Drifting in a Sea of Debt

BettyBones

For the last couple of weeks I've been job hunting and at the end of this week I have my first interview :eek:Although I don't mind my current job, the office politics are really starting to grate on me so its probably time for a change. And in any event, if I can find a job that pays more money then I can slash my debt that bit quicker.I know a lot of people get attached to their workplaces, routines, colleagues etc and find it difficult to move on but not so me. New location, new people, new challenges, new stationery cupboard to raid! I love a change.

So I sat down and drew up a list of requirements for any new job and this is what I came up with:
1. Must be offering at least an extra week of annual leave
2. Must be offering at least the same, if not more, in pension contributions/benefits
3. Must be offering a salary that exceeds my current salary by at least £5k
4. Must be offering work that is engaging, motivating and inspiring
5 Must have a stationery cupboard to raid!

My needs are quite simple and my strategy is to just apply for one job at a time and see what happens. I'm in no rush to move on from my current job so I'm not going to apply for anything and everything, I'm going to try and be selective and really think about where I want to go from here. So, the first job I've ever really put some thought into and applied for and I've managed to get an interview :j Prep is almost all done so now I just need to decide what to wear... power suit?... or boiler suit?... It's been a while since I had to interview for a job and things have probably moved on a bit :rotfl: What does one wear these days? Are we smart casual?

BettyBones

So the day before my interview and my current employer goes and offers me promotion into a senior role in a different department with more money. Typical! This new role will give me experience in a completely different area of what I do and more options will open up to me if/when I decided to move on in the future, so for the time being I've decided to stay put. A bit of a shame as I spent £65 on a new pair of shoes and top for my interview but never mind, the pay rise I get will make up for it

On the debt-busting front, I got a letter from HMRC yesterday telling me that I'm due a tax refund of £165 so that's another 11% of my Tesc0 CC I can clear. Woohoo! I'm really starting to feel like the end is in sight now. Although I do have another 7 months to get through without mishap before I can officially call myself debt-free. Can't wait! Sometimes the days just romp by and I don't give my debt a second thought, other days it's all I can think about and it feels like it's taking forever. Grrr!!! But never mind, onwards and upwards. We'll all get there eventually if we just stick to the plan xx

lcc86

Congrats on the promotion! Maybe your boss has found your diary and saw you were thinking of leaving hehe

BettyBones

Debt totals last month:
Tax Credits: £0.00
Capital One CC: £0.00
Santander CC: £0.00
Halifax CC1: £1,050.00
Halifax CC2: £3,090.00
Tesco CC: £1,100.00
Total Debt: £5,240.00

Debt totals this month:
Tax Credits: £0.00
Capital One CC: £0.00
Santander CC: £0.00
Halifax CC1: £525.00
Halifax CC2: £3,090.00
Tesco CC: £900.00
Total Debt: £4,515.00

Yay! My debt is finally sub-£5,000. Really starting to feel like I've turned a corner now. The 1st Halif@x balance will be cleared at the end of this month and then it's just 2 more debts to go. Will still take a while but I'm definitely starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now. And I'm finally getting to grips with saving money too. I've upped my pension contributions, the holiday fund is up to £1,150 - almost enough to pay the balance on my cruise, there's £128 in my £2 pot - which I'll use for xmas spends and I've even been managing to squirrel some of my expenses claims away to pay for the car tax, MOT and servicing etc when they become due in Feb and April.

The one thing I don't have anymore though is an emergency fund. So if any unexpected bills or expenses land at my door I'll probably be forced to use the credit card again But it's nice to know that the credit card is now only there for an emergency. It won't be used for xmas this year and there's no way I'm ever going back to just mindlessly spending on it for the hell of it. Lesson learnt there for sure!

Money_spending_mummy

Well done Betty! You are doing so well. :-)

Orange_Ena

Well done on your promotion Betty, that's fantastic :T

And well done on being sub 5k. Sub 4k is right around the corner

BettyBones

It's only Monday and I've spent my £30 entertainment budget for the week already. Gah!!! I bought an electric blanket for £20 because my place is freezing in the winter and I'm already starting to feel the chill. And then my teenage son asked if he could have £10 to take his girlfriend to the cinema and I duly obliged. Silly me! He gets £30 a month pocket money from me, £30 a month pocket money from his Dad and £40 a month from his paper round so he should have plenty of money for entertaining the ladies. But when I asked him why he doesn't have any of his own money left this early in the month he said, 'Oh, I do. I've got loads of money. But i don't want to spend my own money taking a girl out. What a waste!' And that probably explains why he has more money in the bank than I do :rotfl:

BettyBones

I hate negotiating with service providers but this month my internet costs went up from £22.40 a month to £27.40 a month :eek: and I can't switch to another provider because I live in the middle of nowhere and the company I'm with is the only one that can provide the speed I need in this area. So I decided to bite the bullet and give them a ring (and a sob story) to see if I could get it back down to£22.40 a month. Spoke to a lovely chap on the phone and he offered to let me continue on my current package for just £17.40 a month. So I got it for £5 a month less than I was originally paying and I didn't even have to pay to call them. I went online and requested a call back so they rang me. And he even offered to refund me the extra £10 that I've already paid this month. Result! :j

Orange_Ena

Marvellous work Betty :T

BettyBones

Debt totals last month:
Tax Credits: £0.00
Capital One CC: £0.00
Santander CC: £0.00
Halifax CC1: £525.00
Halifax CC2: £3,090.00
Tesco CC: £900.00
Total Debt: £4,515.00

Debt totals this month:
Tax Credits: £0.00
Capital One CC: £0.00
Santander CC: £0.00
Halifax CC1: £0.00
Halifax CC2: £3,090.00
Tesco CC: £800.00
Total Debt: £3,890.00

So this month sees me rid of the first Halif@x balance (woohoo!) but now my plan to be debt free by the end of May 2017 is seriously starting to unravel I did a new SOA today and worked out that I have exactly £610.91 left over each month from here on in to throw at my debts. But in order to be done and dusted by the end of May I need to be throwing a minimum of £648.33 a month at them. So that's a shortfall of £37.42 each month :mad: and on top of this I now also need to find:

£525 for my extra rent/water payment in April
£570 for MOT, tax, service and insurance before April
£100 for wedding gifts
£250 for Christmas presents and outings
£25 towards DS's passport renewal and
£50 towards cruise parking

Total: £1,520 :eek:

I have £800 squirreled away which will cover the extra rent payment, Christmas bits and passport renewal but that still leaves me with £720 to find. So annoying! But I'm adamant that I'm going to be debt free by the end of May so I'm off to have a think about where all this extra money is going to come from. And pray that nothing else gets added to this list of pesky 'incidentals'