The "time to be a grown up" diary!

in_need_of_direction

Looks like things are going in the right direction. Well done.

betsycat

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Looks like things are going in the right direction. Well done.

Thanks so much! Fingers crossed I can keep it up for at least 2 years

betsycat

Evening! Not too much to report... a couple of NSDs and one naughty day where I bought lunch at work...

Today's been good and bad – I paid over £400 off my credit card as my regular saver matured, hooray! But I also did the MSE card calculator to find a 0% deal, chose a Lloyds card and they didn't offer me a long enough rate or large enough credit limit so I very very stupidly then tried for a Barclaycard straight afterwards. Very very silly me! They've not accepted or declined yet, but I decided to take the Lloyds card and just transfer some of the balance. It means out of the £3400 credit card debt there's now only around £1000 that I'll be paying interest on, and that'll be gone in a few months. Maybe Barclaycard will say yes too and I can transfer that and save a little bit :rotfl:

But that'll have scuppered my slowly building credit limit for a bit so need to lay low and just get my payments over. Luckily my main HSBC credit card has a large limit so that'll be a good one to hang on to for emergency use until I have a nice pot of emergency savings. Maybe one day I'll be able to just have my HSBC Advance account and my HSBC credit card and that'll be it!

Ah well. Got a few things on eBay which are selling quite well, and a big pile of things to go on in the coming weeks for a nice steady trickle of money. Have freaked YNAB out by doing the next few months worth of budgets ("WHY U £4,000 OVER BUDGET!") and have a nice low key weekend planned.

Feeling full and happy after sausages and gravy for dinner!

betsycat

Oh crikey... so Barclaycard did give me the credit card after all... with a 9k limit! They're so sneaky. So it seems Barclaycard are one of the banks that look at somebody with a high amount of debt and give you lots more. Sillies. Well I shan't be touching apart from to put a balance transfer of £1000 over to it to keep it at 0%! Not sure how long the balance transfer offer is until the card comes though.

Have set up direct debits for my other two cards and will do for this one too, for the minimum payment. Can imagine me getting confused again and missing them by accident while waiting for payday. So at least the minimums will be covered and my £300odd chunk can then go off them one by one in order of 0% period.

I'm confused already! :rotfl:

debtfreeoneday

What a nice diary to read.. you're doing so well and I will subscribe to follow you.. nice puddy tat as well!

betsycat

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

What a nice diary to read.. you're doing so well and I will subscribe to follow you.. nice puddy tat as well!

Thanks so much dfod, a pleasure to have you here! Ha, thank you, he's a lovely boy isn't he? Complete mummy's boy, currently curled up on my legs... the other one is off exploring somewhere, probably squaring up to some foxes!

debtfreeoneday

We got one about four mths ago, a 'free to a good home kitten' and I couldn't bear the thought that he wouldn't get a good home.. never had a cat before and the !!!!!! rules the roost, but I wouldn't be without him, he's lovely!

debtfreeoneday

Ha I did not know if I typed a naughty word it would change to !!!!!!

Just to clarify I put b u g g e r and not any other 6 letter naughty!

clearmydebts

Lovely diary and you seem so determined too. I lived in Brighton for 2 years a few years ago. I absolutely loved it there. Have you a timeframe for moving there?

betsycat

Hahahaha dfod I didn't know that either! How funny aw bless him, kittens can test your patience (understatement!) but it's so lovely watching them grow up! He must be a lanky adolescent by now, right?

Thanks clearmydebts! Why did you move away if you don't mind me asking? For us it was work – OH works in music and there are only a few studios down in Brighton, lots up here in LDN (can't remember if I wrote that in my first post, sorry if it's repetition!)

We're thinking five years – at my current rate of paying off debt, (assuming wages remain the same and there are no emergencies – unlikely but I can dream) I'll have paid off debt in 2 years and saved £20+k for a deposit on a flat down by the seaside in another 3. Hopefully by then my credit rating will have sorted itself out to make applying for mortgages a bit easier!

Do you have any plans to move back?