Catriona's Credit Card Countdown

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Comments

  • catriona79
    catriona79 Posts: 855 Forumite
    edited 14 May 2013 at 10:24PM
    dktreesea wrote: »
    Hi Catriona,

    Have a great time in Barcelona. Even if it means spending a bit more, those memories will carry you through some of the dark times ahead, when the drudgery or repaying debt starts to gnaw away at you.

    I find it's important not just to have good memories, but also to have something to look forward to. Not necessarily going away but things like having tickets for a show, one off stuff rather than just the usual "going out" at the end of the week.


    Thanks DK :) I'm sure I will.
    Again, wise words re little treats along the way.

    I'm sure there are people out there with a will of iron who can sigle-mindedly pursue an aim. Alas... I am not one of those people...
    So I guess I need to create a strategy that will work for me. And there need to be small treats along the way. Barcelona is going to be a massive treat. I am lucky (though it has its downsides.. During debt repayment) in that my bf likes nice things. Last year for my birthday he took me out shopping and we started by having a glass of champagne in the champagne bar in Selfridges. I'd never been treated to anything as extravagant as that and I believe that my ex, who is down to earth and a wonderful person, would wince at the thought of doing anything like that, as it's too showy offy etc. and i do understand that! But I enjoyed it that time and it was a new experience. So... I don't think this trip is going to suffer from lack of XO (that's "extra awesomeness" for those of you not in the know hehe ;))

    On the house / moving in together front, it is happening this weekend! My lovely lodger will be out and Mr Impossible will be in. A bit scary, but also really exciting! It will be great to have more privacy and not having to worry about sharing the living space. Also to have a bed fro friends to come and stay! Let's hope it all works out. Fingers crossed for me!:)
    * * * Catriona's Credit Card Countdown * * * from -£16k to debt neutraldom - for my debt diary click here
    Barclaycard -£5,867.52;
    mbna1 - 3,009.22
    mbna2 - 1,755.70
    Savings £5,017 MFiT #25 £2,627/£10k; daily interest £5.04
  • Mara_uk7
    Mara_uk7 Posts: 1,219
    First Anniversary Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    Ah Catriona, I wish I knew Barcelona better. Only been there once and that was too short. Lots of lovely eating places, can't remember names, but just sitting people watching was great fun. Amazing how long you can make a coffee or a beer last if you try. Lol
    Its just a bad day, Not a bad life .. :cool:
  • catriona79
    catriona79 Posts: 855 Forumite
    Mara_uk7 wrote: »
    Ah Catriona, I wish I knew Barcelona better. Only been there once and that was too short. Lots of lovely eating places, can't remember names, but just sitting people watching was great fun. Amazing how long you can make a coffee or a beer last if you try. Lol

    Hehe Mara, ill be testing how long I can make a coffee last when I go!!! :rotfl:
    * * * Catriona's Credit Card Countdown * * * from -£16k to debt neutraldom - for my debt diary click here
    Barclaycard -£5,867.52;
    mbna1 - 3,009.22
    mbna2 - 1,755.70
    Savings £5,017 MFiT #25 £2,627/£10k; daily interest £5.04
  • catriona79
    catriona79 Posts: 855 Forumite
    edited 29 May 2013 at 1:15PM
    Hello everyone

    It's pay day, it's pay day!! :T:T:T

    I have reached 20% debt pay off, which is not as good as I'd hoped but not too bad either;)

    My adjusted debts are below:

    Barclaycard 1 - £200, new total £2800
    Barclaycard 2 - £150, new total £6050
    First Direct CC - £100, new total £2700
    Lloyds TSB CC - £100, new total £1700
    Ikano bed loan - £94.5, new total £0
    HSBC CC – £411/£411 new total £0

    The new total is :eek::eek::eek:£13250 :eek::eek::eek: ... And it is going down steadily! :beer:

    Hope everyone's doing well?
    * * * Catriona's Credit Card Countdown * * * from -£16k to debt neutraldom - for my debt diary click here
    Barclaycard -£5,867.52;
    mbna1 - 3,009.22
    mbna2 - 1,755.70
    Savings £5,017 MFiT #25 £2,627/£10k; daily interest £5.04
  • catriona79
    catriona79 Posts: 855 Forumite
    Hello everyone, hope you were being good while I was away?

    It was my birthday last Saturday and my bf took me away; we had a lovely time! It was also sunny and warm, we had some spectacular meals and the best strawberry daiquiris I have ever sampled! ;)
    And... We had a view of the ocean (floor to ceiling windows!) and the curtains opened with a push of the button by the bedside... The view was breath-taking!..

    Now though, it's time to get back to planet earth and to living frugally!:) I have been very good and have done a big shop at Aldi and a massive Chinese supermarket. This is the first month of my bf and I living together, so we will have to see how it goes. So far, we have agreed a budget for food and have got ourselves a joint account for everyday spending. My bf is better with food expenditure, as I always buy way too much. Hopefully he will keep me in check and save me some pennies.
    I still can't get over how much less I've been spending on food by not doing a big S-bury shop each week, and only getting small amounts of what I need from Lidl. I think that easily saved me £250-300 a month!

    After my lodger moved out last week, I've got another kitchen cupboard for me to use! I must NOT fill it, so I have spent today doing bits of housework (I am still off work till tomorrow). I have even ironed all tea towels!;) I'm sure I've overdone it! ;) but all cupboards are tidy, lined and rearranged. The kitchen looks neat now, let's hope it lasts!
    The added bonus is that I haven't spent a penny and even made a cake. Lemon drizzle, yum yum.

    I've got a few bags of charity stuff to drop off and then the house will finally stop looking like a bomb site. The bf has a humongous amount of clothes and stuff in general. I must make him stick the golf buggy in the boot of his car. Ooh I feel satisfied with the sorting and cleaning today.
    * * * Catriona's Credit Card Countdown * * * from -£16k to debt neutraldom - for my debt diary click here
    Barclaycard -£5,867.52;
    mbna1 - 3,009.22
    mbna2 - 1,755.70
    Savings £5,017 MFiT #25 £2,627/£10k; daily interest £5.04
  • catriona79
    catriona79 Posts: 855 Forumite
    edited 30 May 2013 at 4:06PM
    Good morning diary,

    It's 7am and my first day back at work... Well, working from home, so it's a good way of easing myself into it.
    My colleague is coming over to mine, so that we can do some thinking/ planning.

    I have seen an amazing piece of kit, which I would absolutely love. The Vitamix blender. It blends veggie/fruit smoothies of curly kale, avocados, cucumber, kiwi fruit etc. it's so powerful that you don't even need to peel the veg or fruit.
    It also makes amazing daiquiris, I should imagine!

    I am going to try and stop eating wheat, so it would be really useful, but the price, the price!!! £460! Eeeeek!

    Have breached the subject with the bf, he thinks it's outrageous, which is the attitude I need ;) but with a bit more work on him, I reckon we will get there... Yesterday evening he said that if I can find one on eB@y for £300 we can talk. Oh dear. I had better get looking before he changes his mind ;)
    * * * Catriona's Credit Card Countdown * * * from -£16k to debt neutraldom - for my debt diary click here
    Barclaycard -£5,867.52;
    mbna1 - 3,009.22
    mbna2 - 1,755.70
    Savings £5,017 MFiT #25 £2,627/£10k; daily interest £5.04
  • catriona79
    catriona79 Posts: 855 Forumite
    edited 30 May 2013 at 6:32PM
    Well, it's been a productive day at work! The house is looking sparkling clean too, so I'm on the sofa relaxing.

    My company recently ran a voluntary redundancy trail, and gave a very generous multiplier, meaning that my payout would have been £13500. For the last two weeks I've been regretting not having taken it. It's too late now though... I do like what I do, but my current role is a maternity replacement and when the person whose role I'm covering gets back I am going to go back to my substantive grade, meaning that my income will go down from 33k to probably just under 29k... :( I should have taken the plunge and ventured out there - the VR money would have lasted about 8 months and hopefully id have found something better and more challenging before that time was up... Maybe i would have done some interim work? But I think it's too late now...

    Anyway, I have been doing a bit of thinking about my debts. All of my 0% credit cards come to an end at the start of next year, in Jan, Feb and March. Being a worrier, I just sit here and worry what's going to happen if I can't transfer my balance!.. Silly , I know... But I've worked out that if I were to get a personal loan with my bank (FD), for the 7k at 5.1% over 36 months, I would have to pay back £7555. Given that most 0% cards charge a fee of about 3% anyway and only last for 26 months max, that doesn't seem like such a bad deal?

    My cards are:

    Card * Total owed * Credit limit * 0% expiry
    BC2 *** £6050 *** £7600 *** March 2014
    FD **** £2700 *** £4000 *** January 2014
    TSB *** £1700 *** £6000 *** February 2014

    So, I'm thinking that the best strategy would be to make every effort to pay off TSB, as that's the smallest balance and the highest credit limit. So, pay that off in early December, close the card (then I don't have access to that £6k credit) and then in early January apply for a 0% balance transfer card.

    Do you think that this would increase my chances of getting a 0% card?
    I have to say that in preparation for barcelona I applied for a h-fax clarity card and didn't get it... So have been freaking a little.
    * * * Catriona's Credit Card Countdown * * * from -£16k to debt neutraldom - for my debt diary click here
    Barclaycard -£5,867.52;
    mbna1 - 3,009.22
    mbna2 - 1,755.70
    Savings £5,017 MFiT #25 £2,627/£10k; daily interest £5.04
  • catriona79
    catriona79 Posts: 855 Forumite
    It's Friday, it's Friday!
    And the sun is shining! Wahoo! Hope you are all resting and not worried about the debts too much!

    Happy Friday!:)
    * * * Catriona's Credit Card Countdown * * * from -£16k to debt neutraldom - for my debt diary click here
    Barclaycard -£5,867.52;
    mbna1 - 3,009.22
    mbna2 - 1,755.70
    Savings £5,017 MFiT #25 £2,627/£10k; daily interest £5.04
  • catriona79
    catriona79 Posts: 855 Forumite
    edited 1 June 2013 at 8:07AM
    Good morning

    It's another beautiful sunny day:)

    I woke up early and my mind is racing. It's so annoying to be paying off this debt! I've got to snap out of this mood, it's not going to do any good.


    Have a good day everyone
    * * * Catriona's Credit Card Countdown * * * from -£16k to debt neutraldom - for my debt diary click here
    Barclaycard -£5,867.52;
    mbna1 - 3,009.22
    mbna2 - 1,755.70
    Savings £5,017 MFiT #25 £2,627/£10k; daily interest £5.04
  • catriona79
    catriona79 Posts: 855 Forumite
    I'm finding it difficult to strike the right balance between having a life and paying off the debts. My partner is in a very different situation to me, but has a very different mindset too. He expects to get given a lot by his parents. For example, they have just given him 12k towards a new car for his birthday, and they've always paid for his insurance, service and MOT. They will give him a substantial amount towards a deposit for a house.
    I have a very different perspective because I've had to fight very hard for everything I own. But at the same time, despite my debts I have about £65k in equity in my house, and that's where my money is.
    So this is a very unbalanced situation... The way we think about money is very different. I worry about it practically all of the time, while he just carries on. I annoy him with my worry, he annoys me with his carefree attitude and what I see as a lack of making provisions for the future. At the same time he isn't silly with money and will not spend freely on stuff. It's just so hard for us to relate to each other though.

    He's just taken me away for my birthday and that was extremely generous, but me having to take the £250 spending money with me (drop in the ocean compared to what he had spent) has thrown my budgeting out of kilter again...
    Now it's his birthday next week, and that's going to be expensive too.

    Then end of June we go to Portugal with his parents, which I felt like I had to do, to show good will etc. but which I shouldn't be doing, because in that way I'm not going to ever be able to save up enough to be debt free when I planned.
    At the time, I obviously thought that its my duty to go along with it and that there are more important things than money...
    But then I still stress about the money afterwards!!.. How silly.

    Whinge over!
    * * * Catriona's Credit Card Countdown * * * from -£16k to debt neutraldom - for my debt diary click here
    Barclaycard -£5,867.52;
    mbna1 - 3,009.22
    mbna2 - 1,755.70
    Savings £5,017 MFiT #25 £2,627/£10k; daily interest £5.04
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