Keeping up appearances.......

poohbear59

grannyx2 wrote: »

Pooh with regards to the applying for credit, sometimes if you apply more than once in a six month period that can also affect your credit score so be careful of that. I got caught in that trap just after my mini LBM in 2007 and ended up where I find myself today. I did think that you meant your current cards were reducing the amount of your limits rather than that you couldn't get credit though and that too happened to OH and I before my LBM. Slowly but surely, as I reduced a balance the card suppliers started reducing the limits, they gave little reason other than they had reviewed our finances. It was sensible but crippling at the time as I had got used to shifting things around to take advantage of low rates so our debt was at least going down. All of a sudden I found myself unable to move anything and that is when the real trouble started as then the payments we were making were only covering the interest. I'm glad it happened now, hence my warning to you, as it could have got a lot worse before it got better and its bad enough as it is.

Sorry for hijacking your thread Happy

Granny x

Granny I have applied for about 6 now in a six month period. The ones we have are reducing our limits AND the bank is reducing our overdraft:eek::eek: It makes everything so tight it is hurting..
I did manage to transfer £180 to 0% this morning but that was all I had available The credit card payments are really a problem. I am paying £200 to credit cards each month and we could do with it for food and heating. Thinking maybe a snowball assessment is called for.

Sorry Happy for hijacking too

Regarding competitions I won a wii fit a few years ago but haven't tried since. It was just one night when I was peeved because everyone else was out and I entered about a dozen competitions and won one. Maybe I should try again....

Honey_Bear

Sorry I got a bit carried away in Post 809. I've been let down recently (to the tune of £510) and I'm launching a new micro-business this year - that money was ear-marked towards it. I don't mind admitting I'm suffering from a touch of financial cramp which means belt-tightening to the tightest notch has had to be instigated and it hurts!

haybel19

[QUOTE=

Regarding competitions I won a wii fit a few years ago but haven't tried since. It was just one night when I was peeved because everyone else was out and I entered about a dozen competitions and won one. Maybe I should try again....[/QUOTE]

Well worth a go... Well done on the win- lovely prize.:j

brizzledfw

Hi happy just popping in, that's a mad credit allowance but well done for the shuffling..I sometimes forget but you seem more organised than me! Hope all the ops go OK folks

Brizzle

shaz1963

Morning Happy, I just wanted to say hi, Im one of these people who normally just browse around on this site, however Im off work and in bed with the cold so I spent time yesterday reading through your diary. Its very interesting and been lovely reading it, I just wanted to wish you all the best.....you have also got me thinking about all the things I need to start doing :-(((( oooppps

Shaz x

PinotGrigio41

Hi Happy,

Yes it was Mr PGs right shoulder, how spooky ! What with the the shoulder, the blue light kettle, we could be twins !!

Mr PG drove a truck to Scotland 5 days after the op, no idea how he did ( how he steered and changed gear is beyond me and best not to think about ) and he really shouldn't have but finances meant he did. My heart was in my mouth the whole time but no amount of persuasion from me would make him not take the job, so off he went with his arm in a sling. :eek:

Shaz, hope you feel better soon x

HappyNow

Evcakes wrote: »

Hi I read all your diary this morning and just wanted to say well done on your progress and completely understand why you don't want to your other half the extent of it.

Keep going x

Hi Evcakes, thanks for reading and posting :wave:. I will definitely keep going. I've still got about 7 years on the unsecured debt (and that's if things go well!), then I start on the mortgage! If I don't stay motivated I will be too old to enjoy my debt-freedom :rotfl:. I hope you will stick around to keep me company x

shaz1963 wrote: »

Morning Happy, I just wanted to say hi, Im one of these people who normally just browse around on this site, however Im off work and in bed with the cold so I spent time yesterday reading through your diary. Its very interesting and been lovely reading it, I just wanted to wish you all the best.....you have also got me thinking about all the things I need to start doing :-(((( oooppps

Shaz x

Hello Shaz, I hope your cold is getting better. Thanks for reading and for your good wishes. You're right, reading other peoples diaries DOES make you realise that there are things you should be doing - that's what started me off on my journey and I'm so glad it did. If your 'things' are debt-related I would definitely recommend starting your own diary, it is the biggest motivator in the world! But if diary-keeping isn't for you then please feel free to keep posting on here, there are lots of helpful people keep popping by x

HappyNow

haybel19 wrote: »

Are you on facebook? Ive had quite a few wins from there lately- try the e-cover uk clean machine one- ive won twice its instant win and clearning products are always handy. Ive been entering competitions for 12-13 years- its very addictive sometimes you enter loads and win nothing for months then get a lovely trickle all at once... hang in there... dont be disheartened if takes awhile for your first win... when you get it whatever it is it will be worth it. We have had some really lovely things, and certainly lots of things we would not otherwise have had. The only downside is that as prizes often turn up unannouced I get so excited when the postman/delivery driver/courier come that i swear they think I fancy them :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Ah, facebook. That's another thing I've done in preparation for my comping career! I do have an account that I sometimes use, but I was worried that if I used it for comping I would end up spamming all my friends with adverts for ecover etc. So I've set up another one - with deliberately no friends - purely to use for this. Does that sound like a good idea or will the organisers know?! Anyway, thanks for the ecover suggestion - I've done it for the last two days - no wins yet but you never know and it's actually quite fun to do just in itself. I also do the Dorset Cereal daily spin-the-bottle one (that's not facebook, it's just their website) which is fun.

poohbear59 wrote: »

Granny I have applied for about 6 now in a six month period. The ones we have are reducing our limits AND the bank is reducing our overdraft:eek::eek: It makes everything so tight it is hurting..
I did manage to transfer £180 to 0% this morning but that was all I had available The credit card payments are really a problem. I am paying £200 to credit cards each month and we could do with it for food and heating. Thinking maybe a snowball assessment is called for.

Sorry Happy for hijacking too

Regarding competitions I won a wii fit a few years ago but haven't tried since. It was just one night when I was peeved because everyone else was out and I entered about a dozen competitions and won one. Maybe I should try again....

Pooh, that sounds awful. I just hope Mr Pooh is well enough to get back to work soon, you could really do without the drop in income right now. Have you thought about asking for advice on the credit card board?

The wii fit was a good win. At the moment I'm only entering competitions for things I actually need or want, but when I catch up (I'm entering two days-worth each day right now) I intend also entering for things that are sellable, such as games consoles etc. I know the comps are a bit of a longshot, but it's free.......

HappyNow

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Sorry I got a bit carried away in Post 809. I've been let down recently (to the tune of £510) and I'm launching a new micro-business this year - that money was ear-marked towards it. I don't mind admitting I'm suffering from a touch of financial cramp which means belt-tightening to the tightest notch has had to be instigated and it hurts!

Ouch, sorry to hear about that, hope you can pull it back together. The micro-business sounds exciting, are you able to talk about it or is it still under wraps? Depending on what it is, there are a few people on here who link to their homepage via their User Control Panel if yours is the sort of business that might benefit from that?

HappyNow

brizzledfw wrote: »

Hi happy just popping in, that's a mad credit allowance but well done for the shuffling..I sometimes forget but you seem more organised than me! Hope all the ops go OK folks

Brizzle

Ha, I am positively fanatical about my shuffling. Since I started this diary I have come to detest paying interest - it's bad enough that I have to struggle to pay off my debts without paying extra on top! I have a very low-tech 'pencil and paper' method of remembering, but if you're prone to forgetting you could use Martin Lewis's 'Tart Alert' free reminder service ->

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/credit-card-tart

I've never used it but it sounds like a good idea for anyone who isn't quite as anal as me!!