Enjoying the journey to becoming debt free - paying back the credit cards

fedupandskint

A small spend today of £2.40 on a coffee with a friend and one for free as the loyalty card was full - yeah!

A nice walk around town, not much around and then a trip home for lunch and then off for a walk around the shopping outlet village which was very pleasant as I picked up some much needed bargain walking shoes for my dog walks as the other ones have given up the ghost and split after a few months and were never waterproof in the slightest. Happily found a waterproof and breathable pair for £19.95 to take the dog walking and me mountain biking. No need to spend more as they only last a year with the hammer they get from those dog walks! Plus I used £20 of my birthday money to buy them too which was a good result as I really needed them

Collected the sale items too - nice trousers for mum to go into her holiday Christmas hamper in lovely holiday colours - hope she likes them! As for me, lovely pair of navy spotted chinos which fitted perfectly (in a size 8!!) and then a pair of patterned burgundy jegging in a size 10 which also fitted perfectly. Definitely keeping the chino's and think I'll keep the jeggings too if I one of my tops goes with them. Not bad for £9 and £10 each. Just not worth paying full price for anything is it really? There seems to be a sale on almost every month these days.

Last lot of sale items now to collect next weekend then leaves a couple of things on my list to get - cream shirt, cream jumper, cream top - what's with the cream colour? Its just a colour that goes a lot with my highly patterned and coloured clothes at the moment

Back to work tomorrow - can't say I felt that great today overall, certainly didn't feel up to any exercise this week and felt very tired this afternoon despite not doing very much at all this weekend. Hoping to wake up feeling better after a quiet weekend next week

fedupandskint

Didn't feel great at all this morning when the alarm went off and decided to give myself a couple of days to get over this cold instead of constantly feeling rubbish. Certainly feeling rubbish today as I'm curled up on the sofa feeling dreadful and no energy.

Happily, it's a no spend day as there's no way I'm going to the shop for anything at all - not that I need anything though - making today no spend day number 5/12 and 7 more to go to get on target for this month. Tomorrow will be too, so should be number 6 and halfway there.

Yesterday I got called the tightest person known - well, I am because I have to be because most of my money is not my own and is off the where it is owed. How I long for the day when it is my own and I can apply everything I have learned over the last few years to get to this point to keep it as my own.

To free up some money for repayments from today I will not buy anymore clothes until after Christmas. Now that's a challenge and a half to stay out of those sales. Made a start yesterday by not buying a new pair of jeans for £25 and I'm still deciding about those jeggings which might still go back if I remember the mantra of 'if I'm not sure then put it back!'

Had a little look yesterday at upping the income to pay for car service and MOT so while I don't feel like doing anything at all apart from sit on the settee I think I could manage listing a few things to sell on ebay that have been laying around for years. Usually I can't stand to do it as I'm bouncing around with energy. Now then, thats a good way to spend an afternoon other than moping around feeling cold!

Also found some amazing recipes for batch cooking mince to provide loads of meals from 1kg mince - will definitely be doing these to freeze then that's plenty in already cooked over the next couple of months

fedupandskint

2 games listed - let me see how they get on over the next week.
I'll make a decision about the other items and also make a record of all costs incurred

fedupandskint

While I sit on the settee shivering determined not to put the heating on until 1st November at the earliest I took the plunge to see if I could renegotiate the APR rates on the CCs

Virgin - no chance at all and very unhelpful
HSBC - on the lowest rate it turned out. Balance lower than expected. Worked out repayment plan to get card to zero and paid off in full. Feels very manageable. I feel a little relief at this and can see some light at then of the tunnel for the first time in a long time as far as CCs are concerned. I was offered a consolidation loan which is tempting, but, I think I could pay them all back in the same time span of a loan without the dizzying amount of the loan on my mind for 5yrs.

Have worked out a way to do it and pay the cards back in full - like I should have done from the start. I feel this has to be done in this way, learn my lesson the hard way, and it certainly has been a hard one to learn. A complete change of thinking has had to take place and its still going on.

For now I will leave the other 2 CCs until my finances are looking healthier and will reassess after HSBC has been paid off in full.

What can I say? It's a start. I took a deep breath and took the plunge and rang the CC companies at long last. That was a job I have put off for such a long time and I feel a sense of strength I took a deep breath, felt my heart rate rise, stuck to it and did it. Managed not to get talked into any new products - read more debts - and finjshed the calls feeling better but with no sense of elation, more a feeling I can see a way to do this rather than sticking my head in the sand

laura2481

fedupandskint wrote: »

. I was offered a consolidation loan which is tempting,


What can I say? It's a start.

Well done on ringing them..it was worth a try even though you did not succeed this time. I once managed to get my APR reduced by 4% by writing a letter to HSBC, so I'm sure if you weren't already on the lowest they would have helped you out. It's a shame about Virgin.. I've never had any problems but then, i've never tried to get my APR reduced

I would advise against a consolidation loan... I was tempted, was sure I would find it easier with just a loan but ended up having the loan and running the credit cards up again and managed to double my debt in about 18 months! :eek::eek: Never again... :cool:

fedupandskint

Thought it over and as I've done this at least twice before and run the cards up again there is no way I'm going to take out the loan. It's doing it the hard way that pays off and what pays off in the long run to pay the cards off as wI always should have done - in full and by me, not by easy fix ways. I learnt that lesson over the last 2yrs.

I've worked out what I can do and the end is in sight to becoming debt free at long last. Finally broke through the wall rather than banging my head against it.

Can't say I feel much better cold and virus wise but certainly better for taking these steps today

fedupandskint

fedupandskint wrote: »

I was looking for a quick fix in beauty products to make me feel better. Guess what? It didn't work. I had to work on myself first.

I need, I want to and will repay these debts to achieve my aim of being debt free from CC and having my money for myself.

This is the focus for this diary - repay the credit cards and improve my credit rating from satisfactory to good.

What's going to help me?

1. Work out a repayment plan
2. Contact the CC companies to ask them to lower the APR and possibilities of a BT - no chance at the moment, doesn't hurt to ask
3. Rejoin NSD challenge - it helped me before
4. Set monthly and weekly budget for food shopping
5. Write a shopping list for each week and stick to it
6. Eat the food I have in the cupboards and freezer
7. Write a list of things I don't need at all and keep it handy to remind me
8. Don't buy any clothes or shoes at all for the rest of Sept and all of October
9. Remember I don't need any skincare, haircare or make up until I have run out
10. Continue low cost exercise - its worked to get me here and remember I did it without joining a gym and paying for that

How am I getting on with things - ok I think. Managed to overcome the temptation to join the gym last month for the bargainous price. Pleased now I didn't and am sticking to the exercise I enjoy for the cost of fitness dvd's and trainers once a year or so.

Caved into the clothes though in the sale - 2 pairs of trousers and possibly one coat and one jacket if they fit. Have made a decision in my head to not buy anything at all in November and then see if I can get through December

Wrote my lists of things I don't need in my little notebook which I now keep with me always as a reminder of what I don't need to buy and also as a spending diary.

The spending diary has helped me get on track much more than I imagined it would. When I've tried it in the past I just didn't stick to it. so far so good. Its such a big help and I can see exactly what I am spending the most on. Doing this has helped me budget for the grocery challenge and bring the excess spends down. Aiming for £100 this month and might just scrape in - not bad for first attempt!

No spend days progressing well and also helping keep on track

Concentrating upon using up the food in the cupboards and freezer and have some recipes out to start using up those dried beans stocks. Always such a good idea at the time, especially when I'm not even that keen on beans! They're off in some batch mince recipes at the weekend - goodbye to some more stocks!

Repayments sorted out for the next year or so and I pledge to log on to my online banking at least 2x per week, continue to update my spending diary, continue on the GC budget and no spend days.

I happily, if not slightly numbly and reticently at the time, paid 33% off hsbc credit card today. Will be a while before another lump sum like that is paid off I think so its on with the repayment plan. I have set up reminders in my phone and also requested a DD form to make the payments so there is no getting out of them at all

fedupandskint

While I'm feeling motivated and on track with the plan, I decided to join the make 1% at a time challenge which I've been reading over the last week or so since it appeared in the weekly email. I'm aiming for £1100 to begin with which I originally thought I would use for car service and so on but now thinking it will be for wCC repayment. Better see how much I make first!

No bids yet on fleabay, a watcher though and still plenty of time to go before the end of the auction.

Thought I felt better today when I woke up, then got up and certainly do not feel better. I'm not used to sitting around doing nothing, makes those days long!

fedupandskint

At the risk of sounding boring, here's today's DFW plan:

no spend day
eat food at home for lunch and tea
check online banking
if I feel up to it take some photos for fleabay listings later
work out a weekly spend budget
update end of month shopping list - be strict!
update shopping list for this week - be strict again!

fedupandskint

£123 paid off today to hsbc bringing balance below £1000 for the first time in a long time - really pleased with the progress made over the last 2 days.

Have set up a DD payment way above the previous min payment. They weren't over keen to do this and wanted to leave it as it was on min payment level - thanks guys!

Anyway, its done now and I have also set up an additional bill payment to pay any extra above this, if I can each month. Have given myself 6 months to pay the card off - aiming for March 2013 for that card to be cleared and closed down.

Will be setting up another payment for the 2nd card to start next month and make some headway on that one while the main focus is on the hsbc one.

Today I have checked online banking, not spent any money - not counting cc payments in this -and am not leaving the house apart from dog walk so eating what I have in. Budgets next for shopping lists and weekly spends.