DFW journey starts today

twiggy86

I know! For one of my friends we went to the Cotswolds for the weekend in a gorgeous cottage however even that cost about £240 - and we all then went to Cyprus for the wedding!


Thanks for the tip re airmiles - I'll look into that!


Oh and on the plus side - I had £40 saved not £30. So only £90 to find towards the villa!

AleMrsT

wow, hen do's have definitely got pricey. Well, actually the whole wedding thing has to be honest. For my hen do my ex friend (long story!) organised for us all to see Dirty Dancing which was touring the UK, it was awesome!! No night out for me.
My sister had hers in November, we had a craft day, with tea, cake and champagne She's so anti-socialising, even more so than me.

twiggy86

I organised a great day out for best friends hen do last year which only (she says) cost £70. 35 of us went to ascot for the day and the price included ticket, coach, coach parking, bubbly for everyone and a picnic. Oh and bought the bride a massive bunch of flowers! Which I thought was great value. In fact everyone had such a great day they want me to organise another trip to ascot this year!

twiggy86

Just received my energy bill statement - slightly over DD amount

There is over £100 in there to act as a buffer and also me and OH were at home a lot more than usual as off over xmas. I have changed the timer as it was on for more hours than I thought so that will make a difference going forward. And I guess it makes up for the petrol I didn't use going to and from work over xmas.


So it's not a problem as such but must do better!

twiggy86

Back again!

Balance transfer has gone through now! Nice to see my Bcard looking so low - shame its been moved elsewhere and not disappeared! Balance transfer fee was £142.50 - aim to pay this off this month (well when I'm paid) so I haven't increased my debt. This does mean I'll pay less of Bcard than I had originally budgeted. However I'm currently owed £39.71 in petrol from work which I normally pay off my CC anyway so that's a start and should more than cover the interest (which I'm hoping will be very little as the majority of the debt is now elsewhere).

I will also have some left over in my petrol pot as I allow £100 per month but have so far only used about £25 although am due to fill up again soon - so I think I'll have about £30 left in there.

Really want to pay more of my debts as don't feel I've done as well this month but don't think it will happen before payday as I'm down to about £20 in my bank, although I do have £35 in my purse and OH does owe me £30. Actually not that bad considering its only 9 days until payday and it was xmas!

We are also recommencing work on the house as we had a bit of a break over xmas! I can't wait to get my hands dirty again! Think OH has a list of jobs for me to do including sanding down the stairs! However this does mean spending money but have a good amount set aside for it (well OH also owes that pot some money but is catching up now he's back to work). As long as it doesn't go on the CC which we tended to do before my LBM that's fine!

twiggy86

I filled up my petrol today (saving £4.25) which left £33.79 in my petrol pot. As I won't need to fill up again between now and payday (next Friday) I've used what was left to pay:-
* £15.75 off my OD - this was the amount of fees I incurred in the period until I realised I was incurring fees for being in my OD! So that is now back straight i.e. no more fees will be added
* £18.04 my Bcard - taking my total CC debt (excluding interest added and the transfer fee which I'll pay off on pay day) £5,890.54

Tomorrow is my 3 month LBM anniversary! So I'll do a post re how much I have paid off this month - won't be as much as I would have liked but at least it's moving in the right direction!

twiggy86

Ok now I'm thinking I should have paid the £18.04 off my next account as I haven't made any overpayments this month plus I did say somewhere in here that I wanted it cleared by end of Feb (I think!)

Too late now though. But petrol expenses for work are now up to £46.39. Interest added to my Bcard at the beginning of the month (don't know why I said above that it hadn't been added yet - was getting ahead of myself!) was £36.32. This leaves £10.07 which I could use towards my next - minimum payment is £12.20 so I wouldn't have to add much. At least this would reduce it by £24.40 (after they take the DD as well).

Actually if I could wiggle my budget to pay off another £5 or so (to account for interest) this would take it under £100! Right that's the plan for this month - then to try and find another £100 by the end of next month to clear it!

twiggy86

So my signature as at 22 December (my (late) two month LBM) was as follows:-

LBM 16.10.14 - CC - £6,652.68 - now £6,081.23
OD - £480.52 - now £410.54 Next - £436.48 - now £140.67
Beds - £1,667.00 - now £1,070.00 Parents - £626.96 - now £466.96
TOTAL - £9,863.64 - now £8,169.40
£5per day - Nov £219.53/£150, Dec £163.18/£155
£1,000 EF #31 - £59.14/£1,000 Pay off by xmas 2015 #49 £5/£5,000

My signature as of today is:-

LBM 16.10.14 - CC - £6,652.68 - now £5,890.54
OD - £480.52 - now £400.03 Next - £436.48 - now £127.47
Beds - £1,667.00 - now £875.00 Parents - £626.96 - now £386.96
TOTAL - £9,863.64 - now £7,680.00
£5per day - Nov £219.53/£150, Dec £194.45/£155, Jan £16.08/£155
£1,000 EF #31 - £79.14/£1,000 Pay off by xmas 2015 #49 £489.40/£5,000

Meaning I've paid £489.40 off my total debts this month. ! Less than I would have liked but never mind. In 3 months I've decreased the amount of debt by £2,183.64!

That breaks down as:
Credit card - £190.69
OD - £10.51
Next - £13.20
Beds - £195
Parents - £80

I am hoping that I will manage to pay more off this month, but as I'm having work done on my car this month, plus I need to cover the £142.50 balance transfer fee before if will count towards coming off my total I don't think I'll be able to. However, at least in the coming months I wont be paying nearly so much interest (6.9% on the remaining £1200 ish on my Bcard) and so will be able to take more off the total.

Must up my payments to Next as still want to try and get this cleared by the end of February!

October_Starter

You are doing really well Twiggy! Be proud of yourself! Before long you will have everything sorted and be saving towards the future!

October xx

twiggy86

Thanks October!

I really should give myself more credit! I've paid 22% of my debt off in three months! If I can keep up that rate it could all be paid of by the end of the year - which would be amazing! I think the reason I feel I'm not doing so well is because I paid off more the first couple of months. Need to remind myself that a) I had the extra money from our lodger which I'm not getting now b) I'm now putting money aside for things like insurance, hen dos etc c) I paid off an amazing amount the first month!