It's time.......

FinancialSurrender

Transferred my Barclaycard balance which I was paying circa 15% on to my HBOS card on a 9 month 0% deal :j

A £91 fee attached, but that's £10 over 9 months rather than the £36 a month interest I'm paying Barclaycard at the moment so a saving of £233 - hooray!

FinancialSurrender

With this paycheck I plan to

1. Pay off the £250 debt I have to Halifax
[STRIKE]2. £205.55 of my Postoffice debt is purchases so on standard APR so will pay this off to.[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]3. Am doing a course though the Open University and they haven't been taking my monthly payments so need to get in touch with them and pay what's owed.[/STRIKE] (paid £412)

Other goals

1.Post SOA
2. Join challenges
3. Set budget
[STRIKE]4. Call Barclaycard to get balance and post in signature.[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]Done and transferred amount to 0% with Halifax[/STRIKE]

So am doing OK I think...... Have made some really good progress, but need to get my SOA and budget done so that i can work out how much more debt I can pay off this month.

It does slightly scare me the idea of making a big payment at this point in the month and there still be 4 weeks until payday - arrrgh!! Guess this is what a budget for ;-)

I've basically been practising spending as little money as possible which is fine in the short-term, but I'm aware that a budget is what is really necessary for long-term change.

Have bought lunches in every day this week :-). Actually ate out Tuesday and Wednesday eve, but spent a grand total of £6.80 altogether so OK I think :-). Was my 7 year sobriety birthday on Tuesday - hurrah!!! which was the reason behind one of the meals out (used a 40% off voucher at Leon).

So realistically, my next debt clearance goal has to be paying off the Halifax amount which stops being 0% sometime in Feb (can't see my signature, but might be around £1,800). Have been given two different dates in terms of when this actually is so need to double check. Important that I don't pay it off too earlier otherwise it will be paid off against the life time of the balance 6.5% APR rather than this one. Always find Halifax very pleasant to deal with so that's good! Should be able to pay most of it of this month as long as my SOA doesn't reveal anything too horrible!

In the short term, am going to go and cash a load of change at HSBC to add to my holiday fund as well as booking an appointment with an advisor there - need to set up a joint account with my boyfriend to deal with bills

God I can't tell you how good being financially responsible feels! i haven't checked my bank balance this much in years!!!

As always - thanks for all the inspiration!! xxxxx

NinjaSavingKat

Hello FS.. you seem to be on fire. This is fantastic and well done you for finally taking hold of the debt issues. I am not so savvy on CC deals and interest rates but I am a ruthless money-saving little so and so:p.. I think I shall watch and read your postings to see how you get along! You certainly seem to be cracking the whip.

May I suggest you get to grips with eBay. Start selling when you haven't worn in 6 months.. now that gets addictive!!

Keep posting.. many folk will be along to help and encourage you. I have a long old journey myself but am addicted to winning by the end of 2013...

Good Luck in your endeavors..

Nickyj

Well done! You seem to be making good progress. I agree with NinjaSavingKat, start ebaying, I've made around £160 in the last week just by selling clothes etc. It can be a bit time consuming but well worth the time and effort once you are up and running. Keep up the good work!

FinancialSurrender

Thanks ladies - Ebay has totally been lurking at the back of my mind in terms of something need to get my head on.

Have done it a bit before so it's not a total unknown for me, but procrastinate ridiculously around it. A large amount of my debt is from my excessive clothes shopping habit though so should be able to do a bit on that front!

Ok - am getting to set myself a challenge of putting ONE item on it a day. Need to start small!

£32 in the holiday fund from the loose change I took to HSBC at lunchtime - yay!

Kat - have been very admiring of your monthly challenges. Am at that stage where I'm just watching your contenders with awe :-). Life the little self-care and charitable bits in there too :-)

FinancialSurrender

Nothing massive to report....

Finally got my pin to log onto Experian to find out that I have an excellent credit rating - ha ha! Rather ironic....

Very weird though actually as they don't have any record of my Halifax credit card which is half of my debt....

Anyway - good to know that from a lenders perspective I'm in a good position even if it might not be quite so true from a personal perspective!

Have had a NSD today as only left the house to go for a run. Really not good without human interaction all day though! My BF has been away since Sunday (for work) and just found out that his stay has had to be extended for another week. It means that I won't be spending so much on food, but doesn't feel like much of a consolation at the moment :-( :-(

Found out through the Experian report that I'm in credit on a couple of other credit card (only by small amounts), but still will put it ont he list to get it back into my account

And.... did the dreaded e-bay :-). And realistically it wasn't so dreaded. Just need to get into the swing of it. Actually put three things on rather than my targeted one.....

Thats me for now xx

FinancialSurrender

Feel like I should have a quick post even though I'm super tired and want to go to bed. Have had lots of studying/procrastinating to do ;-) so haven't really been working through my financial to do list.

HOWEVER - and this is a big however my spending has still been good - NSD today, took my lunch to work, drank coffee at work, went to the gym at lunchtime instead of the shops etc etc. Oh - and have been doing an e-bay thing a day which is HUGE for me. Just must make sure I avoid all the lovely things that I see other people selling ;-)

Have just got lots of things in my head though that I need to do so want to make sure that I have them all down on paper.

1. Call HBOS and find exactly when my 0% expires
2. Do a monthly budget
3. Add up student loan contributions to check how much I've paid this year
4. Call Student Loan Company and tell them to stop taking money!
5. Compare ISA interest
6. Sort out bills with OH
7. Set up joint account with OH
8. Get TV licence
9. Send in commission claim
10. Take loose change to the bank
11. Take picture of TV to sell
12. Check last month's commission
13. Claim momey back from Tesco and Creation
14. Find a better savings account

Think that's it for now! Potentially to be added to.

It might look a bit weird that I'm checking out savings accounts, but I do have some savings.... The thing is I live in London and part of this financial turnaround is to enable me to buy a property. However I suspect that I would be able to obtain a mortgage with my current debt (I have a good credit rating) so am looking to pay off debt and save at the same time essentially.

I know some people would say that I should just pay all the debt off first, but just not quite in that frame of mind yet.

I really am finding it such an estimable thing to finally be taking care of my money. I'll be honest with you - taking my sandwiches to work feels bloody brilliant! I am a complete geek :-)

Good night all

FinancialSurrender

Hello All,

Have been TONNES of reading on the site, but not too much posting.... Mainly cause there's not been too much going on (I get paid monthly so what seems like HUGE gaps in between pay days and therefore any activity).

However - identification and inspiration through reading other people's stories has defintiely kept me in MSE mode :-).

Pretty sure I haven't bought any clothes this year which at 6 weeks is HUGE! Just starting to get a bit itchy/scratchy in that area though so might buy a few things to have for my birthday which is in two months time. M&D are always looking for pressie ideas so should work out.

Have been continuing to bring lunch and breakfast to work, not drink coffee and have made about £70 on e-bay so far :-)

Lessons to learn on e-bay - hadn't really worked out the free weekends thing so spent some money on unnecessary fees there, but just one to chalk up in terms of experience.

I say that there's nothing really going on in between pay days, but there's still plenty of stuff on my to-do-list that I could be doing :rotfl:

[STRIKE]Call HBOS and find exactly when my 0% expires[/STRIKE] This is done and it expires on the 18th of Feb
Do a monthly budget - STILL NEED TO DO!
[STRIKE]Add up student loan contributions to check how much I've paid this year[/STRIKE]DONE AND FOUND OUT I'VE OVERPAID BY £800 :j
Call Student Loan Company and tell them to stop taking money! Need to photocopy all of my payslips and send them to the Student Loan Company
[STRIKE]Compare ISA interest[/STRIKE] Done! Actually called my parents and asked for their advice
Sort out bills with OH
Set up joint account with OH
Get TV licence
[STRIKE]Send in commission claim[/STRIKE] - Done
Take loose change to the bank - two bags down - one bag to go
Take picture of TV to sell
Check last month's commission
Claim money back from Tesco and Creation
Find a better savings account

Student loan is a result. Although was slightly less excited when i realised that I'd have to pay tax on the refunded amount :-(. Oh well!

My big plan this month is to pay off the £1700 odd debt that finishes at 0% this month. I currently have £1,905 in my bank so think I'm just going to take a deep breath and go for it! And aim for a million NSDs until the end of the month.

Had an incident this morning which just goes to show how much my attitude has changed over the last month. I left my travel card home and was so annoyed at myself as had to pay £3 for another ticket. This kind of thing wouldn't have even touched the side in the past...

On the plus side - had been thinking about Starbucks today - that's one of the things I've been missing and lo and behold my manager took me for a grande caramel machiatto this afternoon which was VERY much appreciated.

Have a couple of social things on over the weekend, but will try and keep my MSE head on. It's all about cutting down, not giving up for me.

Over and out.

FinancialSurrender

Have been doing tonnes of reading, but not so much posting, but it's pay day tomorrow hurrah!!!!

Just checked my bank and have a grand total of £8.26 in my bank account and a debit of £1.91 to come out so can go crazy with my £6.35 :-)

Worth noting that I have an overdraft facility of £2,500 which I have lived in all my life THAT I'M NOT IN! That was a note to self as is a little unbelievable :-)

So the DFW lifestyle continues. Looking at my list below there are still things I've been procrastinating over and makes me realise that's why I should post more often - to tackle those kind of things....

The three major changes that have taken place since my first post are 1) cutting back on unnecessary crap - coffees, lunches, breakfasts, you name it, 2) Spending less money on going out and clothes (ZERO on clothes still) 3) and have gotten committed to making money!

These things I've been able to stick to consistently for the last month which has felt great :-)

Ok - so my three aims for the day are

1. Send my payslips to the Student Loan Company
2. send my ISA application form off
   Join some challenges :-)

[/LIST]

Need to update my totals too - might wait until my DD's have come out this month though.

So fingers crossed for payday tomorrow - because I get paid commission never really know what the paycheck will be!

bargainbetty

You're making huge progress, well done! If you're a toiletries/pampering person as well as clothes, have a look at the No spending money on toiletries challenge. I did it a year ago, and I still haven't gone back to my previous Clarins habit!

The inventory of your life thing is tough to do, but you really can see the difference in your bank balance quite quickly!

Best of luck x