Cup_Cake's Debt Free Journey...

Cup_Cake

Hi MSE'ers

I haven't posted much in the past but I read quite a lot of DFW diaries.

A bit about me, I live with my boyfriend (who I will call DB) of 5 years in a privately rented house and share a car. I work full time in a permanent job and DB has been a self employed contractor for around a year so earns well but only when a contract comes along. He doesn't currently have a contract so we are managing on just my wage but things should pick up in the new year.

So on to the money, we're not in a massive amount of debt but I thought i'd start a diary to begin tracking my spending and for some advice from you good people.
We got into debt a year or so ago when my DB decided to leave his permanent job to become a contractor oweing money for courses and exams which he took. I also owe some on a credit card which I ran up just being silly with my money.


Debts:

• Credit Card: £1343

This has a credit limit of £2400 and is 0% on purchases and balance transfers until April I think but I need to check this. This is mainly my debt apart from £200 which is DB's.

• Current Account: £2379

This has a credit limit of £2450 and the interest is charged at 50p per day up to £2500. This is DB's debt.

• 2nd Current Account: £600

This has a credit limit of £750 and is also charged at 50p per day. This is joint debt.

I know that paying 50p per day interest on 2 accounts is crazy so I would like to pay the 2nd Current Account off first and then the 1st CA.
DB also has another Capital One credit card and an Alliance and Leicester card but these don't have much money on at all and we arn't been charged much interest on these so they can wait until the main debt is cleared.

Reason for getting rid of the debt: As a couple we would like to start saving some money. Also we would like to go travelling early 2012 so will need to begin saving some money up. And why now? Well new year, new start! Over the last couple of weeks something has changed and i've started to get a kick out of having money left in my purse and not out of buying pretty things.
Whereas I used to buy everything on my card I now take money out at the start of every week and spend this instead of losing track of where I am on my cards.

I'll begin tracking my spends on a daily basis as hopefully seeing it written down will help me see where i'm wasting my money.
Sorry for blabbing on for so long already, i'll try not to make my diary too boring.

Cup_Cake xx

Kayleighpea

Hi Cupcake,

Just want to say good luck with the debt busting! This is the perfect time to start it all up with the New Year new start mentality - it's keeping it going after January that's the tricky part!

Now I'm not one for being good with the advice - I'll leave that to the experts on this site! But maybe it's worth having a look to see if there are any other current accounts out there that wouldn't charge you for the overdraft, and you could transfer it across?

I was paying £1 a day for my Halifax Overdraft and have just got myself a credit card to pay it off - now I am definitely NOT suggesting you do this but it has helped me as the credit card has turned out to be cheaper for me somehow! :rotfl:

Cup_Cake

Thanks Kayleighpea,

I have a feeling that it will be difficult to keep it up when i'm back at work in January! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I'll have to have a look into different accounts to transfer the overdraft to, thank you. I guess i've just been lazy leaving it as it is.

Today i'm going over to DB's mums house as we haven't seen her over christmas so we're going out for some dinner. I shouldn't be spending anything other than that though.

Cup_Cake xx

Cup_Cake

Evening MSE'ers,

So i've spent the day at DB's mums and then went to Tesco this evening.

Dinner was bought for us as was most of the food for the party which we're hosting tomorrow which was a lovely surprise.

Todays spends:
£5.29 Bottle of bubbly for tomorrow
£2.50 Champagne flutes
£1.20 Pop for tomorrow night
£1.00 Deorations
£1.00 Olives for tomorrow night

£10.99 Total

So all my spends today were for tomorrow night which is ok :A

Cup_Cake xx

Cup_Cake

Morning MSE'ers,

So plans for today are as follows;
- Clean house from top to bottom for party tonight.
Not massive plans today then! I'll just be pottering about today.

On the money front:
I take out £100 once a week (day depends on when I get paid) which is £50 spends and £50 groceries. This month i'm taking the money out on Friday's but it can wait until Saturday this week as I have some money left over (for once). Also it's a 5 week month so any left over right at the end of the month shall go towards debt.

Spends for this week - £21.63
Groceries for this week - £12.84
Money for Rest of Month - £300 (3 weeks)

Planned spends for today:
Take away pizza's tonight. This should only be £10ish for me and DB.
If I can stick to this I should be able to send £24.47 towards the debts tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Total Debt - £4272 (scary when you write it down for the first time)
This has decreased by £50 as my grandma gave me a cheque for £50 yesterday . She gave me it to pay for an art course which I do but I paid for this out of my wage a couple of months ago so it's going towards debt busting.

I'm going to post an SOA today so if anyone can give me any advice on where my money goes that'd be great. Also does anyone have a template for an SOA?

Cup_Cake xx

Cup_Cake

Evening MSE'ers,

I'm worried that no one is reading my diary . I'll keep blabbing on for now in the hope that someone takes pity on me and posts something.

So today i've been more spendy than planned. I ended up at Morrisons and also popped into Lidl.

Spends for today:
£2.00 - 2 bottles of sparkly to pop at midnight.
£1.09 - Crispy bake bread rolls for dinner.
£3.99 - Cooked chicken to put in said bread rolls.
98p - Cheese board with knife, this was reduced from £6.00.

£7.97 Total spends taken from the grocery budget.

Debts - The debt has gone up £5 to cover my NPower direct debit which I forgot had increased this month. Any money left over this evening will go towards the debts though so they should more than cover the £5.

I have some good news today though. I moved house halfway through a year and because they changed my account number is never received my £100 direct debit discount for the year. Because I received my statement today, I rung them today to check whether they had added this to my account but they hadn't. So they are going to send me an up to date bill and with the £40 credit added on from the bill I received today I should have £140 credit to withdraw and put towards the debts .

Cup_Cake xx

brummiebabe

Hi Cup Cake - don't worry, people read even if they don't necessarily post!!

Have you done your SOA yet?? Might be worth doing (I can't do li ms but it's a sticky at the top of the main DFW board) - this can showways of cutting down further & being able to pay more towards the debt !! £50 per week for 2 sounds like quite a bit for groceries - do you meal plan, take packed lunches etc as a way of cutting back? Meal planning can be a big help as you buy everything you need for the week & it stops all those little trips to the shop, which end up costing you much more!!! You can freeze bread/milk for the week.

Best of luck with everything & keep posting!!

BB x

MinnyMoo

Hi cup_cake, I'm reading!

You sound really organised, hope you have fun tonight :beer:

MinnyMoo

Keeping_Positive

I have subscribed

Good luck xx

Cup_Cake

Morning all,

Happy new year everyone!!

Thanks for the posts guys, that's reassured me that i'm not talking to myself .
Brummiebabe I agree that £50 groceries budget is quite a lot. However I used to do one £50 shop a week and still stock up during the week spending around £70 in total and then buy a couple of take aways as well. We used to waste soo much food that now we only buy food as we need it. This means I have to go shopping most days but it saves wasting food and we then only buy the food we fancy eating. At the moment £50 does seem quite a lot but I will slowly decrease this.

Last night was fab! We had a lovely evening and the nibbles which we put out were more than enough so we didn't need to buy pizzas which saved me around £10.

Money as is:
Spends for this week - £25.69 (this appears to have gone up, I did find a bit of change yesterday so this must be that)
Groceries for this week - £4.87
Money for Rest of Month - £300 (3 weeks)

Planned spends for today:
Will be a NSD as all the shops are closed today.

Plans for today:
- I still need to do my SOA, I will definately do this today!
- Clean up a little from the party.
- Do about 4 loads of washing.
Another easy peasy day then, but i'm on holiday so why not!

So at the end of this week I have £30.56 left in my purse. I think that because this is such a round figure I will withdraw £70 this week to make it my usual £100. This means that I can knock another £30 off the debt figure .

Hope everyone had a good night last night!

Cup_Cake xx

Lemon_Tree

hi cup cake, will follow you on your journey if you don't mind. Love the name.