Caz counts it down

hillside777

You're doing very well with the figures.

Keep up the good work.
Have a nice week-end.

cazmanian_minx

The NatWest statement arrived in the post this afternoon - interest of £41.52 will be taken on 10th September, so that's MUCH better than the £53.95 they took this month I also have some shiny new jodhpur boots courtesy of an Amazon gift voucher birthday present from my brother, so next time Finn walks off while I've got one foot in the stirrup and one on the ground, I'm less likely to get my foot stuck

Haven't been able to get onto Swagbucks all afternoon. From reading the thread on here, it looks like they've accidentally managed to block everyone using BT as an ISP.

cazmanian_minx

Afternoon, hope everyone's having a good bank holiday weekend. It's not one up here, we have our August BH at the beginning of the month because the schools are on a four term system and are already back.

I'm feeling very virtuous because I've not only schooled Finn this morning (and thanks to a pocketful of carrot batons, I now have a pony who will stand like a rock when I get on him in the school - just hope the lesson translates when we're not in the school!) but also been for a run. Just a mile, but I need to start off slowly again. I want to do the Inverness half marathon again next March, so I need to get into training.

cazmanian_minx

Morning all. It's not a bank holiday up in Scotland, so I'm working today.

We ended up going into town yesterday because Mr Minx needed fuel and we hadn't been to see his mother on Saturday - we ended up spending another £18 at Tesco which has taken the NatWest OD back over £3,000. As long as I don't spend another penny this month, the balance sweep from the First Direct account will take it back under on the 31st, but I'm irritated with myself.

I'm £77 short of making the YNAB budget balance this month - if I wasn't in debt I'd have a £383 surplus. I could fiddle it a bit, because I didn't spend all the money in the horse budget, but I agreed a price for my winter hay yesterday and know that the whole £150 allocated for next month will be spent on the first 50 bales which I'm picking up at the end of the month, so I'd like to keep the remnants of this month's allocation in there as a buffer. Still, in a little over 11 weeks I make the last payment on the loan and after that I'll have a surplus each month

I've paid another £500 off the horrible-rate-Barclaycard this morning as well :j:j:j:j That's now down to £7,500 and I'm really itching to get rid of it now, as ditching it means I can give myself a pay rise. Business cashflow is really strong at the moment, I only need to take £1100 in the whole of September to meet all the bills, so I hope I can get a really big chunk paid off the card.

cazmanian_minx

Remember I was ranting about the balance transfer that wasn't on The-Barclaycard-Formerly-Known-As-Egg a few posts back? Well it still hasn't popped up, but I somehow have a 6.9% life of balance offer on 'orrible-rate-Barclaycard :j:j:j:j (I think the rate at which I'm paying it off is scaring them into thinking they're not going to make much more interest out of me ) I ummed and ahhhed a bit, because I do like to try and keep business and personal finances separate, but since it's two different rates they're bound to show the interest charges separately, so it's going to be easy to work out which should be allocated to business accounts and which to personal.

So I've transferred all £780 of the Post Office card (18.9%) and £650 of the Tesco card (17.1% for the remains of the last balance transfer - just £150 of that left on the card now) and hopefully the offer will stick around long enough for me to transfer another £1k when I've paid some more of the 20.9% stuff off. What would be absolutely ideal is for the Post Office to now offer me a low/0% transfer to the empty card - I could then transfer The-Barclaycard-Formerly-Known-As-Egg to it in full and possibly get a current account transfer on that to get rid of the overdraft - doing that would take £90 a month off the interest bill.

In other news, I took Finn for a hack this morning, to make sure he understood that he had to stand still for mounting on the road as well as in the school. He did, but about 10 yards down the road he decided to plant himself like a small horse-shaped boulder and refuse to move until he got more carrots :rotfl::rotfl: That's not the sort of behaviour you can give in to without creating huge problems further down the line, so 20 minutes later I'd tried waiting him out, flapping, growling, shouting, swishing my whip around, whipping my boot and giving him a prod on the bottom with the whip, which usually reminds him of his manners - and we'd got maybe 70 yards further down the road, where he decided that if he wasn't going to get a carrot he was going to go home and spun round to go back the way we'd come, at which point he got a sharp smack on the backside and told to stop effing about and he was as good as gold for the rest of the hack

cazmanian_minx

Humph, the offer has disappeared today, so obviously that's that! The Tesco card has credited already, the Post Office hasn't, but their website is always quite slow to update balances so I expect it's actually been paid but just not showing. Hopefully it'll clear before the end of the month, I can pay the last bit of interest on 2nd September and then ask them very nicely for a transfer offer in October.

I now have £750 available at 15.9% on the Tesco card, which is 4% cheaper than the overdraft. I'm wondering if the best use of this would be to use it for food and fuel spends in September and then from October onwards, leave £400 head room on it, use it for food and fuel and then pay off the amount spent from the overdraft on the last day of the month, when I know Mr Minx's half of the bills is going to hit the account the following day. One to think about

cazmanian_minx

I'm an idiot. If I don't get a BT on the Post Office card, I use THAT one for food and fuel and pay it off each month - no interest charged at all!

cazmanian_minx

The Post Office card online statement is showing up with a £0.00 balance this morning

After yesterday's monsoon-like rain, it's a lovely sunny day here. I've already been for my run, but am letting the boys catch up on some grazing time this morning, so won't take Finn out until this afternoon (assuming the weather holds).

I can't believe it's the end of August tomorrow - where is this year going??

I had a good day for sales yesterday and banked £300 from PayPal this morning :beer: There's a little over £700 sitting in the Amazon account as well, which will disburse on Tuesday, so it's looking like September could be a good month for hammering down that 20.9% Barclaycard :j:j:j

cazmanian_minx

Week end and month end on the same day for once! So let's start with this week's scores on the doors.

(last week/this week/ + or - amount)
Business
Overdraft: -£1992.10 / -£1765.71 +£226.39
Barclaycard: -£8000.00 / £7500.00 +£500.00

Business total: -£9,992.10 / -£9,265.71 +£726.39

Personal
Overdraft: -£2959.00 / -£2980.00 -£21.00
Tesco card: -£2000.00 / -£1350.00 +£650.00
Egg card: -£3367.00 / -£3367.00 no change
Dental loan: -£750.00 / -£750.00 no change
Post Office card: -£780.00 / -£0.00 +£780.00
Barclaycard: £0.00 / £1471.47 -£1471.47

Personal total: -£9,856.00 / -£9,918.47 -£62.47

Grand total: -£19,848.10 / -£19,184.18 +£663.92

And now for the month (personal debt only):

Debt 31st July 31st August

Overdraft £3182.00 £2980.00 -£202.00
Tesco card £2006.00 £1350.00 -£656.00
Egg card £3402.93 £3367.00 -£35.93
Teeth loan £1000.00 £750.00 -£250.00
Post Office card £790.00 £0.00 -£790.00
Barclaycard £0.00 £1471.47 +£1471.47

Total paid off: £462.46 plus £133.07 in interest = £595.53 wasted on debt repayments this month.

PAD total this month £638.52 (July 2012: £786.48) so about £40 of the PAD money seems to have got spent somehow. EDIT: worked it out, it's the balance transfer fees for shifting the Post Office and Tesco balances to the Barclaycard

Where I'm really chuffed this month is the business figures. I've taken £1250 plus interest off the card in a month where I had a £2k VAT bill and a £2k supplier payment, which is pretty good going. This is really where I need to concentrate my energies for the moment, as the sooner that card is gone, the sooner I can give myself a payrise and the sooner the personal debts will be history

Hiddenidenity

Your doing great some impressive figures! Keep at it x