Back filling the big hole I dug with my credit card

PiggyBankShaker

I'm a newbie to MSE, although I have lurked on the forums for a while. I want to keep a diary of my journey back to being debt free as a reminder of how I get there and also so I can get some hints, tips, feedback and encouragement along the way.

I have been in debt for 12 years, but my LBM came at Christmas 2010 when my pay wasn't even making a dent in my overdraft and as soon as I paid all my outgoings I'd be over my overdraft limit again and incurring even more charges. It was so depressing and frustrating and I realised (with the help of my husband) that I really had to change.

My debt at the worst point was about £10,000 including my overdraft, but excluding the mortgage. Since Christmas I've moved banks and I'm current down to £7,500 on one credit card and have paid off my overdraft.

I have a plan to be debt free by June 2012, earlier if I can manage it. But I'm also trying to generate about £2,700 of extra income to do urgent DIY projects in the house.

Currently I work part time, but I am job hunting for a second part time job. I can't do full time yet as I have a new born and a toddler at home.

Anywat that's me. Thanks for dropping by.

PiggyBankShaker

So, this month is all aout decluttering and getting rid of years of unnecessary junk.

I'm doing a mass eBay upload using Turbo Lister the next weekend that we have free listings. I'm getting rid of:

• Clothes I haven't worn for a while
• Clothes with good name labels that should be popular (even though I still like them)
• Random junk that should (hopefully) be popular
• Good brand make up / toiletries

Higher value Books and CD's / DVD's on Amazon, with the ones listed too cheaply to make much profit going to Music Magpie just to reclaim the space. I don't want things hanging around for ever in the vain hope they might go for an extra 20p on Amazon in 9 months time (I'm NOT my mother in law after all)

Also I have gathered a big pile of stuff suitable for a car boot sale, although finding when and where they are being held is proving tricky.

I got rid of an old mobile via Simply Drop and amazingly found a stashed tenner that I'd forgotten about.

So far I've made £56. And even though that's not a huge amount it feels so exciting to be going in the right directon for a change!

Mags30

Happy New Diary:)

PiggyBankShaker

Thanks to Mags30, mrnreklam7 and cinar12oto for dropping by

Today it would appear is freebie day! I got a pack of nappies in the post that I am testing and reviewing and a free healthy snack box.

I also earned £1.44 doing a survey online, but I realised that I need to improve my Survey Tracking Spreadsheet as it is not up to keeping track of surveys that you complete but are not credited for straight away (and I'm learning it is most of them!)

I also wangled 35p out of eBay after complaining that Turbo Lister doesn't imform you which desciption fields are then charged on the site after upload, so I input a subtitle (for 35p) where normally I wouldn't do that. They have also agreed to update the software to make it immediatley obvious which fields are free and which are payable extras.

I know a lot of MS's in the forums count money they've not had to spend in accumulated made/saved totals, but as I'm saving hard cash towards a specific DIY project I'm only counting money that I can bank - if that makes sense?

Anyway, hope everyone is having a good money saving day today

PiggyBankShaker

Got paid today and had a pleasant suprise. Because af the tax changes I'm £25 a month better off. Now that is not to be snuffed at! I'll have to do number crunching later but hopefully it should bring my debt free day forward by about a month.

PiggyBankShaker

Did a few surveys yesterday, I'm hopeful of being able to earn the £15 I need to cash out on surveyhead, as well as £4 on cint sometime in May. Fingers crossed anyway. I also listed a couple of items on eBay, but had to remove 2 of them because (despite only listing them after seeing if other people were selling them) I didn't know that you're not meant to sell used make up on there. Annoying as people had already started bidding.

Unsure what to do today on the money earning front. I've been inputting CD barcodes into MusicMagpie and still have loads to do, could also upload more stuff to eBay. Everything I'm doing though feels a bit ad hoc, which I'm not a fan of. Also, I will (theoretically) run out of stuff to sell, which I don't think will get me to my £2,750 target. I'm racking my brains for things I can make, skills I can sell etc in enough volume to make it worthwhile.

wigwam

You are doing a great job, keep it going!
Not sure if your debts are on 0% or interest paying but the way I look at it the more I pay off now the less interest over the year so these early payments have a greater value.

PiggyBankShaker

Hi Wigwam, many thanks for the encouragement. What you say about early payments being more valuable makes sense. I made a small (£41) extra payment on top of the minimum repayment, as that's all I can affrod this month. But as of next month I'll really be repaying in earnest.

On the income front, I've put a few more items on eBay and done some more surveys, also one of the survey sites that I use has dropped its payout threshold a little, not much but it does mean that I can get the cash quicker.

I'm doing the earn and extra £10 a day in May challenge, and plan I do better than my £56/£300 that I did in April!

Still pondering what to do to earn some bigger sums though...

PiggyBankShaker

Good day today - I closed by old account and CC with HSBC. I really ended up hating them for screwing me over every 5 minutes. For example, I did a balance transfer to Virgin at 0% and HSBC didn't set up the min balance payment timely enough that I ended up being charged interest by Virgin and loosing the 0% deal! Grr. Also, their own charges would take me over my overdraft limit and then they' d charge me even more. I am so very glad to be rid of them at last. My new account has a small (£200) OD facility, but I have no plans to use it. I'm enjoying my journey back to being debt free too much.

The sales on Amazon and eBay are trickling in, annoyingly I've had a few slow payers on eBay which is messing with my cash flow projections a bit. Also I'm chipping away at the surveys to but no pay outs yet

I have though found a perfect job to apply for that really suits my circumstances and the pay is decent too. Here's hoping my CV is up to scratch!

Hope everyone else's debt journey is going well

chevalier

good luck with the debt busting. you say this is your debt, but did not OH also benefit from it? Can he help in anyway?
chev

PiggyBankShaker

Hi chevalier, thanks for dropping by. No this is very much my own personal debt from before we were together, which is 5 years this year. He is helping my very much already, he's paid all our bills, shopping and mortgage on his own for about 3 months just so I could pay off my overdraft and get rid of HSBC. He's done most of the financial forecasting and the spreadsheets etc. Also, he has his own CC the he used to buy furniture when we bought our house together, which he is paying off.