Fliss27 - In this for the long haul

pennywisepoundstupid

Glad i could help

EssexHebridean

Fliss27 wrote: »

It's quite fun this, isn't it? It's us against the people who want to bleed us dry, and the money saved is our way of keeping score!

Keep thinking of it like that and you'll be winning in no time!

Fliss27

Have done some more sums, and have worked out that the debt is costing more than £10 a day in interest alone. £10 every day, 7 days a week, 12 months a year.... Well, not for much longer!

I'm still waiting to be paid for the work I did in September, which is annoying as I wanted to throw most of it at BT/MBNA. The maintenance money is in, so that's paid for a weekly shop, the water bill, fuel for hubby's car and some money towards the OD to avoid going over before the end of the month - don't want to be paying charges! I really hate 5 week months, still got 7 working days til hubby's payday and it feels like well over a month since he last got paid. I'm also still waiting for hubby to get the outstanding payments to Lloyds and Barclaycard added to the balance so that those payments don't swallow up everything I earned this month. I wrote to Barclaycard last week, haven't heard anything back yet. He's got to phone Lloyds, but he can't do it from the office (open plan, no privacy) and by the time he gets home it's too late - he's doing so much overtime it's nearly 8pm by the time he gets in.

I've decided to try and do a bit of PADing, once those outstanding payments have been sorted. I can't pay into BT/MBNA as there's no branch, but I can do Lloyds, Barclaycard or Santander. I think Santander may be the highest interest rate out of those 3, at 21.9%, but Lloyds is the smallest debt. I would really really love to get rid of one of the cards at least, and Lloyds is the one I particularly loathe. Hubby will still make overpayments to BT every month, and I will do too over the phone every once in a while, but the in-branch payments of pennies at a time are going to go to Lloyds. I know it doesn't really make financial sense (although the interest rates are very close, I think Lloyds is only a tiny bit less than Santander), but it makes "heart sense" iykwim. Santander is too big to get rid of quickly this way, I feel like I need a victory in order to keep going (and every penny will be a victory!) and I think I can cover that £1740 in a year or so just by dripping money into it as I get it. Minimum payment will still be paid by hubby.

So that's the plan for now. Looking forward to being able to update my sig and watch those numbers go down! Short term goals - get the minimum payments back on track for all cards. Start overpaying BT/MBNA by at least £10 a month, more if we can find it. Drip pennies into Lloyds by PADing - want to be under £1700 by Christmas at the very least, maybe even under £1600. Watch this space!

Fliss27

Have finally started to get money through for the work I did last month, woo-hoo! Dribs and drabs at the moment unfortunately, but that's the way it is. And Ebay have a free listings weekend this weekend, so I'm off to look at DD's old clothes and see what will sell!

Fliss27

Put up 21 items on Ebay on Sunday, one of which already has 2 bids. And there's watchers galore as well! Cashback's looking healthy, although Cheapflights, which was worth 20p a day, seems to have been deleted from the site. My cash is still showing as tracked, but I doubt I'll get it now. Shame. I'm still waiting for hubby to sort the dratted banks out with the outstanding payments, wish he'd get on with it. I'd do it myself but they are his accounts and the banks won't talk to me even with his permission.

I feel like everything's on hold until those payments are sorted, and until I get paid. I've only had one small payment so far for September's work and it's getting ridiculous now - I'm sorting out my invoice for October's work for the end of this week, should have been fully paid for September a fortnight ago. The longer it takes the worse it gets, and I hate feeling so helpless.

Today is going to be a crafty day - I'm making a few Christmas pressies to save pennies. I need to be creative today, take some control back.

pennywisepoundstupid

Wow thats good going with ebay, hope you get loads of bidzs and make plenty.

chevalier

Welcome to the boards.

Couple of suggestions in no particular order, but i hope they will help.

here is the calculator to do a budget with

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

I know you think that you have cut everything, but i think it would help you to fill this in, as then you will have an accurate picture of what you spend rather than what you think you spend IYSWIM! This can be a bit of an eye opener in itself.

Once you have done this you can post it on here, if you want us to offer suggestions on where you could trim some more money from your budget.

Do you and OH keep spending diaries, so you know where cash gets spent? Again can be an eye opener. 3 mags a week (blushes) really adds up over the course of a year, felt great ditching them!

Once you know your accurate numbers, then you can give yourself a financial health check, ie whether your insurances, and utilities are still with the cheapest providers. If they aren't as you know there are cashbacks to be had on switching, which can be a good amount:D.

The other reason for doing a statement of affairs (SOA), is to see how much your monthly deficit is each month REALLY is. Because if it is more than say £150, then this is not sustainable going forwards. Have you asked any of your creditors to reduce the interest (ie you are thinking of going elsewhere - small lie lol). You never know they may shave a few percent off. Worth it for a couple of phone calls?

Ref BT/MBNA I know they have no branch, but that doesn't mean that you can't set up payments from your online banking, to do extra payments...

But if this fails, and you do the checks above, and you still have a deficit, then maybe it is time to seriously think about going on a debt management plan (DMP). There are several organisations that run these such as CCCS, Payplan and National Debtline. They offer a free service.

Your priority spends are mortgage, council tax, then any secured lending, then food, compulsory insurance, utilities and ONLY then unsecured creditors like credit cards, loans, even the overdraft.

This is what a DMP. Works out what all of that is monthly, and then splits anything left among your creditors.

Eg say all of the above came to £1000 you would have about £600 left to be split pro rata between your creditors ( I am ignoring your income, as this would be the basis for an emergency fund:D). Ok the debt would take longer to pay off and you would have no credit rating to speak of, but it still might be worth a go

good luck
chev

EssexHebridean

Good going with eBay - I've got a couple of bits on the go at the moment and really need to sort through some more to put on as well.....one for my 50 day challenge then!

Cheapflights still seemed to be on Quidco last night - fingers crossed it's going to pay out as I've got about £2 each tracked through Quidco / TCB. It does leave the majority of the TCB stuff being pennies now although I know they all add up......mind you I did get accepted for a 70p survey last night - first time I've ever gone right through one, hope it tracks!