Shiny new debt diary - at the foot of the mountain!

Money_mayhem

That's great news about the 0%...the money you save on interest could go on extra debt repayments, or a treat your you.

Well done

Mm

marietje

It's great MM and I hope it works out. I haven't applied for a credit card for a very long time so I keep my fingers crossed that it's really going to work out.

Another coffee free day, NSD and a PAD of £14.50 today. I'm really getting the hang of it! I'm also getting £5.38 cashback from Quidco...

I'm going to try for another NSD tomorrow, but my OH is back from a trip to see his family and we might go and watch is movie (Orange Wednesdays of course).

marietje

Well, good news on the moneysaving front: I got an email last night to say that my balance transfer of £4750 has been successful and should show up on my M&S card in the next few days. It means that I'll have to review my budget but I hope to be able to do that soon. Although the fee is 3% it should save me a lot of interest. :T

I also sold two books on Amazon making a total of £28.54. I'm going to pay the postage out of my spending money so I can send it all to the cards.

I made a PAD of £9.70 today, brought in lunch but had a fancy coffee with a colleague. In the scheme of things that isn't too bad!

marietje

I made some calculations to see where I stand with the balance transfer. It will take a few weeks before all the balances are clear but it's looking good in any case. Also paid £2.70 in PAD today and it looks likely that I'm going to have another fancy coffee free day.

I had the all-important financial chat with my OH about the new card. He immediately said that we should put our trip on the new card but I explained to him that it defeats the purpose because we would be paying interest on that amount. He also agreed that we have enough time to save up the money in cash for the trip and that there is no point saving it in cash, then paying it off the card, then using the card to pay for the trip. That's quite a step forward and we're both very positive about our prospects of paying off at least the credit cards by the end of 2013.

marietje

My balance transfer just cleared! I also just reduced the credit limit so that I won't have access to the money ever again.

A PAD of £10.38, including a Quidco cashback payment. I'm not going anywhere near fancy coffeeshops so I'm on track to reach my goal this month.

marietje

A few mixed days really. Thursday was a huge spend day because I ordered my new laptop, which was very necessary because I work a lot on the road and from home. The old netbook's screen was almost unusable (very dark) and to replace it would've cost much more than it's worth. Anyway, I love my new laptop although I'm not convinced by windows 8. I'm also hoping for £8 cashback!

Yesterday was almost a NSD for both myself and OH! We were invited for dinner by friends and already had a bottle of wine ready to bring along. We did take a taxi back but that was after 12 so technically the next day (only joking!).

I managed a £10 PAD today, of which a £1 test payment to my new card.

marietje

It's not exactly a NSD for my OH today. He's going out for lunch with a friend and he got some newspapers for us (they last all week though!). He also bought a very reasonable suit on ebay. He's still a bit of a spendaholic but at least he's earning a good income now so we can manage these days.

On the positive side of things, I haven't been anywhere near a shop for days and I'm well on track with the 'no fancy coffee' challenge. I have to say that if I didn't have this challenge, I would be very tempted to buy a coffee every day...

Made a PAD of £7.11 but also remembered that I can transfer an extra £4.50 from the fancy coffee fund (done!).

Money_mayhem

No fancy coffee :T Those challenges really do help motivate. Well done x

How much money do you think you'll have saved by not buying them? Is that where the PAD money is coming from?

Keep up the good work xx

marietje

Thanks MM! It really helps to have a challenge otherwise it's very easy to slip.

I basically pay the cash off my debt the day after I didn't buy coffee and I've saved £24.50 so far. I was thinking of keeping track of the totals to remind myself of how much I'm saving that way.

The way I do the PADs is that I either round down my current account (for example, if the balance is 35.80 I pay 5.80 + any coffee savings). If my balance is even, I look at the credit card and round down the balance. I think I picked this up from someone else's diary on here but I can't remember which one!

Overall I think I can do this because my OH and I have a bit more flexibility in our budget now he's earning cash. I'm also trying to save wherever I can (packed lunches and avoiding the shops work for me). My OH's pay is still unpredictable: money is a bit tight at the moment so I'm only making minimum PADs at the moment. It still adds up though.

marietje

Things have turned for the better today, meaning that I can now pay off some money I made recently selling on Amazon and money I saved not buying coffee yesterday. A bumper PAD of £31!

I did some preliminary figures and it does look like I won't be able to reduce my overall debt balance by that much this month. This is partly due to tight finances and partly due to the 3% balance transfer fee. It's worth it though because I'll be paying much less interest next month.