I’m taking control of my life, now.

Suffolk_lass

boxofpaws wrote: »

We have credit card limits over those 3 cards of £23000. We have card and loan balances of £15.5k. I get a £2000 bonus in March. This should be easy (shouldn't it?)

Here is what I think we need to do.

• Transfer the 3640.7 available on barclaycard to the LLoyds.
• Clear the remainder of the £1200 Lloyds, £500 this month, £700k next month.
• Pay the rest of my bonus (1300) to the £2209 balance on the
• Barclaycard leaving £700 to pay.
• Money transfer from MBNA to the loan to clear the loan
• Chuck all payments at the Barclaycard £900 on which we would be paying interest (2 months to clear)
  

We would go from this
Barclaycard £2,209.30
Lloyds £4,802.05
MBNA £3,925.00
Tesco £6,722.63
Tesco £5,625.08
Loan £4,413.36

To this
Barclaycard £4,802.05
Lloyds
MBNA £8,500.00
Tesco £6,722.63
Tesco £5,625.08
Loan £0

On my Barclaycard, I can take a cash advance for 1.9% fee then 0% interest until November 18 - if you were going to hammer through some more debt you would be worth considering doing this than paying 3.5% fee for the MBNA cash advance?

boxofpaws

What's new in Paw's world?

Good things

• Have taken a look at the credit cards and am making A Plan
• Have started the credit card shuffle
• It has dawned on me that we need to have all financial arrangements in place in the NEXT TWO WEEKS to be in time for the affordability checks for the remortgage
• Have applied for (and been accepted) for a MBNA card for a money transfer to pay off the loan
• The Tesco card that I checked last night and I thought that I had no deals - an offer has arrived through the post this very day. So we now have 0% offers across all cards.
• Managed to buy only 2 coffee at work today (£1.20 in total). See also Bad Things
• Thought I had planned the shopping badly and that we had nothing to cook tonight when in fact I had a while spare chicken. Hiding in the front of the middle shelf of the fridge, where it was obviously very difficult to see.
• Have made a huge amount of roast root veg to use stuff up in the fridge. Feeling all Mrs Beeton-y and organised. And it looks quite nice.
• Took homemade soup to work. Courgette and chorizo. It was nice and made me wonder why I ever buy the rubbish from the canteen
• Tidied out the fridge
• Have actually taken out some stuff from the freezer to cook for later this week (depending on how far the chicken goes). Hake - yum. Confirming my Beeton-esque status
• It was my friend's birthday today. Whilst that is a Good Thing in itself, the real cause for celebration here is that I remembered on Wednesday that it was, and that she wouldn't be at work on Monday, and she doesn't work on Fridays and she finishes early on Thursdays and I STILL MANAGED TO GET HER A CARD AND BOTTLE OF BUBBLY ON TIME. This has literally never happened before.
• Mr Paws has got an extra 4 hours of overtime today. He earns about £11 per hour after tax on overtime.
• On top of all the housework and washing and ironing and gardening.
• On top of my paid job

Bad things :exclamati

• Bought 2 coffees at work. This a £250 annual spend. It needs to stop.
• Have to throw away some grey ham. I hate wasting food and rarely do it but I went away with work last week and it didn't get used up in time. Mr Paws says wasting food is immoral. And it is.
• Have a nagging feeling that we shouldn't have applied for the MBNA card (in Mr Paws name) and just managed the situation with the offers on current cards. The truth is, the only way of doing it would have been for me to put Mr Paws's loan on my credit card, which would have meant that all but £7k of the £28k debt would be in my name, and I am definitely not comfortable with that. I trust Mr P implicitly, its more of a mental thing.
• I have finally given in and thrown away about 8 chicken flavour packets (remember them?). The truth is, I do not like them. I couldn't even give them away because they are 3 years out of date. Immoral.
• Lastly, when doing an inventory/tidy up of the cupboards, I found chopped tomatoes cartons on the bread shelf, and coconut milk where the tomatoes should be from where Mr P had put the shopping away to. Also, he had put the new block of butter in the dirty butter dish and the apples in the sauce shelf of the fridge. It makes me wonder what the last 15 years of training were for. Was it all in vain?
  

Drawingaline

Lol at the chicken flavouring, had forgotten about that :rotfl:

Suffolk_lass

boxofpaws wrote: »

What's new in Paw's world?

Good things

• Have taken a look at the credit cards and am making A Plan
• Have started the credit card shuffle
• It has dawned on me that we need to have all financial arrangements in place in the NEXT TWO WEEKS to be in time for the affordability checks for the remortgage
• Have applied for (and been accepted) for a MBNA card for a money transfer to pay off the loan
• The Tesco card that I checked last night and I thought that I had no deals - an offer has arrived through the post this very day. So we now have 0% offers across all cards.
• Managed to buy only 2 coffee at work today (£1.20 in total). See also Bad Things
• Thought I had planned the shopping badly and that we had nothing to cook tonight when in fact I had a while spare chicken. Hiding in the front of the middle shelf of the fridge, where it was obviously very difficult to see.
• Have made a huge amount of roast root veg to use stuff up in the fridge. Feeling all Mrs Beeton-y and organised. And it looks quite nice.
• Took homemade soup to work. Courgette and chorizo. It was nice and made me wonder why I ever buy the rubbish from the canteen
• Tidied out the fridge
• Have actually taken out some stuff from the freezer to cook for later this week (depending on how far the chicken goes). Hake - yum. Confirming my Beeton-esque status
• It was my friend's birthday today. Whilst that is a Good Thing in itself, the real cause for celebration here is that I remembered on Wednesday that it was, and that she wouldn't be at work on Monday, and she doesn't work on Fridays and she finishes early on Thursdays and I STILL MANAGED TO GET HER A CARD AND BOTTLE OF BUBBLY ON TIME. This has literally never happened before.
• Mr Paws has got an extra 4 hours of overtime today. He earns about £11 per hour after tax on overtime.
• On top of all the housework and washing and ironing and gardening.
• On top of my paid job

Bad things :exclamati

• Bought 2 coffees at work. This a £250 annual spend. It needs to stop.
• Have to throw away some grey ham. I hate wasting food and rarely do it but I went away with work last week and it didn't get used up in time. Mr Paws says wasting food is immoral. And it is.
• Have a nagging feeling that we shouldn't have applied for the MBNA card (in Mr Paws name) and just managed the situation with the offers on current cards. The truth is, the only way of doing it would have been for me to put Mr Paws's loan on my credit card, which would have meant that all but £7k of the £28k debt would be in my name, and I am definitely not comfortable with that. I trust Mr P implicitly, its more of a mental thing.
• I have finally given in and thrown away about 8 chicken flavour packets (remember them?). The truth is, I do not like them. I couldn't even give them away because they are 3 years out of date. Immoral.
• Lastly, when doing an inventory/tidy up of the cupboards, I found chopped tomatoes cartons on the bread shelf, and coconut milk where the tomatoes should be from where Mr P had put the shopping away to. Also, he had put the new block of butter in the dirty butter dish and the apples in the sauce shelf of the fridge. It makes me wonder what the last 15 years of training were for. Was it all in vain?
  

I just love this post. Especially the last bullet. Are we in a bigamous marriage? Mr SL does not put any dishes away when he empties the dishwasher. Apparently this is so he doesn't put them away in the wrong place. Yet he knows exactly where to find the bloody things when he gets them out in the first place - nearly 28 years of training has made no difference at all. Frustrated? Moi? :mad::mad::eek:;)

parsniphead

It's good to see you back but all thatmaths has blown my little brain.

Sounds like a good plan though.

EssexHebridean

boxofpaws wrote: »

My thoughts are many and confused. I just want the best interest rate possible. The pull to consolidate is strong...I know you guys are going to shout at me now, but I cant help how I feel. It would be so nice to not have consumer debt. I know its not really the sensible thing to do...

But you will still have it - it would just take you longer to get rid of it and you'd pay more interest over time...

You've really answered your own question about whether it's a good idea haven't you...

Print or write out that line about the home made soup and stick it to your fridge. And to your purse. And possibly to your computer screen as well although not if the canteen ladies might see it as next time you DO have to go and buy the rubbish soup from there they will then undoubtedly have spat in it...

Next time you go to buy a coffee at work ask yourself if it's worth £250 - I bet it won't be.

Good work on throwing away the chicken packet things - no sense in having your cupboard cluttered with something you don't even like - where's the joy in that?!

boxofpaws

Drawingaline wrote: »

Lol at the chicken flavouring, had forgotten about that :rotfl:

And there are still 10 left!

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I just love this post. Especially the last bullet. Are we in a bigamous marriage? Mr SL does not put any dishes away when he empties the dishwasher. Apparently this is so he doesn't put them away in the wrong place. Yet he knows exactly where to find the bloody things when he gets them out in the first place - nearly 28 years of training has made no difference at all. Frustrated? Moi? :mad::mad::eek:;)

Yep, sounds like one and the same. Did he leave an empty ice cube tray in the freezer last night in your house too?

parsniphead wrote: »

It's good to see you back but all thatmaths has blown my little brain.

Sounds like a good plan though.

Mine too. I have no idea what I was talking about.

boxofpaws

EssexHebridean wrote: »

But you will still have it - it would just take you longer to get rid of it and you'd pay more interest over time...

You've really answered your own question about whether it's a good idea haven't you...

Print or write out that line about the home made soup and stick it to your fridge. And to your purse. And possibly to your computer screen as well although not if the canteen ladies might see it as next time you DO have to go and buy the rubbish soup from there they will then undoubtedly have spat in it...

Next time you go to buy a coffee at work ask yourself if it's worth £250 - I bet it won't be.

Good work on throwing away the chicken packet things - no sense in having your cupboard cluttered with something you don't even like - where's the joy in that?!

I want to get this out there. I am really considering the dreaded C word. I know I know I know all the things you are saying and thinking. That it's turning unsecured into secured lending. That it's not fixing the root cause - i.e. Overspending. I know all this...and yet...

I know I will talk about this a lot in the months ahead, while I wrestle with my thoughts. I feel I should warn you.

boxofpaws

Today then

Good things:j

• Worked in the other office, about £20 profit in expenses for that
• Work was actually quite enjoyable. People were nice, even the ones that can sometimes be mean
• Went out for a walk at lunchtime
• The BT that I applied for to go from BC to Lloyds credit card but that I thought hadn't gone through because the website crashed out on, is, in fact, going through. So that's a job I thought I had to do that's already done. So hurrah for that
• The husband got an extra hour OT today (£11)
• Set up an appointment with a recommended mortgage advisor for Friday to start looking at preparation for the remortgage

Bad things:exclamati:exclamati

• Meant to add this yesterday but as we applied for the MBNA credit card on Sunday, i prematurely ended the session after acceptance but before we set up the direct debit. Annoying to have to wait for the account to all be set up to finish off the admin
• The fish and chip van comes to the village on Tuesdays. So now the Paws household goes to the fish and chip van on Tuesdays. They were yummy but were £12. Mr Paws was so happy though.
• 2 coffees and soup from canteen today - £1.35 in total (subsidised catering). Could be worse, but my soup still better.

I am going to try to start rating our saintliness- i.e. Our ability to keep our bank account clean for the affordability checks. Today's badness was clearly fish and chips

Saintliness = 4/10

Suffolk_lass

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Print or write out that line about the home made soup and stick it to your fridge. And to your purse. And possibly to your computer screen as well although not if the canteen ladies might see it as next time you DO have to go and buy the rubbish soup from there they will then undoubtedly have spat in it...

:eek::eek::eek: Trust me, they would