Shamus dfw diary- a long long road

shamu95

Hi hope nobody minds me starting my own diary.- I am an emotional yoyo and hope that writing everything down will help.

I had my lbm in january and made it my new years resolution to get head out of sand and sort it out. I currently owe over £60000!!! At the start of jan i was £781 short of meeting payments. I am now maybe £200 but managing due to 'extra' earnings.

So far i have changed money around so am paying less interest and payments are less-however this has increased my debt. Have become a mini financial expert- i now what the best offers are (even though not eligible) and i know how to get better offers.
I am incredibly tight and has cost me my best mate- prob hardest thing ive had to deal with.

At the moment i am trying to get a court bundle together for my ltsb charges which are £2500 which would clear another cc. Just had an offer of £70 from monument which am going to accept. Am going to put in a court order for citifinancial and still waiting for barclaycard to send me info.(its been months)

Have sorted out tons and tons of stuff for ebay but dont seem to have time to list at moment as working so many extra hours. Have done 75 hours last week. next week im on for about the same.

Am extremly tired and irritable but in a good mood suprisingly as feeling rather positive. Went out on sunday with an old schoolfriend and spent £7 and felt a tad guilty but only see her twice a year. I am also going to a wedding this sat but we paying out of joint account so not actually costing me anything. Then out again next sat-my friend is treating me as she thinks i need to cheer up. Felt like a charity case at first but she has said that ive just to take it as one friend looking out for another.

Gosh im in tears again. Seem to cry at anything these days.

Hope ive not bored you all. I am aiming for an unsecured dfd of May 2011

benbenandme

A slightly different way of looking at it ..... maybe you didnt lose your best friend, maybe you just lost someone you thought was a friend ... seems to me like the friend thats treating you next weekend is a much better friend to have Friends prove themselves when you really need them :A

Keep posting and you'll soon make tonnes more friends on here

p.s. Am confused by your sig ... have you already paid off 30k of your debt or is your sig just some of your debts??:o

shamu95

Thanks. You are prob right about friends but it has hurt me none the less.
I have a £36000 secured loan that i havent inluded in my sig as would depress me to see it every day in black and white and i cant do anything with it till have sorted out the rest of the mess ive made.

benbenandme

Have you done an soa anywhere? I've seen you posting on other threads so wasn't sure if you've already done one somewhere and I've missed it??

shamu95

Join Date: Feb 2007
Post Count: 173
Thanked 48 Times in 40 Posts help. my SOA

---

Essential outgoings

secured loan £36000 @ 8.8% variable £375.86
joint account £460 totally non-negoitable. have spoke to partner millions of times but like talking to brick wall. my debts my problem.
shopping £100
savings £40 cashbuilder account currently worth £1800
emergency fund £25
mobile £35 inc free broadband
insuranc £6
income protection £7.50
Pension £31.88 have sent a letter to stop this but need to follow up
car £50 inc parking
gym £12 3 year contract and try as i have i cant get out of it
Total £1143.24

debts.

Citifinancial £12572.89@15.95 £377.19
halifax visa £6672.23 @ 22.53% £133.43 (limit is £6500 and they have court order to pay back charges of £240 which they say will take 90 days i have 62 days left to wait)
Dad £7000 @ 0% £125
abbey £1762.19 @ 22.44% £52.86
Morgan stanley £908.60 @ 0% £19
Mbna £2400 @ 0% till may 08 £72

Total £31315.91
£779.48 per month

Income

main job £1200
Avon £100
child benefit £118
grandparents £100
'taxi' box £20
Family tax credit £40
Playgroup £60
Mystery shopping £25
Ebay sales £50
Ferrying mum about £20
Total £1733

All in same thread now. All income variable

benbenandme

am guessing you've already had advice on your soa??? Would you consider using your savings to pay off your Abbey debt? This would give you 50 quid a month to go towards something else? I can understand if you want to keep some money in savings, but it may be a nice boost to clear one of them off in one go?
Any chance of transferring any of the debts onto the 0% cards? Sorry if this is all repeating stuff you've already heard ...:o
I'm very impressed with your income, you're obviously very committed to getting this sorted which is fantastic!!:T Please keep posting, I-A's diary is very popular on here so it will be great to have another one to read daily !!:D

robnye

stop savings - earning less interest on it than you are paying.......
income protection - is this full blown cover...... if not probably better of without it
surely this is the emergency now - also you seem to have quite a few bits missing - car matinenance/insurance/mot - clothes, dental optical etc

shamu95

morning, Having a good day so far. My letter has just come through confirming that payment protection has come off my loan so payments are now £354.32. My granddad has given me £60 and my bonus at work has been paid today which is £93 so again this month i should just about break even with all my extra hours again.
However i am coming down with a cold and feel lousy and its summertime.
Robyn- i haven't included mot or insurance as my wonderful grandparents have paid for me and they bought me my new car so i wouldnt be paying much in maitence and they would fund that. As for dental care i havent been to a dentist for years as can not afford it although i do need to go. The savings-£25 per month accessible and are used reguarly and after lots and lots of debating i am keeping my cashbuilder savings going. May sound stupid i know but i need a safety net and have paid in way more than i would get out now.

Bought my outfit for this weekends wedding yesterday. It came to £48 so i only spent £8 as had the rest in vouchers from my birthday so am rather pleased with that.

The gym still will not cancel my membership but still havent given me an induction date either which i requested anyone any suggestions as its £12 a month i could really do without. Still no response from pension.

Think i'm going to do a new soa next month as have done a couple of bts this past month.

Storm

With the gym I would personally start complaining - how many £12 have they taken so far without you having an induction? I would write to head office, asking for a refund of any money paid out so far as you've not been able to use the gym as you don't know how to operate their machines! Then say you are completely disappointed with the lack of service offered to you and want to cancel your contract as they have not kept to their side of it.

The other thing you could try is tell them you've got a medical condition that means you can't use the gym at the moment - I can't work out from your posts if you're male or female, but if the latter try telling them you're pregnant!

The cashbuilder account - is this with Nationwide? I had one of these for my car savings, and realised last year that the interest is completely pants! If you are going to have a savings account then I'd recommend at least changing it to an instant access ISA - that way you'll get a bit more interest & the taxman can keep his grubby little hands to himself!

shamu95

hi storm- thank you. must have been a member for about a year now. I am female. i will write to head office if i can find an address all i have is the debt management address so will get digging.
My cashbuilder is with axa sun life. i have considered closing it and starting up payments again elsewhere so can build a nice nestegg and still pay off a debt and not be any worse off but am not so sure although that is probably the most sensible thing to do. just hate the thought of having nothing to fall back on.

shamu95

Morning,
The nice mr postman bought me the restof my barclaycard statements so have totalled it and thats another £200 to reclaim back. Have wrote my letter to gym so fingers crossed there.
Am going to begin my court case against citifinancial as soon as i can get someone to pay for it. Why dont they except electron?
Had a few texts from my 'best' mate last nite- we gonna try and meet up over the weekend and try and sort our problems. He thinks that i am too negative but am so going to be positive although i do find it so hard but its still early days i guess.
Cant wait till i see the totals going down.
am going to sign up to a couple more ms sites today- am meeting a friend for lunch and hopefully shes going to help me prepare my court bundle-fingers crossed if its good enough they wont let it go to court.