PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint

Good news! I have just applied and been approved for a 0% balance transfer deal on a new credit card - 26 months! It's one of the ones on this week's MSE newsletter. That should help with the mega balance on the Evil Egg/Bonkers Barclaycard!

That'll do for now, but I may do it again when some of my other 0% deals come to an end. Also my Amex card is nearly clear, so once it is I will phone them up and see if they can offer me a new balance transfer deal.

PigginSkint

I am a very proud Mummy this morning! DS got his A level results just after 6:00am - A for Chemistry, B for Physics and B for Biology. This is what he needed for his first choice university place, so he will be going to Plymouth University to study Marine Biology! Very very proud!!!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I'm finding it really hard to get motivated at work today - my brain is still in holiday mode!

The old credit card is still taking a bit of a battering - I had to take the kitties to the vets for their jabs and to get supplies of flea and worm treatment on Friday.

I need to get DS a few things ready for when he goes to Uni. Ages ago, when I switched to Southern Electric, I signed up to their Argos Energyplus tariff. This means that I must have accumulated a fair amount which would be very useful at the moment to buy kettle, toaster, saucepans etc. I did a bit of detective work last night and it appears that I would have received a card for this at some point and I can't redeem any points without either the card or the card number. I vaguely remember receiving such a thing so I think I am going to have to search for it tonight.

Anyway, off now for my lunchtime walk so will say bye for now!!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Feel very very tired and very very unmotivated to do any work!! Can quite happily lose myself on MSE for a while!!

I think I have more or less updated my debt figures on my spreadsheets and should be able to update my signature (see below) for the first time in months!

Have managed to get a few more things for DS ready for when he goes to university. Bought a quite nice wok yesterday (not too big) from TK Maxx for £6.99 - absolute bargain! :money:Over the past few months I have also managed to get a few things very cheaply from Poundland, Wilkos and a few other places, so I am doing quite well. If ever I get the Argos situation sorted I should be able to get him some other things.

In other news, I have been doing a few small balance transfers as I have a few 0% deals on existing credit cards (which currently have LOB balances on). I am transferring relatively small amounts from the Evil Egg/Bonkers Barclaycard (the only card I have on standard rate APR) to these other cards so that by the time the 0% runs out, the balance transferred should be paid off (or as near as damn it!!)

The balance on my other Bonkers Barclaycard is now relatively small. The 0% for 24 months deal on that card has now expired and I currently have the offer of another 0% deal on the same card. I was considering transferring the balance off to transfer it back again to take advantage of the 0%. However, I have decided that it is probably not really worth it - I have would have to pay 2 lots of balance transfer fees which would probably be roughly equivalent or not much less than I would pay in interest if I just leave it where it is until it is paid off.

The 0% deal on the Smelly Sainsburys credit card (can't remember what nickname I used to give this card) is also about the expire, but I am almost sure that the balance that I transferred to this card on this deal is almost paid off - or near enough to make no difference. I can't be exactly sure because part of the balance on this card is a low APR LOB deal.

The 0% deal on the Loathsome LTSB credit card doesn't expire until about Christmas time (sorry - I used the C word!!) so I should be able to pay off a sizeable chunk before then. However, I think I will probably be looking to transfer the remaining balance somewhere else as I don't think I will have paid enough off to leave it where it is. Hopefully, this is where the (not so) Awful Amex card comes in, because the balance on that card is almost gone, so when it is cleared I should be able to ring them up and ask them for a new deal. If not, enough time should have elapsed for me to apply for a new card with a decent 0% or LOB deal.

Blimey! I haven't done this much juggling in a long time. It is actually quite good fun to be doing it again!!

Right, off now to (hopefully) update my sig and (reluctantly) do some more work!

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I have been reviewing some details relating to my finances and I think I have made a couple of schoolgirl errors - d’oh! :doh:I did balance transfers without checking how payments would be allocated. One of these is to the Scary Sainsburys credit card – a 0% APR for 24 months deal on balance transfers which has just come to an end. I had already got a balance on this card on a low rate APR Life of Balance deal (LOB). Next month’s estimated interest is a lot higher than I was expecting, which I suspect is because all my payments have been going to the LOB balance with nothing at all going to the 0% balance. Arrggghhhhh!!!!:mad::eek:_pale_

The other one is one that I have just done, luckily for a relatively small amount - £250 from the Evil Egg/Bonkers Barclaycard to the Meany MBNA card. I have just noticed that payments will go to the balance with the highest interest first – i.e. the low rate LOB balance that was already onthere, before any payments go to the £250 that I have just transferred on a 0% APR for 12 months deal. I wish I had realised that before I did it – that’ll teach me won’t it?!:o

Thank goodness I realised before I did any more!

Anyway, I am trying not to panic as I have got a plan:

(1) Wait for the new credit card that I have justapplied for to come through (including a balance transfer that I have already applied for of £2500 from the EvilEgg/Bonkers Barclaycard)

(2) See what the credit limit is on the new card

(3) If possible (and I think it will be) transfer asmuch as possible from Evil Egg/Bonkers Barclaycard, Meany MBNA and ScarySainsburys. It is a 0% deal for (I think) 26 months (need to check), which isnot ideal but it is better than leaving some debt on cards where I am paying amuch higher APR.

(4) Once I have finished paying off the balance onthe Awful Amex card, I shall talk tothem nicely about a good deal on balance transfers

(5) I shall keep my eyes open for any other new creditcards with good balance transfer deals on them.

I have also just updated my Current Month spreadsheet to seehow things are going to pan out until the next pay day at the end of September, bearing in mind that I have lost my maintenance payments, I will be losing my child benefit, OH is a week behind with paying me his contribution towards the household finances and I have the expenses related to DS going to University shortly. It looks (just about) manageable! Of course I have little bits of money in various savings pots and also I can play about with my standing orders to my savings pots if things get a bit tight. Also, this is taking account of the fact that I am making some quite large overpayments to a lot of my debts,so I can always trim those back a bit if things start to get a bit sticky!!

In better news, I have just had a small payrise! :jTo cut a long story short, when I moved jobs in October, I moved to the next band up (i.e. a promotion) but to the very bottom spine point on that band. Up to a certain point, I get an automatic increment to the next point up every year (and also have the possibility of a performance related increment as well – I didn’t get one this year but I wasn’t expecting one anyway because I am still learning the job).

Right – enough distraction – time to do a bit more work before going home!

Bye All!:hello:

PigginSkint

Hi All

I am so tired – I wish I could sleep better than I am doing at the moment. I am just so exhausted – even when I fall into bed really tired it is still taking me ages to fall asleep. I think I might manage to sleep tonight though – I have a feeling no dinner will get cooked tonight because I shall just fall asleep on the sofa!

I have finally got the new credit card through – the balance transfer had gone through before I finally got the card! I now know what my credit limit is so I can start making plans. The limit is £6000 and I think the normal total allowed for balance transfers is about 90% of the credit limit, so I make that £5400. I have already done a balance transfer of £2500 plus fees so I can probably look at transferring roughly another £2500-£2700.

Having given it some thought, I think I will transfer almost the entire current balance on the Smelly Sainsburys card, which currently stands at a little over £2000. There is a DD payment due in about a week’s time and I shall work on the assumption that the balance transfer will go through after the next statement so I shall assume I need to make another payment after the next one anyway. After that I will transfer a bit more from the Evil Egg/Bonkers Barclaycard.

I probably won’t go mad on overpayments to this new card initially – seeing as I have got 0% APR for 26 months. I need to concentrate on paying off the balances on the higher APRs first, particularly Evil Egg/Bonkers Barclaycard.

The other thing I shall probably do is cut back a little on the overpayments to some of my other LOB cards in order to concentrate on paying off the ones that need doing soonest.

The exception to this will be Awful Amex because I am so very close to paying it off. As mentioned earlier, with any luck I should be able to get a decent balance transfer deal on that card once it is cleared.

My debt figures are looking a bit depressing at the moment. I am trying not to get too downhearted about it because it always the same in the middle of a big credit card reshuffle – not least because of the balance transfer fees,which I can’t really do anything about when I have only just got the card!

I have just had a another trip to London to go to the Proms, with DS this time – he really wanted to go and that is a first! Until less than a year ago he wasn’t interested in music AT ALL! As he was so keen to go and this time next year he might not want to or be available to go to a classical music concert with his mother, I thought it was worth it just this once! I did get a good deal on the train tickets, the hotel and the trip to the London Aquarium on Sunday (2 for 1 deal) so the whole weekend has probably only cost about £200. I know it is £200 more than I really should have been spending at this time of year but it was exceptional circumstances!

I have told OH that we have got to have a serious discussion about money (not that we have had a chance to do this yet). My debt figures would look a lot better if he didn’t keep spending on the credit card (which, let me remind everyone, is MY credit card account) and then not paying me back at the same rate as he is spending! I know it is the same old story but he really needs a wake-up call……again! I shall show him the state of the spreadsheets at the moment and hopefully guilt trip him sufficiently! ( I do find that the odd guilt trip works wonders!).

I would like to be able to have some coloured squares to fill in at the end of the year – at the moment we are in minus coloured squares territory for this year!

PigginSkint

First time posting from kindle fire so this is a bit of an experiment! Got this from the deal in the weekly email a few weeks ago :money:

Money situation is not great because of some unexpected expenses recently - more details when kindle get to typing properly on laptop. Suffice to say that life hasn't been all that great lately.

More soon!

Bye for now

PigginSkint

Just a quick update to say that I am still here. This is just a small distraction from work so it will have to be a quick update.

Moneysaving / Debtbusting has taken a bit of back seat just lately but I really need to get going again - still haven't done my end of year figures.

Last year was a bit of a strange one for various reasons. My lovely Stepmum died suddenly at the end of October, so Christmas was difficult to say the least.

DS started Uni in September - glad to say he is doing very well. I am also very glad to say that he passed his driving test on 3rd January, which means I don't need to fork out any more money for driving lessons or tests. (Good news for the cashflow!)

Anyway, must get on with some work now.

Bye all.

PigginSkint

Hello All

Very, very tired today - so glad it's Friday!

I really am going to attempt to get my spreadsheets up to date this weekend - seriously behind on this at the moment.

The other job for this weekend is to start having a good sort out - tidy, de-clutter etc. We will be having the house completely rewired in a few weeks time, which luckily my Dad is paying for (Christmas and Birthday presents for years to come!) so I need to house in such a state that it is relatively clear for the workmen.

Money-wise, things are a bit tight this month - roll on payday! We'll be OK - it is manageable.

I must get in touch with Sainsburys bank and Amex to see if they can offer me some good existing customer balance transfer deals - balance on Sainsburys card is £0 at the moment and the Amex will be cleared as soon as I make the next payment on it (balance only about £25). Must try to do something about the very large balance on the Egg/Barclaycard!

Will update more later

Bye all!

PigginSkint

I realised I should have mentioned that we will be staying with my Dad while the house is being rewired. He lives about 3 miles away from us but it is not quite so well served with public transport as where we live. It also means that walking to the station every morning is not really an option.

OH said 'why don't we just hire a car for the week'. I reminded him that, even though we do hire cars when we need to (and when it is cheaper than other options) I can't just hire a car every time travel is a bit awkward!

I did look at buses (which would cover us for most of the journeys we will need to make) but my Dad has offered to give us lifts, so that should solve that problem!

I don't know whether I need a new Light Bulb Moment, but it is definitely flickering a bit more dully that it should at the moment. Really must give myself a talking to and get my act together a bit more! (Still not up to date with my spreadsheets or sorted out the balance transfers that I need to do very naughty of me!)

In some better money news, one of OH's sources of income which disappeared about 6 months ago, is now back on board. Woohoo! :T That should help the cashflow situation a bit!

In other really good money news, after a very long time of skirting around the issue on this diary and mentioning it in cryptic terms because I daren't be too explicit about it, I can now finally come out in the open and say that.....drum roll... OH is finally up to date with this tax returns! :beer: I can't begin to tell you what a relief this is!:D