Determined diva's get outta debt diary!

abundant1972

Wow!

I'm impressed - that is some serious number crunching you've done!!! What a great idea doing a 3 monthly review - and taking on 2... 3 jobs??? OMG! Where do you find the time - that's dedication.

I loved your summary of things that went well - and the things that went not so well - as these are things that often we learn from the most. I'm definitely going to be taking a few on board and implementing them into my own Debt Diary thread which I posted yesterday (Journey to the Emerald City)... twee I know!!!

It's good to have a fellow traveler as I'm aiming for xmas 2013 too. I think I seriously need to up my earning power though... Overtime here I come!!!

Keep up the good work!!!

:T

Determined_diva

abundant1972 wrote: »

Wow!

I'm impressed - that is some serious number crunching you've done!!! What a great idea doing a 3 monthly review - and taking on 2... 3 jobs??? OMG! Where do you find the time - that's dedication.

At the grand old age of 33 im single still with no kids and no cats!!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Determined_diva

I'm really happy but at the same time really annoyed!!!

I have 2 phones on my orange account.
1 is mine and 1 was the family member I discussed in post 1 who promised to pay me the money if I could get them the contract which I stupidly did. As they didn't pay me I cut them off, but I am also stuck with the contract :-(

Anyway - I have called orange a few times to see what I can do to lower my bill (as I'm out of contract) and I got it down to £26pm

The other contract is still at £41.00 but not used obv.

This equals £67pm right? Well my bill is around £85pm EVERY MONTH!!

I called and found out that even though my bill is £26 because the deal got doesn't have enough data I reg go over allowance and the im charged.

As I don't want an upgrade managed to get my new bill down to £16 pm inc vat which gets me 1000 mins, unlimited text and 1gb data

Over last 3 months on average I used 149m, 334 text and 509mb data

So even though I will never use 1000 mins the deal is better as I have more data allowance therefore stopping me going "over" and en being charged a premium.

Now here's where I get really angry...

The other phone... I could of reduced monthly charge from £41 to £31 from 5 months ago without entering a new contract. When I last called NO ONE TOLD ME THAT!!! I just got told to buy out would cost me £250 quid ( contract officially ends 10th August this year)

So I've lowered to £31 until it runs out in August.

This means that from now until aug I save £312!!!!

Then I will finally be down to £16 mobile bill per month

Wooooooo hooooooo

DDx

Determined_diva

I also set myself up on direct debit as well as they have been charging me £3 per number for not having dd!!!

Cturkleton

Hi DD

Any idea that may or may not be off any use .... If you are never going to use the other phone then why not sell it on one of the sites like Muzuma etc ... If you also go through a site like topcashback you can earn another few quid on top

Cashback sites my also be worth a look when renewing insurances or buying from retaliers listed on them ..... never rely on getting the cashback though just in case .... if you find it cheaper elsehwhere without the cashback included you might wanna go that way ..(though I have in 99% of cases recieved the cashback I expected)

Good luck with your challenge !!

Determined_diva

Thank you cklurketon - I unfortunately cannot find the phone and don't want to accuse but feel it may have been pawned as I can find e charger I. The bag but not e phone??? :-( if I do find it though it is definitely going to mazooma!!!
signing up to cash back sites now!!!

Good luck on your journey also

DDX

Cturkleton

Hmmm shame about the "missing" phone .... do you still have the sim for the phone ... if you have then you could swap it into your phone and use the data limit from that as well if you were ever getting close to the limit on yours !

Re Cashback sites Topcashback is free and Quidco will take the first £5 of your earnings ..... Both will offer referal bonus as well so if you have friends you can get to sign up then you will get a bonus when they reach a earnings limit as well !

Determined_diva

I am so HAPPY today!

I finally paid off my next card after having it since 2006!!!

I couldn't meet the minimums then they asked for full payment which I also couldn't pay. So each month has been interest added. It got to £555.87 this month and I finally settled in full and CLOSED THE ACCOUNT!

Rock on 2013!!! I CAN DO THIS SHIZZLE!!!

Never under estimate us debt free wannabes !!

Woooooo hooooooo

DDx

abundant1972

Awesome news!!!

WELL DONE!!!

On Jan 21st there will be a '1 Debt in 100 Days' Challenge. The last run I cleared my credit card... Now I just have 2 x BIG loans. Am gonna sign up to the new challenge and rather than picking a loan (smallest being 3K) am going to pledge to clear a % of remaining debt. I manage at least 5% a month (so over 100 days should manage at least 15% = £1875... so might challenge myself to clear 20% = £2500 in 100 days ~ an extra £200 per month).

You know you want to...

Determined_diva

Hi abundant,

Hope you are keeping well!

This sounds great! I have 1x massive debt at £8.5k and then 2x piddly ones now at £148 and £184.

I also have a mobile contract (not in my debt decleration as i declared it as a regular bill) that was in my family members name that they didn't pay so I think to get out of it is £250 ish now as the contract ends in August anyway.

I usually try and pay £600 off debt a month... Does it really happen? No!

I am going to stick to it ( did it this month as paid next £550 and another debt £50) to pay off the 3 ones above and then declare a % off like you are for the big debt to give myself some stretch!

Woo hoo check us out!!!

DDx