Floozie banishes the evil elves in eleven.........

Intergalactic_Floozie

flying_fresian wrote: »

Ooh, you look familiar...what's your name again?

Might change it to Sex Panther.....

Intergalactic_Floozie

December update:

This is what November looked like:

Halifax Clarity Card - 12.9% - £2072.15 - 1% minimum payment.
Halifax Clarity Card - 12.9% - £3118.11 - 1% minimum payment.
Tesco Credit Card - 14.9% - (say £900) - 2.5% minimum payment.
HSBC Credit Card - 0% for 13 months - £1888.17 - 2.5% minimum payment
Grand Total: £7978.43

This is what it looks like now:

Halifax Clarity Card - 12.9% - £2083.18 - 1% minimum payment.
Halifax Clarity Card - 12.9% - £2839.53 - 1% minimum payment.
Tesco Credit Card - 14.9% - £1251.32 - 2.5% minimum payment.
HSBC Credit Card - 0% for 12 months - £1840.97 - 2.5% minimum payment
Grand Total: £8015

Difference of: + £36.57

Last month's position, I was unsure of because I had misplaced my Tesco CC and since then I have been Padding the Clarity Card (the one with the higher balance) and spending on the Tesco CC (Christmas).

So, it has increased by the small amount of £36 which I guess isn't too bad for Christmas month. I have embraced PAD-ing so will continue with that each day.

mooomin

Intergalactic_Floozie wrote: »

So, it has increased by the small amount of £36 which I guess isn't too bad for Christmas month. I have embraced PAD-ing so will continue with that each day.

Not bad indeed

You just need to budget for Christmas 2011 now

Start PADding to Tesco now as it's the highest interest rate. You should then close it when it's repaid. It's smaller too so will give you a nice boost when you repay it :j

Intergalactic_Floozie

flying_fresian wrote: »

Not bad indeed

You just need to budget for Christmas 2011 now

Start PADding to Tesco now as it's the highest interest rate. You should then close it when it's repaid. It's smaller too so will give you a nice boost when you repay it :j

Good plan. As of 1st Jan I'm going to put £2 per day into my Christmas fund which should give me nearly £700 and is more than enough!

I plan to sign DH up for Halifax internet banking and then transfer as much of the Tesco balance over to his card. Although the Halifax interest rate is only 2% less than Tesco, there are no balance transfer fees.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Morning folks, I'm all re-energised and re-inspired to start debt busting / living within my means. New Year's Eve brought 5.5 years with the old employer to a close, and I start my new job on 6th Jan.

I wrote the below on Flyin' Fresian's diary last night, so I'm doing a cheeky copy and paste:

It's going to be awkward for next couple of months. Unfortunately in my old job we were paid 2 weeks in arrears and 2 weeks in advance, so I got paid on 15th December up to the end of December.

That means on 15th January, I will only get paid for two days from old job (official leaving date is 4th Jan, so will get paid for bank holiday Monday, and Tuesday).

I was meant to start new job on Wednesday but then they rang me to ask if I could start on Thursday instead as my boss has to go to a meeting on Wed that she cant get out of.

This means I will be a whole day pay short which in the grand scheme of things is £69 before tax.

....so on 25th January - providing I make the pay roll - I will be paid but I don't know how much, and it wont be a full month's wage.

I've over spent over Xmas big stylee...So I may even be lots more in debt on the CC's / overdraft than I was last month.

But I'm definitely getting a handle on things.

1. New job is 'in the middle of a residential area' so no impulse spending opportunities unless you count the Tesco which is two miles away.

2. New job doesn't finish til 5:30pm meaning I have to go straight off home so the kids aren't on their todd for longer than necessary. This means no more finishing early and sloping off to the retail park to kill a bit of time.

3. New job (with it being a hospital) has a subsidised meal scheme which costs £1 per day! This is probably less than the cost of me taking my own pack-lunch Hopefully I shouldn't have to visit the nearby Tesco that often either (unless I need something for evening meals) which means even less impulse spending.

4. I intend to start doing my 'big shop' online. Again, hopefully this should curb impulse buys. Although the last time I did internet shopping I asked for cat food in jelly which they substituted for Hartley's orange jelly. The buffoon's! My cat would have left home had I tried to feed her that. What were they thinking???

Extra expenses though is I will be £65 worse off as I have taken a pay-cut. Probably £30 more in petrol costs, as it's an extra 8 miles per day. And DS1 has to get the bus home which is £22 per month extra. But even so that's £117 and I bet I could easily cut that down with no visits to retail parks / impulse buys when shopping...

(Hmm...is thinking all the above should be on my own diary and not hi-jacking yours).

On more exciting de-cluttering front, am going to go through my wardrobes tomorrow and just get rid of every single thing I haven't worn in a year and / or doesn't fit me. I guess if I do lose weight I will want to buy new stuff anyway...also less clothes will mean it's easier to keep up with the laundry...

Have decluttered the conservatory that had been used as a dumping ground / big porch and made it into a dining room. Three bags of clothes went to the charity bin in supermarket car park that I had kept forgetting to leave out for the charity collectors.

Head is already feeling calmer and less cluttered...ahhhh

plans for the next couple of days:
1. Move massive book case into conservatory. This means I have to empty it. DH and DS1 have to move it (one perk of having a strapping teenager around the house), then I have to re-fill it. It's only going to have books in it, so will need to find cunning ways of disguising all the toys and board games.
2. Declutter clothing. I can't get into any of the drawers to put clean clothes away so we're just living in piles.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Money post....

I am intending on continuing DH's wage, child benefits and child tax credits being paid into the 'bills' account....I will leave the debit card for this account at home so I can't spend money from it.

Annually the income will be: £16294
Annual direct debits should be: £15836

Hopefully this will leave a bit of breathing space and not incur much in the way of interest for being overdrawn....

My wage (around £1150) will then get paid into the spends account and will pay for food / DH pocket money / DS1 bus fare / petrol / kids activities / newspaper bill /window cleaner / my £1 a day lunches / padding and everything else.

I'm going to keep my grocery budget at £400 per month but in an attempt to keep myself motivated to spend less will also tag in my entertainment budget out of that £400 (eg if I spend £300 on food, then I have £100 for entertainment).

Did some totting up last night and in the spends account there's only £355.69 remaining with 23 days left to pay day. This means I will probably go overdrawn this month although I did have a huge phone bill to pay (upgraded early to an i-phone) and did start the month £133 overdrawn anyway....Have at least £130 to budget for petrol and £180 for food, plus DH seems to be happily withdrawing £10 every single day because I have got lax at making him stick to his budget...

Needless to say I think getting my credit cards paid off in two years is a bit of a pipe dream. Maybe I should just aim to have them finished when my loan finishes (March 2015)

EssexHebridean

Hi IF - happy new year to you! I've seen you lurking about on FF's diary but didn't realise you had one of your own!

I hate to say this, but are you being too optimistic about being able to PAD £10 per day? Your budgets already seem quite tight - is there actually spare funds for this or are you doing the "make £10 a day challenge" or similar? You started with such a positively stated target about when you wanted paid off by, but you seem to have given up on that - subconsciously at least - already, which is a shame. Understandable though if you have set yourself an unachievable target, unless of course we can work out ways of helping you to achieve it! Good luck!

Intergalactic_Floozie

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Hi IF - happy new year to you! I've seen you lurking about on FF's diary but didn't realise you had one of your own!

I hate to say this, but are you being too optimistic about being able to PAD £10 per day? Your budgets already seem quite tight - is there actually spare funds for this or are you doing the "make £10 a day challenge" or similar? You started with such a positively stated target about when you wanted paid off by, but you seem to have given up on that - subconsciously at least - already, which is a shame. Understandable though if you have set yourself an unachievable target, unless of course we can work out ways of helping you to achieve it! Good luck!

I always start off with good intentions and make plans which then fall by the wayside. Things that sound good in theory (like padding £10 per day) never seem to work out in practice. I always aim high, fall at the first hurdle then just give up. I have to keep trying though.......

£10 per day is probably optimistic. I'll have to see how life in my new job pans out...

Intergalactic_Floozie

Oh my God. I'm so ashamed but I have a confession to make (and not in a jokey, good way) - I am disgusted with myself to the point that I had been thinking of disappearing and assuming a new user name (I wouldn't be able to stay away) but I knew having met me FF would wonder where I had got to.

My Christmas and new year spending has finally caught up with me. This morning I decided to phone Tesco CC for an up-to-date balance which you will see from a post a bit further up there was £1250+

I was sickened and shocked to see it has doubled and is now at £2670+

It felt like a punch in the gut even though I know that I, and only I, am responsible for the spending.

I've been doing my usual trick of putting grocery shopping and petrol onto the card "for the points" but then not paying it from the current account. Not to mention all the Christmas spending that I didn't bother totting up and then all the sales bargains and needing a new work's wardrobe as my other stuff was looking really tatty....

BUT even I can't believe I have increased the debts by £1200 in a month. That's shocking even by my standards.

So I'm going to have a very austere few years ahead of me while I try and pay it off.

In the short term I have balance transferred £941 to DH's Halifax Clarity Card (no balance transfer fee, and 12.9% interest - min payment is 1% + £5). Thiis will leave £1700 on the Tesco Card.

I applied for the 17-month, 0% Barclaycard but got knocked back.

Also tried to look round for a consolidation loan around the 8% mark but I think even 5 years wouldn't give me much breathing space.

I desperately need to learn how to budget. I think I have been too focused on paying down the Halifax Card and trying to not go overdrawn (will be also overdrawn by about £250 too, by the way!!) that I haven't been trying to stick to a budget / Live within my means.

I hope that when I come back I don't find any nice posts excusing what I have done. I don't deserve sympathy.

moo2moo

You've consolidated before. It didn't solve the problem, nor did it make it go away. It was more like a temporary reprieve that left you with another loan.

Other people telling you you've been a muppet isn't the answer either. You got carried away. You can rectify it. If you want to.

Realising you've got a bit carried away is at least a step in the right direction. Is there anything that you've bought on impulse that can be returned to the shop? Is there anything you got for Christmas that you can E-bay? Is any of your old work wardrobe too big or too small and E-bayable?

Can you claw some back by not spending anything for a while? Pretend your freezer needs defrosting and eat everything in it before buying any more frozen food or anything other than the absolute essentials for a while? Can you cancel your magazine subscriptions and free up a little cash each month that way?