I can't beleive how easy it can be

Bonglecat

It's gone a bit wrong, whenever I get pleased with myself something happens to put me back.

Last Monday I was walking home from work thinking "I feel so fit and healthy" by bedtime I had a sore throat. I didn't sleep and by morning it was clear I had the flu, bad! But it was okay I had all my Turkey mince dishes ready so dinner wasn't a problem and well I'm not at work so can't be spending much right? But I didn't get better, I got worse the flu developed in to an ear infection

So week 2 and I'm still off work, had to get a prescription for antibiotics (how much????) and we ran out of food literally!! oh and toilet paper. DH really, really doesn't like supermarkets so I had to rely on Internet shopping at Tescos, it's the only one I already had an account with and I felt too ill to start setting up new accounts and messing. So that was £75 but because I'm not feeling up to cooking and DH won't, I got ready meals and pizzas which I normally avoid. And now we have £45 to last the month (until the 20th)

If anyone is following this you might remember problems with DH not wanting to do exams for work? Well in good news he took the first one and passed it quite easily and they are giving him extra time to take the other. But in other developments after balling out the doctor one time too many for being 15 minutes late he was send for a psychological assessment and he has been diagnosed with Aspergers. Which explains a lot and means I have to be aware of how I say things to him. For example "Your dinners in the oven it will be 5 minutes" I go off to get ready to go out 15 minutes later I return "Your dinner's burnt, I told you it was 5 minutes" but what I hadn't specifically said was "go and get it in 5 minutes"

I also had my school reunion a couple of weeks ago, the week before I started to panic. I NEED them to believe I am very wealthy and successful !?!?!?!? So I ordered a load of stuff from Littlewoods designer watch, designer earrings, hand bag, new top in total over £450 work of stuff. What for? to impress people who don't really know me? Crazy!!! As luck would have it when I logged on I used my old details so after a week I got a letter from Littlewoods credit department to call them. I did and they said "Are you aware this account is closed?" I said yes of course, I closed it Duh!!! Turns out they want you to pay by credit but if you'd rather go for cash well that's more complicated. So I said screw you, if my money's not good enough forget it!!! Of course I was secretly relieved and in the end bought a new going out top for £40, phew!

Bonglecat

Got a letter today from M&S money, offering to increase my credit limit to £6000 to give me more "flexibility". Is this a coincidence that I have just paid off £2200. Oh no whatever you do we don't want you getting out of debt, here's more credit! Spend! Spend! Spend!

How can it be right that I can easily get enough credit just on cards to buy a high-end car? And then you end up with so much debt that you can just make the minimum repayments and that only covers the interest.

Well I am not accepting Mr M&Ss kind offer in fact I am reducing my limit. The question is do I go for £4000 or £3000 what do you think the minimum just for emergencies should be? And by emergencies I'm thinking trapped in Italy for nearly a week due to volcanic dust clouds, that sort of thing.

Bonglecat

I can't believe it! After I got a letter from M&S offering to increase my credit limit I logged on and reduced my limit to £3500. But I just went to check my balance on the payments made this month and saw that they had still made the increase, Grrrrr what is wrong with those people?

Anyway I decreased it yet again and this time went for £3000 as I am now nearly on on £2000 mark for paying it off. It's like the Godfather try to get out but they keep pulling me back. NO I DON'T WANT ANY MORE CREDIT!!!!! :mad:

Bonglecat

Light Bulb moment June 2010
Credit Cards £10524.91
Personal Loan £6088.42
Overdraft £1000 1st a/c and £600 2nd a/c
TOTAL £18213.33

January 2012
Credit Card £7645
Catalogue £234
Personal Loan £1405.42
Overdraft NIL
TOTAL £9284.42

March 2014
Credit Card £2461.75
Catalogue Closed and gone
Personal Loan £17897.64
Overdraft NIL
TOTAL £20359.39

October 2014
Credit Card £137.98
Catalogue Long gone
Personal Loan £14511.60
Overdraft NIL
TOTAL £14649.58

Wow will you look at that nearly £6,000 paid off since March :T:j:T

Share option matured in August, to cut a long story short I used some of it to pay off the credit card, which sadly I have been using a little bit again at one point it was back up to nearly £2500. But now it's gone (nearly) and we won't be using it randomly again, only for structured purchases we already have a means of paying for (extra and insurance and cash back are the reasons for using it). I also have enough in my savings account to pay for our bathroom refurbishment which starts next month. Once all this has gone through I can start redirecting money to savings and hopefully make some lump sum reductions in the personal loan, which is half way paid off already. Oh what relief there is after all those years of DHs credit card crisis.

Bonglecat

Geez I'm rubbish at updating, but I thought I'd check in now.

So after my share option matured we arranged to get the bathroom refitted, believe me it needed it and after 8 years in this house I would finally have a proper bath instead of the ridiculous short one.

Because I had used some of the money to pay off the credit card I was able to pay the builder in cash but needed to put the fittings on to my credit card again. That was okay as it was done in November and I knew I would get a bonus in March.

We went a bit mad in January and starting booking holidays and short breaks for this year. All of which went on the credit card. It's not as bad as it sounds we booked a cheap trip to Dublin for our wedding anniversary, a week in Paris for my husbands 50th birthday and then after my MIL gave us a present of £1000 we booked a fortnight in Madeira in October (when it's a bit cheaper). Then my bank advised me that my PL statements had not been fully compliant so they were refunding me 2 years of interest to compensate?!??! Well I didn't say no to that, I thought they would just reduce the balance of the loan but they actually put £1300 into my current account.

So the upshot of that was the CC got back up to £4500 and I had to increase the limit from £3000 to £6000. But March bonus came around for both of us and the CC is paid off in one swoop, plus we have £3000 in the savings account for holiday spending money etc. Without the need to make CC payments every month I am now putting £800pm into the savings account to keep us a buffer even if we use some of it for holidays. I also think the boiler will need replacing next year, so we need to bear that in mind.

Light Bulb moment June 2010
Credit Cards £10524.91
Personal Loan £6088.42
Overdraft £1000 1st a/c and £600 2nd a/c
TOTAL £18213.33

January 2012
Credit Card £7645
Catalogue £234
Personal Loan £1405.42
Overdraft NIL
TOTAL £9284.42

March 2014
Credit Card £2461.75
Catalogue Closed and gone
Personal Loan £17897.64
Overdraft NIL
TOTAL £20359.39

October 2014
Credit Card £137.98
Catalogue Long gone
Personal Loan £14511.60
Overdraft NIL
TOTAL £14649.58

March 2015
Credit Card £NIL (£3,000 limit)
Catalogue Long gone
Personal Loan £12039
Overdraft NIL
TOTAL £12039

It's coming up to 5 years since my LBM and we have now paid off over £31,000 (that is my £18,213.33 plus my husbands £25,000) the personal loan is what is left of DHs massive credit card bills.

I still have to watch him, he goes wild on ebay buying books from time to time. Plus his ideas for the living room redecoration will cost a lot more than the £10,000 I am budgeting for.

But I really feel like I'm getting there and the PL only has 2 years left to run

Bonglecat

:dance::dance::dance::dance:Oh now I remember in other news a friend got me on to this detox diet last May and I discovered how much better if feel without wheat or diary. But also I have lost 30lbs, my health assessment back in October had me as Mary Poppins (practically perfect!!!!!) I'd still like to get rid of another 5 or 10lbs but that's not essential just gravy.:dance::dance::dance:

debtfreewannabe321

Hi BC, just caught up with you and I had to post to say well done! You've done brilliantly over the last few years and I think you changing your ways has obviously rubbed off on your DH with him quitting smoking, curbing his spending etc. I look forward to your update next year :rotfl:
P.s fab news on the weight loss! :T

Bonglecat

Another months repayments gone and the Loan is down to £11609, I keep thinking 4 months and that sucker will be under £10k.

However as is usual things are going great so I get crazy, our bin catch broke last weekend. It is a brabantia bin, so I went out to Dunelm Mill and bought a new one. Two things went horribly wrong with this, 1) I found out afterwards you can just buy a new lid for £24 and I had dropped £69 on a whole new bin (note to self you can now get new catches as well for £2 - £4, you could't on the old ones) and 2) while I was there I went crazy and got a whole new set of bed linen for £220. EEK!!!

So the lack of CC payment this month has been eaten up in bed linen and bins.

In other news my manager is trying to get my job upgraded and that could mean a pay rise, I'm already on more than the minimum for the next grade so I doubt it would be big but every little helps. And hubby although he managed to change jobs last year is now off work with stress again. I really don't know what to do about that, nothing seems to make a difference. If we can hold out for 2 years I think we would be able to afford for him to give up work and I can carry everything on my salary, but is that giving in?

Anyway, I'm back on clearing out the fridge and cupboards to try and keep shopping costs down and savings up.

Bye for now!!!

Bonglecat

Okay annual update time.

Light Bulb moment June 2010
Credit Cards £10524.91
Personal Loan £6088.42
Overdraft £1000 1st a/c and £600 2nd a/c
TOTAL £18213.33

March 2014
Credit Card £2461.75
Catalogue Closed and gone
Personal Loan £17897.64
Overdraft NIL
TOTAL £20359.39

March 2015
Credit Card £NIL (£3,000 limit)
Catalogue Long gone
Personal Loan £12039
Overdraft NIL
TOTAL £12039

February 2016
Credit Card £2694.08 (£4,000 limit)
Personal Loan £7255.80
Overdraft NIL
TOTAL £9949.88

I can't believe it that 5 1/2 years ago I had over £10k on cc and hubby had £25k. As you will know if you've been following me the £25k got moved into a personal loan and that is the one we have with just over £7k left on it. So the £18k in the lightbulb moment was just me if you add DH on as well that was over £43,000. Let that sink in for a moment :eek:

The credit card crept back up mostly from our holidays last year especially the Madeira trip in November when I went a bit mad. We are very unlikely to get annual bonuses this year and any pay rise will be very minimal less than inflation, so unlikely to be able to pay off the cc from the bonus this year . However I did get a call from my bank a couple of months ago to discuss a Stocks and Shares ISA I took out 15 years ago, they are concerned I might have been mis-sold so I may be in line for some compensation, and given the amount that ISA dropped immediately after I arranged it this could be a couple of grand, so fingers crossed.

I have got food spending very much under control using the list method and shopping at the cheaper stores. But day to day expenditure is still a problem, what with me buying lunch at the staff canteen practically everyday, even though I have a draw full of noodles and microwave pasta pots and DH is still smoking like a chimney. So yesterday I got a little cashbook and I will be noting all expenditure for a month to try and curb things.

So what else has been going on? DHs Mom paid for him to have the garden pond completely redone, which looks fab, including a wall and patios around it and the new professional filtration system means much less work and maintenance but it was £11,000. :eek: Something I don't think we would ever have been able to afford but also he had to make some compromises to get it down to that amount which is very scary.

My gran died in January she was 92 and to quote "sick of being old", she was always the main family catalyst for enjoy now pay later so of course left a lovely home full of new furniture etc but absolutely no money. Well that was her way and she enjoyed it so fair play Granny.

Last week my cat got ill, she had a dislocated jaw as she was no longer insured we paid out nearly £1,000 to have it reset and some teeth taken out. But almost immediately it dislocated again due to her "moth eater" arthritic jaw and last Thursday we had to have her put to sleep. Very sad indeed.

DH is off work again will stress related illness and is being tested for CPD which is obviously worrying. What he really wants is to be made redundant or given early retirement on the grounds of ill health. I think he has it in his head he doesn't want to work anymore and that is an end to it. As I said last time if we can just get the loan repaid I think we can survive on one salary, although it would mean cancelling Sky Sport and have him reduce his cigarette intake neither I think he would be willing to do. Still cross that bridge when we come to it.

So for now I am trying to economise as much as possible and save, I even cancelled my monthly membership to the beauty salon and this year holidays are just a weekend in Amsterdam for our anniversary and a week in Sussex in the autumn at a rental cottage.

Okay bye for now. I will try and update a but more regularly but you know what I'm like that might not happen.

Bonglecat

The most amazing thing happened today and I have to tell someone.

Fifteen years ago I took out an ISA, within months the value plummeted and after 4 years I had to cash it in anyway for an emergency. A few months back my bank contacted me to say they were concerned that it had been mis-sold and wanted my recollection of what had happened. Turns out during the conversation several things the adviser had recorded were inaccurate.

So today I have received a letter confirming that it was mis-sold or at least "not appropriate for my needs" and they are offering me nearly £5,500 in compensation!!!

I nearly fell off my chair I can tell you. So the puzzle now is do I pay off my loan completely a year early and hopefully get an interest refund, or do I pay off the credit card completely and either save the rest or do a lumpsum reduction on the loan and reduce the term? The funny thing is that not so long ago I would have been taken away in flights of fancy, Caribbean cruise, trip to New York, shopping trip to Harrods??? But nowI think OMG so close to my goal of being debt free, if I scrimp a bit here and a bit there I could get this done even quicker. The once all unsceured debt is gone it'll be mortgage here I come :dance:

Either way I am having a glass of wine tonight to celebrate. And once I actually get my sticky paws on the cash I will be able to re-assess what else I want to pay off before the end of the year, but hey what a boost.