Newbie wanting to be debt free!!

deanchilds1

*UPDATE*

Not been doing to bad made a bit of money on ebay which will help, got £60 refund from Bank, Plus another £50 i werent expecting/ Then the Gearbox went on car, got quoted £550 by garage but managed to get one for £188 plus £90 to fit it, was meant to be at garage on friday but didnt arrive so aint got a car until thats done!

Applied for a Virgin Loan and to increase Credit Card Limit, said no to limit but was going to give me a loan but worked out £2800 intrest over 3.5 years so told them to poke it!

LookingAhead

Sorry to hear about the gearbox going. Typical when you are trying to get on your feet again. But good work for getting it cheaper even though it's still money you haven't really got.

You did the right thing not getting the loan. Keep chipping away at the amounts outstanding. It's not going to be easy and you'll get p'd off at times (if you are not already!) but it'll be worth it when you see those credit cards totals coming down and your family will really appreciate & respect you for paying back your debts.

(I have a sister who has borrowed money off my Mum who didn't have a pot to you-know-what in at the time and she'd *never* paid a penny back.....bad bad bad!)

Anyhow I digress.

Hope the EBAYING goes OK and any more that you do is successful as well. Keep plugging away and don't add to the debt and you'll be going the right way.

One thing...I noticed you went home for lunch rather than spending money. If you can do that every day (or take food in with you) that will really add up. Buying take out has got to be in the top 5 no-no list so....try & wean yourself off.

Finally....well done too on the spending diary. Do you feel it is useful? When you look back after a decent amount of time, you could be quite shocked! I know I was when I looked at mine last year! :eek:

deanchilds1

Yeah i do get !!!!ed off with the credit card bills, they just dont seem to budge. But ill get there in the end, both my remaining CC's have been cut up and i no longer use them. Ive paid them both the minimum this month as will only have enough to pay the minimum next month (feb) But march ill really have a go at them providing i have a job as my company my close the branch i work in, but they fuking us about at the moment.

One thing that would help would be lloyds tsb sending me a nice payment of £751 for bank charges!! That would half my Virgin card.

The dairy has been a good use, i use it to keep track of when direct debits have been paid, cheques have been recieved, ebay items posted and recieved, and as well as any money i am spending. I opened up a tin i save £1 £2 and notes in and have £170 in there if i am ever in desperate need.

The one thing im starting to worry about is having enough money for my summer holiday!!

LookingAhead

Wow £170 in coins is fantastic! That's really good. Best to keep hold of that I guess with your job being uncertain at the moment. I'm really sorry to hear that. Now might be the time to revamp your CV in case you need to start applying for new jobs....

With credit cards I used to really enjoy seeing them come down past 'milestones' - by that I mean if I started out with £1875 on a credit card (example) the first thing was getting it down to £1799 so it was under £1800.

Then it was to see it at £1699...so I would always try and pay even just that extra £1 to bring it down to the next milestone. Make sense? It seems to help psychologically, well it did me anyway! You can see three of the figures change every month so it does really look like it is coming down (which it is of course).

We've all been there/are currently there with CC bills....bloody things. Just keep plugging away and surround yourself with lowering totals to keep reminding yourself what you are succeeding with. It will help! And good on ya for cutting the cards up. :T

With regards to Summer holiday.....have you booked somewhere already?
If not, this area might need a big think about. Most people on here will advise against it and tell you to forego it this year and throw the money at the debt.

I have to say I tend to agree.

However if you absolutely *have* to get away, scour the internet for deals, see if you can get cash back if you can book via QuidCo or Greasy Palm.

Do you go abroad? If so, could you camp abroad at one of the good sites if it works out cheaper? What do you want from a holiday? Could you get it in Britain?

Just throwing some ideas in the mix here to see where money could be saved. (You're going to tell me now it's already booked aren't you? )

Anyway keep us posted!

deanchilds1

Ive started applying but prob dont have to panic just yetr as got a few months before they will close, if they close.

I may set my self some milestones on the credit cards, maybe i could pay a £100 after intrest so that it comes down £100 each month.

Your right my holiday is booked, but was only £550 for 2 weeks in Florida, i know i could use the money to pay off debts but it the only time of the year i look forward to and went last year and cant wait to go back in September.

Thanks for all your advice mate!

LookingAhead

No worries. Well I say (and this is just me, I am sure others have their own views of course) if the holiday is already booked then you *have* to really look forward to it and get excited about it otherwise what a waste of £550

And of course, if things aren't quite clear (debt wise) for 2008, you can forego a holiday that year to clear them completely...so you may as well really enjoy this one!

Perhaps between now and when you go you could challenge yourself to sell off anything else you can on EBAY, Amazon or via car boot sales when the nicer weather comes, to put towards spending money whilst you are there? Do some on line research into how & where best to spend what money you have when you go over there? (Please don't be tempted to borrow more to take with you! :eek:)

Anyway I am glad you have some time before the company closes IF, as you say it does. A bit of breathing space to try and get things a bit more in order at least.

By the way re: credit cards, the £100 over & above the interest is excellent if you can do that. :T

bank_of_slate

Hi Deanschild!

Having looked at your outgoings there was a large amount on lunch and food. Do you buy lunch out every day? this will really mount up, you would be much better taking a packed lunch 4 days a week and maybe have Fridays as fish & chip day or treat day!
You could probably save a decent amount there!
Good luck with your debts!
...Linda xx

deanchilds1

Everyone that spells my name spells it deanschild? is this something to do with spell check? LOL!

So far this year i have only spent around £10 on lunch have cut down an awful lot!

deanchilds1

Looking Ahead, i detect some humor with regards to the holiday but cant quite work out where!! LOL!

I hope to clear by the end of the year and that is including my Holiday spending money. Would be nice to be in a settled job so i know where i stand.

Ebay is really quiet at the moment, sold new trainers for 99p plus post as they only had 1 bid! But at least it gets rid of them!

That CC challenge is something i will aim to do next time i need to pay them. I will pull the statemtns out and have a look and work out if ill be able to afford it!

deanchilds1

Quick Update,

The gearbox i got from the spares company, was useless so now i had to get another one and pay for fitting twice, the company said they would refund the gearbox money but am i right if i ask for the 1st fitting fee?

Managed to get £60.00 fees refunded from barclays which helped me out a bit.

Other then that spent a bit of money on Ebay this week which was really stupid of me as i was going really well up until then.