Lisa's Debt Diary - The Beginning!

lvm

Evening peeps!

Another weekend gone (far too quickly) and back to work tomorrow. I thought I was in luck and was going to have an easy week at home but no chance - so 8 hours of driving to work and then home tomorrow as well as a working day. I am going to be mega shattered - and that's if I actually get home safely (I have a habit of falling asleep whilst driving!). So not looking forward to this at all.

It's not been a great week. I first hear that my gas/elec bill is going from £33 a month to £54 a month due to my last 6 month's usage. I have not put the heating on since that letter and it won't be going on at all until November now. Then I heard about the SVR going up on Halifax mortgages. Just what I wanted to hear!! Wish I was in a better position to change to a better deal but unfortunately will just have to stick with it for another 2 years. Means my interest will go from £6.17 a day to £7.03.

I called Halifax last week to get details on how to make overpayments to my mortgage online. They didn't seem too sure and gave my some account info "and see if it works" - think what I'll do is, when I get to 1st of every month and also when I get my expense payment, I'll round my mortgage down to the nearest £50/£100 then after that, round my bank account down and put the difference into my virtual sealed pot. Really need to get the LTV down on the mortgage as I'm sure if I wanted to sell (which thankfully I don't) I'd be in negative equity. So think I'll test the account details out with a £1 payment this week!

On the debt front, Mackenzie Hall are absolutely doing my nut in. So far, I haven't made a payment to this account in over 4 years. I wrote to them and told them I couldn't pay anything monthly but that I would agree a settlement with them. They declined the settlement and offered like a 20% discount and I say no. Since then they started constantly phoning (always in evenings after 8pm) and leaving messages saying they had an "extremely urgent message" and I must contact them "immediately". Suffice to say they received a very strongly worded letter confirming all correspondence was to be made in writing. So what do I get after that...a letter telling me they needed to speak with me urgently and to phone them. I am beginning to think they are all complete morons. I need to be careful how I respond incase I take the insults just a little too far! But I mean, come on, it's a measly £300!

Anyways, I better get off to sleep if I've to have any chance of waking up at 5am!

Nighty night! xx

lvm

So, I thought a little midweek update was in order!

Got most of my Paypal payments through this morning - just a couple of pennies shy of £150 which was good!

Stuck £50 of it on my credit card (my petrol one which is maxed out only 10 days after clearing it...2k miles a month definitely doesn't help!), stuck another £50 back into my car saving account bringing me up to £200...still another £300 to get me back to where I was though. £25 went on a £5 sponsorship thing and £20 to a friend for a coffee machine which was about £90 so a little bargain there. The remaining £24.89 went into my virtual sealed pot.

Filled out all my spreadsheets and I'm sitting at just over £14.5k in cash and have broken the £11k mark for cash minus my credit card debt.

Should get my £338 in expenses in my account tomorrow and I'll probably split that between the credit cards and some savings accounts.

I lent my lodger some money (last time I do that)...he then apparently lost a week's wage (which he's paid in cash) when he was in a pub. I feel like Wonga without the benefits of their APR! He's so far paid me £320 this month (his rent is £350 a month) and I'd lent him £250. So £280 left to go and if he ever asks for money again I'll be telling him I have none!

Got the rest of this week working at home probably and then next week a bit of travelling followed by a week of holiday. No plans as yet and don't reckon I'll get up to much - did plan on a wee last minute break to Krakow but don't think my pennies will stretch that far yet.

Anyways, I've got quite a bit of work to do by the end of this week and was hoping to have done it all by the end of tomorrow (fat chance!).

Toodles! xx

lvm

OH MY GOD! Last update = 7th March!

Now I know why I feel like I'm heading for financial ruin!

In the last few months of not updating my little diary I've had a little trip to London and to Sweden which is probably why my credit card balance is sitting at a ridiculous £1317.68! And I have just 4 weeks to pay it. Just to put this in perspective, this is about £100 less than my net pay! I think I want to cry...

So, I've looked over some bill stuff and I've switched my phone and broadband to TalkTalk's new deal - although it involved putting £114 on the credit card (which isn't even included in this month's statement yet!). And that only saved a few quid a month as I'd paid last year's line rental up front to get a good deal too so not going to be a huge difference. Hopefully I can use the free £50 tesco gift card for my usual petrol expenses and save a bit of dosh for next month.

I haven't even paid my council tax which was due 2 weeks ago - another £200 to stick on the CC in the next couple of days.

AND...I go on holiday in less than 3 weeks. It's all paid for and is all inclusive but I've still got currency to get. Thank God I was sensible enough to keep a little "Holiday Savings" account!

The good thing is I can put a few expenses through - looking like about £600/£650 but Monday's the earliest I can do it.

And...hopefully I'll get some regular extra income coming in from July/August - £400ish a month (£50 a day Sat/Sun) and this will all be above board so I can include the income when it comes to getting a new house/mortgage in 2014. Thing is, I've decided to use one of my savings accounts to save all the extra money I get from this and don't really want to spend it. Maybe I should allow myself a little bit each month!

Oh, and I've just realised - I'm owed around £200 for 2 mystery shops I've done. 1 is overdue in payment by about 3 weeks now so getting a little worried. That would really help if I got it this month!

I really need to see some stuff on eBay/Gumtree I think. Problem is I don't think I've got anything interesting enough to sell.

I'm now staring at my piggy bank (those clay ones that you've got to smash to open) and I deliberately haven't been keeping track of how much I put in. I'm thinking there might be around £75/£100 though as I only put £1/£2 coins in with a few 50ps. Next stop - I'll be trying to break into it with a knife!

So, apart from turning back to my spendaholic ways, nothing much else has been happening in my life.

Need to have some no spend days (or no spend months!) to get myself back on track.

And note to self - must keep diary updated at all times! x

lvm

So, that's payday been and gone. Stuck with my £1k a month savings but I've wiped out all my little savings accounts. Don't mind about the holiday one as I've not got any more coming up apart from holiday next week which is all sorted.

Still not paid council tax or any of my credit card.

Lodger hasn't paid rent and has !!!!!!ed off on holiday...how nice!

So...new wee job will start on Saturday I think before a week's holiday then every weekend after that. Should be good!

Anyway, off to do some tidying while I have the place to myself! X

lvm

So, back from holiday for a week now and I must say I'm glad to be back and settled back home. Off for a long trip to work tomorrow so going to sleep shortly.

At last I seem to have got my finances back on track after having to search through all my savings account to get my normal monthly £1k saved last month.

Managed to pay all the credit cards without any interest paid - although it was touch and go, believe me!!

So I've started my new wee job this week...and turns out I'm not actually "working" there...I somehow own a company who has to invoice the place I'm working in and I can get money that way - all above board though and I'll be able to use the income from the company to get a bigger mortgage in 2 years time. And I'll have £125 a week/£500 a month coming my way. Very happy :-)

Defo going to be hard work though - working every weekend and I now have to do accounts for 2 companies. Ok, I got a very good Higher grade in Accounting but I am certainly no replacement for an accountant. Might be something nice to learn though (and stick on my CV!).

Anyways...need to sleep now. Gotta be leaving the house at 5.30am so need to get as long a sleep as possible!

Night night xx

lvm

Hey hey!

Just cheered myself up by checking my mortgage balance and finding it's now dropped below £64000. Given it was only £63,950 it started off with, it's not great but I'm getting there. Just all the stupid mess I got myself into added lots extra on and it went up to about £66k at one point.

Adding a bit more random extra amounts to mortgage now and paying more than £100 a month more than I need to which is all good.

Up to £18k in savings now...can't wait to hit that £20k figure...so exciting!

Done a few weekends in new job now...and far too many evenings and late nights. Not been paid a penny yet but hopefully will get something soon. Think I've decided I'll save 75% off extra wage for something big (house furniture when I eventually move) with 25% being saved for some "me" money...might treat myself to a flash new tv or something :-)

All feels rather exciting now!!

xxx

lvm

Why does everyone under the sun have to increase all their prices?!?!

Sky - up £1.50 a month
Income Protection - up 30%!!!! Unfortunately it's still the cheapest so can't change

I'm even tempted to start reducing my mortgage payments if I get any more "in this climate we need to increase prices" letters any time soon.

On the plus side, have just had £161 TCB/Quidco payments tracked for change in Gas/Electricity (for business, not me).

Called my gas/elec supplier as I've been mega-overpaying for months (had 1 month of using LOADS of heating and that's when they checked my readings). But my fixed rate is coming to an end this month and Moneysupermarket says I should be paying £20 a month combined (I use very little energy)...but my own supplier is saying my DD will change to £31. Bit confused. Never mind, it's a decrease on the £54 I'm paying now and hopefully will get a little refund.

Still waiting on lodger's rent - I swear anyone else would have kicked him out by now. Only paid me on like the 20th last month. Luckily all bills are accounted for so not in desperate need or anything.

Nice letter from Aqua today as well - increasing credit limit from £600 to £850 so I can "make full use of all the wonderful benefits which come with an Aqua card"...WHATEVER!! Just wish they'd actually responded to my application for the cashback one!

Anyways, I'm absolutely starving - off to make myself some lunch.

Ta ta! x

lvm

So, having a great little month mortgage-wise.

I'm still on interest only which is about £213 (a bit annoying as it was £186 before Halifax increased their SVR).

Anyway, been overpaying a wee bit and had gradually increased by direct debit to £220 then to £260 and have now been paying £300 since end of May. It's not that much and my money is better off elsewhere but I think it's a great idea so gradually work off a bit of the mortgage.

Anyhow...got my £50 Tesco gift card delivered (from the TalkTalk promotion) and sold them for £50 to my Dad on the condition I put the money on my mortgage which I did. Lodger eventually paid rent and after putting £100 into my "Holiday" savings, "£100 into my "Car" savings and £10 into my "Bills" savings, I decided to put the remaining £140 onto my mortgage.

So that's £190 extra above my normal payment. Had a look at my spreadsheet and I have a column which tells me what I'd need to pay if I wanted to go full repayment and obviously that amount grows every month I'm not paying that much but I'm on exactly £400 now so if I paid £400 a month, I'd fully repay the mortgage by the end of the term in 19 years. Not that I'll still be living here by then anyway.

Think I'll need to find a way to put an extra couple of hundred on it next month as well as it's such a good feeling.

Anyway...better get some shut-eye!

Night night x