PigginSkint's DFW Diary

Hopeful1

Oh that's just blimmin' frustrating! It's definitely the right decision for her to go. Perhaps that's half the issue in that she mentally switched off from the job and was even less concerned about her rude behaviour as she knew she was going!

Deffo forget about her and enjoy a long soak (with a glass of wine?) Life's too short to allow work to dominate it at this time of night

PigginSkint

Blimey! Is it really that long since I last posted on my own diary - oops! Work has been very busy for months and I am even behind with updating my spreadsheets. Must do so now to make sure things don't go pear-shaped over Christmas! I have updated my spreadsheets far enough so I can post my 1st December figures. They aren't as good as I had hoped, but I hope to start 2012 in a slightly healther financial state!

Bye for now!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Hope everyone has had a nice Christmas!

Mine has been eventful to say the least. I have had a really horrendous cold for over a week now - I got through the main festivities on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day by will power alone. I cooked Christmas dinner for 8 of us when all I wanted to do was go to bed!

If that wasn't enough, the day before Christmas Eve my washing machine decided to finally give up the ghost. I was able to put a few loads through my Dad's machine, which kept us going for a while. My Dad gave us the contact details for a repair bloke, who came out yesterday. Luckily he only charged us £20 for the call-out. Anyway, he only confirmed what I had already suspected - that it wasn't worth repairing. The drum has completely collapsed and we would have been looking at at least £200 to have it replaced.

The good news is of course, that it is the time of year when all the sales are are on. I have managed to get a good deal on a good machine (managed to get a Bosch, which is what the repair man recommended) and the best bit is that it will be delivered tomorrow (within 48 hours of the order being placed) with no delivery charge.

I don't have to worry about paying for the old one to be taken away - there is a scrap man who comes round our way - nor do I need to pay for it to be installed - OH should be able to cope with it and, if not, our next door neighbour can plumb a washing machine in.

It could be worse - it is the first time I have had to buy a washing machine in a very long time. Techically it is the first one I have ever bought, as my Ex bought the one before last and the one before that, and the current (broken) one was given to us.

Moneywise the 2011 figures aren't going to be as good as I had hoped, and certainly the 1st January scores on the doors are not going to be great, but 2012 should be a better year (I hope). I have got money put aside for Christmas, house maintenance costs and a couple of other savings pots which should take the sting out of things!

Anyway, off to dose myself up with more honey and lemon, paracetamol and cough medicine.

Happy New Year everyone! (If I don't post again before then)

PigginSkint

Happy New Year everyone! (OK I know it's a bit late!) :beer:

I have done my 1st January figures but haven't posted them yet - will have to wait until I get home because that's where my spreadsheets are!

They are looking a bit depressing, to be perfectly honest, as are my 2011 figures generally. I haven't managed to fill in as many coloured squares in 2011 as I managed in previous years!

The main reason for this is that most of the money that I had saved up for Christmas etc hasn't yet hit the relevant credit cards. I really need to sit down, update my spreadsheets and fling a lot of money at the horrid debts.

Of course, the credit card took a bit of a bashing because of having to buy a new washing machine. Luckily I was about to use £120 that I had in my house maintenance fund to put towards that (there was more than that in that particular savings account but I used £20 to pay the washing machine engineer who confirmed the demise of the old one, and £55 to have the boiler serviced). This means I have cleared over a 1/3 of that particular debt already. :j

Anyway, onwards and upwards - I fully expect 2012 to be a better year! (Here's hoping!)

Nearly time to go home now, so bye for now! :hello:

PigginSkint

Signature now updated! With any look the 1st February figures should look a lot a better!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Thank goodness it's Friday - I am so tired!

I have a bit of a dilemma at the moment. I am wondering whether I should take out a loan to pay off my rather large overdraft - my bank has offered me one for about 8.9% APR (ish). The pros and cons are:

Pros

• I would actually be paying it off, instead of having it sitting there shouting at me while I try to clear other debts.
• The interest rate for the loan is lower than it is for my overdraft.
• It already costs me about £60 a month to be overdrawn (a combination of OD interest and account fees)

Cons

• It would mean an increase in the monthly outgoings - the minimum payment would be about £80 a month on a 7 year term (the maximum available)
• Erm....... I can't think of any more cons!

Hmmmm.....perhaps it is something that I should seriously consider. Any comments gratefully received!

Hopeful1

Hi Piggin' Happy New Year! If you're saving money with a loan, I'm guessing it's got to be a winner. Would you be able to make overpayments on the loan? Are you sure you wouldn't be able to clear the overdraft any quicker?

PigginSkint

Hi Hopeful

Happy New Year to you too!

The trouble is that I have investigated other ways of paying it off - I wanted the bank to reduce my OD limit gradually but they wouldn't do it. I could just save the money until I have enough to pay it off in one lump but that would take a very long time - it is a very large OD = £5000. I am always concentrating on other debts and never touching this one, but the fees being what they are it makes me think it would make more sense to use a loan to pay it off and then at least it would start coming down. I was able to overpay on my last LTSB loan - I wish I had realised it earlier because I would have started overpaying it much earlier - so I assume I would be able to do the same again. If so, it is certainly is my intention to do so!

PigginSkint

My overdraft is history! My bank account is in credit for the first time in ...ooh...about 10 years! :j

I have decided to take the plunge and take out a loan to pay off my £5000 overdraft. The APR wasn't quite as good as I had hoped - 13.6% instead of about 9%. I could have got 9% if I had borrowed £7500 but I didn't feel inclined to do that! The interest rate on my overdraft was around about the 12% mark, so there isn't a great deal of difference really.

I have gone for 5 years instead of 7 - I could have had a very slightly lower interest rate with 7 years (13% instead of 13.6%) but the repayment wasn't much different, so I decided to go for the shorter term.

The montly repayment will be £113.41, which is not very much more than what I have currently been paying for the overdraft - £25 account fee, £5 overdraft usage fee and between £30 and £40 overdraft interest - so it will not be much of an extra stretch on the cashflow situation. The difference is of course, that the debt will actually be reducing instead of staying the same.

I have also downgraded my current account for a fees -free one - the only reason I had the fee paying account was for the cheaper interest rate on the overdraft. Not needed now of course!

I can make overpayments but I still need to work out the details of how to do this. Last time I had an LTSB loan I was able to set up a standing order to enable me to make a weekly overpayment, which I could tweak higher or lower depending on how much spare money I had. I suspect there will be no reason why I can't do the same again. Alternatively, I could just put money aside weekly and pay off the occasional lump sum. I would prefer the standing order option, but either would do. I certainly don't intend to let it run the full 5 years!

I have put off doing this for so long because I didn't want to take on more debt, but really what I am doing is just exchanging one type of debt for another type. The difference is of course that I shall actually be paying it off, instead of it just sitting there staying the same, while I pay off other debts instead.

I have to confess, it is actually a very good feeling to actually be doing something about this particular debt! :j

PigginSkint

Hi All

The big news this morning is that, with the payment I have just made to the Evil Egg/Barclaycard (Egg has now been bought by Barclaycard), Christmas is completely paid off!!! Woohoo!! Such a good feeling!!!:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j