£37k to £0 in a (determined to make them wonderful) few years!

brizzledfw

Hi, just a quick fly by as was sitting here reading the paper for about an hour and it ain't getting anything done!

I was wondering whether you could get any of the debt onto 0% deals? Most of mine is on that and it does make a difference. Even if it's just a few grand.

Yes working in cash and in 'pots' as people on these threads seem to call it works well for me. It enables you to physically see exactly what you have at any time ( or don't have!) I do wonder whether the fact that you don't even have to write out the amount you are paying ( as we did with cheques) means that we are even more remote from our expenditure. Just musing on whether it's one of the reasons we, as a society, get into such debt. So, for me at any rate, having pots for different things every week does work..

Best of luck. Have a good day

Fae

Hello LB

Good to hear how you are doing with ebay, and that you have been having a look at a DFD, I find having a DFD helps to motivate me, good to have light at the end of the tunnel.

Fae

Ladybird.

About £10k is on 0% deals now and you are right brizzledfw, it has made an enormous difference to us. As more gets paid off and more space on cards is freed up we'll be looking to try and shift more to better deals too- won't be long before we can look to do it again and have another shuffle.

Our worst card, that we are throwing everything into at the moment is an eye watering 34.95% so can't wait to move it. Sadly, due to me being totally stupid, we didn't realise we were paying 2.5% PER DAY on it, rather than monthly, so all the balance transfers we did to our 0% deals weren't from the card we would have have been best off transferring from!

I think you are probably right about being distanced from the money you are spending being a factor when it comes to debt. I suspect another factor is that when you are spending on plastic it isn't obvious just how much more things are ultimately costing you. If there were two prices on the new TV- the cash price, and the price of it paid for on a CC and the minimum paid each month I'm sure no one in their right mind would use the CC. Even taking into account an initial year of 0% the £800 sofa we paid for on our 34.95% card 4 years ago will have cost us £2k by now. We just didn't think about it at the time. Scary stuff.

The consequences are only truly obvious once it is too late, and here we are

Yep, I like checking up on our DFD now and again Fae, find it very motivating!

[Deleted User]

Hi Ladybird, hope you've had a good day.

Hope you managed to get your stuff listed in eBay- I hope to do mine tomorrow. More pennies to pay off the CCs!
GLx

Fae

Hi LB,

That's a really good point about the real cost of using credit cards, stops and makes you think about all those times, we have picked up a bargin in the sales, or just had to have something and put it on the card, not thinking about the true cost. Sobering stuff.

Fae

Ladybird.

Managed to get one item listed on ebay, was going to stick it on Gumtree for £50 but glad I didn't as it's not even halfway through the auction and up to £90 already! :j I guess some things really do hold their value secondhand! Need to sort through the rest of my bits and bobs yet, they'll just be a few £ here and there though I think.

Every spare child-free minute I have has been used to plough on with all this work I have taken on, looking as though I should meet my deadlines though thanks to my husband being an absolute star with the children at weekends. He is taking them off again for the day on Saturday, a full day of distraction free work will really help me get through what I need to do and bring home the £££. It's nice for him and the kids to have some real time together too, he works such long hours they don't see much of each other during the week.

Payments I'm expecting for my work and ebay should bring my overpayment this month up to £530 in total, which is great, but it will leave us at £29,048... so I think I might have to work extra extra hard to bring in the £48 and get us under £28k before the month is out. That would be good

Speaking of which, I best drink up this coffee and go do some work

[Deleted User]

Ready hope you manage to reduce the debt to under £28k - thats a real goal, esp considering the time of year.

Glad DH is supportive of your work- thats real teamwork!
GLx

OrangeFairy

Hi Ladybird.

I am so pleased you are doing well on eBay.

What a star you hubby is to take the kids out so you can get on.

Roll on the sub-£29k post :j

brizzledfw

Good stuff ladybird..that's a real result!:T

[Deleted User]

Hi LB,
How are you doing? hope you managed to get the work done you were planning and that you were paid handsomely for it!

Have a good Sunday!
GLx