2017 Debt Free Wannabe

kirtsypoos

Hi Lonire,

You're doing really well so far, but I wouldn't advise consolidating. It does work for some people, but they are few and far between. It's a lot more common for people (me included, I consolidated 3 times before my LBM!) to consolidate into an affordable monthly payment and then run the CCs back up so you end up with double the debt.

The snowball calculator that chandelier mentioned has been a godsend for me. When I first had my LBM I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel, but 18 months down the line, with the help of this forum, the lovely people on it, the snowball calculator and a few 0% balance transfers I have less than 25% of my debt to repay left, which will hopefully be gone by the end of this year if not sooner

At this point, it's all the small changes you make which will really add up and help you - a 0% card will be your best friend if you can get accepted so you can start paying more capital and less interest

I also use a slow cooker and I swear by it. I put allsorts in there and leave it on while I'm at work - bolognese, curry, jacket potatoes, a whole meat joint, diet coke chicken and BBQ pulled pork are a few favourites of ours

Glad you had a nice time away, and were still mindful of your budget - being in control of your money is such a freeing feeling.

Lonire

Hello Everyone and happy weekend,

I am very glad it is the weekend, have had a very stressful week in work and then thinking about the debt troubles on top of that made me look forward to the weekend. Your words of encouragement are all greatly appreciated as always. Its great to know we all have the same goal. I have been taking comfort in the fact that I have realised how important it is to finally take responsibility and fix this issue before it is too late. Thanks Chandelier and Kirstypoos for the wisdom on the balance transfers and loans etc. After this advise I realised that this did happen to me before, I consolidated and ended up in more debt. Therefore def going for balance transfers this time. I have been approved for a new card to shift a lot of my card debt onto, And then will need to do the credit card shuffle to try and get all my card balances on zero percent rather than risk applying for more cards and affecting the credit rating. Will see how much I can shuffle before trying any other cards. But I am happy to have got the new one to free up the shuffle ability.

Where can I find the snowball calculator? Seems like a very useful tool.

So I have done my food shop for next week and my meal plan. Using up the copious amounts of Tuna that I have in the cupboard and frozen ingredients. Found myself automatically picking the cheaper brands and actively questioning if I needed something. Good progress.

The slow cooker sounds like a good idea, I think I will have a look around and try and get a cheap one and also a stick blender for soup. I think those two purchases if cheap enough could in long run save me a lot of money.

It seems through this and bringing in tea and coffee to work I have cut down my caffeine intake as shop bought coffee often has more caffeine. This has led to better sleep and feeling better. So another good by product of my money saving.

Hope everyone is keeping well and having a wonderful weekend. Anyone had any good wins this week?

THanks,
Lonire

thegreenone

I don't know your proximity to big supermarkets but many are selling off lots of kitchen stuff at the moment. OR..... better still.... join your local freecycle and ask on there for a slow cooker and stick blender. You'll have to go and pick it up but it may well be worth it. Good news on the sleep and saving money

FinallyDebtfree2017

How are you getting on Lonire?
You sound like you are in charge and cracking the debt busting business

Lonire

Hello all, was in a local retailer today looking at the slow cookers, could def get cheaper somewhere else so will wait and check out one of the larger retailers.

Hi Finallydebtfree2017, How are you? Im doing ok. I think I need to get to the second pay day of the year, see how my spending diary is going and keep up the small changes. I hope the small everyday changes can completely change my mentality toward spending. I've cut the fixed costs down now and I know now I was careless and just spent money for the sake of it. Now I actively look for bargains and small wins and they make me smile. How you getting on?

thegreenone

Hi, I'm sorry I didn't reply to your question about what to cook in a slow cooker.


I mainly do:
Lots of beef mince bolognaise sauce then bagged and frozen.
Ratatouille, some of which I will whizz up into a pasta sauce and freeze in bags
Beef casserole (on now!) with mushrooms, onions and carrots. I'll probably do jacket spuds in the microwave.
Chicken curry
Half leg of lamb
Whole chicken, placed on cut onions so you get lovely gravy. Do not use any stock. Add in halved potatoes and carrots. The leftovers will give you lunches for a few days.


Yes, it's fine to leave on all day plugged into a wall socket, not extension lead. I have a morphy richards which has four and six hour settings. It will then keep the food warm for two hours and then switch itself off. Useful if you are sometimes late home from work.

Lonire

Hey there,

Thanks for all the tips! def need to get myself a slow cooker and start with the cooking. Looking forward to it. But will need to get it on an offer. I hope.

Have had a couple of NSD's this week which have been fantastic. Actually come home an feel great about them! hopefully I can keep them up especially post pay day.

I have been working hard on minimising more bills and decided to cancel the local gym membership after a good talk to myself. I haven't been in ages and decided I can use the bike more and try to get out in the park. Save myself £26.99 p/m on that one.

Also got my account to sell stuff online up and running so have a few things I can put on there.

will see how it goes.

Lonire

Hi everyone, hope you've all had a great weekend. Ive had a relatively quiet one so low spend. Took myself to a lower cost well known european supermarket and was happy with the savings! will def be back again. The adverts showing how their food brought in really does help. Anyways such a huge saving. Still had to get a couple of things in the usual supermarket but hey its a bit of progress.

In other news. I have managed to shift all my credit card debt onto 0% deals. Yay. Something so simple and I've only just realised its a tactic from reading posts on here. Hopefully I can now make some serious inroads to clearing it. Will clear the shortest term one first and ensure I set up min repayment direct debit repayments on all of them to ensure I don't lose the 0% deal. Will over pay on one of them each month and so on until they are clear is the plan.

FinallyDebtfree2017

Hi Lonire

Glad to hear you had a good weekend.
Out of interest, how did you manage to move £19k to 0% cards. Find it quite hard to get a limit of over £6k

Thank yiu

Lonire

Hi Finallydebtfree,

I was very very surprised too, I managed to get two approved with a limit of 10k each at 0%. Can only transfer 95% of the limit but I was within that limit so worked out nicely. I used Moneysaving expert's section on "top cards" and used the eligibility checker and applied for the two I had a high percentage of getting accepted to based on my personal details. It is worth a check on the eligibility checker to check first as it has no impact on your credit score (I don't think). I found it amazingly helpful! It is great as meant I have went from 5 cards down to 2. Cut up and cancelled the other 3 already. I have set up the minimum repayments on the two remaining cards and will over pay one of them each month. This mean I'm chipping away at more capital and hopefully get it paid off quicker

The top balance transfer section of the MSE main site and the eligibility checker alongside it really very useful when I found it.

As for the limits they've given me, I was very surprised as I have struggled in the past to get such limits. I can never tell what they take into account when they make that decision. Luckily despite my mountain of debt, my credit rating is at the minute very good. I just hope I can tackle this debt and keep it that way.

The eligibility calculator is def a top tool to use.

Hope this is helpful. How you been getting on? I see you are on the good side of half way to your goal thats great!!