New and scared but so determined

freebyfifty

It was clearly destined for you and you would have been sending the wrath of fate down on you if you hadn't purchased it

freebyfifty

Good Morning or is it still night? I couldn't sleep and have been up for ages. I haven't even done anything very productive, just mooched around the house with a cup of coffee muttering to myself about how I bet I sleep in tomorrow when I have to go back to work

I managed a nsd yesterday purely by refusing to budge from the house all day. I did a lot of housework and watched a lot of carp on the tv. Never got the tree up but I'm not too bothered about that, the DD's were busy doing their own thing so they never mentioned it. I think they have resigned themselves to their mother being an old scrooge

Unexpectedly two things I had listed on ebay sold on Saturday night. They were the last couple of things to finish and there had been no watchers the last time I checked so I didn't expect to them to sell. It was a pleasant surprise to get the e-mail notifying me of payment but now I have to treck to the post office again. It has kinda motivated me to keep going with ebay as it appears that everything sells eventually. I'm just not going to go at it as frantically as I have over the past couple of months. I have a little bit in my paypal account, enough to pay the ebay fees and have some left over so anything I make now can be saved up and transferred into the debt busting account

I am thinking about whether or not to transfer a little bit each month into another account??? I see people on here have an emergency account or a savings account and I don't have anything like that. I am just focused on trying to use every penny to clear my debts. Having savings seems a bit wierd to me when you have squillions in debt. What do I do????


Answers on a postcard or the back of a sealed down envelope please

miggy

We gave in to DS2 and allowed the tree to be put up yesterday - and having DD's (tall) b/f around meant there is now a layer of decorations round the very top of the living room which is nice actually even if it sounds odd from the description.

Sorry you couldn't sleep. I took a while to get to sleep too, I think the zenith and nadir (is that the word?) of the year mess with the body clock, as if mine wasn't odd enough already. Sometimes I just give up, switch on the kettle and the telly and chill for a bit. That works for me. Alternatively, could it be the staying in all day? Maybe your body wanted the fresh air? This time of year isn't condusive though. Oh dear - spell checker doesn't like that, but spell checker and I aren't communicating because our English is different.

Nice to get some more Ebay sales in. After Christmas I wonder if there will be a big influx of people selling unwanted gift sets?

freebyfifty wrote: »

I am thinking about whether or not to transfer a little bit each month into another account??? I see people on here have an emergency account or a savings account and I don't have anything like that. I am just focused on trying to use every penny to clear my debts. Having savings seems a bit wierd to me when you have squillions in debt. What do I do????

I have been thinking about this a bit and I haven't got a definitive answer. I know I feel more in control now I have a bit 'put by' and that that will buffer us against things like emergency repairs, but if interest rates are costing you dearly then maybe you need to knock high interest rate debts on the head first?

On the other hand, if you could put by a token amount - say £1 a month - that would be £12 saved by the end of the year and it would also give you a positive boost. Or how about if you pay your income through one of those Halifax accounts that pays you £5 a month so long as £1,000 gets paid through? You don't need £1,000 a month to do this - just keep taking out and paying in till £1,000 has gone through! Then those fivers could go towards savings.

Of course the most important thing about savings is as a cushion against future spending. My experience here is that things will always break down and need to be replaced eventually though making do and mending goes a long way and so does insurance if there's a disaster (cf. my tale of the collapsing kitchen cupboard which turned into the saga of the brand new all singing all dancing cooker!) So consider the likelihood of the car needing major work or the washing machine breaking.

Do you know, I'm sure Martin :money:has written about it somewhere. I'll have a quick look but am due in work soon so if I don't reappear, it's because I ran out of time.

miggy

Found it first go! How amazing is that?

Ignore all I've just waffled on about:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/pay-off-debts
Martin has spoken.

Knitting_Nora

miggy wrote: »

Found it first go! How amazing is that?

Ignore all I've just waffled on about:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/pay-off-debts
Martin has spoken.

That's what I've done - thrown everything at clearing the overdraft and chunks off the credit cards, so there's a way to deal with final bills for the rental, and space if there's a true emergency. Gives me the same sense of relief as having savings used to, but is much more productive.

Nora.x

saorsie

It's always up to individual circumstances obviously however I have a view that if you have debts, any 'spare' money should be put towards clearing those as interest rated are so much higher on debt; if you then go on to have an 'unplanned emergency' car, washing machine breaks down etc you pay for it on your hopefully rapidly reducing credit card (of course if you don't have an unlanned emergency, all wel and good, your debt reduces more quickly :T)

Now then on the other hand, I am all in favour of saving up for things you know are going to happen ie car tax, insurance (car and house), Christmas 2012 (:eek:) holidays etc. So if you were to divide the estimated annual cost of these by 12 and put that away each month (before you start repaying debt) in a savings account, that is a proactive move and saves you having to batter the CC when these events occur ~ which of course they will.

Good point by Miggy about using 'free money' ie survey cash, fleabay, coupon savings etc to start a small emergency pot if that whats you feel comfortable with. (the H*lifax reward Account £5 payment is fab btw I have the CC also so that's another fiver, gives me a lovely warm feeling each month when it pops into my account )

Just my thoughts anyway ~ you are doing fab, keep up the good work.

-s-

freebyfifty

Thank you to everyone for their replies and a big :heartsmil to miggy for posting that link.

I have read it through and have decided just to keep battling away at my cc's. There is enough of a balance on my overdraft in the bank for any emergencies which will be much cheaper than adding to my cc's and if I had to use the o/d then everytime I logged into my account I'd see it, unlike the cc's which I only log into two or three times a month.

MuffinTops

Hello Freeby,

I wanted to come and say hi. Sometimes a few of the diaries I read just make me feel a bit behind on things, but in a motivating way and I'm happy to say yours is one of those.

Reading through your dilemma and answers to putting money aside, this is something I've been thinking about too, but I fully agree that high percentage debts are best to keep as a priority. That's helped me make my mind up too.

I hope you get a decent night's sleep after waking so early this morning. Take care.

666paw

I am at the moment saving whilst I have debts but only because thay are all currently on 0% deals. I thought I may as well get a little interest but then make sure I pay as much off as possible before the deals end. If yours are on 0% deals you could perhaps do the same.

666.

freebyfifty

I knew it !!!!!!

I knew I'd sleep in when I have to get up for work!!!

Running very behind and so are the DD's so I just flew in to say 'Good Morning' to everyone and thank you for all your replies.

I will keep plugging away at my debts and leave my o/d for any emergencies.

Managed another NSD yesterday I posted ebay parcels but I don't count them. Going for another one today

Bank account has been checked and spreadsheet updated - two days to payday and it's looking fairly healthy considering its less than two weeks before Christmas.
I have to admit to being a bit over excited to PADing which I will start on payday. I can't wait to get started on paying the debts off sooner than the snowball says. I'm such a saddo

Hope everyone is okay and I'll try to catch up properly when I've more time - which will probably be never (or when I'm at work - lol)