PositiveBalance's Positive Postings on the Path to Paying off Peter & Paul and...

hiddenshadow

Welcome back, PB! Looking forward to your update.

PositiveBalance

Thank guys.

That wasn't a very good return, was it? Alas, some unpleasant news got in the way but I now need to get back here and focus.

Life has been busy. I've been working a lot, as per usual, and paying back money I have needed to pay back, but I have taken my eye off the ball as well in other areas meaning that I don't think I've really made that much progress.

I need to crunch figures and see how badly it has all turned out. Progress has been made, but so have silly mistakes.

Other things I need to do:

• Calculate my gas/electricity usage and switch to new supplier away from the *insert expletitive* I am currently dealing with. *Grr*
• Calculate remaining finances for the rest of the month.
• Fit bike saddle and lights.
• Food plan and cook for the week.
• Finish studying assignments.

PositiveBalance

OK, so some quick and rough figures:

Debt repaid to original source: £4269.02.
0% credit card balance: £4890.12.
Difference between the two: £594.10 (I'm not sure that makes much of a difference but it somehow makes me feel that I haven't been quite as reckless as all that, but that's clearly a lie.)

So I have had to pay a lot of money back to the original person who lent it me and I realised this would be necessary quite a while back, but realised that my meager wages would probably not be enough to get the amounts I would need in the timeframe I would need it (non-repayment at this time not being an option) so I set myself up a stoozing situation in which I paid food shopping, some bills etc. off on my 0% CC and put the difference in a regular saving account.

The account matured this month with a whopping £25.00 interest earned all year for my hard effort (gift horses and mouths, I know, but still...). I have had to make a few unexpected purchases I made, but overall I've been taken my eye off the ball so that the balance on my credit card exceeded the stoozing by quite a bit, but given how much I have paid direct from my earnings, it doesn't look as bad as I think it really has been.

That has been a stupid situation to put myself in. I should know better as I have been hanging around here for long enough to know that's not how it should work.

I clearly haven't got budgeting sorted. Admittedly, I've had some unexpected expenditure but still. I need to learn to follow through and stick to a plan in the longer term.

Also, I got a cat! This is probably not my best decision financially, but said cat gives me someone to come home to of an evening and makes me live a slightly more regular lifestyle (such as not staying up too late...don't look at the clock!)

To add to my financial 'to do' list:

• Get new savings account with decent interest rate.
• Get car insurance
• Get personal insurances.
• Get a better paid job.

Anyway, I had better get some sleep as it's late.

I hope you are all well.

P.S. After updating my signature, it's seriously depressing to see that I still owe £7370.00, never mind the CC balance!

hiddenshadow

Congrats on the kitty!

Budgeting is hard to figure out as the best methodology is different for so many people. I only really figured it out a few years ago myself.

edinburgher

I want pics!

PositiveBalance

hiddenshadow wrote: »

Congrats on the kitty!

Budgeting is hard to figure out as the best methodology is different for so many people. I only really figured it out a few years ago myself.

Hi HS! :wave:

I might be being a bit hard on myself, here. I sat down and worked out a budget to within a few nanopence but then I had to change my strategy as my relatively lesiurely rate of repayment had to be upped considerably.

That's not to say that once this current high rate of repayment is over in a few months that I won't have to reset a new one and figure out sticking it to it religiously, but the goalposts have shifted, so defending where the old net used to be won't do any good for now, so to speak. At the minute I'm mostly in that extra time 'throw everyone you've got at the other goal' mentality. (I can't believe I just used a football analogy. Call the doctor!)

edinburgher wrote: »

I want pics!

Sorry, no can do! Kitty (shall I call her Fido from hereon in just for the hell of it?!) has a rather distinctive feature and I might as well post my own mugshot on here is anyone who knows me sees it!

PositiveBalance

Hi guys,

I'm back. At insomniac o'clock despite my best laid plans about reasonable bedtimes.

I've not done as much as I planned, but I have accomplished ONE major milestone in signing up to a new energy supplier.

I am *SO* happy I can't even begin to tell you! My current supplier has been a total, complete and utter nightmare the proportions of which would not believe and which would take several pages to tell you. To top it all off, irregular billing and readings have made it hard to figure out my actual usage so that I could get an accurate idea of who would be best to move to, but today and yesterday I dug out all my meter reading photos taken on my phone, crunched all the numbers and managed to get a decent quite. (I nearly made a bit mistake between m3 and kWh on the gas as I'm new to the whole gas thing.) Apparently I should be looking at savings of approx. £208p.a. and hopefully so much less hassle I won't know myself! :j

I've been trying to find a new broadband/landline supplier as well, but given that I do a lot of international calling and a lot of the suppliers have stopped doing such competitive deals, I'm not getting too far. Anyone seen a deal with unlimited broadband and unlimited international calls for less than £39.50pcm?!

Also, I broke open my terrimundi in having a slightly mad idea about investing in some Premium Bonds after reading an article onles as I might stand a chance of winning more money. I thought about it for a bit, then couldn't see any reason why not. I figured that I would need to put a few pounds to the terrimundi money at worst to make up the initial £100.00 but when I opened it there was £146.05 and a 2 Euro coin in there! :eek: :j I was very surprised as it is didn't feel at all heavy. I clearly can't keep an accurate mental track of money at all!

So I bit the bullet and bought £100 online. Don't get me wrong, I think they are a pretty rubbish investment in the long term, but as a form of no-risk lottery style gamble with a higher stake, they are OK. I can't see a point where I would want to put more than the minimum in, though, unless other methods of investing were providing really excruciatingly dire interest rates. I'll leave it in for a bit and if I don't win anything, I'll take the money out.

The only problem is, once I had done that, I remembered another use for the money, to which I will be putting the remaining £46.05 (alas, not the 2 Euros, though ). I think I've learned my lesson about impetuous investing as I though I had considered all the angles. :rotfl: I won't lose anything, but that £100.00 could have been used slightly more wisely, now I think about it a few hours late. (What is annoying, though, is the fact that I'm not eligible for the prize draws until JULY, the robbing barstewards! :mad:)

Right, I really better had get some sleep as it's back to the grindstone tomorrow. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shouders by changing gas/electricity suppliers, but I'm definitely going to give my current suppliers some grief about their latest failure to provide me with a bill before I leave! :mad: :mad: :mad:

PositiveBalance

Also, guys, I've been thinking: I don't really belong on the MFW board any more, do I? I've messed up and deserve a sort-of demotion back to DFW board.

I first started this diary when the situation was different and I was hoping to balance debt repayment with mortgage OPs. With the situation changing and debt repayment taking on a level of urgency it did no previously have, my focus is now on debt repayment so the mortgage OPs have gone by the wayside for now.

This is particularly galling as my 2 year fixed deal expires in 4 months and I will now find myself in a position where I have not made the OPs I was hoping to make to bring me down to the next LtV percentage point for the remortgage.

Also, I've made 'invisible' debt 'visible, so that when I come to renew, things aren't going to look quite so rosy for me.

I'm also cross as the interest rate on my mortgage has not been quite what I thought it was so all my calculations have been made on a false assumption. (The day I applied for my mortgage the same lender brought out a new product with a lower rate. The mortgage advisor I used said that as it was the same lender she would be able to get the lower rate as I had already been approved with that lender. When I got my first statement at the end of the first year it became apparent that it had gone through at the higher rate, but that's the least of my worries at the minute. *Sigh*)

Oh dear.

It's time for bed.

*Hears displeased yowl outside the back door so runs out to let Fido in*