StartAFresh

andyfromotley

Glad to see your happiness 'index' climbing. This is the most important number you have posted.

StartAfresh

Well nearly into April so thought I would update my thread.
Weight - no change - must get motivated.

Work - still feeling ok in work. I think my work will change soon and I will step outside my comfort zone, but so far so good.

• Happiness - 5/10
• Effort - 5/10
• Confident 4/10

Future - Slight improvement:

• Happiness - 5/10
• Effort - 5/10
• Positive Attitude - 4/10
• Allowing time for others - 5/10

StartAfresh

So far so good £23,967 in debt in March, more than I thought as I didn't pay off as much as I wanted. Hope to get it down to £22,506 or by the end of April (but this may be a bit ambitious and it may be more. Start off optimistic and see.

1. Card 1 - £1,588\£637 (30% APR)
2. Card 2 - £2,549\£2,430 (16%)
3. Card 3 - £2,152\£2,175 (0%)
4. Card 4 - £9,875\£9,590(18%)
5. Loan 1 - £3,100\£3,026
6. Loan 2 - £3,267\£3,024
7. Loan 3 - £1,890\£1,619

Short term goal - cancel Card 1 next month.
Going to be hard on myself and set a goal of under £10,000 by Christmas.

Bad news for me is that I thought I had a 0% interest rate on my large card balance. But because I went over the limit just before Christmas that offer was cancelled and now I am paying 18%, only just realized that this month.
That is really bad and will cost me a lot of money in interest payments I wasn't expecting. Oh well I should have paid more attention - you live and learn. I will now set that as the a priority balance to repay whereas before it was at the bottom of the list.

MrWillyWonka

Might be worth seeing if you can get another 0% transfer - just make sure you leave some leeway and don't spend on it.

What do you do in IT? I work in IT too and do some freelance web design in my own time which gives me some extra funds each month. Could you utilise your skills or take on some freelance work?

Sellurgranny

Hi Startafresh, just catching up on your thread and wondered if you'd thought about starting a DF diary? Theres a forum section dedicated to them under the DFW heading.

Also on another note, i too made a late payment to a 0% card before xmas - my own stupid fault for not setting up a DD for the minimum payment. But i rang them up when i saw the amount of interest they were now charging me and they reduced the interest to 1.9% so now im only paying a wee amount of interest instead of circa £65 per month. May be worth a phone call. Mine was with MBNA.

Good luck with the debtbusting x

StartAfresh

MrWillyWonka wrote: »

What do you do in IT? I work in IT too and do some freelance web design in my own time which gives me some extra funds each month. Could you utilise your skills or take on some freelance work?

Thanks for the suggestion MrWillyWonka, but I have little spare time as it is so even though it is tempting I won't be looking for any jobs. Now I have stopped spending I am in a good position to repay all my debts within 12 or so months, so that is good enough for me at the moment. I will keep it in mind though.

StartAfresh

Sellurgranny wrote: »

Hi Startafresh, just catching up on your thread and wondered if you'd thought about starting a DF diary? Theres a forum section dedicated to them under the DFW heading.

Also on another note, i too made a late payment to a 0% card before xmas - my own stupid fault for not setting up a DD for the minimum payment. But i rang them up when i saw the amount of interest they were now charging me and they reduced the interest to 1.9% so now im only paying a wee amount of interest instead of circa £65 per month. May be worth a phone call. Mine was with MBNA.

Good luck with the debtbusting x

I hadn't thought of that. Worth a go to see if they will reduce my rate. Thanks I will see what they say.

StartAfresh

Sellurgranny wrote: »

Hi Startafresh, just catching up on your thread and wondered if you'd thought about starting a DF diary? Theres a forum section dedicated to them under the DFW heading.

Also on another note, i too made a late payment to a 0% card before xmas - my own stupid fault for not setting up a DD for the minimum payment. But i rang them up when i saw the amount of interest they were now charging me and they reduced the interest to 1.9% so now im only paying a wee amount of interest instead of circa £65 per month. May be worth a phone call. Mine was with MBNA.

Good luck with the debtbusting x

:T
I can't thank you enough Sellurgranny, I sent a message to Barclaycard and they have put my balance back to the promotional rate of 0%. I would never have thought they would do that so you have now saved me a few hundred pounds over the next year.
Again many, many thanks.

Sellurgranny

Brilliant news StartAFresh...... so glad to have been able to give some positive advice that actually worked for you. Best of luck for the future and keep posting on the forums for support. Can't remember which party coined the phrase but ..."We're all in it together" after all! ! X

StartAfresh

Well middle of the month and my end of month balance isn't going to be as good as I hoped - it was very optimistic

It will probably be closer to £23,150 but there is still hope I save more, by not spending. All is good though.

I have decided I must get cracking with weight loss though. On the weekend the scales nearly went to 18 stone :eek:.
I remember when I thought I was overweight at 12 stone

Anyway hopefully I will make steady weight loss in the next 3 months. The plan is :rotfl:to be 15stone by August. Will be happy with half of that though - but ever the optimist with some things.