Credit Card Execution 2015

janeypoo

Struggling already today. I've been trying to drive like an angel, but have about 10 miles left in my tank (home is 30 miles away) and going to need to put some in.

I have abou £17 in my bank account at the moment, due to ebay etc and making a smidge of profit on postage. But that much in diesel won't last me to the end of the week. So I guess I have to take my weekly expenses (£80.50) on Wednesday rather than Friday. Then I can fill the tank completely (£65 ish), and then do a shop that will last to the end of next week on about £32.

I'd already done my "pay the date" payments in a week chunk last week and at the weekend for this week. Pluse we're on the low numbers of the month so it's not so expensive.

Payday in 9 days!!! Help me get through!!

DebtFree2012

Yes you don't want to be running our of fuel on your way home

Well I have a stone to lose but the thought of running fills me with dread!

janeypoo

Today has just been horrible. Unexplained "down" day. No ground made on debt, and only spent on fuel (took expenses for the first 3 days of this week). But I just feel horrible.

I'm really looking forward to my monthly statements coming in, so I can start updating my signature and seeing how much ground I've made. First comes this weekend, ish.

Anyway, hoping for a better day tomorrow and hoping a hard run tonight will sort my head out.

xx

snowscreamer

Sorry to hear you've not had a good day janeypoo. Have you done a monthly budget / investigated YNAB yet? I don't make payments towards my debt daily at all, I just create a budget for the upcoming month in YNAB, including money I intend to put towards debt, spend the month trying to stick to the budget and tweaking where necessary upon unexpected expenses and then I make the debt repayments at the end of the month. I make the debt repayments based on
1) money originally allocated to debt repayment
2) any categories where I spent less than the amount budgeted and I won't need the allocated money to roll over to the next month (eg. groceries, eating out)

Maybe that way your days won't be quite so up and down as you are averaging over a month? Feel free to tell me to butt out but that method is working for me and means I don't feel depressed if I have a high spending day as it usually averages out OK by the end of the month.

Hope you are feeling better about it tomorrow, every day is a fresh start xx

janeypoo

Right, apologies for the lack of post yesterday. It was a miserable day filled with panic attacks and general sluggishness.

I've got the first statement through since starting this. It was for CC2 and my signature is now updated.

It doesn't really show the full extent of the debt I've paid in the last month on it, but it's over £300 off and £250 on another debt I closed the day before I started my diary. Also the balance transfer didn't go through quick enough to get included on that account.

I'm mainly looking forward to a weekend of sorting more stuff out, I've had a few more small wins on ebay, which is nice, but the latest sales went straight back to paying all the fees, which I don't want creeping up on me.

I have a minimum payment due on CC1, which just covers the interest really. But I will be tackling that one soon!

Hope you are all fantabulous this Friday xx

janeypoo

Oh and Snowscreamer, no I hadn't tried YNAB yet. But I am definitely doing that this weekend. I just need to stop running around and sit down and sort it!!

janeypoo

Hi All,

Sorry I haven't been about. It's been a really busy week, with not much to report money wise.

I'm running a half marathon this weekend as part of my marathon perparations, to get used to being in a field of thousands of other runners again.

I've had one or two expenditures as a result of the running. I seem to go through sports bras at a ridiculous rate and can't buy them online as I really like to try them on, and jump up and down to see how it is. The issue I have is that most shops only seem to stock sizes for more athletic shapes than me. And asking for a 32G at the counter is something I still find embarrassing. Especially when there's a spotty 16 year old serving you :rotfl:Anyway, that was £40 which I can't really scrimp on as the pain if neglected is just fresh hell!

I also bought a new running top. I didn't really need it, but it's one I wanted for the marathon and was £33 in the normal shops. During a shortcut through TKM5xx to the carpark I happened to spot it for £15 (Seriously, I wasn't even looking, it was on the end of a shelf) so snaffled it. I did add £1 to the purchase as they were collecting for Comic Relief.

I've just updated my signature. I'm not a full month in yet, 1 more payment on the car, which I know the amount of, and I'll see how much I've paid off in my first month.

I did go through YNAB last weekend, and although useful, it's basically what I'd set up for myself when I started this diary. I have a beautiful Filofax that I use to organise my whole world and I have a finance section in there for all my debts and current accounts which I log every transaction in, and have a calendar for all upcoming DDs and SOs. It works for me.

I do have a lunch out later today, as a dear colleague is leaving work, but I'm not going out for the meal at night and the drinks so it's a bit of a saving/spending as little as possible. I'll go for something carby for the run on Sunday :cool:

Hope yous are having a lovely Friday!

xx

janeypoo

Right, signature updated again.

This month's car payment has just been made (~£481) and an overpayment on CC1 to get it to a nice round number.

There's a wee bit of OCD in there somewhere, as I can't stand when the interest goes on and there's pounds and pence.... I always try and get it to a £10 increment, if not a £50 or £100.

I don't think I'll be making any more payments for a few weeks, so this is my closing % for my first month on here, and I'm fairly happy with 4.3%.

So, that should take me about 2 years to clear it all off. However my car repayments are fixed at the moment, until I clear the cards.

As it's the credit cards I want removed, I've calculated how much of those I've paid off, and it's 8.2%. That equates to about 12 months more of paying off at the same progress, with interest.

Hmmm so this isn't what I'd like, I need rid of it in the next 9 months to start fresh next year.

Due to my naivety with eB5y, I can't list any more items to end in March, so I will list some soon to end in April for extra pennies to go straight to debt.

On this list I have...
My bmx
A few sceciality mags that get a few pounds each
Silk dress (love it, but just too big now)

I'm hoping that should be about £100 profit to go on CC1.

I've given myself a fairly loose budget of £25 per day until next payday for all my spends. It's going to be an expensive due to a wedding (but making my own dress to wear), subsequent gift and new trainers I need for the London Marathon. I'm also going to be having cake sales at work, so have set aside about £50 for ingredients for this, hoping to make lots of lovely pennies for charity (I am effectively donating the £50).

Anyhoo, back soon!

xx

DebtFree2012

Keep going you are doing great

HarrysMummy

Hey there

Just found your diary and wanted to say well done on your progress.

Each little overpayment or extra payment will make a big dent in the overall figures.

Also well done on the running, I don't think I could run to the end of my street, never mind any further. As somebody already said, I'll follow you on the horse