The beginning of the journey to smiles

TripsandSmiles

Hi everyone.

Long time lurker, first time poster.

First off, a little about me. I'm in my late 20's and have recently relocated three hours south to the city I grew up in. My boyfriend of six years has made the journey with me.
In the past month we have moved out of our flat which we shared for four years and put all our belongings into storage as we have moved in with my mum for a while. Partly so we can both focus on settling into our new jobs and partly because we haven't found a flat we like. A major plus point of this which I didn't think about is the money saving possibilities.

It really is a beautiful thing when rent DOESN'T come out of your account two days after payday. :j

Since moving, I've realised just how much debt plays on your mind. With thoughts of the future and starting a family start creeping in, the £4419 debt really is a draining thought. A thought that I need to turn into a positivity and eventually, into savings.

The debt is made up of one credit card and two overdrafts. One overdraft I live in, the other I am paying off with a payment plan. Due to the latter, my credit rating is shot to pieces! And it really is stressing me out.

At present I am paying:

CC = £50 a month
OD1 = £59 a month
OD2 = £30 interest charges a month

Looking at my spending and potential budget (when we have moved out) I should have an extra £50 I can put towards the credit card per month.

We've both made the decision to stop being so frivolous with our spending, so hopefully this will work!

I will be using this diary to keep my head and bank account in some sort of order.

TripsandSmiles

Just filled in the snowball form and if I can put £200 a month towards debt, I will be debt free by October 2015.

This month I have already paid £139 so will put another £60 in the CC.

TripsandSmiles

Have filled in my signature for motivation. When I think its only 26 payments, it doesn't seem to bad.

Today should be a bit of a quiet one. OH is at work so dropped him off (cheaper than the bus!) and popped to get a few food bits for mum - spent £7.15.

We're going out tonight for a few drinks - have to be strict with myself. Going to budget £25.

Need to think of some ways to make some extra money. Have dabbled in survey sites before so think I need to start that again - although it can take over your spare time. Spare time I should spend studying. Speaking of studying, my new workplace have offered to pretty much pay for my whole qualification, which will be around £800 a year. Thank goodness for that! Its so nice to work for an organisation that appreciate and look after their employees with their career development.

Better go and have some lunch. Was tempted with lots of extravagant options, but am going for beans on toast instead. I really do live the high life. :rotfl:

beanielou

Not long til October 15
Can you afford to pay a wee bit more to the debt while you are staying with your parents?

TripsandSmiles

Hi BeanieLou - hopefully I can but at the moment I'm keeping it aside for deposit on the flat. Although we should hopefully get most of this back from the deposit from our last flat, the landlord is likely to make it very difficult! And he put the money in one of those tenancy deposit schemes, but the paperwork for this is in the disaster zone that our storage unit has turned into! lol.

Heres to hoping though!

TripsandSmiles

So, tonight went well! Only spent £16 as OH arrived late and so only had one drink so could drive home. This is perhaps one of the only plus points to him working unsociable hours. And the :beer: discounts too

Probably a good thing we went home early as the bar we were in wasn't cheap and I had a taste for Prosecco tonight. Hehe.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a NSD. OH is working again and so will take the car so if I want to go shopping I will have to take the bus, and this is not a Sunday activity I wish to partake in.

Instead the plan is to study and go for a run. And find out our rights on getting our deposit back on our last flat. We moved out about two weeks ago and haven't heard anything from the landlord despite two emails. I'm reluctant to call him as I would like written evidence of whatever he has to say.

Apart from the deposit, sorting out final bills has been really easy, and even made a little money back from electricity repayments. :T

DawnW

TripsandSmiles wrote: »

Instead the plan is to study and go for a run. And find out our rights on getting our deposit back on our last flat. We moved out about two weeks ago and haven't heard anything from the landlord despite two emails. I'm reluctant to call him as I would like written evidence of whatever he has to say.

Apart from the deposit, sorting out final bills has been really easy, and even made a little money back from electricity repayments. :T

Prioritise finding the paperwork for your deposit - it is worth half a day looking! If you don't hear from your LL in the next week, contact the scheme yourself. It is really difficult for a LL to keep a deposit - if he or she tries, dispute it - unless you have left owing rent, or done damage that he can provide photographic evidence of (before and after) a dispute is likely to succeed. It is YOUR money (I used to rent out my house, so joined the LL association and read up on the legalities as I self managed).

Good luck!

TripsandSmiles

Thanks for the advice Dawn. The storage is a bit of a warzone and a two person job so will go with OH when he finishes work today. We expect a bit to be taken off the deposit as we were there for over four years so it wasn't looking as sparkling as when we moved in, but he never took photos when we moved in..? He was never the best of landlords, and was always a bit on the dodgy side!

TripsandSmiles

Got woken up far too early this morning by a Bumbling OH getting ready for work. Decided to be the dutiful girlfriend and drove him in, although this can't mean shopping for me

Have just used one of those websites to get alternatives to 0845 numbers - amazing! Am currently on hold to credit card company but as its a free number the irritating music is not annoying me as much as if I was paying money for it. My first :money: of the day I think!

As this month I have no real bills to pay I keep looking at my bank account and being really smug. Ha. Not for long. Just waiting on when we find a flat and for the deposit total as the city were in is a lot more expensive than previously. And most letting agents charge 30 - 35% fees on top. GREAT.

Plans for the day:

Sort out address change for some bank stuff
Study - at least 2 hours.
Go for a run
Go to storage

TripsandSmiles

So have been obsessively staring at my snowball calculations for the past 30 minutes and have decided I need to up these payments each month.

The new plan is as follows:

-Start with Swagbucks and surveys again
-Ebay hunt
-Dooyoo

Between these things I should be able to earn at least another £30 a month, and I'm sure I can cut my budget a further £20 each month too.

With adding an extra £50 a month towards my debts, it will bring my DFD to April 2015. And of course, I will not stop at £50. The more I can save, the sooner the cloud will be lifted! :A

castlelough

Hi TripsandSmiles,

Keep it up! It sounds like you are getting bitten by the bug! Once you start, you just want to get debtfree sooner rather than later!
Castle