Time to get serious about money saving...

LookingToTheFuture_2

I had a good money saving month in January. Total of 15 NSDs, and I managed to pay £528.47 off my debts!
I don't think February will be quite as good, because I know I've spent over my budget on a couple of things. But I haven't used my credit cards at all so at least each debt is still reducing, albeit by small amounts. In a few days I'll have had all my statements through so I'll be able to update my balances.
Work situation is still a bit up in the air. A lot of jobs (including mine) are definitely going but they have *kindly* allowed us to apply for other, lower grade, internal jobs. Some people are choosing to take redundancy but due to my debt situation I've decided it's better to stay in employment if I can, so I've applied. Have had my interview so now just waiting to hear if I've been successful. (fingers crossed).
Anyway, here are my debt balances for the end of January:-

TOTAL DEBT 31.01.12 £12376.50
Natwest Card £3600.12 Tesco Card £1052.53
Co op Card £626.66 MBNA Card £844.99
Barclaycard £1133.96 Storecard £174.27
Loan 1 £1770.72 Overdraft £1923.25
Loan 2 (interest free) £1250.00

I promise to be better at keeping this diary up to date in future!! :)

LookingToTheFuture_2

I have to confess something that will make most of you jump up and down and scream "NOOOO!" at the screen - a couple of weeks ago I was talking to a close friend about my situation and he offered to lend me £1000 (interest free) to help towards reducing some of my higher interest debt. I accepted.

Now I know that the golden rule is "Never borrow from friends and family" but he was really very insistent on helping me. He's said I can pay him back at £60 per month, unless I end up out of work, in which case he'll suspend my repayments until I get a job. This will really help me a lot, as the total I owe will go down faster as less will be going towards interest.
Now, what I'm wondering is - should I use it to clear the MBNA card which has the highest interest (29%) or use it to reduce my overdraft (19%)? It would make more sense in one way to clear the MBNA card first, but my overdraft is a constant worry, as I know they can demand full repayment at any time, which would leave me in the sh*t!
What do other MSErs think?

On an unrelated note, a surprising side effect of starting this diary is that I'm actually looking forward to getting my credit card statements this month, so that I can update my signature! Crazy, huh? :rotfl: