Here I am in debt again. 2nd time lucky

StressedSteph

zepsgal wrote: »

How much does the overdraft cost each month?
What is the interest on the card? You said it's low interest for 5 years, how low? And based on the amount you would need to transfer onto the card, including the transfer fee, what is the monthly cost and payments?

I don't think it's a bad idea, providing that it's helping you save a bit of money. Don't do it just cos you want rid of the overdraft

Hi all.

heavens I am having a busy week. Have been missing my MSe friends.

I will try to answer your questions Zepsgal, but I am abit rubbish at APr's and interest rates etc.

On a typical month I get charged £36 interest on my Overdraft and if I go into my emergency £500 which is tacked onto the end of my OD, I get charged £22 everytime. Lately I have been paying around £88 per month with this.

So that is £126 per month :mad:

The new credit card (if I get it) is 9.9% for 5 years. with no charge for balance transfers.

Embarassingly, I am not sure what the monthly payment will be on that including the interest.

I but already have a Virgin credit card with 4k on it and thats costs me £107 per month. So I figured I would be slightly better off.

If I am totally honest it is more a psychological thing. I am selling EVERYTHING, hubby is working all hours and we are still in a negative.

I have worked out that at the beginning of every month, we need £1200 in the bank to carry us through without hitting the overdraft.

Now I know this I can make sure we never go below. There is no way I will just blow that money. I have never been more determined. I am in my 4th month since my LBM and still going strong.

I know this sounds like a really silly excuse. But I am sure the reason why I gave up in the past was because I was using a budgeting programme called Microsoft Money.
It was probably because I did'nt totally understand how the programme worked but sometimes it would muck up when you tried to forecast your future finances and I would just get disheartended by it.

Now I have it on a good old simple Excel spreasheet. I can easily forecast till the end of 2014. And it is giving me real inspiration to keep going.

I got an email from the Co-op saying congratulations, except for a few formalities, you have been accepted onto this credit card.

Not sure what the formalities are, but fingers crossed.

StressedSteph

please-let-me-be-lucky wrote: »

Oh dear, I know that situation well Hopefully there will still be some left over at the end which he will give to you. In the meantime, perhaps you can get cashback on the bits he buys and neglect to tell him?!

I agree with what has been said about interest on overdraft. No use moving it to a credit card if it will cost money (remember to factor in the balance transfer fee as well as interest), but if it's cheaper then go for it. Sometimes the psychology of it is enough to make it worthwhile all on it's own Xx

Hi PLMBL

Hubby annoyed me again last night, as he has added another little after work job to his Shotgun fund :mad::mad::mad:. I told him NO MORE!!!!!!. and then he gets shirty.
I said that he could get a gun, but not all the bl##dy accessories to go with it. He was even talking about a blinkin shooting jacket :eek:. MEN!!!!!!

I am sure I read that the card I am applying for does'nt charge a fee to balance transfer. I guess its because it isn't a 0% card.

The only 0% card I could apply for was for 3 months and then it went up to 34.5% :eek:. So figure the one I have applied for was the lesser of two evils.

It is definately a psychology thing mostly. It will feel more contained and controlled with it being on a cc. The overdraft fluctuates sooo much that its hard to tell if you are winning or not. Then one month you pay a little extra off another debt and your overdraft gets worse. Its feels like I am never getting anywhere.

Thanks for replying hun, promise to look in on your diary this evening when I finally get some extra time. Got to go feed lambs in a minute

StressedSteph

laineygirl wrote: »

Hi
The credit card transfers worked for us. I got 2, 0% for 24 months.Worked it out that repayment wise we would be better off per month plus we will have paid it all off in approx 21 months.The 3 other months payments.(in theory) will be thrown at the overdraft which we are doing 1st with just the minimum going to the cards. This and any other 'spare money' (is there such a thing) will considerably reduce it and by sticking to the budget in 24 months (sounds less somehow than 2 years) we should be clear.
Husband wise if the extra work suddenly dries up because he's got his toy and he's not prepared to do extra to help then cut his food /drinks rations, say you're tightening your belt because everything is sooo expensive and has gone up tremendously. Say no to everything when he asks for anything that involves you finding the money, smile and sweetly say 'we just haven't got it' and for anything he wants that involves money tell him he has to find it himself and if he can find extra then it would help you at the moment as you have you have one or two pressing things that need clearing. School trips, uniforms/clothes extra fuel (its been a bad winter and things have just run away). You'd be happy with 50/50.
You are sorting things out so that in a couple of years you will be able to do all the things he wants to and more but.....
You've got better things to spend your money on than providing him with playtime. Do you get extra for what you want to do? Do you agonize about when you should have your hair cut etc? Has that become a necessity and something else put on the later pile?. Once every 6 weeks is not a lot to ask. You need 'ME TIME' and a little bit of money to enjoy it. Just to have time out and do or have what you want for a change. Try his tack when you want something go to him and ask him for the money, as he seems to be able to find it for what he wants. Do it sweetly and point out that he had/did..........
If he complains tell him you're the one whose keeping the wolf (bailiff, creditors etc.) from the door and if he can do it better then you'd be glad to have the weight taken from your shoulders.Be prepared to hand over the paper work and ask him if he can see where 'his' money is to be taken from and show him how/what you're doing to clear it all. He'd run a mile before he took that on. He'd huff and puff but you'd still be the one who'd be doing it.
It's supposed to be a partnership but don't you find that you've suddenly become the senior financial partner? You keep it all running as smoothly as you can, you've got all the juggling, all the worry but I bet you don't feel appreciated for doing it all. I know appreciation is not the right word.... but saying good on you well done might some days make us feel a dam sight better.
After all 'I'm the one who spent the money' is the guilt trip we've put ourselves on. Yes we did, but it wasn't just for ourselves. We did it for everyone in the family's benefit.
I think I've just had a RANT and I feel a lot better for it.We've all been here done that and got the t-shirt. But why do we have to wear the T-shirt for such a long time......

Hi Lainey,

some good ideas there. We already have an issue with drink rations as hubby plays skittles once a week, but there are two matches this week :mad:.
I said that not everyone plays EVERY time, maybe he could just go to one and not the other. He looked at me like I had gone completely insane :silenced:. Think he is going to use £20 out of his fund for the other skittles night. There is NO WAY the budget is paying for two nights in one week.

You are welcome to rant here anytime Lainey. I do it often :rotfl:.

I do carry alot of the guilt on my shoulders, but hubby is doing a good job showing me that it isn't always me that has BIG WANTS too often. I think I just never really realised how much hubby wants & gets.

I have thought about a little fund for me, hubby gets £20 per week :mad:. I honestly don''t need as much as that and I would'nt want it because I know that will be a large chunk out of the debt paying fund.
But....I think I might treat myself once a month (£20), so I can go to the cinema. I love the cinema and don't do it as often as I would like. So that will be my once a month treat.
Cinema ticket and large salty popcorn :T:T:T

mummybearx

I am rubbish with apr's etc, that's why I use google :rotfl:

I found this - http://www.which.co.uk/money/credit-cards-and-loans/reviews-ns/credit-cards/repayment-calculator/

Does this help at all? It's saying that for example on a £5k balance at 9.9%, with a monthly payment of £200 it would take 2yr 3 months to clear and cost £591.

Is the apr what you pay each year? Oh I never know how all this stuff works!

laineygirl

Hiya
Sorry about the rant. I just got carried away as I was writing and realised that I'd got the job of sorting it all out and he was just carrying on as normal.No worries for him. But he is supportive just a little vague, if it doesn't impact on him everything must be OK .
I love the cinema and used to go to the big Cineplex in town, or did, with my friend. Had a monthly card at £13.99 and could go as often as I wanted, every day if you wanted to. Gave it up when penny pinching and I truly missed it.
It's £8 a ticket for a single visit so cant really justify going like I used to.
I'd been on about it a couple of weeks ago when I had to make an excuse to my friend again about going to see 'Les Mis'.
Last night my husband sheepishly handed me an envelope and walked away. It contained a new Cinema Pass for the next year and a little note that just said 'Thanks'..
He'd paid for it by selling an old lawn mower to somebody at work (I'd been telling him for ages to take to the tip if it wasn't any good) He'd mended it and then restructured the mans garden doing all the digging, mending a fence and a gate,relaying a lawn and building a rockery etc.
Do you know it was the note that said thanks that made me cry. Just to have that acknowledgement was lovely. He's now definitely in my wonderful book but at the back of my mind the Frugal Fairy is niggling and keeps asking 'what's this going to cost me' and that's what debt fighting does, it takes away the joy of a lovely moment.
Cant wait till we've put all this behind us and then I can really appreciate it when he does something lovely without wondering, wrongly probably, if there is an ulterior motive somewhere.
Off tomorrow with my friend to see 'Les Mis' have got £2.50 in the savings jar for coffee if she wants to go for one, try to talk her out of that, but will take my own popcorn and a can of cola..... Mustn't forget the tissues.

StressedSteph

zepsgal wrote: »

I am rubbish with apr's etc, that's why I use google :rotfl:

I found this - http://www.which.co.uk/money/credit-cards-and-loans/reviews-ns/credit-cards/repayment-calculator/

Does this help at all? It's saying that for example on a £5k balance at 9.9%, with a monthly payment of £200 it would take 2yr 3 months to clear and cost £591.

Is the apr what you pay each year? Oh I never know how all this stuff works!

Will have a look at that Zepsgal thank you.

Got to help drive some of the school children and my Ds to a farm visit in a minute so no time for musing over my spreadsheet etc

StressedSteph

laineygirl wrote: »

Hiya
Sorry about the rant. I just got carried away as I was writing and realised that I'd got the job of sorting it all out and he was just carrying on as normal.No worries for him. But he is supportive just a little vague, if it doesn't impact on him everything must be OK .
I love the cinema and used to go to the big Cineplex in town, or did, with my friend. Had a monthly card at £13.99 and could go as often as I wanted, every day if you wanted to. Gave it up when penny pinching and I truly missed it.
It's £8 a ticket for a single visit so cant really justify going like I used to.
I'd been on about it a couple of weeks ago when I had to make an excuse to my friend again about going to see 'Les Mis'.
Last night my husband sheepishly handed me an envelope and walked away. It contained a new Cinema Pass for the next year and a little note that just said 'Thanks'..
He'd paid for it by selling an old lawn mower to somebody at work (I'd been telling him for ages to take to the tip if it wasn't any good) He'd mended it and then restructured the mans garden doing all the digging, mending a fence and a gate,relaying a lawn and building a rockery etc.
Do you know it was the note that said thanks that made me cry. Just to have that acknowledgement was lovely. He's now definitely in my wonderful book but at the back of my mind the Frugal Fairy is niggling and keeps asking 'what's this going to cost me' and that's what debt fighting does, it takes away the joy of a lovely moment.
Cant wait till we've put all this behind us and then I can really appreciate it when he does something lovely without wondering, wrongly probably, if there is an ulterior motive somewhere.
Off tomorrow with my friend to see 'Les Mis' have got £2.50 in the savings jar for coffee if she wants to go for one, try to talk her out of that, but will take my own popcorn and a can of cola..... Mustn't forget the tissues.

Aaah that was sooo sweet of your hubby. I am cynical just like you, I would have either thought, Whats he done / Whats he want to do, or even I could have put that amount off against the debt etc.

BUT.....

In amongst all this scrimping and saving we do need to live our lives a little. Not quite as lavishly as we used to, but we will be totally miserable if we don't.

I am going to have a look at how many films come up per month that I would like to see. If there is more than 2, then I might consider the Cinema pass, if ours is £13.99. I had a feeling ours was more expensive.
Would be lovely to feel I could go whenever I fancied. I don't even mind going on my own. Am I abit sad

StressedSteph

Morning Diary.

Just peeking in but not stopping.

Have somehow caught a stomach bug and feel awful. Am plodding on trying to get all my jobs done and lambs fed but its a big struggle.

Hope everyone is having a good week.
Will check in soon when I am 100%.

xxx

wannabee_in_credit

Hope you're feeling a bit better Steph x

clearmydebts

Get well soon Steph