Stuffocation!

Missioncontrol2014

(Thread title taken from an article on the BBC News website about people drowning in unneccessary possessions, which I most certainly have been at certain points!)

Diary number 2 for me - I started the first one knocking on a year ago, when I was drowning in debt on various credit cards, loans etc.

I was eventually convinced by my other half to consolidate it all into one big loan, which undoubtedly made sense as it reduced my monthly outgoings on debt from around £700 to £281.19. On the other hand though, theoretically it was also a bad move as it pushed my 'debt free' date further into the future, and added some to the total in terms of interest charged upfront.

Anyway, this was all a few months ago. In the meantime I've got married and been on honeymoon (paid for mainly by family contributions and overtime), and generally speaking, at least scraped by each month without incurring any further debt.

Two things have happened in the last couple of months which have inspired me to return, in order to help me avoid lapsing into old ways :

1) I normally earn a few hundred a month from overtime, and what with the wedding, honeymoon etc I just didn't have time in December, so am looking at my first completely flat wage for several years - which just (and only just!) covers all my outgoings, with no wriggle room whatsoever

2) Christmas etc took me a bit by surprise (I know, I know, it comes at the same time every year but I didn't manage to save enough for it, silly me) - and that and a couple of other small hiccups have meant I've run my credit card up to the tune of about £400.

So this month, I am mostly spending nothing on anything, as I literally have no spending money, and getting back on the Ebay horse to try and shift that credit card debt. And crossing my fingers! I will update my progress

Missioncontrol2014

Back again. I've had a good run on Ebay - I've reduced my credit card from £470-ish to £310.81, and that's with another £100+ waiting in the wings tomorrow. So I think my credit card 'oopsy' will be down around the £200 mark by this time tomorrow.

Have updated my signature to show the current amounts. Next step after the credit card is theoretically to start attacking the loan by making overpayments (which I am allowed to do) - having said that, the overtime is still scarce and there's not an unlimited amount of stuff I can sell on Ebay, so perhaps getting rid of the credit card then just treading water for a month or two, or perhaps doing some work on getting an emergency fund together, might end up being more of a priority.

Anybody wondering what the Deposit Repayment is, it's kind of a long story (which is probably somewhere in my old diary) but it dates back to my previous marriage - I used £3500 towards the deposit on my new house which I now owe to my ex-father in law and pay back £50 a month. This amount may increase when the finances aren't so tight