2014 Debt reduction Diary

dottyanne

Starting a new diary just to keep me motivated. Have just posted on the. DFW board about reduction on credit cards - goal is to pay these off in full in 2014. A swell as payments am also aiming to make money by listing on eBay - listed 5 items today and goal is to list 5 a day and throw all this towards cc with highest APR. I have already done a budget which looks feasible and created accounts for direct debits, budget savings for things like Xmas and car bills etc, monthly spending account for food, petrol etc and en a savings account. I also want to change cars this year to a more economical one. I have everything planned just need to remain focused and am hoping this diary will help.

FOXGLOVE_2

Good luck on your journey, I find that even just identifying the areas you need to tackle is a good start and gives you something to focus on.

dottyanne

Yes, I agree Foxglove, I aim to be a lot more organised and on top of things its year too. Positive way forward.

dottyanne

So, a positive start today. Listed another 5 items on eBaby, making the total 10 now. Any profits to be put to the cc with highest APR. I have about half my cc debt at 0% at the moment and yesterday was accepted for the capital one card that offers 0% albeit 6 months, now I don't know what limit they will offer but does anyone know if they let me balance transfer from an existing capital one card or not? If not it's no big deal because I can transfer from the next highest APR barclaycard as much as it will let me so that 3/4 or the cards will hopefully then be at 0%. I'm overlaying each month and have allocated £350 for credit card repayments plus any extra earned from eBay etc. I am going to reduce payments to the barclaycard and lloyds to the minimum and throw as much as I can at the old capital one card that has a staggering over. 30% APR. Money a bit tight for a week or so till OH gets paid a week tomorrow. Budget in place and accounts at the ready for piggybacking so all in all a positive start to the day.....

dottyanne

So....full of flu today, been feeling terrible for the last few days and it's finally come out .... Got quite a few watchers and a few bids on my 10 listed eBay items and will be hunting around to find another 5 to list later today. Pay day a week today thank The Lord! Will work out all debts then and maybe post a new SOA. Sat down with my 2 eldest kids yday to instill that there is no more bank of mum and dad, they both have more than enough disposable income and need to learn how to budget. I'm trying to live on as little as possible until pay day too. Hopefully will be a good wage this month. I can't wait to really crack on with my new budget. Hammer down down the credit cards completely and be in a lot better position this time next year.

dottyanne

So as of today, and since listing 12 items , 3 of which are still in auction I have made 124.98 on eBay but need to deduct fees. Hoping to get to about £150 ish. Once fees are paid this is all going towards the highest APR card debt. I am hoping to get news from capital one early this coming week as to how much credit limit they have offers me on the 0% card. Have 2 cards left now accruing interest. One with about 1200 on and the other about 1600 on. Once I know how much the limit is I will transfer as much as I can off the one with highest APR and then hammer the remainder off, hopefully in a couple of weeks if I can keep finding things to eBay. Pretty skint till Friday and again can't wait to get on wit he new budget....just treading water until then, I don't envisage much spends before then as plenty of food in the cupboards.

dottyanne

Listed another 2 items yesterday and have watchers on both and bids on one, am going to calculate the pure profit from my sales so far to get a true profit total a since you factor in eBay fees, paypal fees, packaging and postage if does tend to take a fair whack off the overall balance. Just about scraping through till Friday which is payday. Bagged a free lunch today which was a bonus, had to spend £65 on the CC on stuff for OH that he needed for work, this will be paid back in full on Friday along with doing my snowball effigy to see what the CC balances are like now. Still waiting for the darn 0% capital one balance transfer card! nothing received as yet and am dying to find out the limit in order to do some shuffling from cards accruing interest! this is only a 6 month deal so aim to get whatever balance gets transferred over paid off by that limit, this will be achieved from careful budgeting, overpaying and of course, eBay profits...still waiting for some Jiffy bags I ordered to arrive in order to parcel and post some of my stuff out. Goal for this afternoon is to package up as much as I can and if I manage it go the the post office with them today, if not will be tomorrow when, if the aforementioned Jiffy bags arrive, I will be able to get all the sold stuff posted. Bought some Christmas stuff today, 4 rolls of wrapping paper along with 40 gift tags from Clinton's for a mere £4 the lot, this will be coming fro me Christmas budget so it's all good....roll on Friday & PaY DaY !!!!!

dottyanne

Up early this morning, 2 more items albeit low value, listed on eBay already. Will work out how much the overall profit is on sales already made later. Going to try to list some more stuff later too. We'll still nothing from the cap one bal transfer card grrrrr, just wanna find out the limit they have awarded and shove some on there from the barclaycard. I've already reduced the limit on said barclaycard from 4.4k down to 2.5K, reckon once it's clear will leave the available around 2K for emergencies only. Will put the card away so it isn't in my purse at all!

dottyanne

Get in.... Another 2 sales today totalling around £90 on eBay also needed to post one today and decided to kill 2 birds with one stone and walk to the post office with the dog, dog walked and no petrol used to get me to post office - result!

Also, very MSEish of me, ordered a new top for the gym for the cost of the £2 postage using the offer on Special K boxes, only bought the Special K as it was on offer and now getting a decent top for the gym for £2 - another result !

Pay day tomorrow so need to sort budget depends out etc. OH expecting a bonus too this month so fingers crossed its a good one !

Ordered a budgeting book from Amazon and looking forward to receiving it, will take the cost of it from eBay sales....hope it helps keep me on the straight n narrow moving forward.

dottyanne

So, payday today finally and time to implement the new budget....OH got a bonus but wasn't as much as he was expecting, he is going to query this, however I digress....

Moved budget savings money into one account (things like car tax, repairs, dentist, birthdays etc...you get the drift)

Moved all Direct Debit and Standing Order money into another account.

Moved budget spends, ie petrol, food etc into another account.

Left a £10 float in originating account and the rest into my savings account.

Now this is a new budget and to be fair I've over compensated on stone if the allowances as I've learned the hard way about under budgeting and the ripple effects that causes.

Need to get a food shop done today. Got 3 parcels sold and ready to post for eBay.

Still no news on the capital one 0% card? God knows how long that should take, maybe they've had second thoughts?

dottyanne

Nothing super exciting today to report, one item sold on eBay and one didn't so re listed. Need to get more stuff to put on and I do have a few things so will try get those on today. Budget seems to be going well, explained it all in detail to OH yesterday, he leaves me to it money wise but I like to keep him informed. I think the new system will work out great, just got to be aware and keep my budget book upto date with daily spends ie food shops, petrol ROTC but so far so good.