I lost it all! Fell off the wagon!

lazy&indebt

Hey everyone!

It's been a very long time since I was here last. Before October last year, I had about £1500 in savings with a view to paying off my credit card and I was living on about £150 per month for EVERYTHING, here I am, 4 months later, with no savings (apart from some money for my South Africa trip) and a lot of new clothes/laptop/posh phone to show for it instead!! ooooops.

Thing is with me, my debts aren't major and although I would like to work towards paying them off, I don't want to be as tight as I was before as I believe that is why I did not stick to it. So I have made a decision to start a debt diary as many of you have done in the hope that it will help to keep me on the straight and narrow, luckily, I have not run up anymore debt in this 4 month period, nor have I missed a payment. So here goes....my SOA....


Income: Main Job: £1,132
Second Job (bar work): between £60 and £100

Debt: Credit Card (0% apr until Mar) £2,279
Loan (11% apr) £3,500
Car (0% HP on brand new Peugeot) £5,932

Outgoings: Rent: £340 (inclusive of bills except gas)
Car: £150
Credit Card: £5 min payment
Loan: £87
Phone contract: £20
Petrol: £60
Food: £60

And the remainder sort of gets frittered away! Comments would be appreciated.....part 2 coming soon

Storm

£470 a month is quite a bit to get frittered away - however, I can't really talk as I was frittering WAY more than that before I had my LBM. A spending diary will let you know where your money is going, and I personally have found that dealing only in cash keeps me 'good' as I think far more about handing over a £20 note than I would about using a debit card for the same amount!

My suggestion would be to set yourself a budget that allows the income from your bar work to be your 'play' money - that way you'll hopefully feel you're not completely denying yourself lifes little pleasures...

What are you going to do when the 0% offer on the CC runs out? You need to really look at paying more than the minimum each month, otherwise it will barely change, and once interest is added it will probably go up!

lazy&indebt

Thank you storm....some good points there. I think in October of last year, I frittered it all away on going out, drinking, smoking and buying stupid expensive items I didn't need! The next two months it all went on xmas presents. I'm paying the minimum each month at the moment to allow me to save for my South Africa trip in March (going to see my Dad!) once this is over with, I will definitely be increasing my minimum payment on my card.

I have an Egg card also (balance is zero!) which gives me an anniversary offer of 0% on BTs for 5 months but this won't come into effect until May. I'm toying with the idea of cancelling my Egg card and shopping around for a low LOB balance card as my credit rating is un-tarnished.

lazy&indebt

Ok so, you've heard my story, what do I hope to achieve and how will I do it? Well......as I mentioned before, the reason I fell off the wagon I believe was mainly down to being TOO tight and TOO harsh on myself and trying to acheive unrealistic goals! My aim for 2007 is simple..

...Pay off my credit card.

Pretty easy, huh? Maybe! But only with lots of encouragement and motivation. So, here is how it works. My credit card debt currently stands at £2279. I am hoping to start seriously chipping away at this once I return from SA in March...this gives me 10 paydays (10 months, same thing!) to get it cleared. The mathematically minded of you will work out that this means paying a total of £227.90 each month (who said maths was difficult?!)

AHH but don't think I'm going to slack off between now and March! On the contrary! I will be picking up extra shifts and I also have a few items I need to sell on eBay, which leads me onto the next section of my diary.......

lazy&indebt

Ok, I will have to be honest and tell you that I'm going to cheat a little here by puttnig my to do list from 2 days ago, which means I have already completed one or two tasks!

1. Ring O2 and enquire as to why my discount had not been applied to my tariff?
- I rand O2, they did indeed promise me a £15 per month discount as an incentive to stay with them (threaten to move to 3 and you're laughing...) and as my bills were coming in at £50, I decided to check my online account and lo and behold, they'd forgotten to apply it. The nice scottish lady on the phone subsequently refunded £30 and applied the discount to my tariff, result!

2. List 3 items on eBay before Sunday
- Still working on this one, ok so I haven't done anything about it!! I will be listing my old mobile (along with a blue tooth headset) a george forman grill, and a rather posh toaster.

3. Phone up Egg, cancel card.
- Haven't done this one yet as I'm not completely decided on whether it's the best course of action...opinions greatly appreciated.

4. Phone up individual companies and find out how much (to the penny) is owed.
- I have done this! I ave also found out that in November of this year, I should be able to hand my little peugeot back to the HP company and walk away with nothing to pay. Trying to decide whether or not this is a good idea.


So, these are my present goals. I will hopefully not be tooo lazy to keep coming back and updating!

lynzpower

Hi sugar

Can I be the voice of doom ? I think almost 13k is a lot of debt really.

One thing I would say is are you sure that you only spend 60pcm on food? If so hats off to you. but I wonder whether some of the "frittering " comes from that, as we do about that for us as a couple, but it takes sheer determination and we dont always manage it

Rob_K

As for your third point about the Egg card.. Do it!! Remove the temptation! If you're only keeping it "in case of emergencies" then there's a much greater danger that getting something like a new phone might seem like an emergency! And if you really really do find yourself with an emergency, can't you just use one of the cards that you are currently paying off?

lazy&indebt

Hey lynz! How's tricks?

I know I have been spending more than £60pm on food lately as I have been living off of convenience stuff! £60 per month is the realistic amount I know I can spend for one person (as this is how much I spent before I fell off!)

And yes, you are right, £13k is a lot of money to owe but I am aiming to eradicate it over an achievable amount of time, rather than trying to do it in 5 minutes as before! I'm also just having one aim at a time and once one is achieved, I will set myself another one! First one is...clear the credit card!

lazy&indebt

Rob_K wrote:

As for your third point about the Egg card.. Do it!! Remove the temptation! If you're only keeping it "in case of emergencies" then there's a much greater danger that getting something like a new phone might seem like an emergency! And if you really really do find yourself with an emergency, can't you just use one of the cards that you are currently paying off?

That is true, although I don't actually have a physical card (I cut it up last year after I cleared it!) the only reason I was keeping it open was to take advantage of the 0% offer when it comes around again, but I think I may be better off looking around for a low LOB card instead.

lynzpower

Oh no get rid of it, Im not convinced about anniversary offers in all fairness.

Theres plenty of cards that look good all year round.

Close it then get your credit rating improved from that

tricks are good with me

Kevicho

Hi Lazy

Dont beat yourself up too much over this, after we are all human and make mistakes.

I think your comment about paying it over an acheivable amouint of time is a good one, some people can handle depriving themselves but eventually i think a major splurge happens to release all the built up tension.

good luck and welcome back

Kev