My Graduate (Post-Student) Debt Diary!

MrJester

>12 Months

sauceoclock wrote: »

Omg! Great news!

No more capital one *does a happy dance for you*

What's your next BIG aim? I always find having a big target is great.

Close Barclaycard next?

yep soon want to close the barclaycard, then it'll just be two!

MrJester

>12 Months

guess who's feeling pretty smug right now!

finally got a letter back from financial ombudsman, barclays would like to offer me nearly £130 to close my complaint about my packaged bank account from a few years ago.

its taken MONTHS to get it to this stage because they keep passing you back and forward quite a lot, but hey its coming at a pretty good time - that will go straight off my barclaycard which will then be pretty much paid off!!!!

MrJester

>12 Months

phew, I thought I'd way overspent during my first week of my weekly budgeting plan. I have over spent, but only by near £20. which isnt too bad. although a couple transactions yet to come out, so it might be around £25.

I need a better way to track weekly spend, still figuring it out, just want to be able to glance at a balance and see "oh yeah, ive got this much to spend left"

until then I'm manually working it out at the end of each week by downloading transactions straight from my bank.

this might be why having a credit card to spend on will be helpful, but just have a very small max on it - will see..

MrJester

>12 Months

appears i have definitely overspent more than i thought over past week
this is why i wanted to do a weekly budget, so i know where i stand each week

so technically i should only have £60 for spends this week if i try and make up for the last. which i will try to do, see how i get on. going to try not spend money unless i have to and im going home to visit family this weekend but dont plan on spending much just want to have a nice time visiting friends and family

not very likely to be able to get back in front within a week, but its ok im going to try and its better off knowing where i stand after a week than when it gets to the end of the month and im skint usually!

cant wait for that cheque refund of packaged bank account from my bank to come, put that into bank and then pay straight off against the barclaycard, and that alongside my planned direct debit this month will bring it to £175.. and just £25 left to pay off! then i'll just wait till closer to the end of this month and see if i have the extra cash to pay it off completely!!

MrJester

>12 Months

happy saturday.

I've been off work since tuesday with what i think was food poisoning, i feel mostly better now just a bit lethargic etc so I'm just going to try and make a bit of an effort to get my muscles working again - been laid in bed for 4 days straight and I'm knackered!

the cheque for my packaged account came in, managed to pop out yesterday and put that in the bank. its come at a good time really, as usual I'm behind on my money. my weekly budget is very hard to stick to with different things cropping up here and there!
but going to try my best not to just spend it all, as i want to use most of it to pay off the barclaycard - I've already cut up one card this month, and i could cut up another!!

my credit has taken a nose dive this month, because the capital one still shows as existing with a high-ish balance, and the barclaycard quite simply has not updated its balance for AGES so it still shows as 2000+ when its currently £160. but hey should close that too soon and be done with it.

ive been working off a £200 towards debts per month, but i think as soon as I can get the barclaycard away then ill drop it back to £150. its clear that I'm not able to stretch quite that far at the moment.

heres to hopefully a positive weekend to get myself back on track

MrJester

>12 Months

I finally sold an item I've been trying to sell for a while, and got the price I wanted ! it'll be around £150 extra for me, which means that as soon as Im sure the buyer is happy with the item and not wanting to return that I can basically PAY OFF the barclaycard. done and dusted, before my November pay cheque even comes in!

comes at a good time, when ill get less money due to being off sick in nov pay cheque, but then again I'm still waiting to hear about a pay rise which should be implemented for this pay cheque.. we'll see..
either way I'm not massively bothered just because i don't know if ill be there for much longer

System

woohoo for the extra £150.

Boo for food poisoning, it can be really rotten... If you're still feeling off-kilter next week go and see a doctor for a routine blood test, always worth checking. I thought I had a general bug and ended up in A & E in my second year of uni because it was actually e-coli and I was very poorly! You just never know!

Don't stress too much about your credit rating, when these things finally do update you'll be absolutely fine and it'll come straight back up again.

Is your focus still your credit-cards.. I don't think I've ever asked you about your overdraft, does it have interest payable or is it 0.00% for a specific time?

MrJester

>12 Months

hey sauce.

it was pretty horrible there for a couple days, i couldnt stand up. yeah suppose you can never be too careful, in the end i fought it off and i feel pretty fine this week.

yeah my credit 'rating' jumps up and down depending on what my balances look like at the time, but i know that in a few months time it'll be pretty consistent for once and i can start to rebuild.

its funny you should mention the overdraft, i went into my bank to discuss having a second current account so i can separate debits and my spends. i mentioned now that i was a graduate, and he said look if you try to change anything youre at risk at losing your 0% on your overdraft because you're still in a student account. so id just stay quiet till you can pay it back.

and sure i could move to one of the graduate accounts, at £7 charge per month but of course dont want to have to pay for an account, plus if i was to apply for a account change i think i might have issues with my credit jumping up and down

i think im just going to have to be quiet and hope they dont start asking for it back anytime soon, and if they do ill go from there. hopefully by that point my credit will be decent having got rid of two credit cards and regular overpayments on the others, which means that i can get a graduate account with a better bank e.g. santander.

MrJester

>12 Months

i bought myself some new shoes today, hoping they arrive tomorrow, just some nice trainers. i haven't bought any new shoes for ages, just can't afford it or when i have bought some I've returned them because i just need the money elsewhere.. i never get to buy for myself anymore, and i like my clothes and I've got smelly shoes and ones with holes in them, its getting ridiculous!

my buyer of my eBay item has received it, and hoping they give good feedback soon because i don't want to even chance the fact that i use the money to finally pay off the barclaycard and then theres something wrong and they want to return it.. eBay buyers sometimes take such liberties.

then when november paycheque comes in (which hopefully might be higher wage) theres going to be much more money for meeeee and just essentially one credit card to concentrate on paying off for the next year. amazing. so so happy, and right before christmas and into the new year going to be much better off.

that'll do for now, we're still moving on up one month at a time.

debt is quite literally debilitating in my experience, and i look forward to the day its all gone, but just being proactive in moving up with it makes me very pleased

System

=] So glad to hear you this positive. All sounds good. Deffo a good shout on the shoes, I ended up with a boring pair of chelsea boots I could wear to work for my birthday this year from BF because I needed some and couldn't buy myself any!

So excited to see your signature update to show the BCard as Paid! Your debt is actually decreasing! Go you!