Elmer's moneysaving mission

ElmerFudd

Woowoo wrote: »

My APR is 16.8%, not great but could be far worse!

Paying the extra pennies into the bank and off the cards has made a massive difference to my debt reduction and is great for keeping the momentum going.

I think it makes all the difference, especially as the interest will be less than if I paid it all in one big lump at the end of the month.

Woowoo

Morning Elmer

Any plans for the weekend? Apart from spending as little as possible!

ElmerFudd

Hey Woowoo. Nothing fun unfortunately. What about you? Lloyds bill should arrive tomorrow so I should be able to figure out what I can do with the cash I have. Tempted to just put it all onto the card. Trouble is pay day is over a week away.
On the plus side I found another 34p today so that'll be going into the bank tomorrow

Woowoo

Well done on finding 34p 2 weeks till my payday, not sure how I'm going to get there at the moment!

My Lloyds statement was today, unfortunately I can only afford to pay the minimum again this time, will keep PADing though as I managed to boost the payment by approx £25 this month by doing that.

Am seeing my sister tonight to watch a film and have a pizza (cheap from Asda), tomorrow will be more expensive though as out partying with the girls, then Sunday will be a walk in the Countryside to clear the hangover!

Moneymash

Hi Elmer,

I have been reading your diary with interest. Although this info is late to the party I wanted to say that if a CC company notifies you that they are increasing your APR, you have 30 days in which to respond. If you object to the APR increase. The CC company should allow you to pay back the outstanding balance at the current APR although you will not be able to make any purchases or have cash advances until the sum is paid off. Although, you mentioned needing to spend a £1000 on the card so I'm guessing this was after the CC company informed you of the APR increase in which case you weren't eligible to object to the increase.

I know how annoying it is to buy a drink at work. A couple of days ago I brought a can of coke from the work vending machine for 65p. Normally I take supermaket cans of lemonade in to work, which work out at 18p a can. Or Sainsbury's flavoured fizzy water which are 40p for a 1 litre bottle. It also takes a hell of a long time to change your shopping habits, having shopped at Sainsburys for years, when I lost my job I was still shopping there on my CC. I have finally started shopping at Asda and do the drop a brand challenge to save even more money.

As for the coffee I know you don't have it so much with the warmer weather. Lots of supermarkets do the thermal cups, an initial outlay for that and hunt round for instant cappucinos on special offer and you'll make savings.

I have subsribed.

ElmerFudd

Woowoo wrote: »

Well done on finding 34p 2 weeks till my payday, not sure how I'm going to get there at the moment!

My Lloyds statement was today, unfortunately I can only afford to pay the minimum again this time, will keep PADing though as I managed to boost the payment by approx £25 this month by doing that.

Am seeing my sister tonight to watch a film and have a pizza (cheap from Asda), tomorrow will be more expensive though as out partying with the girls, then Sunday will be a walk in the Countryside to clear the hangover!

Hi Woowoo hope your weekend went well .
My statement arrived over the weekend but I am still waiting for some money to get to my account - so called "faster payments" are pretty useless sometimes.
Good luck with your PADing. I'll probably just save anything I find and pay it into my account once a week (more if I can get away from work long enough).

ElmerFudd

Moneymash wrote: »

Hi Elmer,

I have been reading your diary with interest. Although this info is late to the party I wanted to say that if a CC company notifies you that they are increasing your APR, you have 30 days in which to respond. If you object to the APR increase. The CC company should allow you to pay back the outstanding balance at the current APR although you will not be able to make any purchases or have cash advances until the sum is paid off. Although, you mentioned needing to spend a £1000 on the card so I'm guessing this was after the CC company informed you of the APR increase in which case you weren't eligible to object to the increase.

I know how annoying it is to buy a drink at work. A couple of days ago I brought a can of coke from the work vending machine for 65p. Normally I take supermaket cans of lemonade in to work, which work out at 18p a can. Or Sainsbury's flavoured fizzy water which are 40p for a 1 litre bottle. It also takes a hell of a long time to change your shopping habits, having shopped at Sainsburys for years, when I lost my job I was still shopping there on my CC. I have finally started shopping at Asda and do the drop a brand challenge to save even more money.

As for the coffee I know you don't have it so much with the warmer weather. Lots of supermarkets do the thermal cups, an initial outlay for that and hunt round for instant cappucinos on special offer and you'll make savings.

I have subsribed.

Hey Moneymash. Welcome to my diary . Yeah I had no real warning from the bank and since the payment (the letter arrived a day or so after the payment and it didn't clear for a number of weeks) was so important I didn't want to rock the boat. If I had known they had planned that though I would have planned things differently (used a different card or paid cash). One of the major problems with work is when the water gets cut off forcing me to buy something from the machine, or otherwise I run out of stuff.

ElmerFudd

Current debts as of May 2011:

Credit card 1: APR 24.9% = £10010
Credit card 2: APR 6.95% = £7680 (some at 0% for 9 months)
Credit card 3: APR 6.95%= £1230
Credit card 4: APR 0% for 9 months (ends Jan 2012) = 930
Total on CC's = £19850

Loan 1: £3100
Loan 2 (student loan): £8200
Overdraft: £1500

Thankfully student loan will drop further (a payment is due to come out within next 7 days), same applies to the main loan (which thankfully will drop to sub 3k!!!) within the same time frame.
Most bills are paid for the month apart from CC1. I have money set aside for this (I will be overpaying) but have a couple of things to pay for this month all being well. The interest was appalling this month coming in at just over £180 it shoved the debt back over the 10k mark. Also the £200 I put in there still hasn't cleared. Will have to get onto them about it but I know the account gets a bit messed up around statement time.
Also not entirely sure what the student loan total is since the statement doesn't come til September. I have based it on a high end estimate now bringing the total up by 1k.

EDIT: 20th May - will definitely be paying a fair amount into the Lloyds on Saturday. At the moment I haven't decided how much as I have a few payments to go out over the weekend. I am not looking forward to next month - it's going to be a financially tough time. Oh well pay day next week. I'll then have some idea where to go from there. Itching to try to apply for another 0% card but have to wait a few months as I only applied fairly recently.

Woowoo

Hi Elmer

The interest on my Lloyds one used to be around that much, its now down to £45 and feels like such a relief, until I remember it's still £45 down the drain every month!

How old are you?

ElmerFudd

I can't wait til it's £45 . I'm 35. I managed to defer my student loan for quite a few years as I wasn't earning enough.