To remind myself how far I've come - my debt diary. - SOA added

moozie_2

Hey chocs

Lovely update, thank you! I think this month is definitely long! It is five weeks, which makes it literally long, but also with the darkened afternoons and cold, it feels much longer!

You are doing sooooooooooooooooooooo well! You've definitely got the DFW bug and there is no stopping you! Well done! :T :T :T :T

DFD is not that far away really and I will be here to give you a massive cheer when it comes

In the mean time, less dusting sounds just the ticket

See you on the 'how much...'

chocaholic110

Ending my ebay challenge today (4 days early) though I did make the amount I needed plus another couple of hundred pounds besides which has come off loan payment.

COPIED FROM SIGNATURE
Trying to make £189.49 extra this month to pay off catalogue, gymnastic fees and school trip money.
Total so far: Ebay bids £36.58, Cheques £22.74, PayPal account £7.18, Used from paypal £11.55, Withdrawn from Paypal £480.00 TOTAL: £558.05
Less postage and packaging £125.16TOTAL MADE:£432.89 (More postage still to pay though!)
Total over target with 4 days to go £243.40
Catalogue: PAID OFF!, School trip: PAID, Gymnastic fees: PAID!

Beginning a new challenge to myself - to make £450 before Christmas, not including regular pay. Beginning today...

chocaholic110

Had a reasonably good DFW weekend - did two mystery shops yesterday morning, both purchasing things I wanted anyway.
Spent afternoon delivering catalogues, made an extra £30 but used £10 on petrol so £20 more towards the challenge I've set myself.

Need to list some things on ebay - for the first time in ages I have nothing on there. Got to photograph and list some today, if I get time in between cleaning and planning for work next week. (If I got off here and did something that would be a start!!!)

Also just about finished the Christmas shopping, none of which is on credit this year. Will be nice starting the New Year without adding to the debt. However, not sure if will be able to resist the Next sale - usually buy majority of adults' Christmas presents there plus most of kids' clothes for next winter. Think might reduce Standing order to Egg for overpaymants and use that money...don't know - will have to ponder on that matter!

Will be updating in a day or two with end of November / beginning of December financial standings. As it's the weekend all the DD payments have been taken from bank account but aren't showing on loan /cc accounts yet. Will update when they are - hopefully will be below £15,000 - fingers crossed!

chocaholic110

Late update this month, mostly due to the fact that my Egg loan payment hasn't appeared on my account.
I made an extra payment of £530 at the end of November and it appears to have confused Egg so much that they have "lost" my regular direct debit of £645 - argh!
Anyway, Egg are phoning back in a day or two and say will investigate if money still not on there, so will do Nov / Dec update as if payment has come off loan. (And hope and pray they find it!!!)

Here goes

My debts
Egg loan £3472
Marbles card (transferred some of Egg loan at 0%) £4400

OH's debts

Egg card £2495

Joint debts

A+ L loan £4202

Total: £14,569 Yay, under the £15,000 mark!!!

Total reduced last month £1626.96
Total reduced since LB moment (August 2006) : £12,407
Total reduced since debt at highest (January 2006): £14,315

Target for end of December / beg of January (may be a bit (or a lot!!) challenging!!)

• [STRIKE]Get below £13,000!!![/STRIKE]- achieved

chocaholic110

Well, phoned egg again this morning who was very nice and explained that paying extra in the week before payment was due confused their system and made computer think I had already paid.

When I explained that my DD has still been taken he was equally nice and said he could take that payment off the loan which he promptly did. So loan is reduced to the correct amount...phew!

jobbingmusician

Hey, chocaholic, about your phone bill.

OH and I have a OneTel account which I think would benefit you. We pay around £10 a month for unlimited (landline) calls from our landline. The bit that would be really great for you is an add on to this. We bought sim cards from them, and have our mobiles on the same account. I pay around £10 a month, and my husband pays around £5. For this, we are on some tariff or another (I hardly know as the total is so low, keep reading!) where we get a few free calls. The best thing is that we have UNLIMITED free calls between the 2 mobiles, and between the mobiles and the house. As the vast majority of my mobile calls are to home (DH is disabled) this saves me a pot of money. THe total phone bill for the 2 of us is around £22-24 a month, plus the iniquitous BT hire fee for the line.

I don't promise this is the best deal ever, but it certainaly saves us a lot of money, and it sounds as if it would you too.

chocaholic110

Been to the sales this morning and was quite restrained for me - usually i would spend at least £600 just at next (I know, ouch! It just seems like madness now!) but only spent £200. When I got home I (rather miserly) wrote all the original and sales prices in my little finances book and worked out it would have all cost £530 at original prices.

For my £200 I got

• next year's winter wardrobe for DD - loads of tops, jumpers, trousers, jeans
• next year's winter coat for DD
• boots for DD
• pyjamas for DD
• jeans and tops for DS (Though not enough to see him through the whole of next year)
• Christmas 2007 presents for dad, OH's dad, stepmum, OH's stepmum, 2 sisters, best friend
• Birthday presents for Mum and 2 sisters
• Birthday presents for 2 nieces
• Birthday presents for DD's 2 friends
• Birthday presents for DS's 2 friends
• Christmas cards
• socks for me!
• diary for DH
• bits and pieces for my prize box at school

Not a bad haul, all in all. Bit annoyed at next though. In the children's department they put the last 2 items through twice - overcharging me by £14. Luckily I noticed and had it refunded. Then in the downstairs department they also put the last thing through twice - overcharging me by £5 and I didn't notice till I got home, grrr!
Also lots of the toiletries giftpacks had the sales price written on in red marker which limited the ones I could buy as was worried that the marker wouldn't come off. Naughty Next!!


Also pleased to get through the whole of Christmas without buying anything on cards. Though feel as if have not paid off a lot from existing debts as has gone on Christmas presents Will be updating debt amount in about a week but not hopeful of being under the £13,000 target I set myself.

Also my pay goes down in January and have no idea what will be paid. Have been temporarily promoted for a year but the person whose job I have been doing will be back in January so will get less pay. I did get a rise in september though and I presume will pay less tax / NI / student loan / pension when pay goes down so hopeful that I will not notice the difference too much!

judi24

Hi chocaholic. Just catching up with your thread. I alot of ways we are similar! (love of chocolate, recent masters degree, working mum and Next sale adict!!!!)
I went to the sale today but I was very dissapointed. I set the alarm for 5am but DD3 was up in the night and I was too tired at 5. So went at 7:30 instead. There was very little for DD3 but did get some stuff for DS. Didn't want to buy any of the gift sets with the red writing on incase I couldn't get it off.

Your current debt is also almost the same as mine - keep meaning to update sig!! and also hoping to be debt free by next Dec.

I need to start e-baying. I'm a bit worried about it being very time consuming - does it take up alot of time?

chocaholic110

judi24 wrote:

Hi chocaholic. Just catching up with your thread. I alot of ways we are similar! (love of chocolate, recent masters degree, working mum and Next sale adict!!!!)
I went to the sale today but I was very dissapointed. I set the alarm for 5am but DD3 was up in the night and I was too tired at 5. So went at 7:30 instead. There was very little for DD3 but did get some stuff for DS. Didn't want to buy any of the gift sets with the red writing on incase I couldn't get it off.

Your current debt is also almost the same as mine - keep meaning to update sig!! and also hoping to be debt free by next Dec.

I need to start e-baying. I'm a bit worried about it being very time consuming - does it take up alot of time?

Lol, you sound as if you are me!! We should even be debt free at a similar time though am hoping I might still be able to shave a month or two off that date (I am the eternal optimist!!!)

I didn't get to Next till 8 as DD wanted to come and didn't feel as if it was fair to drag her out in the dark and cold at 5.30!!

Mmm...ebaying can take a fair bit of time I suppose. Depends how much detail you put in your descriptions. CD's and things are OK as ebay fills in the details for you. With most other things I don't put loads os description - they can see the photo and people usually ask questions if there's something they want to know. I tend to list on a Sunday, to finish on the next Sunday, then it doesn't take up too much time during the week when I have to work.

I can't complain about ebay really as I have made a decemnt amount of money.

chocaholic110

Looking at your signature, my LB moment was the same time as yours too! Spooky!

And not anything to do with DFW but it's snowing!