Immoral_angel's Debt Diary

barnaby-bear

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

. Don't ask me how the hell we're going to manage to pay off barclaycard when we lose my maternity pay in May, I can't think that far ahead to be honest but I'm not looking forward to it.


Meaning we'll have to find about £65... hmmm.... how the hell are we going to do that with Ste's driving test on the 17th April?????

Will have to call up the tax credits after April 5th and let them know I will only be earning £44 in 07/08 and hopefully they'll put our payments up.

Stress!

Maybe thinking ahead will help, more time to be prepared? Maybe the stress will be lifted if some people can throw in some ideas?

It seems you are doing well on the keeping expenditure down but it strikes me that this might be something looking at

Husband's:
citi card - (£1500 limit £1464 owed) £45 min 27.9%
Dell - (Not sure how much left approx £400) £22 a month
Rockwell collection agency (approx £400 left) £20 a month
Capital One (passed back to them from previous collection agency, £580 but not paying anything yet as they've only just got in contact and are messing us around demanding full payment and not accepting any payment plan GRRR)

Mine
My citi card - (£500 limit balance £480) £15 min payment 27.9%
Capital One - (£600 limit, £436 balance) £21 min 29.9%
Barclaycard - (£900 limit, £872 balance) £22 min 19.9%
Dorothy perkins store card - (£1790 limit, £523 balance) £25 min 29.9%
Mothercare - (£600 limit, £500 balance) £25 min 29.9%
Black Horse loan (Not sure exactly how much, about £400 left) £22 p/m

Those APRs are all really HIGH :eek:
Is there any way that you can access any better credit to reduce the debt overall and payments in long run
http://www.zopa.com/ZopaWeb/
Or would it be worthwhile saving with a credit union for a few months to be able to take out a low rate loan
http://www.abcul.org/page/about/intro.cfm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/4409828.stm

Will the debts you've paid back be any help on your credit rating and open more options?
Is it worth applying for anything based on current income rather than when the income drops in a few months?

On the increasing income bit:
Can you up any of these click through reward schemes quidco (people claim £1 a day possible on quidco for using search engines over a month that's £30), rpoints etc. Do any of them give rewards that are ebay-able (vouchers), can you do the free trials (some of the bingo ones offer £25 a time but you have to be disciplined and read how to make sure stuff tracks carefully)? Can you get some second hand books together for Amazon?

Quidco seems to have
£14.50 for watching DVDs (but don't forget to cancel the free trial!!)
http://www.quidco.com/entertainment/lovefilm/
10p a day for searching for "electric toaster" http://www.quidco.com/general-shopping/kelkoo/

Cutting expenditure:
Mr. IA appears to have a new toy (TV) and lots of driving lessons, could he cut his £4 a day food at work for this month £2 a day and that's £40... given he's got his TV to think about rather than his stomach.

immoral_angeluk

how unlucky! not to worry and hope you get your card sorted out soon.

cocalls

hello there
Just sponsered you-you up to 152 quid now over half way!!

With regards to the shortfall in your budjet Barnaby bear has come up w/ some grerat ideas there.
I'm sure you'll find the money-you seem to hava a knack!Have you got your vouchers from pigsback yet-i know some peopole on here sell them on ebay.

Best of luck

immoral_angeluk

Thank you cocalls!! Can't believe we're halfway there already!

immoral_angeluk

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Maybe thinking ahead will help, more time to be prepared? Maybe the stress will be lifted if some people can throw in some ideas?

It seems you are doing well on the keeping expenditure down but it strikes me that this might be something looking at


Those APRs are all really HIGH :eek:
Is there any way that you can access any better credit to reduce the debt overall and payments in long run
http://www.zopa.com/ZopaWeb/
Or would it be worthwhile saving with a credit union for a few months to be able to take out a low rate loan
http://www.abcul.org/page/about/intro.cfm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/4409828.stm

Will the debts you've paid back be any help on your credit rating and open more options?
Is it worth applying for anything based on current income rather than when the income drops in a few months?

On the increasing income bit:
Can you up any of these click through reward schemes quidco (people claim £1 a day possible on quidco for using search engines over a month that's £30), rpoints etc. Do any of them give rewards that are ebay-able (vouchers), can you do the free trials (some of the bingo ones offer £25 a time but you have to be disciplined and read how to make sure stuff tracks carefully)? Can you get some second hand books together for Amazon?

Cutting expenditure:
Mr. IA appears to have a new toy (TV) and lots of driving lessons, could he cut his £4 a day food at work for this month £2 a day and that's £40... given he's got his TV to think about rather than his stomach.

Thanks for this barnaby. Have looked into some loans and things but with our credit the payment would be more than we're paying each month as it is! Plus I honestly don't think we'd get a loan even with everything we've already paid off. I've already been declined a credit increase on my barclaycard just to do a balance transfer! Just going to have to try and find a way of paying them off ASAP. How is another thing altogether!
It's hard to be able to budget for the future when we don't know exactly what our tax credits will be.
Looked into the credit unions but there doesn't seem to be anything local we're be able to join?
Will have to have a proper look into quidco. Have already signed up for when we change insurers etc but didn't get time to look at it properly.

haven't recieved my pigsback voucher yet. read on the pigsback thread in freebies that quite a few people are waiting for the voucher I've ordered though. :rolleyes:

immoral_angeluk

Feeling rotten today. Have developed a sore throat and my tonsils are really swollen and it's hard to talk or swallow. Joy! Plus Ashey's woken up with a snotty nose too so just waiting for K to get it now! Steve never gets ill the lucky git.
Kaitlyn did so well last night, she had a 6oz bottle at 11.30-12 and then slept right through til 5.30. Ste got her into bed with us to see if she'd sleep any longer and she went back to sleep until 7! She then had another 6oz bottle and then slept til 9.30! Lazy mare! So we're going to try that again tonight and see if she'll do it again. Hope so!

the health visitor came out yesterday to see how I was. I told her about everything that had happened since she went on holiday and she said she wasn't suprised as she could tell I was going downhill the last time she saw me. We talked for a bit about everything and she really made me feel like I'm not going mad and that everything I've been getting is normal and that the pills will kick in in the next couple of weeks and I'll feel more like myself again.

barnaby-bear

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

Thanks for this barnaby. Have looked into some loans and things but with our credit the payment would be more than we're paying each month as it is! Plus I honestly don't think we'd get a loan even with everything we've already paid off. Looked into the credit unions but there doesn't seem to be anything local we're be able to join?

Just thought it might be worth geting some ideas - never know where the next big one will come from :rolleyes: Does Mr. IA work in Staffs too (counties get a but muddled in my mind oop north) - isn't Shropshire etc sort of mixed up round there.

This one is online and will take people in rural areas working not just living in Shrops...
http://www.justcreditunion.org/
"How Do I Become A Member?
Anyone living or working in Shropshire (excluding Telford & Wrekin), can apply to join."

There's another one that does people working or living in Telford (Fairshare
http://www.fairshare.uk.com/). Maybe they might have details of other local-ish ones? I think they are pretty flexible on credit ratings.

There's a live or work in Tamworth - Tamworth Credit Union
And one in Stafford whose criteria are just meaningless to me...
South Side Credit Union Ltd

---

Just trying to think outside the box, the Zopa link is quite a weird one too - so not sure how they do credit ratings - rates are higher for poorer ratings (about 12% vs. base of around 6%) just thought since neither banks maybe alternative...

immoral_angeluk

He works in Staffordshire so maybe it's just me not reading it right... hmmm

Snaggles

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well - how come men never catch these things???

Your race for life total is fab, well done!

Our plasterer has just arrived, started pulling some plaster off the ceiling, then said 'Oh this isn't going to be as big a job as I thought, I'll get most of it done today and it shouldn't cost as much as I quoted'!!! I nearly fell off my chair!

I'm off to the midwife now....she told me last time to have a think about my birth plan, but it's still an empty page lol! Wish me luck....

immoral_angeluk

Snaggles wrote: »

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well - how come men never catch these things???

Your race for life total is fab, well done!

Our plasterer has just arrived, started pulling some plaster off the ceiling, then said 'Oh this isn't going to be as big a job as I thought, I'll get most of it done today and it shouldn't cost as much as I quoted'!!! I nearly fell off my chair!

I'm off to the midwife now....she told me last time to have a think about my birth plan, but it's still an empty page lol! Wish me luck....

I wouldn't worry too much about a birth plan. Both times I've written one and both times have ended up with something completely different!