GTD's DFW Diary - Getting Closer to 40...

GettingThingsDone

Inspired by this fantastic site and all the wonderful people here, I thought I would 'do a diary'. Clearly I've also been inspired by the Oakdale Minx as I'm getting closer to 40 (38 early next year) - I had my LBM a month or so ago and want to just sort everything out!

I'm not going to do an SOA yet as I've gone through everything and I think I've pared it to the bone, and I'm going through month 2 of my spending diary, so I should have a better idea of where it all goes (£850/month). So far I've managed to clear my 2 x £500 overdrafts, started claiming my bank charges and signed up to quidco etc.

My main debt is in the shape of two credit cards Co-op Visa and Mint - more about which later...

However, what I really want to get sorted is to get married to my lovely OH and have some kids - yikes! For starters, now I'm a DFW, how do I get enough money together for a decent engagement ring? How much does one spend (2 x salary???). Anyway, this all feels like a new phase to my life, so quite excited, hence the rambling

I need to lose a load of weight too, and I'm going to use the attitude that I've picked up from here to drive me on in that department.

I recognise that there are people on here who have problems a lot more desperate than I do, so I'll try and be an inspiration and help out where I can.

Here goes...

whatatwit

I waited 8 years for my engagement ring. If you do want one, check out the pawn-brokers and second hand rings in independant jewellers, they are often far better value for money.

taxi73

Hi gettingthingsdone and welcome to the board...you write and we'll read...if you go on the OS board they've got plenty of ideas to save money on everything from food to weddings!!

georgiasmum

The pawn shop idead for a ring is a great idea!!!!

slowlyfading

hey i think its great that you've decided to do this and there are so many remarkable people here on this board who will help you on your way!

GettingThingsDone

Thanks, brilliant idea - I will check out some pawn-brokers and second hand rings next week and report back here.

GettingThingsDone

Waaaah, what a weekend. Not particularly great; ended up working working working and not making a dent in all the work that I need to get done.

I did get the freezer defrosted and cleaned. However, only because I'd left the door open by mistake - loads of home-made-soup in the bin. OH not too happy...

And now it's Monday and time is flying by already - Arghhh.

GettingThingsDone

Got so much work to do it's getting really stressful. I can tell how stressful it is because I tend to do lots of housework etc instead of working!

Got my new A&L account, so I'll start transferring everything over to that and keep tracking quidco for the £50 - magic!

Electricity bill was higher than expected, but then it *always* is somehow

GettingThingsDone

Oh, and now it looks like the gas bill has come a month or so earlier than I was expecting too. Nice one, just before Christmas too...

So, from feeling as though I'm back in control of my finances, I'm starting to feel a bit adrift again. I've also got to pay our council tax (£106) - DD's kept being bounced (and charged for the 'service') so I have to remember to do it 'manually'.

And whats more, because I was over-excited about my A&L account last night, I transferred some money into it out of my almost useless Smile account (no DD's allowed any more and no cheque book - I get the feeling they are trying to get rid of me ). However, I don't have a way of getting at that money now until into next week - when's Christmas again? bum.

I watched that Money program about bank charges last night - I've got this feeling that I'm going to be the test case. LTSB have until Jan 1st (does 28 days include bank holidays?) to put in a defence, and it would just be my luck that they come up with some new defence and decide to actually go to court.

GettingThingsDone

Right, got all of my credit card statements for this month - looks like I'm going to just be paying the minimum, so that knackers my snowballing efforts for now.

Now is the time for some meditation and creative thinking... how to get rid of my CC debt. Hmmm - £10,000 is the same as 10 lots of £1000, or 100 x £100. Now I can visualise £100 quite easily - 5 slightly used £20 notes. "1, 2, 3, 4 and 5's a hundred". So all I need is 100 little bundles of those. Ok - not sure if it's 'wrong' to meditate about cash, but here goes anyway...

Well, it makes sense to me - hope you don't think I'm too weird

GettingThingsDone

Happy New Year DFWs! I've been lurking for the last month. I'm gradually getting things together; keeping the spending diary going (and keeping the spending down) and keeping finances trimmed right down. I'm going to do a 'brain dump' now, so I've got a record of what's happened over the last month...

I got my credit reference file - interesting; nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be. I've always avoided looking at it, but it's fine really - lots of late payments on there, so I need to keep paying on time to improve things.

I've managed to shuffle things around and get rid of my ridiculous 29.9% Capital One card - paid it off and closed it down. It wasn't a massive amount, but psychologically it was good to clear it. So my debt is now just on 2 cards - Mint and Co-op; both with crap interest rates though.

I now need to recalculate my total credit card debt as I took my readings at 'low water level' i.e. after I'd just made my payments. However, once the interest gets added on, the total rises to what I actually owe IYSWIM - darn interest! I've been playing with the snowball calculator for about a year now, but I'm actually going to start paying more than the minimum from now on.

I need to move to another card with lower interest - I actually managed to get a new card at the end of last year with Citibank, but the credit limit is a 'useless' £250 at 0%; grrrrr. Looking at the M&S card - I need to make sure I keep a clean sheet on card payments before applying.

Waiting for Quidco money of £125 (Barclays home insurance) and £50 (Alliance & Leicester) minus the £5 joining. Mananged to get £10 pigsback before Christmas; but waiting for another tenner from one of the survey sites. Telling everyone about quidco now!

I have a claim in for £1500 for the bank charges LTSB have unlawfully taken from me over the last 6 years. They are fighting all the way - managed to get my AQ in on the 8th Jan which was the final day (phew!). I need to check what to do next...

Ideally, I would like to start doing some matched betting using the quidco/pigsback/survey money to build up some cash. However, the O/H doesn't like the idea of me going to gambling sites, so I've had to knock that on the head at the moment. Anybody got any thoughts on how to make a small pile of cash grow into something bigger?

Anyway, I think that's everything for now. Feeling quite positive, but need to find a stylish ring for the O/H soonish!