StressedStephs Fight against debt..Again!

StressedSteph

I decided to re-do my snowball calculator to see what effect the 0% V1rgin payments had on my debt free date.

I have managed to get it in to December 2015. That feels a lot better

bess1234_2

You sound much more solid now you have grasped the nettle.

Why so many insurances. Go through them, check that oh is actually covered by them, and if you want them all, at that price. And if there is any ppi.

Mobiles are too high, what can you do, and what is your best choice. Cancel or downgrade.

In fact for someone who spent £25:eek:on an advent calendar, I suspect you can find some mega savings if you go through your soa line by line over the next few weeks.

And what have you been buying at next? What can you now sell on eBay to recoup some pennies. Prioritise old Xmas frocks and get them up quickly

StressedSteph

bess1234 wrote: »

You sound much more solid now you have grasped the nettle.

Why so many insurances. Go through them, check that oh is actually covered by them, and if you want them all, at that price. And if there is any ppi.

Mobiles are too high, what can you do, and what is your best choice. Cancel or downgrade.

In fact for someone who spent £25:eek:on an advent calendar, I suspect you can find some mega savings if you go through your soa line by line over the next few weeks.

And what have you been buying at next? What can you now sell on eBay to recoup some pennies. Prioritise old Xmas frocks and get them up quickly

Hi Bess

Yes I have had my meltdown and now trying to get out of panic mode and actually deal with it.

The insurances are a new thing this year. We went for a long time with no insurance back up if things went wrong. So this year I accepted that I have to find the money for this.

the £101 is a combination of our life insurance and Critical illness. + a family benefit plan which if either of us die it will pay out 30k to help the other get financially straight and give them some breathing room.
We have NO family what-so-ever to help if the &*^% hits the fan, so really felt like I need to cover us for the worst case scenario.

Hubby being self-employed is also a major risky business, especially as he is the only wage earner. so we have insured him against illness which is £26.99. It pays out £1000 per month for life. can claim after 4 weeks of illness. This is the best policy we could find and wouldn't pay everything but would at least pay the mortgage and a few other bits.

I have just looked up my phone contract and as of the 8th December I am free. So will look to reduce the monthly direct debit. Hubbys should be a similar date as well so will chase those up.

Next unfortunately was just childrens clothes, they are very hard on their clothes do doubt very much there is anything salvageable to resell.

Will keep plodding on, thanks for your help Bess, I do appreciate it xx

bess1234_2

Maybe go post your insurance details on the relevant board, as it sounds like gobble de gook to me . Surely life insurance pays out if you die to give the other breathing space? And I thought he might be self employed, so have you paid for anything like ppi which you wouldn't get anyway, cos he s self employed.

And if you want to cut your snowball target, you WILL cut your mobile contracts. Keep your phones, go sim only. I think there's a lot of easy stuff you can do, before you go anywhere near the skittles.

This is your save the skittles campaign.

Cut the next card up, if they trash that many clothes that quickly, go to asda.

Sorry to sound unsympathetic, but you can do this. And you can watch that snowball pick up speed.

PinkPop

Just stopping by to wish you luck. I too have had another LBM....things spiral so quickly when you take an eye off the ball I have found

I noticed your Next account at just under 2k and that you pay £100 a month? One of my endless outgoings is my next account and I have approx the same amount owed and it's always showed minimum payment is around /just under £200 when I owe this much. Have you worked out an agreement with Next to allow the £100? I cannot wait to be rid of them it's a horrible circle as things are sometimes needed yet have no actual cash to buy them so online to Next to order school trousers etc...

I will regularly read your diary and I send you much support xx

StressedSteph

bess1234 wrote: »

Maybe go post your insurance details on the relevant board, as it sounds like gobble de gook to me . Surely life insurance pays out if you die to give the other breathing space? And I thought he might be self employed, so have you paid for anything like ppi which you wouldn't get anyway, cos he s self employed.

And if you want to cut your snowball target, you WILL cut your mobile contracts. Keep your phones, go sim only. I think there's a lot of easy stuff you can do, before you go anywhere near the skittles.

This is your save the skittles campaign.

Cut the next card up, if they trash that many clothes that quickly, go to asda.

Sorry to sound unsympathetic, but you can do this. And you can watch that snowball pick up speed.

Hi Bess

Yes the insurance issue is quite complicated. The Life insurance is just to cover the mortgage, and the family benefit is for extra cash to pay out at the same time. Def no PPI's here, long since cancelled and claimed back anything owing.

Yes will definitely cancel my mobile phone, not sure if hubby can as its for his business, but will work on that xx

Thanks for your help. Yes desperately need to kill off some months on the Snowball calculator xxx

StressedSteph

PinkPop wrote: »

Just stopping by to wish you luck. I too have had another LBM....things spiral so quickly when you take an eye off the ball I have found

I noticed your Next account at just under 2k and that you pay £100 a month? One of my endless outgoings is my next account and I have approx the same amount owed and it's always showed minimum payment is around /just under £200 when I owe this much. Have you worked out an agreement with Next to allow the £100? I cannot wait to be rid of them it's a horrible circle as things are sometimes needed yet have no actual cash to buy them so online to Next to order school trousers etc...

I will regularly read your diary and I send you much support xx

Hi Pinkpop,

Yes they have agreed a lower payment from my for a few months as we were struggling to pay.

I am exactly the same as you with the debt cycle, but I r4eally need to visit Asda or T#esco for the uniforms as its so much cheaper.

Just got to basically STOP shopping online. xxxx

NinjaSavingKat

Steph that is excellent news about Virgin! So happy for you!! Onwards with the next few!! x

StressedSteph

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

Steph that is excellent news about Virgin! So happy for you!! Onwards with the next few!! x

Yes feel super great about the V1rgin card as that is one of my biggest.

Co-op have been calling and leaving messages, so after my success with V1rgin I am going to be brave and call them up on Monday and see if I can get a similar result with the Co-op.

There are two cards in hubbys name and I know there is no way he would ring up to plead poverty, so think I will prioritise paying them off first. So much easier when things are in my name.

If I can get a few of them onto 0% interest then I feel I have half a hope of paying them off :T:T.

StressedSteph

Morning Diary,

I am more than a little annoyed this morning.

I banked my small amount of wages yesterday, thinking what good timing it was, because it would then pay my £101 life insurance DD, and what do I find when I log onto my bank this morning?. The bank has taken £34 interest & £176 Charges :eek:.

I know I have wracked them up but it just feels like they have waited for me to bank a little bit of money to pay bills and then they whisked it away :mad:.

This will be another DD that will bounce now, causing the bank to charge me ANOTHER £8.

I really hate banks sometimes