Debt free the Fly lady way - anyone?

Tondella

Day 30 for me, snowball day!

I've already snowballed my debts, and at the moment am paying off a virgin card during the 0% interest period, which should be completed before the offer ends. Then it's barclaycard (paid off in June), the Lloyds TSB (finished by December, hopefully), then the two AMEX cards in 2008. My debt free date is May 2008, although there may be some leeway as I will be going onto a lower salary in a few months when i change jobs.

Tondella

day 31 - au revoir!

well folks this is my last day on the debt free fly baby challenge. Although I have been a debt-free wannabe for nearly 18 months i still hadn't managed to get a grip with basic money saving habits when i started the challenge.

I think my greatest victories have been writing everything down and starting to menu plan and write a shopping list. Writing everything down made me realise that money was seeping away with random food purchases through the week, usually because i hadn;t planned properly and bought enough food in for the week. Planning what i would be eating for the week meant that i could write a shopping list and properly budget for a week's worth of food shopping. I ended January with money in the bank and this month re-jigged my budget so that i could make more payments towards our debts.

I feel more in control of my spending, and more confident that i can get through the month without having to scrimp and save for the last week.

I hope others who are coming to the end of the fly baby challenge are noticing changes and feeling more positive about their spending.

mizmir

Just got back on line after being without phone or broadband since monday! Can't believe how hard I found it not to be able to get online! :rolleyes:
Will get back on track with this over the weekend - haven't been able to keep track of my accounts/cards so need to spend a bit of time getting on top of things.

Tondella

Hi mizmir, glad you're back, i told myself that there was no way you would come this far and then stop in the last week!

mizmir

Tondella wrote:

Hi mizmir, glad you're back, i told myself that there was no way you would come this far and then stop in the last week!

No way - not giving up now - will start where I left off tomorrow!

Gemmzie

Well I have my account sorted, high interest regular saver - may reinvest when it matures, we'll see nearer the time Rest of my "jars" are 5.05% so that's good

Benefits, well I need to find out what basis they base the WTC on for hours for October and if I can claim that alongside being a student. For now, parents get CTC with Disability for me and I get DLA. We've just got a HC1 form sorted too- it's only the bottom level of help but you never know when it might come in useful.

See you tomorrow

prophecy_grrl

Hi all

I'm on Day 6 today - Have taken both my credit cards from my purse and put them away

I've been feeling pretty positive so far - I have kept an honest sepnding diary which has been a real eye opener. My aim from Monday 19th is to post on the 'What have you spent today?' thread - facing my fears! I am actually looking forward to categorising daily spends in my spending diary tomorrow, so I can begin to spot spending trends.

I have also sorted out two piles of stuff - one for car boot, one for Ebay. I've started listing the Ebay stuff, and bought a cheap clothes rail in preparation for the car boot season.

Hope you are all doing well - only 25 days to go!

mizmir

Tondella wrote:

The, "you are what you eat" chickpea burgers are great, and once you get the tahini in can usually be whipped up from the storecupboard. what do you have them with mizmir? I find they can be a bit dry with oven chips or sweet potato

I have them with peas or sweetcorn - and sometimes make a tomatoey sauce/salsa type thing. They are yummy - and great for sandwich boxes as well - nice cold.

mizmir

Switching..... have done some of this but time for another review I think:

Gas/electricity rates - on a capped rate - was the best available last spring and has avoided impact of rises since
Mobile phone - OH still under contract but have checked and mine could be switched. Do need to keep my number so will ring 02 and say I am moving and see what they offer me! If not good then PAYG
Landline phone - under contract still and not a bad deal - includes all phone calls and broadband - need reliable service for work (with BT - did all fall over this week but was old wiring and they have replaced all for free)
Broadband - see above
Sky or digital TV packages - have freeview -no sky
Roadside recovery membership - don't have any - but probably should - will look at best deal.
Gym membership - none
DVD rental packages - none
Insurance policies (home, car, personal, travel, pet) - Home was switched recently (saving £40 a month! :eek:), cars need checking as do personal - just found an extra payment going out which I can't account for - to the income protection insurance people - checking that on Monday. Pet taken out recently - best deal with M&S
Mortgage rates - this is huge for us - our rate has just gone up to 6.79%. Had a look online and found a tracker that would save us £200 a month! But would actually like to get a fixed rate - next April I know our income is going to go up so would like to fix until then - think rates will go up again soon!
Loan rates - only one interest-rated loan left at 9.6% - quite high but can't pay early so stuck with it.
Credit card rates - doing OK on these - one at 5% LOB, 1 at 0% 6 months, 1 at 2.7% for 6 months. Will look at switching the last two nearer the time the rates are due to go up.
Credit card cashback rates - don't have any of these.

So jobs to do in the next week:

• check roadside recovery prices
• find out what extra payment is and check car insurance premiums
• talk to brother in law (IFA) about mortgage switch
• Ring 02 about the mobile

lbnblbnb

[*]check roadside recovery prices
Have a look at Auto Aid - £32 for myself and husband, any car, etc - very good customer satisfaction rating too.
Hope this helps