New to the forum - up debt creek - all advice welcome

Superbiatch

IndigoBlue wrote: »

OK, so it's all paid off in october? Could you sell it buy a cheaper laptop and pay off some of your debts then?

If thats a possibility, I got an Aspire One netbook in Sainsburys for £200 - the best money I've ever spent

curlytop12

just butting in with irrelevant to you question-sorry-what can a laptop do that a net book can't?G

_Persephone

The new MacBook is out now, which means this one has depreciated, even if I sold it, I will still have to carry on paying it off.

Gem - all sorts of geeky things. It's powerful enough to run music and video editing software, Photoshop etc. Learning another programming language too apart from the one I use at work, hopefully it will make me richer in the future!

Plus it doesn't crash. (Still know it was a silly thing to buy at the time).

curlytop12

wasn'tjudging-asking out of pure ignorance!!my boy wants computer,just wondered if i could get away with netbook,its only gonna be used for internet and emailing/skype.i am a complete technophobe!!

_Persephone

If it's just internet and email then a netbook should be fine

Superbiatch

gem68 wrote: »

wasn'tjudging-asking out of pure ignorance!!my boy wants computer,just wondered if i could get away with netbook,its only gonna be used for internet and emailing/skype.i am a complete technophobe!!

I use mine for the usual stuff (internet etc) plus I run a small business and keep all my accounts and documents on it - I also use free applications rather than the run of the mill MS Office, outlook as I hate to line Mr Gates' pockets any further. There's not much they can't do these days Well worth the money, the old mac doesnt even get switched on these days.

However, a mac is a lot more powerful and is really a 'must' for anyone working in music, website development, video or games development to name but a few career choices but in the case of your son a netbook would probably suffice

Sorry to go a bit off topic

_Persephone

Hello again,

An update (just in case anyone was interested) !
I think I am on the right track now, I've realised most of my money is frittered away at lunchtimes at work and on impulse buys in the shop when I am picking up a newspaper or something .

Payday has been and most of the big bills are out, I also got an extra £500 this month in overtime, went to pay £600 off of the credit card, but cancelled that and decided to try a little trick first. I bought an iPad with it, and am going to try and sell it on at a profit given the shortage, and *then* use the proceedings to pay a chunk off the CC. I got gyp about the ethichs of this in another forum on here, which amused me more than anything.

I've paid £50 off the Barclaycard, so it's now £215, and reduced my overdraft by £50 too, so that's now £950. I have £35 coming in soon in Mystery Shopping fees, so I will use that to bring the o/d down again.

April is a new start, my bank is switching too. I am going to start leaving my purse at home, and taking money out for the week.

An uphill struggle but I am determined to do it!

_Persephone

Oh yeah, and I tried to apply for an MBNA 0% card to do some balance transfer, but was turned down. Boo. They recommended a Vanquis card with a 39.9% APR! Err, no thanks!

Money_maker

No problem with the ethics (love to see enterprise) but surprised you have not thrown every penny at your debts instead of converting to goods. Please, please be careful selling on ebay. So many horror stories about high value goods.

robroe

The only thing I could really help you with is reducing your electric bill(know a little as I use to work for one of the big companies). Firstly check if your meter has a standing charge on it, can do this by clicking through the buttons and it is usually between £1.20-£1.40 per week. 2 ways you can remove this:
1) by ringing your company and asking them to remove it by threatening to leave
2) switch to another company that doesn't charge(I know the company I worked for didn't)

And secondly make sure your electric provider isn't your host provider in your area as I remember the difference between the host provider in the north east (n-power) and the company I worked for would have been about £150 per year cheaper.

Hope this helps even a little!


Plus i make a little extra of about £30 per month doing surveys on MySurvey!