Desperate To Be Debt Free

GreenSaints

Hi all,

Well I'm just back from the cinema after my free viewing of Footloose (not a bad film, well for free anyway!) and I'm really miserable (not because of the film I should add)

I found out two things today - 1. I can't now claim as much mileage at work (thanks to work making me office based rather than site based as I was) and 2. Apparently where I've been cycling to work, I can't get the tax back on that because they don't class Home to Work.

So next month I'm going to be worse off before I even start!

What's the point? Everytime I try to do something to get me out of this mess, I just keep getting set back. Plus I got turned down for another credit card

#FML

chevalier

Hi there
The road to debt freedom is as bumpy as the one you probably cycle to work over! Yes it is a pain about the change to the mileage allowance, can you complain and get yourself changed back to site based? Or did the change make it that you got more basic pay so it kinda balances out?

On the other hand by cycling to work you are achieving one of you other goals - to lose weight and be healthier, so it is all about balance.

It doesn't surprise me that you are feeling down, there is a certain euphoria about having your light bulb moment and getting down to sorting it. Then reality sets in and you realise what a hard slog you have in front of you.

You have done amazingly well to get your education done in such a way that you have relatively little student debt so give yourself a pat on the back for that.

Now to practicalities. Do you do surveys online? There are loads of sites to try and though you won't rack up alot of money all at once, it does build up over time.

Could you get a second job to help pay off the debt quicker?

Good luck with moving forward. I am sure you will pick yourself up soon
chev

GreenSaints

Hi,

Thanks for your response. I feel a little better, but still not 100%

I can't change back to being site staff. Basically they think I'm better in the office (which I don't think I've been given a proper chance, but that's another story) My pay did increase a while back, but not now. My boss did say that it is going to be bad for me (I nearly said "I'll be f***ed!:eek:) I am going to ask if I can stay at the local office for the foreseeable future.

On a slightly positive note, the whole company are looking at different taxes that people could claim home to work mileage, but I don't know when the result of that will come out.

I already do surveys (I'm actually waiting for a payment from GlobalTestMarket) but like you say, it's not millions. I was thinking of another job, but I don't know what I could do that wouldn't ruin my home life. We both work long hours, so anytime together is precious.

Right, best get ready. Going to cycle to work....for free

maman

Sorry to hear news about your travel expenses. At least (as chevalier said) you're getting exercise and using no fuel when you're cycling.

I don't want to be a pain as I really do commend you for doing this alone but on the credit card point again. The fact you got turned down reminded me. Had you thought of asking for a loan from the BOM (or your BF?) and then setting up a standing order for a monthly payment to pay them back, so it's all 'official' and organised. If it really bothers you, you could add 5% interest which is much more than anyone gets on a savings account at the moment. It just seems such a rip-off when people have to pay huge APRs which just adds to the debt (and adds to their profits!).

Hope you're doing well on NSDs!

GreenSaints

Hey,

Surprisingly my BF owes me a lot of money (£2000) but he pays me £100 a month (or when he can be bothered. He has a completely different attitude towards debt and money in general which makes me feel even worse)

I think I'm going to have to ask my mum for a loan. I've got a Sharesave scheme with the company I work with, so next June I'm guaranteed at least £1800 (£50 a month for 3 years) so that will help.

I just feel awful today

GreenSaints

Hi All,

Well I’m feeling a lot better than I have been doing the last few days. I had a bit of a breakdown yesterday, unloaded and vented to my BF. I think the pressure of everything eventually got the best of me, so it was nice to just get it off my chest. There are a lot of issues (which are a bit personal for a Debt-Free Diary!) we are working through, so I think he’s finally coming round to the idea about open and honest with money and his debts (he’s had no LBM yet)

I’m still a tiny bit stressed over the credit cards. My student account I’m not so worried about as the 0% is for another year yet and I’ve already set up a standing order. My mum is on holiday (I like to call it an old people’s tour! ) until tomorrow, so I will speak to her then about a loan out from BOM. If she has the spare cash (and wants to of course) then I’ll pay her back as much as I would have done the CC companies. It wouldn’t be fair to say “I’ll give you £50 a month” when I normally pay a minimum of £150. Plus being in debt, is being in debt, regardless of it’s with a CC or parents.

I had a total NSD yesterday – mainly because I forgot my wallet at home! :P I have to spend today because we are going to another free cinema screening so need some food supplies. On Tuesday, we took some sandwiches that I bought, some drinks from home and some sweets from Poundland. I felt a bit guilty with my massive bag of stuff, but everyone else in there was doing it, so I didn’t feel as bad!

As well as that, one of my old college books sold on Amazon for £25.96! But then Amazon took its £5.82 worth of fees, so £20.14 was my sell price. But they add £2.80 for P&P and I’m pretty sure it’ll only cost £1.75, so I’ve made a bit there too.

I cycled in again to the local temporary office. It looks like it’s going to rain, so I’m glad I packed my rain coat just in case. I’m still going to find out about the mileage. This office isn’t my permanent place of work, I can claim fuel for it, so I should be able to claim cycle mileage? Either way, I do like my cycle journey even if it is a bit scary at times! I might have to reconsider when it gets dark and frosty, but that’s (hopefully) a way off.

I’ve also sent my application to Quext to see if they want to hire me (I would! ) I’m also going through the ChaCha University to hopefully take the readiness test this weekend to see if they also want to hire me. I’m going to apply to all the Mystery Shopper links that have been kindly put on the boards and just hope for the best.

I was looking at doing a second job, but I have some studies (I want to be a Personal Trainer) that I need to finish (Level 2 YMCA Gym Instructor) so when I do that, I could see if I could get some work at some gyms, but it won’t be for a few months yet, plus I need to lose weight! :P

Better go as I’m rambled way to much! Type tomorrow

GreenSaints

Hi all,

It’s all good today – it’s Friday, it’s pay day and I got my expenses so I’m in a good mood

I checked my bank account this morning to see what my balance was and have got an app on my phone (Checkbook – it’s on Android, don’t know about other makes) and I’m going to add my current account on there (I have my CC’s and Student Account so I can see what the balances out and about) so every time I buy something, or pay for something on my card, I’ll add it to this with a description. I hope that it’ll make me think about what I’m buying.

On the same theme, I got last months statement and went through it – highlighting things that were bad (overdraft fees, shoes!), things that were ok (Subway on designated Subway Friday!), things that were good (CC payments, eBay selling money), other things (bike servicing, counselling payments) and work related (train journeys that would be paid back). I noticed some very interesting things:

1. I have a lot of DD or Standing Orders. These are:

a. House Payment (my half to mortgage and bills)
b. BOM Repayment (for some money I borrowed previously)
c. Boots Vision Plan subscription (£18.80)
d. Private pension payment (of £20 at the moment)
e. Barclaycard minimum payment (2% of outstanding balance circa £80)
f. MBNA minimum payment (1% of outstanding balance circa £35)
g. Mobile phone contract (£10 sim only deal)
h. Donation to Cancer Research (£2.50)

2. I spend all my money, and this is no joke, on snacks and eating out. Last month I bought 3 fun things for myself. These being:

a. A pair of shoes
b. 2 XBOX games (they were in the same transaction, so I class that as one! :P)
c. A memory card for my phone as my other one corrupt.

So all the other money I had (apart from some overpayments) went on food. Popping to Tesco’s to get a muffin (obviously it didn’t say that on my statement, but I knew what it was), getting a meal “deal” at Subway (£3.99), rather than just the salad (£2.29) on Friday, buying McDonalds, when I don’t even remember getting it!

As I’ve just been paid, my plan is to make sure I don’t buy any snacks when I’m at work. Those extra few pounds are lethal to my bank balance as well as my waist!

My mum is back from holiday so this weekend we are going to talk about a possible loan, which means I’ll be credit card free, no interest, have a £1404 OD and one debt to my mum. If I paid her £300 a month, plus give her the (minimum) £1800 I will get when my ShareSave scheme finishes in June 2012, my DFD is March 2013. However, I promised I’d be debt free this time next year, so I need to shave 5 months of that and 7 months of my Lloyds account, so I’ll still be overpaying my mum where I can.

Then I will just have my student loan which apparently isn’t a bad debt and gets taken out of my wages anyway, so I don’t miss it.

It’ll be nice to have money to save again! Keep your fingers crossed my mum feels generous, and has some money stashed away! :P

GreenSaints

Hi all,

Fabulous news! :j

I went to see my mum today, armed with my excel spreadsheet of all debts with projections of what they will be in 12-18 months time. I was very impressed with myself, mainly because of all the excel formulas I made to work out the monthly interest and the like!

Anyway, so I was showing her this and then I made another tab of what it would be like if my mum lent me the money (obviously putting the 0% interest on it! :rotfl:) and how the it would be paid off quicker if I gave her £300 a month and any additional money I came into (eBay selling and the like)

She gave me 'that look' and said "The way I was going to suggest, you'd be debt free in about 7 months"

W
T
F

:eek:

So I asked her to proceed (I did think my mum was trying to fool me to start with!)

She told me about my ISA bond that I opened earlier this year with Nationwide which has a total of £4760 in it. I knew this existed, but I missed a few years of ISA saving while I was at uni, I didn't want to touch this money.

She said, rather than earning (at most) 4% interest, why not pay the entire MBNA (£3100) balance off. She would then give me £300 a month towards the Barclaycard (£3836.94) and I put £200 and then clear the debt that way.

When my ShareSave comes through, I would then just give my mum that money and I would transfer my £200 payments to my Lloyds account and clear that.

:j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j

My mum said about keeping the £1660 in the ISA, but I said why not transfer it to the Barclaycard, making the balance then £2176.94, then making it just over 4 months to clear that. Not only is that nearly 3 months less interest, but means I borrow less from my mum. She wasn't as keen on that. I don't know why, maybe as I would have zero in my ISA again, but it's better to get rid of the debt isn't it? Any advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

My mum also asked why I wanted to pay off my student account if it was at 0%. Apart from the obvious of wanting to be debt free, I got a letter from Lloyds last year saying that my account has been 'upgraded' to a Graduate Account and that I would only be interest free on the £1500 (which is fine at present) However, next year I might get a letter saying it's only £1000 or £500 or £0! Hopefully it'll be gone within 8-10 months, but if I'm showing them I'm paying it off, then that only can be a good thing.

She then said I have to PROMISE that I would then go back to saving my money. I totally assured her that I would. I will never go back to using credit cards again.

So YAY! :j

On another note - I checked my credit file yesterday and noticed a couple of things:

1. I had a lot of credit cards/store accounts that were closed in 2006. Will these disappear in 2012?
2. I missed a payment on my RBS card earlier this year. I no longer use this card, but will that stay on there till 2017?
3. Should I close my old FD account (which I never use) and my CC WHEN (no longer if!) they are cleared? I have been turned down for credit in the last month, so I don't know if that would help as they both have big limits on them (MBNA - £5k, Barclaycard - £9k)

Thank you, and good night

maman

Hi there! Great news that your mum is willing to help. I knew she would if she could, that's what mums do!

I've only scanned the detail of the solutions you arrived at together but it's making you both happy, and that's what matters. :money:always says you should use savings rather than pay interest on debts but as long as you're just paying at 0% then it's not a problem keeping money in your ISA.

I don't know the app you've got on your phone but it sounds like a hi-tech equivalent to an old-fashioned spending diary. Spending diaries are useful for reviewing spending and also to act as a deterrent as you need to be disciplined to write as little in it as possible! You've noticed that buying (unhealthy) snacks is a drain on your purse. OK, have the occasional treat on a Friday but do try to plan ahead. You have to eat but you don't have to eat McD's or Subway! Make sure you plan lunches and snacks a week ahead and buy them in the supermarket and take them to work with you. Personally I would just have a treat if it was part of a social thing like a lunch with friends at the weekend but if you're motivated by a Subway on a Friday then that's OK just limit it!

Sorry if I sound bossy but that's what mums do too!!;)

GreenSaints

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

Basically, the solution is to use my ISA Bond money to pay off my MBNA card and part towards my BC (we found out today that because it's a bond, if I want to take the money out, it's all or nothing) then my mum is going to lend me £1200 to go towards BC and I'll put a minimum of £200, so that's cleared in 6 months

That's online mum for mentioning the unhealthy snacks too! The thing is, I do plan in advance and take my breakfast (cereal), lunch and snacks with me to work. But as soon as I go out at lunch, I'm tempted by all this food! At the beginning of the year, when my debts were at their highest, I used to leave my purse in the office. I'm going to start doing this again, though I did have the shakes to start with!

Tomorrow is the day I'll be nearly debt free of the banks! Plus, equally doing my bit for the economy. Don't worry Dave, I'm here to help