My SOA

RhiBi

It ends in June, funnily enough dh did say last night about potentially moving the amount in the future. The card is still getting the chop though, even if we don't close the account. The Halifax one, I will be closing ASAP though.

My next mission is to tackle the overdraft! It is so demoralising seeing a negative balance. I don't know whether I said, our current account that DH's pay goes into is nationwide, £1600 is then transferred to a lloyds current account which is used for all out direct debits, and credit card payments. So any money in the nationwide is for day to day living expenses. Just before payday this tends to be up to the £1100 OD limit. I really want that gone. How is the best way to go about it, would it be an idea to reduce the limit by £200 a month so as to gradually bring it down?

Again, thank you all for all your help, I really feel, for the first time, that this can be tackled Today, I've had to buy bread, so I walked to lidl after the school run, and bought 2 loaves for 94p, I didn't look at anything else, just went in, got what I wanted, then out. I then needed pipe cleaners for Easter bonnets for DD's, so went in a local value shop, bought those, and a washing up brush as ours had fallen apart, total spend in there £1.39. My only other expense today is £2 for dd's brownies this evening, so total spend for today is £4.33.

MFWannabe

RhiBi wrote: »

It ends in June, funnily enough dh did say last night about potentially moving the amount in the future. The card is still getting the chop though, even if we don't close the account. The Halifax one, I will be closing ASAP though. Definitely still cut up the card. It might work out very good timing to move the MBNA (old 0%) to Barclaycard; just after the Barclaycard debt as been transferred to MBNA.That sounds mad doesn't it!!:)

My next mission is to tackle the overdraft! It is so demoralising seeing a negative balance. I don't know whether I said, our current account that DH's pay goes into is nationwide, £1600 is then transferred to a lloyds current account which is used for all out direct debits, and credit card payments. So any money in the nationwide is for day to day living expenses. Just before payday this tends to be up to the £1100 OD limit. I really want that gone. How is the best way to go about it, would it be an idea to reduce the limit by £200 a month so as to gradually bring it down? Wow; you really sound like you are on the debt busting mission. One thing you could do is transfer the overdraft onto the MBNA card via a Super Balance Transfer; therefore changing into credit card debt (Providing they will do this on 0% and you have enough available credit on the MBNA card). Then you close the overdraft. Or you could continue with the overdraft and try reducing it gradually; say £100 per month.

Again, thank you all for all your help, I really feel, for the first time, that this can be tackled Today, I've had to buy bread, so I walked to lidl after the school run, and bought 2 loaves for 94p, I didn't look at anything else, just went in, got what I wanted, then out. I then needed pipe cleaners for Easter bonnets for DD's, so went in a local value shop, bought those, and a washing up brush as ours had fallen apart, total spend in there £1.39. My only other expense today is £2 for dd's brownies this evening, so total spend for today is £4.33.

You're doing brilliantly; keep up the good work :T

whizzing

I understand why you can't get a job. So just make reducing your expenses your job. That is what I did when I was redundant and not working for while. It can be just as profitable as working.
It sounds like your kids are all at school so this is the ideal time. Set some time aside each day for tackling this. Try to do it yourself during the day so it is not spoiling your evenings. It is time consuming but just do one thing at a time and keep track of the savings for motivation !!!

RhiBi

Thank you again freez, you're like having my own financial advisor:D. I'll get dh to call them this evening and see about shifting both.

It's strange, the amount we owe is the same, but for the first time, I feel like we're controlling it, not it controlling us, it feels good:)

Whiz zing, that's what I'm trying to do at the moment, reading around, getting advice, and working out ways to pay as much as possible.

Once all the debts are moved to where I want them to be, I want to do another SOA and the snowballing thing, to see exactly how much we can pay off each month.

RhiBi

I just went on the nationwide website and reduced the overdraft by £100. Our actual overdraft limit was £700, now £600, however there is a 'reserve overdraft' where they will process payments up to £1100, I presume now I've lowered the OD that that lowers to £1000, although I couldn't actually find any definite info on that.

The scary thing is, that we are currently £60 in overdraft, it's only 3rd of the month, DH gets paid on the 28th of the month I've suddenly lost my positivity

MFWannabe

RhiBi wrote: »

Thank you again freez, you're like having my own financial advisor:D. If only i earned the pay of a financial advisor :rotfl:I'll get dh to call them this evening and see about shifting both. :TNever hurts to ask the question; what's the worst that can happen?

It's strange, the amount we owe is the same, but for the first time, I feel like we're controlling it, not it controlling us, it feels good:) You're feeling better as you've faced it and if you get it more organised in a couple of places (one card and one loan for example) than spread over several. And you've made some great cutbacks

Whiz zing, that's what I'm trying to do at the moment, reading around, getting advice, and working out ways to pay as much as possible. You're doing a great job, keep it up :T

Once all the debts are moved to where I want them to be, I want to do another SOA and the snowballing thing, to see exactly how much we can pay off each month.

Well done; certainly sounds like you are getting yourself very organised

woohoo_postingid

With my overdraft, I concentrated on bringing it down a bit at a time. I went for £100 a month and on the first month said "I will not go over £900" and I stuck to it. Now, a year later I have no overdraft and I'm now saying "I won't let my account balance dip below £200", next month I'm aiming for £300. It's tough but the rewards are brilliant.

It's all about winning little battles which eventually lead to winning the war. You've made some great changes so far but pick the battles you can win easily. Don't make changes to the overdraft which will cause you real problems - wait until you've won a couple of other battles and then you have the "free money" to tackle the overdraft.

MFWannabe

RhiBi wrote: »

I just went on the nationwide website and reduced the overdraft by £100. Our actual overdraft limit was £700, now £600, however there is a 'reserve overdraft' where they will process payments up to £1100, I presume now I've lowered the OD that that lowers to £1000, although I couldn't actually find any definite info on that.

The scary thing is, that we are currently £60 in overdraft, it's only 3rd of the month, DH gets paid on the 28th of the month I've suddenly lost my positivity

Come back positivity! You're not going to get out of your overdraft straight away. Have a think how much money you will need between now and 28th so you know how much you need to ask MBNA to balance transfer. Have all direct debits gone out? Is it food, petrol etc that will be required? Can you raise some money another way? Do you have things you can list on ebay?

RhiBi

I'm listing on eBay currently and need to continue to do so. Dh uses a lot of petrol for work, we only do very short journeys other than work, there are 2 bank holidays, so that will mean 2less journeys. Petrol costs are around £300. The journey to work is over a mountain so to very economical driving.

Ideally if MBNA could do the super transfer, then I'd say realistically £600 (£300 for petrol, and £300 for living expenses.). All direct debits come out of the other account, and the money has gone across to cover those, so it's petrol and living expenses that need to be covered. Of course, school holidays start here on Thursday, so that means children home and more food used!!

I hate overdrafts!!!!!!

MFWannabe

Problem with overdrafts is they never really feel like a proper debt, but the way your wages half disappear as soon as they go in is frightening and then you're always trying to win a losing battle for the rest of the month If you can manage to put it on your MBNA card then at least you'll treat it like debt; good luck with this and the Next debt; i'll keep my fingers crossed for you x