers here and there and virtually moving it from one account to another to see if it makes a difference but I'm finally starting to realise that I'm really powerless. There is no magic wand, no lottery win, no cheque from GreedyLL and no easy way out. I just have to keep plugging away at this for months on end and that depresses me no end.

Anyway, sorry for the cynical post - I hope everyone else is doing well and I pledge to return to my normal positive self soon (well as soon as my box of wine arrives )

Lula-Hula

Hey Sweetie,

dammit did I choose the wrong month to go alcohol free or what .

As to feeling a bit rubbish about the debt busting, it really does go in peak & troughs ... sometimes it feels as though it's all under control & you're doing brilliantly , & then other times it feels like it's going to take forever & a day & that's the dangerous time. For that reason more than any other I think that this forum is great, because everyone on it has moments like that & then wonder 'why bother', 'why not just blow a bit more money, life is for living after all ...'.

I am a prime example of this phenomenon & to such an extent that during the whole of last year I only cleared a measly £600 . I was paying loads off each month, but then spent more :doh:. My income was pretty rubbish too which didnt help but I had no systems in place to ease the little things like new cambelts & services ( £450 ). I now have a savings fund for everything. I opened a separate savings account & the day I get paid I transfer £200 across which incorporates car tax, car repairs, presents, gas & electricity bills & now a small 'slush fund'.

I'm also living within a set grocery & household items budget & a clothes allowance .

I hate it, but I hate being in debt even more. I hate having to 'lose' between £400 & £600 each month to debt repayments & now realise that the quicker I pay it all back, the quicker I wont have to pay anymore.

I still have days when I really cant be bothered, but those are the days when it's good to come here & see that you're not alone & that everyone has postive & negative days.

Have one of these > :grouphug: to sustain you until your positivity returns.

Am drooling at the thought of your wine box, leave it next to the dodgy old pc please

Lula
xx

Corona007

Hey Lula, thanks for the kind words - I always knew this would be tough and I've just got to keep the faith and keep my focus on the prize - having 100% of my salary to spend on what I want each month. That has to be worth it all in the end and I promise I'm not giving up yet.

Anyway believe it or not but today was another NSD so I'm breaking all records here - it seems I get tighter with my cash the more I dwell on it. Sadly it won't continue tomorrow as I'm off on business again tomorrow and I won't be able to get through all those boring meetings without a glass of vino at the end of each day .

No letter with a nice cheque from GreedyLL in my post box today but even worse, no box of wine either. I don't know how I'll cope

Corona007

Wine still hasn't turned up but the status of my order on the website says it was delivered last Wednesday :huh:. I'm guessing they left it out in the open as I wasn't in and someone has nicked it. Will have to phone them up tomorrow to moan at them and hopefully get a new one sent out. Not impressed.

Anyway, I just realised that I have never posted the breakdown of my debts so for those interested here is the current position in the order that I am paying them off.

1. Evil Halifax Visa - £3,708 (27.95%, limit £6,000)
2. BA American Express - £3,243 (19.9%, limit £3,400)
3. HSBC MasterCard - £1,911 (19.9%, limit £7,200)
4. Egg Visa - £6,295 (16.9%, limit £6,800)
5. HSBC Overdraft - £1,398 (18.3%, limit £2,500)

Total debt = £16,540. The minimum payments on that lot come to £392 per month.

Ideally I'd move as much as possible onto a 0% card but they have tightened up so much with their lending criteria that I can't get one. I have been thinking though of moving money from Evil Halifax card onto my HSBC MC as I have credit limit available but I'm worried that HSBC may not like that and hike my rate up in response. If only GreedyLL would pay up then it would be much easier to shuffle the remaining £1,700 onto the other cards with lower APRs. Can anyone else recommend any other shuffle I could do?

Lula-Hula

Hello again,

not too sure about shuffling as I've only applied for a 0 % once about a year ago & got turned down howeve I did manage this :

I had a Barclaycard at a heinous 29.9 % apr & was desperate to get rid of it.

I applied for a new card through my new bank ( co operative) & although I didnt get a high enough limit to transfer the whole amount, the apr was 16.9%.

I decided to be very cheeky & blag it; rang Barclaycard & said I'd been offered another card to Balance Transfer the full amount at 16.9 % & if they couldnt lower the heinous 29.9% apr I was off & taking my balance with me .

They agreed to lower the apr to 19.9% if I stayed with them & due to the handy huge limit I decided to stay. I always overpay & never default & a couple of months later they offered me a 2.9% apr on balance transfers. I took them up on the offer, shifting my Crapital One balance over .

Typically they've now got a 0% deal on, but I'm keeping the Co Op balance where it is at the moment as I do intend to keep this card as I get cashback & it's only a few hundred so no biggie .

Although the credit offers arent as plentiful as they were, there are still options & we are the customer & they all want our interest payments .

I reckon you should find out if any of your current providers are offering any balance transfer deals & if not, then ring HSBC to see what they can offer.

To be honest clearing any balance & closing an account is a good thing & will keep you motivated & interested. Just slogging away can get very tedious.


The more you can overpay, the quicker the debt will reduce

Either way, that Evil Halifax has got to go :mad:

Go sneaking about on websites to see who's offering deals & dont forget to have a look on quidco / top cashback too

Good luck & report back soon

Corona007

Well, lots of updates today so let's crack on.

Firstly, a letter from GreedyLL arrived containing a cheque for almost £2k - deposit repaid in full :j He has not paid me the legal fees he owes but frankly I'm just happy to get anything back. I've cashed the cheque and if it clears I'll instruct the court and wack the full amount onto Evil Halifax card.

Secondly, my wine case arrived. It was left with a neighbour who dropped it round this evening. So I now have some lovely Spanish reds to celebrate my court win :beer: [where is the wine icon?]

I should be overjoyed but frankly I'm not - not all today's news is as good. Egg have written to me saying that they have reviewed my account and are raising my interest rate to 21.9% APR from next month. So my cheapest card with over £6k on it becomes very expensive. They did say that I could keep my existing rate of 16.9% by closing my account and paying off at least the minimum each month. Not sure what that means in practice so will ring them tomorrow. If they just stop me spending any more money on it and keep paying off the min each month then I guess I'm no worse off.

Finally and worst of all, it seems some mice have decided to set up their new home in my bedroom. They drove me to distraction last night and I didn't get any sleep so I'm absolutely shattered today. I don't like mice much and waking up to find one crawling in your hair is not something I ever want to experience again. My flat is starting to stink of them too. I've laid a couple of traps loaded with peanut butter but even though I'm knackered I'm dreading going to bed tonight now as I've got some important meetings tomorrow and desperately need a good nights sleep . Not happy.

Lula-Hula

Hello,

first of all - Great News about the cheque from GLL :j:T

Not such good news about the bad Egg card :mad:. Again, this is exactly what Crapital One did to me & I opted to keep the same APR & pay off asap without using it again - hence the balance Transfer to Barclaycard as I was just really hacked off with them.

Be casual & say to Evil Egg that it's such a shame they're going to increase your apr as you were just about to transfer a balance to that card if they could offer you a good deal ... be cheeky, you lose nothing & might gain something

Hmmm to mice ... how about swapping your Spanish reds for my cat for a couple of days