Making a molehill out of the mountain!

In_my_dreams

Well - I have decided to start a new diary with a new approach.

As the regular followers on my original thread will know I have a huge amount of debt which isn't going anywhere fast! A car breaking and a non appearance of a bonus completely threw me off stride and I have been living in imaginary land for the last month or so, you know the one when I win the lottery, no debts blah de blah. Well clearly that isn't going to happen so I need to tackle this with a Positive Mental Attitude and keep on slogging!

In short we bought a car, having been told we were in line for a bonus of £5k after tax - that hasn't materialised. Then we were expecting a rebate for car allowance, only for OH to "mention" last night that in fact they changed his tax code and he forgot to tell me so we can kiss £1300 goodbye :eek: So we are £6,300 less better off than we thought and no extra to pay for a car! A cold xmas means our gas and electricity have shot up. Two children's birthdays soon and two cars to tax :eek:

Just recently I have spent far far too many nights lying awake worrying and I cannot continue feeling like this, worrying about the 0% deals ending - sooooo I am accepting that the deals are going to end, wait for other offers and in the meantime get my head around the bigger minimum payments, the theory being that in time they will come down.

I have therefore sat down today, updated the card information and decided my first chunk to pay off is Next which is £408.71, and an overall lump sum of £11, 497.68 to start hacking away at. I have no idea how long it will take me to pay off this rounded figure so I am going to take the pressure off me re time limits and just see what happens. I have worked out that once all the card deals have finished there will be payments of about £1,500 to pay every month so I am dealing with that monthly figure now rather than be panicked when it shoots up - forward planning and all that!

First thing I need to do is to find a shortfall of £340 this month. Also need to decide whether it is really sensible to pay £335 for 12 months car tax for both cars :eek::eek: or just do 6 months until next time when we might be straighter?

So, I am up and down, worried then chilled, mountain then molehill and have buried the ideas of a lottery win

OH has a card with nothing on and I will ask him tonight to ring and ask them if they have any deals they could offer for a BT and this will then take the pressure of there, as we haven't used the card for 6 months they may want us back.

Ok enough from me, now off to the loft for an ebay hunt - resourceful me, of course

lucielle

Lurked on your old diary, so thought I'd post properly on your new one. We had big numbers as well.
L

ClootiesMum

Oooohhhh - shiny new diary

*subscribes*

mrs_robinson_3

Hi IMD - I was wondering where you were! If you've read my diary lately I've recently been BT'ing to avoid interest - and though I was almost down to one card I've now split the balance across two, because, as you say, it seems more manageable that way and is so much easier to focus - so if that will work for you, I'd say it's a good approach i.e., pay the minimums on all the others, and choose one that can be your target for anything extra you can conjure up.

Wishing you well in this next stage.....and subscribing

Mrs R

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi Imd, as a long subscriber of the other one i am subscribing to this ...i think 6 months tax for now to take the pressure off why put pressure when pressure is not needed.... second why not ring these cards with 0% ending soon and see if they want to offer a deal, its as easy as that if they dont they dont if they do great, also get oh to ring his card up if they offer a deal great if they dont close the account and burn the card , now if you get lucky with the deals this wont apply, start looking around and seeing about balance transfers to other cards or better deals for the other amounts, forget about the lost cash it will turn up eventually you needed a car and you bought it end of the money will work its self out it always does because we make sure it does ... so dont worry... no more sleepless nights as my oh famously says
no one is banging the door down the bills are been paid why worry over something that you dont know what to worry about.. debt is a number that i dont care to think about... so sit down brew up and prepare to kick some pure debt a** with the assistance of moi and the others ahhhh

In_my_dreams

lucielle wrote: »

Lurked on your old diary, so thought I'd post properly on your new one. We had big numbers as well.
L

I like to see people with big numbers - did you ever feel that the minimum payments were huge?? I am just hoping that the monthly commitments will gradually go down and I will see a difference.

HTGDF - as much as I probably should I won't burn the card if they don't offer anything, as we haven't touched it and I won't be tempted to but will keep it incase there's an offer. The thing is we owe SO much money I doubt anyone would touch us :eek:

The bonus was enough to break to me in all honesty and I had a few moments but that is all behind me now Signed up for £10 mystery shop today so that is £10 towards the shortfall.

I will do the 6 months car tax as it means I have little bit more of a buffer as we are putting money away for big stuff and now I won't have to zero that account out.

So in effect any money in now is a bonus

Happytogetdebtfree

Imd look at my numbers, our minimum payments are fine, virgin hiked up to 120 per month but i just pay it till we can clear it... its like talking to a brick wall with mr branson .... make the most of your 0% now then and then thats that, minimum payment may not change it may just mean less off the amount outstanding if you know what i mean .... i sit and wonder how did we get all this :O:O:O hehe but then i think ahhh it will be all gone and il be on my way to financial freedom and the banks can kiss my cheeks :P... why because one day they will need us to buy products and i will say computer says no lol xx

In_my_dreams

Happytogetdebtfree wrote: »

Imd look at my numbers, our minimum payments are fine, virgin hiked up to 120 per month but i just pay it till we can clear it... its like talking to a brick wall with mr branson .... make the most of your 0% now then and then thats that, minimum payment may not change it may just mean less off the amount outstanding if you know what i mean .... i sit and wonder how did we get all this :O:O:O hehe but then i think ahhh it will be all gone and il be on my way to financial freedom and the banks can kiss my cheeks :P... why because one day they will need us to buy products and i will say computer says no lol xx

I can totally relate to all of this - I looked at our wage slips the other day and we earn loads and we've spent it all We had a bit of extra this month but the kids need clothes, their shoes were too small and I felt so pathetic that they were going to suffer so had a splurge on them. Just think the next 6 months may be a toughie and then keep on plodding......

Virgin hiked up from £25 to £238 this month :eek: all in the budget now.....

Happytogetdebtfree

wow they sure no how to kick us where it hurts .... ah well one day it will be cleared you can kiss them by by

MrsMoo2U

IMD - long time lurker popping up here too. I am also in the same position with Virgin. I owe £7700 with them (yikes that is the first time I put it into writing) and this is my last month of 0%. Next month the estimated interest alone is £163! So subsciribe I will and follow your lead (yes you have inspired me in your previous diary - I even registered for the Marathon:rotfl:)

You can do this with all the support of the lovely people on here so keep your chin up and the running shoes on. When things get tough we will be here to pick you up.

macgirl

Oh I almost missed it! Good luck with this one - off to read up now x