Uhtred goes Viking against his debt

Uhtred_Ragnarsson

Had a great little boost to the debt slaying today - my latest gas and electricity bill was generated after I went online and gave meter readings. As well as my DD reducing from £68 to £59 a month, I'm getting a £70 refund by the 10th of August :T. I was tempted to spend it but sense has taken hold and I'll pay it towards the credit card instead.

Happy days

Poor_Single_lady

£70 refund is brilliant! Can you round it up to £100. Might not be possible but good if it is. Im not sure how it works for you but for me this early in the month I might just pay over the £70 and see how rest of month goes. My electricity statements always ask for more money, never give it back.
Good luck smashing the debts this month.

Uhtred_Ragnarsson

Mmmm, I could actually make it the round £100 perhaps. That would really make inroads. I was quite surprised at any refund - I suppose that's another benefit of the new central heating. :A

It is looking like a really good month so far

System

Top job. Now go turn off all your lights in celebration!

Uhtred_Ragnarsson

That's just what I should do. :rotfl:. Light a few candles and , relax

Uhtred_Ragnarsson

Time for a short update I think.

I got the refund of £70.00 from the gas company but I didn't pay it to the credit card - I'm glad I didn't as I ended up with toothache, at the dentist and paying over pretty much all of it for a large filling, an x-ray and total mouth service . Hey ho, it could have been worse I suppose.

On a slightly different topic, I've had a bit of success in preventing the build up of future debt. It goes like this: - a couple of friends and I had planned to go on holiday in 2017 as one of us has a very special birthday (I won't say which one to protect innocent Vikings )

Anyway, we have each been putting £50 a month into a savings account for quite some time and by next June we should have about £1400 each. The plan was for a cruise in the Med but looking at prices and all the add-ons like gratuities and travel down to Southampton etc, it was clearly outwith our spending power. Our cash would have paid for the actual cruise but spending cash would have been on top of it.

To be honest I'm not that bothered with a holiday, especially as I have better things to do with that amount of cash. However, I couldn't face pulling out. So at the weekend I bit the bullet - I used one of Martin's mantras that we shouldn't be looking at what we want and trying to figure out how to get it; rather we should be looking at what we can afford. To my surprise, they both agreed and in fact, were relieved that the topic had been raised. The upshot is we have all decided on a luxury European coach trip to Italy for 10 days. It will cost £650 per person including all meals and excursions which then leaves the remainder of our cash as spending money. :j

I really can't express how relieved I am. Yes, I would be happier to pay all that money to my debts but this is a sort of halfway house I suppose and at least the debts don't get worse.

Onward and upwards!

Poor_Single_lady

I know everyone's different but I think we should all live a bit even when paying back debt. Enjoy your holiday. Its important to have good bits in life that make us happy. And I think paying back debt can make you forget that's its important to be happy as well as to balance the numbers.
Going by Martins mantra i can go away this time next year. I like this concept! Thank you for sharing this because i had not thought about it this way before. Most helpful!

Ps good luck with the tooth.

Uhtred_Ragnarsson

Thanks Poor.

I agree that you need to live a little - I've lost count of the times recently when I've been too good with the debt, paying every last penny and just not living. In the end it isn't sustainable.

If I had stuck to Martin's mantra then I wouldn't be writing this diary now, that's for sure; if there is anything at all that I'm going to try to live by, this is it.

Happy to report that tooth is fine and seems to have settled so that's one thing that's worked out fine :T

Uhtred_Ragnarsson

Well it's that time again - pay day:T

Today is a bit of a milestone as I paid off the remaining balance of the ARGOS card. It was only a small amount but it bothered me that I had been so daft as to have it in the first place. Very happy it's gone and it certainly won't be coming back as I'm closing the account.

Paid another £100.08 towards the credit card - the 8 pence is because every penny counts :rotfl:. Another £26 will come out via DD later in the month so that's not a bad dent in the debt overall. Next month though, as I no longer have ARGOS to pay, I can pay over £400 to Virgin which will fairly slay the balance.

Although today has been a good day I must admit I've been feeling a bit down in the last week or so. It's not being fed up because money is tight - I'm used to that (sadly). It's just well-meaning friends wanting me to do things with them despite knowing that things are precarious for me. They don't know the entire extent of it but I've said repeatedly that I need to be very tight with the budget. I'm not sure which part of that they aren't understanding but the upshot was that yesterday I felt really bad for not going out. Then I got really annoyed at being made to feel that way. :mad:

Anyway, today has made up for it a bit and I'm looking at things a bit more positively. I've listed a few things on eBay that are going to sell and after fees that should give me £60 to £70. I'm not sure whether to pay that to the credit card or keep it as a small emergency cash fund in a jar. I'll need to think about that. Probably pay the card though.

So that's the update for now. Fingers crossed it gets a bit better from here on in.

Poor_Single_lady

The closest friends are the ones that understand the least (in my experience) they say they understand but then they ask you to do things all the time. I've had a few rows with mine and its still a bit of a battle. I think people get used to you being available all the time and then when this changes they cant understand. I hope it gets easier. You have to do what you think is truly best for you.