Road to Recovery - My Diary

mae

Hi Hope

Thats great you enjoyed your 30th, nice memory for you to keep.

How things going with you sice the party, looking forward to NY? I would love to go there.

Mae x

Hope78

Hi Mae

I am getting quite excited about going away now - 8 weeks today! Been quiet since my party getting back into going back to school mode! How about you?

Hope x

Hope78

After all this time being a DFW I have finally sent the stage 2 letter claiming back my bank charges. Will be waiting a long time to get the the end but at least I've finally said gimme my money back! Claiming £799.95, will be interesting to see what I get in the end! And how long it takes!

Hope78

Started some tutoring today so thats £10 a week to put towards debts, though using it to top up my New York spends first! So far this is a CC free trip! Yippee!

Only got 1 payment left on my second loan and then its just 'me vs. car & CCs'. Final payment is in Oct so after New York I'll be able to chuck over £200 extra at CCs. As my two loan payments total £244.43 but been saving the one thats finished for New York. Also just realised I've only a year and a half to go on my car so feeling very positive at the moment!

Hope78

2.5 weeks to go - WOW can't wait The Big Apple here I come! Even got all my toiletries etc as bought them when it was the Boots points bonus weekend so I'd be able to boost points to spend at Xmas.

I'm starting to get my xmas gift list sorted, usually have bought a few presents by now but not got anything - no real ideas what to get people either. Trying to reduce my spending again this year. I've even knocked a few people off the list altogether. My immediate family have agreed to a very small budget for Xmas as my bro has decided to getting married in America in June and so I'll be saving again from the moment I'm back from New York! I plan on it being another debt free trip so every little will count!

Hope78

Tutoring going well and that's adding to my Xmas Challenge total every week so pleased to see a constant increase.

Ashamed however that I used my CC in New York not a huge amount but that's not the point so I'm ready to get back on track with that. Also paid for our flights to NYC in June for my bro's wedding (for my parents and I) however we have, collectively, stashed away a few hundreds pounds since he announced it and that'll pay a chunk of flights off when bill arrives in a few days! This is the first since starting as a DFW that my debt has gone up from the previous month by about £100. :embarasse

Have given serious thought to the extra cash I now have as a result of my 2 loans being cleared and today I increased my EGG dd to £100 from £90 - every extra tenner helps! I'll up that again after Xmas. I'm going to use the extra toward Xmas presents and then reassess things in January. For me the greater the sense of achievement the better and so clearing EGG ( my smallest CC balance) will have a bigger boost for me than upping the bigger ones which will take a few years to make headway with.

My min month payment for Halifax Visa has been decreased however I am keeping it at £300 (which is more than previous min too) so this will help to knock some of that off a bit quicker.

Anyway off the update my Xmas present spreadsheet with gifts I bought in America.

Hope everyone is well - thanks for reading my little ramblings!

Hope x

mae

Hi Hope

Don't beat yourself up about the debt going up slightly. The main thing is you are keeping track of it, in the past that would not have been the case and it would have escalated and this won't, you'll sort it because you have now changed your mindset about money. I don't think there are any of us whose debt hasn't at least gone up slightly at some point and I think it kind of gives us a new drive to sort it instead of becoming stagnant.

Going to New York again? Wow how lucky are you!

Your debt has gone DOWN by 10k and it still sounds like you are managing to have a good quality of life too I reckon thats some achievement, well done you.

Hope78

I can't believe how long it has been since I wrote in my diary - tut tut! So I thought I'd give an update on where I am now. Since becoming a DFW in march 2007 I have cleared over £12k of debt but still have a long way to go.

I still use quidco, do my surveys, Ebay and car boot as well as some extra work through tutoring. However I am New York bound again in the summer for my brothers wedding and as my mum is coming - she's terrified of flying and and hasn't even a passport we want to make it the holiday of a lifetime, we don't think she's suddenly going to like holidays! My aunt and uncle are coming too and sometimes my poor wee mum feels like the poor relation so we we're pulling our resources and hoping to save/make as much as we can.

I obviously don't want to use the CCs except perhaps paying for our hotel if we need to do that upfront but would like to have money to pay that whenever we book it. I am going to be more dedicated with my currently ventures and more frugal with cash e.g. eating out, my facials etc and with gifts for birthdays etc. I'm starting now as that gives me a full 6 months before I go and a few weeks extra where we'll be getting organised to go.

My plan is to put all my extra earnings into a can bank and exchange it for dollars when it's full - I might not get the best exchange rate but at least I'll not be tempted to spend it! I have upped one CC direct debit with some of the money from my loans that are paid off and I'm going to let that work it's way down. I'm going to add a little more to the other CCs (already pay more than minimum) and then use the rest to buy dollars each month so should be buying around £200 each month - I hope.

All suggestions how I can save save or earn are welcome!
Cheers
Hope x

Hope78

Why oh why does my work pay us early in December???? There really is no need, they don't do it in the summer when we're off. I always end up deep in the overdraft despite always saying never again/not next year etc! Here I am with exactly 4 weeks to go before pay day and I'm almost at £500 of my overdraft!!! Yikes! Luckily I've only one more bill to pay and have already bought the 3 birthdays I have in January so might just about make it. Feel so disappointed in myself better dash and join the No Spend Day challenge to rein myself in!

Hope x

p.s sorry for the naughty word

Hope78

Can't believe its 8 short months since I last wrote. It's funny I've kind of being losing control a bit with cash again and wonder if its becuase I've neglected to commit to paper what I've been doing to make money and how I'm spending it. My diary def gives me focus.

It has been a quick year so far and can't believe when I last posted I was just booking to go to my brother's wedding and now he's married. So with that done and dusted I can refocus on debts.

I've continued with challenges and making little steps with that. I'm still collecting £1 and £2 as well as change and got a bit of tutoring too. I've set up a budget spreadsheet with the help of some lovely folks on here and hopefully seeing money going out will help me to remain steadfast.

I've set myself a big target.

* pay off Egg CC, which is £2950, by Xmas.

I've upped my direct debit to £150 (an extra £65 on top of what I was paying) so now I'm paying double the minimum repayments. It's not the highest % interest CC I've got but I get more from clearing something, it's psychological - I am looking forward to writing to them stating that it is settled and closed.

It's not going to be easy but was sick when I saw that in the last year I'd only paid off £400 so was looking at another 7 years - yikes - but no thanks! I'm also using all monies made from challenges as extra payments to Egg. Additional debits into my bank are being paid as soon as they're clear and this week I've paid an extra £20.02. Cash made is going into a can bank and will be saved until 19th Dec when one of my challenges finishes - hopefully I'll have a big chunk from that to help pay it off. Well enough ramblings from me.

Hope x