It's just a jump to the left... or "Confessions of a Debt-Free-Wannabe"

diekleinemue

Hello, good evening!

A quick update on today's events:

1) MBNA
Alas today I got a letter and as to be expected they rejected my application for a 0% SuperBT card. Fine. I thought they would, it was worth a try.
Plan B: OH will apply, I still transfer my overdraft and more expensive credit card and pay it off anyway, when 0% SuperBT offer runs out my credit-ability will be restored and I will apply for a card. The (happy) end. Will get that sorted tonight, 'coz it will take another 6 working days for that to come through. *sigh* (WHY didn't we do that immediately???
*concerned look* I wonder if it's an issue that we live at the same address. Will they cross-reference the address? *furrows brow*)

2) Apple Cake
I bought a piece of apple cake, *ahem* and did NOT eat the yogurt I took into work as desert... I KNOW I KNOW!!! Shush! Silly! But a) the apple cake came at a reduced prize 'cause I bought it at the cafe in house (as if that would make it better...) and b) I saved the yogurt for Wednesday when I am back in the office. No? Besides, I am taking that money out of my drinks budget for this week's Christmas parties and leaving do's. Watch me!

3) Seasonal Spending Storm
Well, it appears the first clouds are gathering and there has been some mild spending today, but we are glad to report that no one got hurt! By cunning use of international internet shopping facilities we managed to a) pay less in a different currency and b) save postage to moominvalley because I roped my mom (Muemmla for those of you who are familiar with the moomins...) into receiving, wrapping and distributing presents on the other end. HA! (mue = genius!)

4) Pizza
Just got home and have to return dvd which is overdue by 75 minutes and cost me £3. ([STRIKE]That's also out of my social budget, which is really not fair! I didn't even enjoy the film that much! Pants![/STRIKE]) The mildly disgruntled chap in the dvd rental store said: "Just try and bring them back before 6pm, ok?" and didn't charge me!!! There is a god! In the light if lots to do I decided not to cook but something fast has to happen foodwise. OH and I pondered whether or not to pick up a pizza and I hesitantly agree to get one on way back (using a voucher to reduce the price) until I remember that we bought pizzas for exactly this kind of situation. They're already in the freezer, costing me, hang on... *calculates quickly: £0 + £0...?* NOTHING!!! Salad on the side. Done!

mue

saving money!!

diekleinemue

slowlyfading wrote:

I've just read your thread from start to finish and I think that its great that you're tackling your debts head on and making such a good start!

Hello, slowlyfading!
Thank you for reading it all and thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate this! I enjoy writing a lot, so this thread offers a great opportunity for me to write it all down and "think aloud" about ideas and plans. People's input and experience is invaluable.

I think I might have mentioned that before, but it's a bit like learning a new dance, the right moves, the correct posture and all of a sudden it's a little easier.

Since I am here I learnt that just because I got myself into debt doesn't mean that I am worthless and undeserving of any help or support. I learnt that there is in fact a whole range of things I can do to improve my situation, tackle my debt and my finances and make them work for me. I learnt that I have means to pro-actively shorten the length of time it will take me to pay back what I owe and that I can exploit the system just as much as the banks and other financial institutes can.

And most importantly I learnt that I am not alone.

mue MoneySavingExpert.com

In fact, I feel like the member of a very honourable group of knowledgeable people who have awoken from the numbing daze that is consumerism and have gained clarity and insight into the makings of this system, which opresses its people! *sees herself in a shiny silver armour and cape draped around her as she is sitting on a bright white steed, her trusty companion in the ongoing battle against the horrible multi-headed monster that goes by the name of 'Debt'...*

I'm apparently loosing my mind, so I better do some work before I forget what I needed to do.

Do what?

A-haha haa! Just kidding!

mue

hbl_2

Mue, glad to hear that everything is going swimmingly. It's best to realise that little things are going to come along and rattle you, just like stones in the road, so being flexible is the best way (like suspension, to flog the car metaphor).

Thing is, from what I can tell your immediate debt isn't so bad - the overdraft and the credit card. Do whatever you can to mitigate the (high) interest on them at the moment, but I get the impression that you'll zero both of these in no time at all. Before March?

After I finished up University and was temping and earning sweet FA, I was beginning to think that I'd be in a debt quagmire until I earned enough money to formulate an exit strategy... Instead, I moved home, got a better paid job and just suplexed my finances. I got really hungry for geek finance knowledge. I read everything I could, and signed up to these forums after casually reading the site for about three years.

The only problem I find now is that the machine is in place and to my utter surprise is working without so much as a squeak so I'm always looking forward to the next paycheck and wishing away the time accordingly. Which is awful, cos I'm so impatient for results. It's as though, hey I made this machine, now fast forward to the point where it has solved the problem... That's just indicative of the right here right now culture that's drummed into us in the West.

So since July I've been saving £70 a month to pay off my HBos credit card, and £100 to pay off my overdraft (it's £2000, but £1000 is interest free). With my other savings I've managed to already meet the amount of the credit card and bring myself into the interest free portion of my overdraft. I can't be bothered to work out how much "savings" is being used, so I'm going to consider them both "paid" and the £170 a month is now MY savings.

I think I might stick £100 of it into my ISA. It's a dilemma because one of the moneysavingexpert things is that you dont save while you've got debt, might as well just pay it down... but I'm of the opinion that the reason one is in debt is because one doesn't have savings, so keeping some money back is worthwhile. I'm trying to get my head round the longterm shortterm savings divide. For instance, I save about £50 a month for any spending that appears in the next 6-12 months. Whereas longterm savings is (like my ISA) money I'm going to lock away from myself until 30 years hence. I'll do some sums, beause compound interest is gonna get me either way...

Right, I'm off to basketball (more money spent!).

slowlyfading

you are doing well with everything. and everytime you have a 'slip up' or whatever, you just need to focus on tomorrow being better and more productive!
nicola x

SoScrooge

diekleinemue wrote:

4) Pizza
Just got home and have to return dvd which is overdue by 75 minutes and cost me £3. ([STRIKE]That's also out of my social budget, which is really not fair! I didn't even enjoy the film that much! Pants![/STRIKE]) The mildly disgruntled chap in the dvd rental store said: "Just try and bring them back before 6pm, ok?" and didn't charge me!!! There is a god!

hey hey hey!

DVDs... did you know that you could subscribe to a couple of free trial DVD rentals through Quidco, enjoy your free DVDs (no more trips to the rentals as you order it online, they post it to you, and you post it back in the prepaid envelope), and.... get Quidco to pay you for doing that? I did that for Blockbuster and some other (don't remember) 2 months of free movies, plus £22.50 extra in my pocket from nothing.


Another thing? Are you subsribed to freecycle at all? - a yahoo group where people advertise things they need or don't need. All free. Who knows, maybe you could have saved on the waterproofs.

Keep your tail up!;)

SoS

diekleinemue

Hello hbl,

how was the basketball game? Hope you had a good week! Thank you for your post, some of the things you wrote stayed with me and I had to think about them. For example:

hbl wrote:

Thing is, from what I can tell your immediate debt isn't so bad - the overdraft and the credit card. Do whatever you can to mitigate the (high) interest on them at the moment, but I get the impression that you'll zero both of these in no time at all. Before March?

What got to me here was you spelling out one of the things I learned since hanging around on this site: Debt is manageable. And that, while it's important not to lose sight of the overall amount that is owed to sustain the urgency of the situation, it's important to take it step by step and break it down into smaller chunks, i.e. immediate debt with high interests. When I tried to pull the money I owed together into one loan via smile or co-operative bank I tried to make the whole thing go away as quickly as possible. And as hurt/disappointed/desperate as I was being rejected credit, it was the best thing that could have happened as I now am thinking about money all the time: the way I spend it, earn it, what things are worth to me, what my life style choices cost me. This also sits with something you wrote when you spoke about your ways of tackling your finances:

hbl wrote:

That's just indicative of the right here right now culture that's drummed into us in the West.

Hear! Hear! This might sound slightly unrelated but our cutlery is slowly but surely dying, (no wonder seeing that it has PLASTIC handles... *hates plastic* That's of course the bit that is breaking. The actual blade is fine. Can you get knives and forks re-handled? Now, THAT sounds like a niche to me! Does anyone know a gifted craftsman who could carve (matching - or not) handles out of recycled things and thus recycle knives and forks...? *throwing around some multi-million-pound ideas* You could even handle up a plain stainless steel set of cutlery you don't like much anymore after using it for 15 years or something... Mh!), anyway, I decided that any future cutlery will have to come from the charity shop. Surely someone's huge old knives and forks and family silver will be much more exciting than some spanking new designer handles, (unless there from that nifty company that re-handles old cutlery...).

hbl wrote:

So since July I've been saving £70 a month to pay off my HBos credit card, and £100 to pay off my overdraft (it's £2000, but £1000 is interest free). With my other savings I've managed to already meet the amount of the credit card and bring myself into the interest free portion of my overdraft. I can't be bothered to work out how much "savings" is being used, so I'm going to consider them both "paid" and the £170 a month is now MY savings.

I think I might stick £100 of it into my ISA. It's a dilemma because one of the moneysavingexpert things is that you dont save while you've got debt, might as well just pay it down... but I'm of the opinion that the reason one is in debt is because one doesn't have savings, so keeping some money back is worthwhile.

That makes a lot of sense to me. Absolutely! My biggest cashflow problem is the fact that I have nothing set aside to keep me afloat when I need it, i.e. travelling for work, having to pay with my cards before being able to claim it back, meaning I get into my overdraft, (or beyond... *ahem*) and have to wait until I get my money back, meanwhile accumulating interest, etc., etc. And there has been a lot of travelling recently... :rolleyes:

hbl wrote:

I'm trying to get my head round the longterm shortterm savings divide. For instance, I save about £50 a month for any spending that appears in the next 6-12 months. Whereas longterm savings is (like my ISA) money I'm going to lock away from myself until 30 years hence. I'll do some sums, beause compound interest is gonna get me either way...

What is compound interest? That might be a language barrier thing, seeing that I'm from moomin valley and all... My partner and I were planning to both set aside money into an ISA each to make sure we have some money to work the house in case of emergency. That hasn't happened, we haven't done any life insurance or similar things either because we didn't want to get pushed into it by the bank we have our mortgage with. They tried hard, mind, scheduling three 90min meetings, thoroughly assessing our finances and then recommending a catalogue of insurances, all hair-raising expensive and not necessarily what we were after anyway. The one thing that I took away from these meetings was that the financial advisor said to me that it's totally unrealistic that I pay 50% of all costs to do with the mortgage seeing that I earn only about 1/3 of my OH's salary. And right she was. I tried and had to cut back my contributions more and more while my account was tipping into permanent overdrawn mode. Madness!

Ah... *sips on her coffee* T'is the season to be jolly.... falalalalaaaaa la laaaa laaaaa laaaaaaaa!

mue

diekleinemue

slowlyfading wrote:

you are doing well with everything. and everytime you have a 'slip up' or whatever, you just need to focus on tomorrow being better and more productive!
nicola x

Hello Nicola! *wave*

That is so true! Every day is another opportunity to change things. Indeed! In my aunt's bathroom (that's Snork Maiden for you moominisers out there) hung a postcard that read:

Many small people at many small places who take many small steps can change the face of the world.

I think for me that has to do with each other where I have to remain aware that every little step into the right direction is a huge improvement on just being dragged along or standing still or running into the wrong direction in denial, fear and desperation.

*gets her walking boots on and hums:* these boots are made for walking, cause that's just what they do, one day these crazy boots are gonna walk all over you, debt!! HA!

mue

diekleinemue

SoScrooge wrote:

hey hey hey! *snip* Keep your tail up!;)
SoS

I *ALWAYS* keep my tail up! (How much do you know about the moomins? Because, see, they're singing this song... If you knew the song then the whole tail things would make even more sense and that would be awesome!)

Hello SoScrooge!!! How are you? I love your posts. They're firm reminders of the many saving opportunities there are, they're inventive and resourceful, (money from nothing! Gee, that's not far off turning water into wine I'd say...), and they are the right side of geekyness that makes me believe it is Napoleon Dynamite who's talking to me. It's you, isn't it? Oh, come on, you can tell me!! *beg*

OH and I have considered the whole DVD subscription thing, not least because our local video store is rapidly running out of things we want to watch, we both love movies and the convenience of it all is just staggering, (although I suspect a plot of trying to turn people into couch potatoes even faster by not even giving them the opportunity to lazily take the car instead of the bike to pick up a DVD... I think the excellent scene in "Over the Hedge" as RJ leads the unsuspecting forest creatures through suburbia explaining the kind of relationship humans have with food is still resonating with me... Anyone else thinks this film is one of the best movies, like, ever?)

Anyway, my worry about a subscription is that once I have it, I'll forget to cancel it and thus the free trial turns into a monthly burdon. Then, as with all things automated, I am worried I get so used to it that I don't value the convenience of it and punish myself with not watching any DVDs, thus increasing the pressure in terms of having a bad conscious regarding the financial burdon. It's a vicious circle, spiralling downhill from here on in, so I am keeping my greedy paws of that one for now.

Signed up to freecycle a while ago cause I thought it's such a good idea and haven't actually rooted around for anything there yet, because I don't make time for it. I probably missed a few great opportunities in terms of Christmas presents and all... Ah, never mind. Next time!!

*keeps her tail up*
mue

diekleinemue

ARGHHHHHH! What a week!? Last week has been so hectic and busy I had hardly any time between knitting Christmas presents, baking cookies and packing parcels to send to moomin valley and giving speeches! There is so much to tell you though, so without further ado, here I go:

First, I am so proud! *burst* I spent £0 at either of the three social events I was invited to. (Obviously I'll never be invited ever again seeing that I sponged drinks of anyone else, but hey, at least I didn't spend any money!) It really was down to the kindness of my friends and colleagues who somehow just didn't let me pay for drinks/rounds and who continuously insisted on ignoring my plea for some free tab water. Awwwww! Thank you guys! *she says as she tries to assemble the slightly blurred pieces of Friday night*

So, my projection was £53.75 to £55.10, (not counting the seasonal spending front, I'll get to that in a bit...), and I spent... *drum roll* £30.79. Woohoo!! Go me!! Go me!! *dances a little wiggle right there and then on the spot*

Now, regarding the seasonal spending front... well, I dressed warm, bracing myself for whatever was out there and managed to keep fairly dry, but not completely. *sniff* And by the looks of it, there is still more to come. So, I'll hold on to the gloves and the scarf and try to contain the damage as much as I can! (And yes, I am too self-conscious to go and write the total figure of my seasonal spending down here and now... I might when the final purchases have been made. Really, I only fear SoScrooge's raised eyebrows and wagging index finger as he tells me off for spending money I don't have and seeing right through the whole "I'll sort it out in January! Honest!!!" Rest assured though that I am already doing sums in my head and calculting what proportion of my "disposable" income I ringfenced for this in relation to my debt pay[back]ments and all.)

*cough*

Anyway, on to even more good news: I might have mentioned it earlier, MBNA didn't really want to have me as a customer - fair enough, so OH has applied for the very same card and they gladly gave it to him. So we're waiting on the paper work and can then transfer my balances and then I can make a decent snowball projection on how fast I can pay it all back! I am soooooo happy! That's the best Christmas present ever!!! The chance to pay it back without having to wrestle with interest fees. I feel really lucky! If OH wouldn't have gotten the card it would still be possible but much more of an uphill struggle.

Speaking of uphill struggle, I struggled up a HUGE hill last night on my bike and it's starting to show in my aching muscles... *sigh* But having quit gym I guess I have to be content with any physical challenge I can get. *feeble laughter as she remembers cycling up at snail pace in the lowest possible gear praying that she wouldn't have to stop at there would be no momentum to get the bike rolling before she would have to start peddling*

ARGH!!! Oh, tree just arrived. Lovely!!!

Must dash to work now. Will come back with forecast of this week's spending later. Basically, shouldn't be too bad except for that nasty seasonal spending front...

Oh, even got another wear out of my waterproof trousers!!! Hurrah! Actually I almost drowned in last week's rain but I tell you the whole story later. *breathless*

xx, mue

slowlyfading

You're doing so well, and well done for not spending anything on your nights out, that must have took some self control! I always end up spending loads when I go out I haven't seen the Moomins for years, but you've just reminded me of them! lol and I LOVE that quote that's in your Aunt's bathroom I'm a small person, so maybe one day I can change the world (or just mine, lol )
nicola x