The "Pay ALL your debt off by Xmas 2012" challenge - PART 2!!!

mf0u1098

welshone27 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm new to the board so I hope you don't mind me jumping in.
We currently have around £7500 in debts and I really want to clear these by Christmas this year. It causes me sleepless nights and I really believe I could do with the support. I have so many letters that I just don't open any more :embarasse, I will go through them all this week and find out the exact figure. I am scared to do this.
I've buried my head in the sand for to long. I really have to sort this out.
Could I please join?

Glenda wrote: »

I Know I'm a bit late but can I please join
I have 4000.00 debt,
and I don't have a pound sign on my computer for some reason.

I have made a start by selling clutter on ebay and selling books on amazon. I've made all my meals this week with food reduced in supermarket at the end of the day and I can't beleive things have got this bad.
I have a problem saying no to people and have tried for a long time to keep up with the joneses so to speak. I'm now 38 coming 39 and this is my year to become debt free (supposed to be getting married next year if I can afford it:eek:).

Welcome to the team!!! You'll get loads of support on here so just get stuck in, I've just finished my updating so your numbers are on post 3 xxx

welshone27

Thank you so much. I have to log off for tonight but I shall be back tomorrow. Thanks again, I can't wait to get started.x

kerri_dfw

Glenda wrote: »

I Know I'm a bit late but can I please join
I have 4000.00 debt,
and I don't have a pound sign on my computer for some reason.

I have made a start by selling clutter on ebay and selling books on amazon. I've made all my meals this week with food reduced in supermarket at the end of the day and I can't beleive things have got this bad.
I have a problem saying no to people and have tried for a long time to keep up with the joneses so to speak. I'm now 38 coming 39 and this is my year to become debt free (supposed to be getting married next year if I can afford it:eek:).

Welcome aboard Glenda, you've picked a good year we're all going to be celebrating by the end of it how good we'll all feel

PedroMatias

Gah, this ain't going well. Spent £320 on a snowboard, and then went out chasing a girl who revealed she had a boyfriend right at the end of the night. Misery continues...

Canucksfan

HELLO! It is Sunday again and here is the update from chilly Canada. Thanks for the lovely welcome, Kerfuffle. Haven't PM'd you back as I have been at work every day-sorry _pale_. Also been a bit homesick, so have been turning off the ancient episodes of Jeremy Kyle and even older episodes of Corrie on the TV as I get wobbly when I hear the accents!!!
A bit of background-we came out here on a 3 year contract in my name on the working visa, but now four yrs later, my husband says we can't afford to go back home and our children have formed such good roots and friendships here that they cry everytime I bring up the subject of returning to England. As DH and I are both working full-time shifts, including nights, we need a live-in nanny as we can't afford seperate childcare for so many kids. The nanny+expensive mortgage (45% of our monthly salaries for an average sized house)= not much spare money!
Do you get Gail Vaz-Oxlade's books or TV Programmes in England? Well I am trying to follow a combination of hers and Dave Ramsey's principles to try and get our debt down. We have decided that DH will concentrate on the mortgage and I will pay off everything else - our salaries are similar, but I am able to bump mine up with overtime shifts, which then means I don't see enough of the children :mad:
So, I allocated money into envelopes for food, clothing etc and for the first half of the week it went v well, but then we hit a couple of stumbling blocks. DH bought loads of expensive presents at the last minute using his debit cards for our DS's birthday (he always goes OTT with the kids) and then Dear Reader, the boiler went bust...:eek:
It is bloomin cold too. The cost of replacing the boiler is approx $4-6000. DH states that he doesn't have a bean, BUT proudly informs me that he has found someone to replace the boiler with easy payments over the next few months. The problem with this is that wehn you are new to Canada, you arrive with NO credit score...it's not something you can transfer from England. When he was finally granted his first Canadian cc, DH was late paying the minimum amount just a couple of times and now his credit rating is terrible and will stay like that for the indefinite future. He will not even be able to take on a mobile phone agreement with that credit rating, never mind megabucks for a boiler! :shocked: So Martyr that I am, I'm now working a lot of overtime shifts, getting older, greyer and grumpier by the minute!
Under our new plan to get debt free by Chrismas, DH just pays the mortgage and I pay everything else. I managed to make a payment of $400 towards DH's minimum payment on his card. I could've made more, but homeowners have to pay property tax twice a year here and I have to pay an installment in February. I have cancelled our Internet DVD rental system, saving $12/month. I did get a parking ticket at my work's car park...grrr. Farewell $ 48! Loving the myfitnesspal.com app - I have lost 2.5lbs!
Ta ra for now xxx
MSE#249: Canucksfan

Debt:$400/$$17418-95

Weight: 2.5lbs/70lbs

CoupsRus

Hi there Canucksfan,

I noticed you said you missed some tv shows, I just wanted to say I'm in the US and we use a service called AdTelly that allows us to watch English tv shows as if we were in England. I get to keep up with Eastenders and Corrie. The service cost £5.50 a month, roughly $ 9 US dollars, not sure how much Canadian. I know this is a money saving site and we are trying to pay off our debts, but thought I would share it as it might help with homesickness.

Canucksfan

This forum is great for support-thanks for the info Coupsrus! don't get me wrong, Canada has a lot going for it...but getting something good to watch will be great! You've made my day :j

Kerfuffle

Hi Canucksfan,

I enjoyed reading your post explaining your situation, it's good to hear from a fellow Brit going through the same stuff as me.

Regarding your credit rating, whilst it may affect getting a credit card, wouldn't you be able to get a 'line of credit' from your bank, especially if you're both working and your salaries are paid into it? We've got a line of credit set up as the interest rate is cheaper than a credit card so we know it's there if we want to use it, you only have to set it up once and if you use it and then pay it off you still have the credit available to you without having to apply again.

Regarding TV, we came here Sept 2008, and this December (2011) we finally got a satellite TV, we've had to watch DVDs all this time, so I'm actually addicted to Corrie at the moment (the acting was a bit wooden to start with but I'm used to it again now :rotfl:), and I love Gail Vaz-Oxlade and have all my jars with my weekly allowance in, it's a great system (only got $2.54 to last me for groceries till next Friday though :eek:).

No pressure to PM me, I just offered in case you wanted to chat without hijacking this thread.:)

Canucksfan

Thanks for the advice re line of credit. Its definitely something to think about! I wish I could get Gail to come round to my house to sort out our cash-flow ... I would even let her stomp around upstairs having a good old nosey and saying 'are you CRRRAZY?!?' :rotfl:at the top of her voice! I am thankful for having a well paid job with benefits. Plenty of our friends at home have lost jobs/can't find work etc and think WE are living the life of Riley - but I hv never worked so hard in my life!!! Mind u that seems to be the common factor with every person on this forum. Some of the people who do all the Clicks or Mystery Shopping or sorting out stuff to sell on EBay...I just get worn out by just reading abt all their hard graft! Well I am gonna take this bad mood of mine to bed now...I hate feeling cold and will try and sort out the boiler probs tomorr. Talk to you soon K x

DorsetGirl_2

Morning everyone and :wave: to all the new joiners.

I think being on this thread is changing my attitudes towards money too. I said last week we were thinking about a holiday next year once we were DF. I have done some dummy bookings and the cheapest I can find in £3500 self catering :eek::eek:

Last year I would have booked it without even thinking about it, but this year I have a new attitude and I walked away. We are doing a no-frills flight and renting an apartment and car and the total cost will be about £1700 for the 6 of us.

Still chipping away at the 1st CC, I think by Monday it will be under £1900.:T