Perhaps Im in the wrong place....DFWW?

Twon

I've not checked my accounts yet. I know I'm in debt. I consolidated all my credit cards and loans and then piled them up again.

I'm guessing a figure around the £15k mark.

And this is the reason I'm a DFWW... a Debt-Free-Wannabee-Wannabee.

I'm just about to book a holiday of a life time for me and the missus. I've just spent £30 on some DVD's (I did use Quidco & the £5 off voucher @ HMV). I'm planning this one step at a time.

One Step.
Then Another Step.
Then Another Step.

Step 1
Joined Quidco.

So I've joined Quidco and already have £22.40 being tracked. £2.40 from my HMV purchase and £20 from cyberslotz.

I buy a lot of DVD's and CD's. (thats why I'm £15k in debt! ) but if I managed to get 7.5% of that back I'd have over a bag of sand in the bank.

Any CD/DVD purchasing I can do I'll do through that. I might even let the other half try out tesco internet shopping as I'd get a £5 for the first shop.

If I want to see the block-busters then I'm going to try out step 2

Step 2
Take advantage of introductory offers

The Quidco/Cyberslotz one was good. Get £5 free to gamble if you deposit £10. I deposited £10 and played away. Got up to £21 and withdrew my tenner and the extra £5.15 This got put straight on to my Credit Card so should help towards clearing that off. Ignoring the Quidco bonus of £20 (money in the future IF it pays out - cashback/goodwill gestures are just that!) I'm now £5.15 better off! If I can manage that 3 times a week then I'm getting an extra £60 a month off my Credit Card. If I don't manage to then I've still lost nothing!

Step 3
Read more of this site

I've already read some very long threads (the quidco thread from start to finish.) and knowledge is power. I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to make free money and people's signatures do show testament to that.

___________________________

My plan is to make my money go longer. If I can do it WITHOUT changing what I do then thats great. I need Car Insurance so get some quotes THEN try quidco to see if it is matched and comes with cash-back (don't rely on C/B to give you the lowest quote!). Same with buildings insurance/Contents insurance. I pay £100 a month for a gym I don't use! Go via the pru and spend £25 a month for health insurance (I don't need) and gym membership I wont use! Saving £75 and STILL DOING NOTHING!

The information is out there (on this website). I don't expect to be spoon fed the juicy gossip on how to 'stick it to da man' (like get policies for the C/B and then cancel it only ruins it for everyone.) But I do know that the deals and give-aways do exist and with your help I can make sure I am putting my money to a smarter use.



Cheers Guys and speak to you soon.

Twon
DFWW

tom188

But do you have a plan to attack the large debt you already have?
You seem more intent on increasing it than reducing it.

It's not going to go away you know....

bank_of_slate

Hi Twon
Welcome to the dfw forum.

You've already taken some positive steps to change your behaviour but you need to see the bigger picture, BOTH you and your OH!

Sit down together and list ALL incomings and outgoings...no matter how small.
You'll only know the full picture when you do that.

..Then ask yourself...can you REALLY afford that fantastic holiday or are you just going to come back to an even bigger mess with only a tan to show for it?
...Linda xx

Twon

bank_of_slate wrote:

Hi Twon
Welcome to the dfw forum.

You've already taken some positive steps to change your behaviour but you need to see the bigger picture, BOTH you and your OH!

Sit down together and list ALL incomings and outgoings...no matter how small.
You'll only know the full picture when you do that.

..Then ask yourself...can you REALLY afford that fantastic holiday or are you just going to come back to an even bigger mess with only a tan to show for it?
...Linda xx

tom188 wrote:

But do you have a plan to attack the large debt you already have?
You seem more intent on increasing it than reducing it.

It's not going to go away you know....

I'm the first to admit that I'm not a DFW yet.

But I'm working on it.

Once this summer is over and we've moved house (a rather scary and large step up the property ladder!) then I think my move into the DFW world will commence.

I'm thinking of trying to sort out one of my Credit Cards, which really would be a step in the right direction! I want to check if I'm paying the minimum every week or a bit extra.

From small acorns do mighty oaktrees grow!

Speak soon.

Twon.

kathfisch

Humour me for a minute...

1) Work out the exact figure of your debt.
2) Work out how much interest you are paying each month on this debt.
3) Use the Snowball Calculator to work out how long it will take to pay off at the current rate (minimum payments only?).

Then ask yourself, can you really afford to be spending on luxuries? The 'holiday of a lifetime' sounds fab but also expensive, you'll be paying it off long after the tans and the memories have faded.

Just do those things 1-3 and then see hey, can't hurt?!

Kath

sarah0404

Good luck! It would be a good idea to transfer all your credit cards to 0% cards and maybe to look for a lower rate loan. The AA seem to have really low rate loans. That will keep the interest on your debts low until you are ready to tackle it properly. Theres tons of info on the site about credit cards and loans.

I also did what you did - consolidated and then ran it back up again. Like you I wanted to be debt free and thought about it a lot, but never really took any real steps to do anything about it. My wake up call was when I had no more available credit, and my bank was 1,700 overdrawn. I tried to buy milk and bread in Asda and they refused my card. The bank wouldn't increase my overdraft so I couldn't buy any food for several days. I have 3 small children and we had to live on porridge for breakfast, lunch and tea.

Do take a good look at your money so you know exactly how much is coming in, how much is going out and exactly how much you have left to spend. Like you said - Knowledge is power.

Twon

kathfisch wrote:

Humour me for a minute...

1) Work out the exact figure of your debt.
2) Work out how much interest you are paying each month on this debt.
3) Use the Snowball Calculator to work out how long it will take to pay off at the current rate (minimum payments only?).

Then ask yourself, can you really afford to be spending on luxuries? The 'holiday of a lifetime' sounds fab but also expensive, you'll be paying it off long after the tans and the memories have faded.

Just do those things 1-3 and then see hey, can't hurt?!

Kath

That link is cool, thanks.

I can see the logic behind not having this holiday BUT I'm not in a position to say no. This holiday is happening. I want it to happen.

While taking it confirms my lack of DFW-status upon my return I will be ready to DFW with the best of you.



I think this is all leading up to my lightbulb moment, but I think it is a good number of months off just yet!

Twon

Twon

sarah0404 wrote:

Good luck! It would be a good idea to transfer all your credit cards to 0% cards and maybe to look for a lower rate loan. The AA seem to have really low rate loans. That will keep the interest on your debts low until you are ready to tackle it properly. Theres tons of info on the site about credit cards and loans.

I'm going to try this AFTER we've moved house. Applications for loans or credit cards do go on your experian search and I don't want any of that to affect my mortgage application. I want to try a bit of card tarting but I've not trusted myself to swap when the time is up. I think with Martins Tart Alert service (if he still does it!) will be good to remind me.

sarah0404 wrote:

I also did what you did - consolidated and then ran it back up again. Like you I wanted to be debt free and thought about it a lot, but never really took any real steps to do anything about it. My wake up call was when I had no more available credit, and my bank was 1,700 overdrawn. I tried to buy milk and bread in Asda and they refused my card. The bank wouldn't increase my overdraft so I couldn't buy any food for several days. I have 3 small children and we had to live on porridge for breakfast, lunch and tea.

Up until this summer I had a good wodge in the bank to stop this happening. I'm now in a situation where I don't. My fault. I've got enough money to have food on the table AND available credit on my CC's to cover stuff BUT I want to get away from using my CC's and get back to having a wodge in the Bank!:D

sarah0404 wrote:

Do take a good look at your money so you know exactly how much is coming in, how much is going out and exactly how much you have left to spend. Like you said - Knowledge is power.

Had a quick look. Got to stop impulse buying. Thats partially why I joined quidco. Got to stop picking up the odd DVD or 2 in the supermarket, or the odd CD.

In theory, my income is greater than my outgoings, but my bank account says differently!

I also want to change banks, but need to find one that can help clear my overdraft (Or tart it so I can have a clear over draft and a 'visable' debt that I can try and manage). If I do start another bank account then I'm going to claim my charges back. They might even clear my overdraft :omg:

Cheers for the advice peeps. Keep it coming.

Twon

Twon

Tustastic wrote:

Hi twon and welcome. Have you thought about eBaying all the DVDs which are so boring that you'd rather pay Cyberslotz?;)

(almost) 1 step a head of you.

got the vistaprint free business cards to start off an ebay account for collectables

Have agreed with the missus to start flogging it. If it doesn't sell on ebay it goes to the charity shop.

Should help the money coming in.

Tustastic wrote:

On a not so light note, have you thought about what you would do if your circumstances changed - you or your wife or both of you losing your jobs, or unable to work for months and months because of illness, etc etc etc? Plenty of people are on this board not because they were high spenders but because they had some kind of serious setback that stopped the money coming in.
Snowballing your debts is as much if not more fun than online games. HTH:)

Thats why I want to do something.

I'm going to take a look at that snowballing thing in more detail, as if you change the interest to 0% you can work out what you should be paying back to credit cards with 0% balance transfers. If you set the minimum payments to what you WANT to pay back (my current rates) then a quick calculations shows that I can be Debt Free almost 2 years earlier, which is nice.

Its (nearly) time to make my money work for me!

Twon

Twon

Tustastic wrote:

A couple more questions; does your wife know about the £15K debt?
Does she have debts of her own and if so do you know roughly how much?

She knows all about it. Can't have a marriage with secrets!

No debts, I've cleared hers (added them to mine a while back).

Twon

tom188

Something to think about - if your debt is at an average of 14% APR, a conservative figure for credit cards - then if you only make the minimum payments it will take you 45 years to repay your debts.

whatsthecost.com wrote:

It'll take you 551 months (that's over 45 years) to pay back £15,000 if you only pay the required minimum of 2.00%. Over that period of time, you'll pay an additional £19,822.46 in interest.

If you could aford to pay an extra £10 a month towards your credit card debt, it would mean you'd repay it in 301 months (just over 25 years) and you'd save yourself £3,941.93 in interest. In fact, if you could aford an extra £25 a month, you'd repay it in 210 months (just over 17 years), and save £6,944.26.