Chapter 2 - Pulverising the Post Office - one debt at a time

Housework*Fairy

Grocery/Petrol Fund: Was £500 – is £128.29 (should be £113.29)

Both DH and I needed to get petrol yesterday but we only have one bank card. So he took £15 from his footy subs tin and I took the card. I only put £7.50 in as we only had three days to go. Unfortunately I had to go somewhere after work, and as the snow has disappeared I will also need to go to college tonight. If I didn't have those places to go to I wouldn't have needed to put fuel in. I also wont need to spend £13.29 on groceries (although I do need to get some bits tonight) so I'm 99% sure I'll come in at £100 left in there by pay-day. I have done a lot of eating out of the cupboards & freezer this month though, and also due to the weather and school holidays I haven;t done as much driving as I would in a normal month.

Cash-in-hand situation:
Money in purse £1.00
WEMBLEY account £200.96
Money in change box (A) £3.07
Money in spends account: £-49.12
Grand total: £155.91
Days left til payday: 2 (wahoo)

Reduction since day before yesterday £3.13

Where did the money go?
DH took some money to buy a bottle of wine on Sunday night, but I can't see it costing a random amount like £3.13 so he must have already had some change on him. It was worth it just to stop his miserableness from completely ruining my weekend.
Also put a PAD into the Wembley account yesterday due to DS1 not having football after school on a Monday anymore. It hasn't reduced the overall figure seeing how I am totalling the Wembley money up in the money available. Total cost of tickets will be £218 including a £2 booking fee. I'll shift the money into the current account tonight.

The loan money went in today (wahoo) although the credit card still hasn't shown up. Tonight I'm going to work out my strategy, of who to pay what, and then do a new budget list of what is going out and what is coming in.

StressedSteph

Morning housework Fairy,

You sound very organised today. I am like you with the petrol. Sometimes I won't take the children to a club at the end of the week otherwise it would end up me needing to put more petrol in the car :rotfl:.
My budget for petrol is £20 per week and in reality it should be about £30.
but for some reason my head refuses to change the budget and I fool myself EVERY week that I can make the £20 last. I am such a fool .

Nearly there with the Wembley savings pot :T

Have a good day xx

Housework*Fairy

Grocery/Petrol Fund: Was £500 – is £122.77 (should be £107.77)

Spent £5.52 at Morrisons including rabbit food, hair-mousse, pop and chocolate for work, and a bag of sugar for DH who goes through it like it's going out of fashion.

Cash-in-hand situation:
Money in purse £1.00
Money in change box (A) 0.00
Money in spends account: £237.87
Grand total: £238.87
Days left til payday: 2

Reduction since day before yesterday +£86.00

Where did the money go?
DH has withdrawn a tenner cash from which he had to pay for the kids athletics subs and I said he could have the rest for cigarettes.
DS1's two friends are coming to Wembley with us. One of them has given the £36 for his single ticket, and the other has given us £60 including coach fare so we paid that into the current account, and I've put the Wembley money into the current account ready for the mad online stampede to buy our historic league cup final tickets tomorrow.

Boss lady has told me she's paid my expenses claim (£38.50) which I'll get with my wage (wahoo).

Doctor lady who I sometimes type for phoned me last night and I got 45 minutes worth of work out of her which I can invoice her for on Thursday (£15).

Got an e-mail from DH current car insurers informing us that his car insurance expires on 28th February so I've got a month to find new insurance. Unfortunately due to our postcode area Axa do not offer monthly installments so we'll have to go elsewhere. Their renewal price was pretty good too, £120 less than last year!!!! (* faints *)

MBNA credit card has also been delivered. As neither of us got into the house until after 8pm tonight it was too late to do any credit card killing but DH has promised me his undivided attention tomorrow night to do it.

I've been thinking about what to pay off. I have two overdrafts that roughly equate to one credit card and are quite large. I am considering paying off those overdrafts and keeping one of the credit cards (the one that's currently on 0% for about another 18 months) and then reviewing my financial situation then. Combined interest that I pay is around £37 a month and this month (if that loan money hadn't have gone in and given me a buffer) on the last day of the month I would have been maxed on the bills overdraft. It'd be nice to see my current accounts in credit again. Your thoughts?

Currently I have 2 overdrafts and 8 credit cards 1 @ 0%, 2 @ 12.9% and the rest between 16.9% and 21.9% (the shame) monthly payments approximately £419 and paying interest only. With my new finances I will have 0 overdrafts, 1 loan, and 4 credit cards 1 @ 0%, 1 at 5.9% and 2 at 12.9%. paying £369 and paying capital off.

Yeah my mind is made up. And rather than make any overpayments to my debts for the next few months I am going to build up some savings for emergencies / large purchases / unexpectedness.

Housework*Fairy

StressedSteph wrote: »

Morning housework Fairy,

You sound very organised today. I am like you with the petrol. Sometimes I won't take the children to a club at the end of the week otherwise it would end up me needing to put more petrol in the car :rotfl:.
My budget for petrol is £20 per week and in reality it should be about £30.
but for some reason my head refuses to change the budget and I fool myself EVERY week that I can make the £20 last. I am such a fool .

Nearly there with the Wembley savings pot :T

Have a good day xx

Hi Steph

I'm still not sure how much my monthly average petrol spend is as I haven't done a full 'normal' month yet. I try not to drive into work anymore as I only live a mile away (17 minutes walk). To be honest we do not need 2 cars at all now but I'm keeping it running until my insurance is up for renewal in September.

mooomin

Housework*Fairy wrote: »

Yeah my mind is made up. And rather than make any overpayments to my debts for the next few months I am going to build up some savings for emergencies / large purchases / unexpectedness.

I'm *pretty* sure I've heard you say that before...

Can we please have a list of debts, APRs and balances. I don't want you to consolidate, get all excited then balls it up by not closing a card or using an overdraft you were meant to have cleared.

I say this with love, you know.

Also, WEMBERLEY!!

Housework*Fairy

mooomin wrote: »

I'm *pretty* sure I've heard you say that before...

Can we please have a list of debts, APRs and balances. I don't want you to consolidate, get all excited then balls it up by not closing a card or using an overdraft you were meant to have cleared.

I say this with love, you know.

Also, WEMBERLEY!!

Only if you promise not to shout at me or be all shocked :cool:

mooomin

Housework*Fairy wrote: »

Only if you promise not to shout at me or be all shocked :cool:

As if I would!

welshdreamer71

I totally agree with moomin a second pair of impartial eyes over it all can Do no harm especially as your having the chat with hubby too x

Housework*Fairy

Okay (cringe) here goes, please, please don't judge me. No idea how I've got into this position but I'm happy to carry on keeping my spending diary on here even if no one reads it.

Overdraft 1: £1800 limit @ 19.89 AER
Overdraft 2: £1650 limit @ 19.89 AER (only £1256 into this limit)
Halifax 1: £3139 @ 12.9% APR
Halifax 2: 4057 @ 12.9% APR
Post Office: £1273 @ 19.9%
Nationwide: £2582 @ 0% (for another 18 months)
HSBC: £2100 @ 16.9%
Natwest 1: £4126 @ 21.9%
Natwest 2: £2433 @ 19.9%
Tesco: £2500 @ 16.9%

This will be
Loan: £10,000 @ 9.2% for 60 months @ £207.07 per month
- will pay off overdraft 1 (paid)
- will pay off overdraft 2 paid
- will pay off HSBC CC (paid)
- will pay off Post Office CC (paid)
- Will pay off Natwest 2 (paid)
- Will pay off £1686 (£1589.83) (what is remaining of the loan) off Tesco leaving a balance of £900 (paid)

MBNA: £4655 @ 5.8% for LOB
- will pay the Natwest 1 in full (paid £4103.68 + 1.5% transfer fee)
- will pay £529 off Natwest 2 (this means there was only £415 available to pay this)

This will then leave me as
£10,000 loan @ 9.2% APR
£4655 MBNA @ 5.8%
£900 Tesco CC @ 16.9
£3139 Halifax 1: @ 12.9% APR
£4057 Halifax 2: @ 12.9% APR
£2582 Nationwide @ 0% APR

I will continue to make small PADS starting with the HSBC.

When my 0% period is up with Nationwide I will then review the situation and hopefully my credit might have improved a bit and I could look for a life of balance or another 0% card.

OR shall I pay the whole of my Tesco balance off, and keep the HSBC overdraft?

I will keep a £500 balance on my Tesco card anyway and 'pay it off in full' but then run that £500 up in Fuel and Groceries because it's really worked for me this month.

PS - the last couple of months have really changed my outlook on finances and I have stopped spending compulsively, really think before I buy things, and always look for the cheapest option. I'm 37 now, and don't want to be in debt when I'm 60. Our mortgage is due to be paid off in 17 years and I'd really like to have a few years of my wage being my own before I retire.

welshdreamer71

Hiya lovely I can imagine how hard that was to write down as ive hidden my spending for years but like you am finally getting a handle on my spending... You seem to have a complete solution for the $10,000 youve borrowed and I can imagine how relieved you must be to pay off these and just have the 1 loan i've done exactly the same last year or so every time I clear one of my bills I plonk another on my barclaycard and plod away clearing that i've been lucky and not really gone backwards just sidewards a little with my spending but this time I will hand over the cards to stop me spending...

I think when you have done all these transfers to whoever you will fly with debt repayments look what you've achieved since xmas with the catalogue then the Wembley tickets in a month especially as you'l have more money in the pots to PAD i'd say choose which gives you best mental well being (sounds dramatic) but anyone who's laid awake thinking about debt repayments knows what I mean...

Are you going to keep anything by for a family treat or just whack the whole lot off my mum side would say save a bit for a treat my focussed paying debt side would pay every single penny off !!

Keep up your diary tho lovely its fab and I read daily just don't always have time to reply!! And it will also keep those penny kerching'ing into the pots, I've pinched your monthly grocery card idea and am going to try this as I get paid cash it dwindles instantly if i've no where to aim it at so 'im putting my $300 onto card and intend paying it off monthly with cash wages... Enjoy your plotting tonight xx