Taking Care of My Pennies

MrsNotAPenny

LivvyLoo wrote: »

I think the less money you have for the month the more you want to spend...how does that work?

Ive just bought DD a lovely dress because I wanted to :mad:

It's lucky I don't have girls, my debt would be double!

MrsNotAPenny

So the car needs to go into the garage today. I stupidly googled the problem and most of the answers I have found have suggested it'll cost £1.5k to fix.

Please Money God, I promise I'll be good if you let my garage bill be under £300. I really promise!

MrsNotAPenny

Ok, garage can't fix the car. Booked it in elsewhere for next week. Don't know how much it's going to cost though

Good news is that bcard have offered me a balance transfer, 2.9% fee, 6.9% lifetime rate. Cost me £44 to move my CC balance over. Still beats 21.9% I was almost being charged on it and now all my Credit Card debt is in the one place! All £7,185 of it....

Still no idea what I'm going to do when the 0% runs out on the rest of the balance but I'll deal with that next year! (However, i am considering borrowing from the Credit Union if I can't get it moved to a reasonable rate. We'll see!)

Debt as of today: £10,852 odds.

:A

MrsNotAPenny

Evening! Just reporting in

After the balance transfer, I have ended up in credit with CC! Which the won't sent back to bcard and bcard can't recall :mad: and apparently I can't withdraw it because I'll be charged interest on it (how, I have no idea!) And they won't refund it to me because I was honest and admitted it was paided off with a balance transfer :mad:

So I now have <£90 to use on CC until I can close the account. I plan to either do my food shopping with it or do some Xmas shopping and pay the funds back o bcard. I'm kinda scared if I use the CC I'll get hooked again and not be able to stop I guess it's a risk I'll have to take!

Worked out today that its going to be 3.7 years before I pay bcard off - if I continue to pay minimum payments (which will go to £245 come March. Currently £166, I'm paying £200 by direct debit at the moment) By that time the loan will have paid itself off, repaid September 2016 :eek:)

I'm ok with that. I didn't think I was in for the long haul when I started the journey, but it seems I was. I just really need to stop using the card. The minimum payments are manageable,just, at the moment. It would only take one bad purchase to push me over the edge. Maybe I need to sail close to the wind for it to work for me? Maybe it's the little bit of wildness I need in my otherwise mundane life? Who knows (who cares really!)

I'll just keep shuffling along, slowly slowly catchy monkey!x

MrsNotAPenny

Oh, good news is that the car is fine! It's made a full recovery, all by itself, from whatever was wrong with it! That is a weight off my mind.

Both boys need their sports activities renewed this month, £87 for that. Thankfully DS2's childcare is a bit lower next month because of the holidays. That evens it up a bit!

It feels really wintery today. I love the dark mornings coming in, still up early but I really enjoy them. I might have to make a start on Christmas shopping. This year I've got cash savings for it (rather than vouchers) and I'm actually looking forward to hitting the shops

Happy Tuesday!x

LivvyLoo_2

Morning MrsP,

You sound very chipper today.

Brilliant news about the car, car repairs are never cheap so thats a great saving.

x

MrsNotAPenny

Yeah, feeling much happier Dunno how long it will last though! Had a nsd, until 8pm when I spent 65p on some flavoured water (in an attempted to stop me eating my way through another evening in front of the tv!) So far so good!

MrsNotAPenny

Just popping in to update my total. I'll be skipping into October with under £11k (hmm, this feels familiar....) £10,863.40 to be exact*





(*does not include £50.99 of Nxt catalogue debt):(

beanielou

:j :j :j

MrsNotAPenny

Has it really been that long since my last update?? I'm such a flakey DFW!

So, where am I now? Still thousands of pounds in debt, £10,137ish. Still eye watering but I've definitely got better with money since last posting. I now have SAVINGS! Ok, it's only £460 but it's the first time I've ever had anything put away for emergencies. The majority of it is in the CU savings account (£310), the rest has been split into different envelopes for spending, a car envelope, a kids classes envelope, 'other' envelope.

Got a few savings accounts as well, my isa has £25. This is my house deposit fund! It has not to be spent unless I'm buying a house. I'm determined not to touch it! Only another £9,975 to add to it :rotfl:

A holiday savings account, which I have just cleared to pay our little caravan holiday in June. No putting it on a credit card this year :A

The car is still alive and well, mot and road tax soon. Buying it added a year or so to my debt free date (which is now waaaayyy in the distant future, sometime in 2017 if I'm lucky!) But it has improved our lives and I'm glad I bought it.

My income is still very low but I'm managing it much better. We've been able to buy new clothes, got to the cinema, out for cheap dinners, bought a few dvds. All with cash and nothing on the credit card. I think throwing everything I had at the debt wasn't the way to go for me, so it's reducing very very slowly it is going down and at the moment that is the best I can do (without losing the plot and binge spending)

Feeling positive, no overdrafts, a little bit on one of my catalogues - a new bed for little one, all up to date with payments, no utility arrears, some savings and my bills are as low as I can get them. Some £idco money on its way too. I am going to have to pay my insurances monthly, when they need renewed, this year. I'm ok with that though. It won't be adding too much to my outgoings.


The not so good news is that a lot of my debt is being charged at 20.9% :eek: and I can't move it. I think about £4k is charged at this rate. It's costing me £85 in interest a month, along with the £16 interest my loan is costing me (which is nearly under the £3k mark! Yeah!)

There's not much I can do about it, except suck it up and get on with it! In less that 2 years both my kids will be at school and hopefully my income will increase, until then I'm just going to keep trying to keep on top of it

Well, hopefully it won't be another 4 months before I do other update. I do lurk daily, so I've no excuse really.

Happy 2014 guys