Silverbird's Diary

Silverbird

I hope people don't mind me rambling away to myself on here - I'm finding it very therapeutic and it's a good reference.

As it's eBay's 10p listing day, I got a huge box of stuff to sell and now have 30 items up for sale, 3 of which already have bids. They finish a week on Sunday. I made £2.47 from emailed surveys today.

Silverbird

I have another Mystery Shopping visit tomorrow lunch-time and another planned for the first week of August - total £19.00 due to come my way. I've still got to fill out the tax forms, which I'll do this weekend.

I have 47 items up for sale on eBay and the current bid total is £86.66 I'm so pleased!

Been entering competitions like a wild thing too, so watch this space

Kaz2904

Hey you're doing really well then aren't you!
I don't think it's going to take you too long to get sorted by the way you're going. How has your garden gone with the weather? I keep thinking about your veggie plot with deep envy!

Silverbird

Hey Kaz!

Yes, I'm very pleased with how things are going.

Our garden is OK, if a little water-logged! Everything's coming along nicely though and the red onions are amazing. They've done really well.

Only problem is that with all this rain we haven't had a chance to get out and do any weeding, but hopefully it'll stay dry enough today to do that!

Silverbird

eBay items are all finishing tomorrow and currently amount to ....

£153.55 I'm overjoyed! Any advice as to which debt to tackle or the best way to go about it?

Also - I want to balance transfer my LloydsTSB credit card to a 0% interest (12 to 18 months) one. I've read the various threads and forums on this subject, but it's all gobbledegook to me, I'm afraid. I think the M&S More and Capital One Platinum look to be great deals, but I don't want to sign up with them in case there's something 'hidden' that I'm missing!

So, advice wanted on:

1) Which debt to tackle and how?
2) Which credit card to balance transfer to?

Thank you!

skint_spice

Hi Silverbird,

Personally I'd put it towards the CC with the 17.9% interest unless your A & L loan is charging more interest but they are usually < 7% I think.
If you click on the tab on this page with "cards loans" there's lots of info there. I recently got a MBNA card through quidco 0% for 13 months (at that point) and £8.50 cashback through quidco. There are lots of things to consider - if you think you will take a while paying back it might be better to get a low LOB deal as many card providers charge you for balance transfers these days. I'm no expert though and there is lots of info carefully sought out by Martin and his team available, HTH.

x

Silverbird

skint_spice wrote: »

Hi Silverbird,

Personally I'd put it towards the CC with the 17.9% interest unless your A & L loan is charging more interest but they are usually < 7% I think.
If you click on the tab on this page with "cards loans" there's lots of info there. I recently got a MBNA card through quidco 0% for 13 months (at that point) and £8.50 cashback through quidco. There are lots of things to consider - if you think you will take a while paying back it might be better to get a low LOB deal as many card providers charge you for balance transfers these days. I'm no expert though and there is lots of info carefully sought out by Martin and his team available, HTH.

x

Thanks skint_spice! Yes the A&L loan is very good with interest, so no worries there. Yes, I think you're right about using it on the CC. I hadn't thought of getting a card through Quidco - great idea! I will definitely look into that. Thank you ever so much for your help and advice; it's much appreciated :T

Kaz2904

I found a good cc deal in John Lewis today- 12 months 0% with a 2% fee capped at £50.
One of those rare ones that still have a capped fee so sounds good!

pinkkaz

Hi Silverbird, I recently transferred my balance to the M&S card at 4.9% Life of Balance as I got bored of applying for 0% cards all the time (I've gone through about 6 or 7 mind you!) There isn't anything hidden to come up and bite you although you have to make sure that you never use it to buy anything, as otherwise they cunningly make sure that any money you give them to pay it off is put towards the low interest rate first, and leaves the high interest rate on there - cheeky!

Or... I've just applied for an egg card through quidco and got £35 cashback for it (although this money will take a few months to come through). It's 0% for 12 months (i think - double check) with a 2.5% fee. I've just transferred my boyfriend's overdraft onto it!

In the meantime, I'd definitely put your ebay money onto the high-interest lloyds card - this is the one you should concentrate on as it's v high interest.

Silverbird

Well, it's been 15 months since I last posted on my diary! That's a long time!

I didn't stop trying to moneysave though and I kept up with the competitions, surveys and limited spendings, although I did slack with cashback sites and daily clicks.

I just logged into the snowball calculator and in June last year I owed £7,127.67.

I have just created a new snowball and I now owe £4,941.57! :j

That's a £2,186 decrease! I'm ever so pleased, particularly as we had 2 holidays this year (one long-haul). I'm still paying all of the bills and getting £100 off OH towards them (he's doing very well with his debts because of this too), so the financial circumstances haven't changed too much from last year. It's been the little things that have helped me decrease my debt to what it is now. Winning things and selling eBay items has been the major contributor. The latest help is that I've taken on a second job at the weekends. So I now work 7 days a week! Am I crazy? :eek: However, this is only until Christmas and will mean at least an extra £275 in the bank after tax, which will go straight off my Mint card.

OH is doing the same hours (same job - we go in together!) to help with his debts as well.

It's been a struggle and sometimes I feel like a right Scrooge and I must be nagging to OH too, but I'm glad I'm like this and I feel good about the progress we're slowly but surely making.

The Snowball calculator says I should pay off all my debt in 36 months.

So, DFD for me is October 2011.

I'm going to work my butt off to beat that. The sooner I can clear mine, the sooner I can help OH shift his quicker and then we can talk baby-making!

Thanks for reading. I'll add my ramblings as and when. I remember this diary kept me on the straight and narrow.