The Long & bumpy road - Natlou's 'I will be debt free diary'

Natlou_2

Hi everyone - haven't posted in a week or so basically because I've been spending We went to Toys R Us at the weekend and spent £227 all on the credit card - I know its bad, but my kids are still young and believe in Santa and therefore its difficult to explain why you can't afford stuff - however on the bright side, all my shopping is now finished off for all 3 of them and I've bought for everyone else as well, so should be able to tighten the reigns again soon.

I took an honest account of my finances yesterday, finally including two small debts that aren't in my sig (Argos card and NEXT account) and I was gutted to see that including those the debt is more or less standing at what it was 4 months ago when I started my DFW journey (56k) - I was so down about it last night, I was thinking.... all that e baying, quidco'ing, piggy clicks, budgeting, bagging up coins, etc - its all been a waste of time, Im right back where I started, I felt so demotivated.

However I feel a little better today, Our worst debt is our Citicard (£13k+ owing - with a 23.9% rate) - We pay £400 min payment and they add on £270 per month in interest! Anyway I thought 'what the heck' and applied for a card for DH - and guess what?????

Whooppeeee

They have given him a card with a 0% balance for 15 months with enough credit to completely pay off the citicard, this means nearly all our debt aside from about 3K will be interest free!

It also means that every month when we pay £400 - we are actually paying £400! - This has made me feel much more positive, so Im off to sign up for the 'Stop faffing around' challenge

Natlou x

Natlou_2

I have just been on the snowball calculator and the 0% card has reduced our Debt free date by 14 months! - I can't believe it - My moping period is gone - natlou is back with renewed vigour:rotfl:

Have been sat in all day waiting for a parcel and it still hasn't come - took a day off work too :mad:

pandapaws

That's fantastic news about the 0% card - just saw it on the 20k faff thread. Virgin are totally crazy - they gave me 10k-odds when I wasn't working as well. I think they seem to like self-employed people. Hooray!

Bad news about the Toys R Us spend, but I know exactly what you mean about the kids - it isn't their fault you're in debt. There's no way that my DS is going to go without just so we can bring our DFD forward - I think a lot of people on here have a similar attitude (within reason!) - look at Hypno for example. I hope they have a fab Christmas!

pandapaws

Hiya!

Looks as though you've been around here even less than me this last week - probably for the same reasons (guilt at Xmas spending, and too many million things to do!), but just thought I'd say happy Christmas to you and the family. Here's to a less faffy 2008 with loads of re-payments and NO spending!

xxx

Natlou_2

Hi everyone
Well Ive just updated my sig to take account of all the christmas spending - Ive also included a debt I had previously hidden which is my NEXT account - so now my total includes everything I owe. I had paid something off the 20K faff challenge but Ive decided to set the total to zero again and start afresh.

I have been off work since 20th Dec and we're not due back till 7 Jan - I am really enjoying the break, but the only prob about being self employed is that no work = no money

Anyway, yesterday I managed to take advantage of the cheap listing day and listed loads of stuff on Ebay which will all go towards to 'stop faffing challenge'. Ive checked my Quidco and just over £50 has been received, but I was expecting a further £120 for the Home Insurance I took out - looks like I may have to wait another month for that though.

MIL gave me a cheque for my birthday and OH birthday - only £20, but there is nothing I need so that is going off the debt. I was also given some other money I was owed (about £40) so I spent that on the Boots website, buying half price gifts in the sale which I can use for birthdays throughout the year - got about 6 pressies in total so Im quite pleased with that.

OH bought a £2 scratchcard yesterday with a £2 coin he had in his pocket and won £20, so he is going to pay that off a card too, so all in all feeling bright, postitive and ready to kick some !!! in 2008!

Natlou

Natlou_2

The balance transfer to the Virgin card has gone through, but the balance transfer fee means our debt has temporarily gone up. I am so impatient, it doesn't help though when you are constantly checking all the time. I have quite a few bits listed on ebay that end tomorrow, but the most profitable item is something I'm selling for MIL - fingers crossed that my bits make a bit too - I hope to make about £50 which I will pay straight off my Barclaycard (debt accrued over christmas).

Natlou x

Natlou_2

Forgot to mention that I was reading on here yesterday about reclaiming Payment Protection Insurance, and it bought to mind a loan that is now paid off, but about 18 months into the loan we realised we were paying PPI which we didnt need (it was about £43 per month). I read through all the categories of mis-selling and it seems that we may have a case to claim it back as DH was self employed. So I have put a letter in the post to them (Alliance & Leicester) today - reckon if it pays off we may be owed about £800

Natlou_2

I have also started filling out a spending diary on https://www.spendingdiary.com. I figured 1st Jan was a good time to start - I haven't said anything to DH - I think for January we will spend as normal and then I can show him the evidence that we simply SPEND TOO MUCH!

Natlou x

pandapaws

That'd be great if you got the PPI back - a nice little New Year bonus!

Do you know that you won't actually have to make any repayments on your Virgin card for ages? The first month they charge you the amount of the 3% fee plus a fiver, and from then on their minimum payment is just the interest plus a fiver - so if you're on 0%, you only pay a fiver a month! Doesn't do much for clearing the debt, but lets you concentrate on other things in the meantime (and I don't mean sales shopping!!!)

pandapaws

By the way, have you heard from the bank again?