Third Time Determined!

catriona79

karmachilovething wrote: »

I've also felt a shift in my mental energy about money recently. I still get the urge to spend, but it doesn't seem to be as strong right now. My resistance is growing, or maybe my reasons for over spending are lessening.

Excellent news, it's all in the mind.

Hope you've enjoyed the warm weather in August and have been feeling more positive. It definitely helps with debt busting. But sunshine and warm weather is free. Very egalitarian!

I feel a new positivity coming on too. Fingers crossed it will all be sorted very soon and we can enjoy life while spending less. Or start earning more!;)

karmachilovething

catriona79 wrote: »

Excellent news, it's all in the mind.

Hope you've enjoyed the warm weather in August and have been feeling more positive. It definitely helps with debt busting. But sunshine and warm weather is free. Very egalitarian!

I feel a new positivity coming on too. Fingers crossed it will all be sorted very soon and we can enjoy life while spending less. Or start earning more!;)

It really is all in the mind isn't it. I reckon it's taken about a year, maybe 10.5 months, to make that mental shift to how I think about money. I hope it's permanent.

I'm still struggling with the paying off the overdraft thing, but I figure there are plenty of other parts of my debt to tackle and so I should start there. Just made another overpayment on my b4rc-card so that I'm tipped under the £3000 mark on that one. Will have to see where the chips fall at the end of the month before I call the final debt percentage though.

Bad_Weather

I am also on my 3rd attempt.

My mental shift happened November 2011, I think I just got really really fed up of having a good job with decent money - but NO MONEY! Also so many missed opportunities as I had no money. Like last minute holidays were I would only need to pay for a name change or something. But didn't have the money for spending etc. :mad:

I was also really really angry with friends who were basically getting on so much better in life but I thought were cheap because they were not as extravagant as me (although some are cheap). Now, yesterday I saw a mate in M&S buying lunch and I was thinking - HA I've saved £5 today from NOT going to M&S for lunch. :rotfl:

I also struggled with overdraft, so much so that I just cleared it and worried about my credit cards. I just didn't see it as debt, and had no desire to clear it like I do with credit cards. I had a 0% one that I never cleared aswell so eventually I just cleared it all. Not the way Martin says :money: you should do it, but its worked for me. Otherwise I would probably still have it and still have the credit cards.

karmachilovething

Hi Bad Weather and welcome to my little diary!

I know what you mean about the OD not seeming the "same" as CC. I think aother factor is that my OD is my main account, it has so much traffic that it's hard to keep track of where I am. Whereas the CCs I don't touch any more, so that payments made come off the totals and they come down (slowly slowly)

I think that next month I am going to use my 4cqa card as a consumables piggy bank. The maximum balance is low (£250) and the interest is high (25%) so I set it up to be paid off in full every month, so it's a good candidate. Plus it gives cash back, not to be sniffed at. I think I will try it for October and see how I get on.

karmachilovething

Car has been into the garage and had the rear break caliper replaced, and the front one will need to be done next week (not as urgent, but awaiting parts). No idea how mcuh that is going to cost me, and really crossing my fingers it's not too devastating. Having said that, this doesn't strike my heart with fear any more. It might be tight this month. I might have to take a hit in the OD for a while, but it won't throw me further into the debt at least not in the long term. Knowing that I'm on top of everythign feels really good.

Well I say that, but I've realised that my Halifax card has reached the end of it's 0% period last week. And I failed to shift it in time, so I will be incurring a little bit of interest this month. But I have another card that has £0 balance that keeps sending my BT offers, so I think I will call them up and see what they can offer me.

karmachilovething

BT made, so another 12 months 0% for that card. Not as long as I'd like but not bad for an exisitng customer deal. I didn't want to make a new application, and the only reason I've been hoarding the empty card was in order to BT to it, so I might as well.

Next autumn I might feel differently, and go for a new card. Hey, next autumn there may not be a need! One can only hope!

karmachilovething

So keeping with the credit card shuffle type theme here: my 4qua card has paid out the cashback this month, which not only covered the months balance (only £25) but has left me a wee bit in credit (£15 or so)

So now I need to make a small spend on that card to get my cashback out. Question is: treat (as it's a windfall)? Or something I would have bought anyway?

I'm actually tending to the latter option, probably will be (required) beauty buys bought this weekend . . . which is kind of a bit of both.

karmachilovething

Payday! And I seem to have done better than expected for September - an extra £124 paid off the debt, or off my OD at any rate, which I wasn't expecting but very pleased about :T I definitely feel like I've turned a corner with my attitude to money, it just feels easier than it used to.

Having said that, I haven't had a bill from the garage yet for the woork I had done on the car the past couple of weeks, so that gain may disappear sharpish!

Planning for a NSD today.

karmachilovething

Today was a very MSE day! I stocked up on toiletries using the cash back on my 4qua CC, so only spent £1.50ish, which will be paid off in full next month.

The more exciting thing was I went to a dress swap. Complete revelation to me. Now that eBay charges are so terrible I'd given up selling unwanted items. But swapping them for things I might actually wear? Brilliant!

I took:
A white Karen Mullen dress that no longer fit
A blue wrap around dress
A stripy Karen Millen cardi that I'd not worn in ages
A linen jacket (H&M)
A pair of patterned trousers (Zara)
A corset top from Coast
A blue dress I bought on holiday last year and had never been worn

I got:
A 3/4 sleeve T-shirt from Oasis
A blue stripy shirt from Topshop (I can tell it will become a favourite)
A beige blouse from Gap (perfect for work)
A black and white shift dress from Zara (also for work)
A navy and black T-shirt from M&S
A vintage Chinese padded jacket
A peach sun dress (for next year)
And a playsuit that doesn't fit so is going to the charity shop

Very pleased with my haul, and especially knowing that I will get more use out of these items than the ones I gave away.

karmachilovething

So I was thinking recently this diary must be coming up to a 1 year anniversary. On checking not quite it will be 1 on 4 December.

I was beginning to think that in comparison to other people on these boards I hadn't made much in-roads on my debt. I've cleared just over £2000 in that year, and there are plenty on here that have cleared that in a couple of months.

But I was reading over my early posts, and it made me realise how far I'd come. And that actually, even though I've cleared less than others, I've cleared a lot. And you can't compare yourself to some body else who's circumstances are very different.

Anyway, as I've got 2 months left to before the 1st birthday I want to try and have cleared £3000+ total in that time. It should be possible because it includes 3 pay checks, and that would be a nice milestone to make.