Pollyanna

ChopinonaBudget

Heffi1 wrote: »

I really understand about controlling ex's and thankfully they are a part of my past, never to be revisited. I forsee the only time I ever have to clap eyes on the little worm is when one of the kids gets married. So far that appears to be years in the distance thank god!!!

He was a tight get with his money too and made me feel guilty for ever asking for any hmmm much better on my own.

I would second the "much better on my own" with a smile and a huge happy dance!

Controlling exes are awful, the only good thing is I now know the red flags to look for to not end up with somebody with a cluster B personality disorder again

Glad you're out of yours too, it takes guts to leave relationships like that, we should both be proud of ourselves :T

ChopinonaBudget

Wahey!! It's payday!! :j

In celebration, I've adjusted my signature so it shows some improvement before the rent goes out on the 1st of November

Actually, I have roughly £700 left to go into the account this month and only £90 odd quid to go out (not including groceries) so it'll be better than this by the time October is done with.....

ChopinonaBudget

Well, in honour of my decision to shift debt from the overdraft onto the credit cards to make life easier (not cheaper, or more expensive, just easier), I bought my Mum's birthday presents (a few books from Book People and Amazon) on the Barclaycard and the Natwest card. Natwest has 0% purchases for 6 months, but I have very little credit on it as I pretty much maxed it out with the balance transfer, so I'm wary of accidentally going over the limit, so I'm sticking with the barclaycard for the most part.

It's a bit weird spending on the credit cards again, but I keep remininding myself that really it makes no difference if I spend on the current account or the cards, as none of the money is mine to spend, so may as well spend using the format that makes it easiest for me to organise my finances

ChopinonaBudget

Now, if I can keep this up, I can clear an extra................ maybe £450 ish off the overdraft next month too.
I think.
That would give me a nice little leeway to play with, and some definite black ink on my current account and I'll be able to start seeing what's what!

ChopinonaBudget

Spent anothe £8 on the Barclaycard (eBay postage) and its only 10.30! Apparently I still have a good head for numbers as I remember my PIN from a year of non-use.

I'm in dispute with a swine on eBay. She's charged back money for a box set. I know she's a scammer because she didn't even bother contacting me first, went straight to PayPal. Git. I've uploaded my proof of postage but I'm not holding my breath.

Good news is not only is the weather nice enough to hang washing out, but it's nice enough to let the bunny out for a hop round the garden. She's such a fat piggy though she's only interested in her carrots. Which are still in the hutch. Plonker.

ChopinonaBudget

I just got a current account with Nationwide!!!!!

That means........

Natwest can't offset my credit card because my Natwest current account has £2.67 balance and will not have any more till the the credit card is clear.

Barclays can't offset my credit card balance as my current account will now be with Nationwide, so the only balance on my barclays account will be the overdraft, and you can't offset debt against debt.

Haha!!!

At last!!!!!!!

I finally have a workable financial system!!

:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

I narrowly avoided really stupid pitfall, and I'm ashamed to say it was really b****y narrow...,. Nationwide offered me £3,500 credit card at 0% with 0% purchases for 12 months, which is exactly what I need to clear the overdraft and the remainder of the barclaycard, and I got halfway through the application till I realised if I do that, then they could set off my THAT credit card. Doh! I've never pressed cancel that quickly......

So I have interest on my barclaycard, it's not a big deal, at least the debt stays where I want it and no financial institution can do a damn thing about it

Happy days

This time last year I had a current account with barclays and thought I'd never get away from them.... things are slowly, very slowly, looking up.

Toodles

ChopinonaBudget

I'm collecting financial products....

Co-op basic account (for business type stuff, not really a business account as I dont purchase out of it, but it's useful for cash/cheque deposits)

Natwest account (useless but natwest made me open it as a condition of their credit card)

Barclarse account (overdrawn and personally hated, yes it's entirely personal, a lot to do with the condescending attitudes of their middle management and their complete incompetence over the years)

Nationwide flexaccount (will be new current account, kept permanently in black, as soon as I work out how to fiddle the finances around to get this!)

Barclaycard (used to spending to get overdraft clear quicker, not a high balance, just using it to keep debt separated nicely)

Natwest credit card (0%, big debt, sitting pretty till everything else has been dealt with)

Think that's it!

ChopinonaBudget

I can barely believe I've just done this, but I took a last leap and got myself accepted for a Tesco credit card, 0% on balance transfers and 0% on purchases!!!

Barclaycard is being transferred over as I write this :D

I'm so chuffed now, now I need to focus 100% on clearing my overdraft as that is by far my most expensive debt now.

This time last year no b****r would give me credit, including Tesco, and now I have credit coming out of my ears. It's rather scary but I know my attidtude towards spending has changed so drastically that its not going to be any temptation to spend on the new cards..... I need the Barclaycard left open till January 31st in case of lack of ability to pay for that tax bill, but once that's finished, I can close the account.

Happy Days

And I've worked out how to shuffle my money around to be able to utilise the new Nationwide account without risking going overdrawn..... It involves 2 transfers a month at quite specific points, and very careful checking of the two accounts at all times, but it can be done.

I'm quite happy now with the way things are working out - now I've just got to knuckle down and work like crazy, budget like a fury, and pay the damn stuff off :money:

ChopinonaBudget

Well that was, quite frankly, terrifying.

Due to my utter terror at not being able to pay my tax bill in January, and not knowing really how much money I'll be able to sort out ttowards it between now and then, especially with the new Nationwide account that I must at all costs keep in the black, I jumped the proverbial gun and paid it off early on the barclaycard.

I feel like crying, to be honest. I hate having to do this. But my dread of Barclaycard dropping my limit now the card is nearly empty and leaving me with possibly no way of paying in January and the resulting fines and interest from HMRC is something I don't even want to go near.

So I spent the money first. Attack being the best form of defence and all that.....

I'll be paying interest on it, unless Tesco give me a higher limit and I can balance transfer it across to them on the 0% deal.... I can always hope.


Until then, at least I don't have that damn bill hanging over me now, it's done. And as soon as I'm in credit properly, I'll start putting aside money for next year's bill so hopefull this will never happen again.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Feeling rather cr*ppy now.
Think I might break open that bottle of sloe gin in the kitchen...........

I'll re-organise my SOA spreadsheet with a considerably worse state of affairs when I can face dealing with it - probably tomorrow

ChopinonaBudget

And in case anybody is idly curiousing; I saved 10% of my earnings for my tax bill but had to raid the fund when I got into crisis. Rent being a little more urgent than a distant tax bill...