Debt Free Determined!!!

SavingAtNumberTwo

JoJoC wrote: »

Hi there,

Just stopping by to say hi and wish you luck on your journey. I, too, can get caught up the in the spending cycle and it's just no fun at all. I haven't spent on my credit card (apart from £3 parking which i realised I charged to the wrong card on my account!) since the beginning of the year. It's actually pretty refreshing to say that, even though temptation has been in my way several times!

This last wee while has been so spendy for my between my sister's wedding in a couple of months, organising and buying stuff for the hen do, son starting school...and just generally a billion other things and i'm really having to work hard to get myself out of the spending by default mindset. So i understand your pain!

Nice to see you're using clubcard vouchers to subsidise weekend plans - it helps to not feel like you're missing out.

Thanks for stopping by JoJoC :wave: I have been reading your diary - currently at page 21 and LOVING it. You're doing amazingly and I will post when I have finished reading. Well done on not spending on your credit cards, I'm improving but not quite there, it's much better than it used to be though. I don't have much in the way of savings as I'm attacking the debts at full force. I love the way you organise your posts with your headings, I'm also a fan of spreadsheets and have one for my journey, partly because I'm paid weekly so need to be sure of what I need to pay and when.

Not much to report, credit card has suffered slightly..

£44.99 on a pair of trainers - Dads birthday present for tomorrow
£7.50 on decorations for Sister-in-Laws baby shower on Saturday

On a plus, I have quite a bit listed on eBay, I'm hoping any profit will offset the above CC spends. I had saved £50 towards them but I ended up having a spendy weekend. Friday night catch up with my cousin involving dinner and wine then Saturday took my nephew out for the day. All time and money very, very well spent though so not feeling too guilty.

200 mile trip with my Mum to visit my sister this weekend after sister in laws baby shower on Saturday but hoping we will cook so will be a cheap weekend!

GOALS THIS WEEK/WEEKEND
- Package up all eBay items for posting
- Pay eBay profit to credit card to offset spends
- Try not to spend too much when visiting my sister. £20 tops to put a number to it.
- Iron more clothes for eBay photos (need to do this as have a lot of summer items which won't sell so well the longer I leave it.

Need to pay £9.95 for my cream tea at the baby shower and will also pay for my sister in laws. I also need to get her a gift. Controversial... but I really hate the presents pressure of baby showers. Plus I've had to buy decorations after being roped into the planning only to find out the original 'planner' has already bought everything I have and failed to mention it. She told me she'd only bought a balloon :mad: NEVER. AGAIN.

Need to do a totals update soon. Watch this space...

R x

SavingAtNumberTwo

UPDATE 09/08/17
CC 1 & 2 - £5877.83
Catalogue - PAID OFF
Overdraft - £2350.00
Car Finance - £3403.08
09/08/17 TOTAL £11,630.91

(03/07/17 TOTAL £12,311.84)
(31/05/17 TOTAL £13,173.79)
(07/03/17 TOTAL £ 14,879.52)

PAID TO DATE £3,248.61 - Happy with that :j:T:beer:

SavingAtNumberTwo

I have some eBay items ending tonight, hoping to make enough to cover the £52.49 spent on my credit card. Will post the total when the auction finishes.

Also have signed up to Prolific but don't ever seem to be the demographic for surveys - will keep checking.

Meal tonight for Dad's birthday - not overly prepared for the expense but will make healthy choices so at least my two-day diet effort isn't sabotaged :rotfl:

JoJoC

Hey Rebecca,

Fingers crossed for the ebay sales - I really must get back on to listing stuff.

With PA, it is very quiet at hte minute and I assume it's because lots of students are on holiday. It's normally a lot busier than this! In a few weeks, it should pick up again.

BadBookkeeper

Just been reading your diary... You've done really well so far! Very inspiring - keep it up and enjoy tonights meal

SavingAtNumberTwo

The eBay listings went well, still waiting on two payers :mad: but the other 8 listings made me enough profit to pay off the credit card spends :T Honestly JoJoC, I'll be really good with eBay for a month or so then lose my momentum. When I see the money coming in it does help with the motivation though.

The meal was lovely, thank you BadBookkeeper, my Dad ended up paying the bill which didn't please me seeing as it was his birthday!!! He would not accept any money from us, think he felt bad we had all spoilt him this year but he's had a tough one so we wanted to.

Saturday morning had my sister in laws baby shower which was lovely, we had a beautiful cream tea and I paid for mine and my sister in laws (£17), then off I went with my Mum to visit my sister so the rest of the day was fairly low spend. Evening picnic in the park in the sunshine, beautiful!

However... Sunday involved spending.. spendy sunday... I spent £35 on breakfast (Mum had paid for the petrol to get there and back and my sister organised all the picnic food etc.) so I felt it was fair that I made a contribution. Then £85 was spent on some much needed underwear, clothes and work shoes. It had to be done I just hadn't anticipated doing it this weekend. So unfortunately these were put on my credit card. More eBay stuff will be listed tonight to AGAIN subsidise the credit card and the credit card itself has been given to my brother and under no circumstances is he to give it back to me!

Is anyone local to Bristol here? We got up yesterday at 5AM :eek: (ON A SUNDAY! SACRILEGE!) to see the Bristol Balloon Fiesta at 6AM which is basically a mass ascent of up to 100 hot air balloons all flying together. It was absolutely stunning, I've never seen anything quite like it, what a way to start a sunday morning

SavingAtNumberTwo

Nothing got listed on eBay, my mums kitchen was gushing out water so we had to rush over and help her turn the water off. It never rains, it pours out all over your kitchen floor. Feels like the low after the high of such an amazing weekend

Lancashirelass1

Hi there
Just wanted to join.....I'm very New to this and posted my first post 2nd August. I'm still trying to find my way around.
I came across your page and I have to say, that you're doing fab. It's coming down and it's so inspiring for me as its so hard isn't it as I'm just trying to keep momentum going strong.
My first debt snowball is next week and my spending diary has made a MASSIVE difference this month.
I'll keep following you on your journey.

As for eBay......I too tried to sell and it was just too much of a nightmare I'll just give you an example of one, sold a Karen millen dress, the buyer bought it then said she thought it didn't fit......I totally accepted this and allowed her to send it back and she had worn it........it was so obvious and then after some emails, she left me awful feedback......now if I sold again I'll never accept anything just because it's not liked or didn't fit.
Anyway best of luck, you're doing fab and an inspiration to a newbie like me.
I'm 42 and want to be debt free by 43 and it's going to be an interesting journey Xx

SavingAtNumberTwo

Lancashirelass1 wrote: »

Hi there
Just wanted to join.....I'm very New to this and posted my first post 2nd August. I'm still trying to find my way around.
I came across your page and I have to say, that you're doing fab. It's coming down and it's so inspiring for me as its so hard isn't it as I'm just trying to keep momentum going strong.
My first debt snowball is next week and my spending diary has made a MASSIVE difference this month.
I'll keep following you on your journey.

As for eBay......I too tried to sell and it was just too much of a nightmare I'll just give you an example of one, sold a Karen millen dress, the buyer bought it then said she thought it didn't fit......I totally accepted this and allowed her to send it back and she had worn it........it was so obvious and then after some emails, she left me awful feedback......now if I sold again I'll never accept anything just because it's not liked or didn't fit.
Anyway best of luck, you're doing fab and an inspiration to a newbie like me.
I'm 42 and want to be debt free by 43 and it's going to be an interesting journey Xx

Thank you for stopping by, it is so tough at times, all my friends are off on lovely holidays and buying lovely things. I have to say I'm lucky in some respects that I'm paid weekly because I don't get that mid-month dip in motivation, I know I would if I was paid monthly so I really take my hat off to any being paid monthly and tackling their debts. You're doing so well to have your first snowball being sorted. Just keep plodding on and you will be there in no time :T I'll have to take a look at your diary!

I really don't understand the cheek of some people. I have never tried to return something on eBay because it didn't fit but to wear it then return it :mad: eBay doesn't really protect sellers it's more geared for protecting buyers so often we dip out. It's very frustrating

Rx

SavingAtNumberTwo

So this morning I received a letter from my bank informing me that they are making changes to the way that they charge interest. With my overdraft sat at £2350, these new daily charges are taking out of your account at 1p for every 7p you borrow. So £2350 ÷ 7 = 335 = £3.35 per day :eek: So I'm essentially looking at over £100 per month plus the account charge!!! NOOOOO!!!! So I need to look at my options, the overdraft was my lowest priority as I needed to get the credit cards onto decent 0% deals and get the balances down as much as possible. I feel this has thown all my plans out and I was so happily making progress

Where do I go from here? I didn't want to apply for more credit but none of my existing cards are offering a cash transfer and I think this is really what I need now. The new bank charges come into effect in November so would like to get it sorted ASAP. I will check my credit club and see if there is any likelihood I'll be accepted for any cash transfer offers.

Is there anything I need to be wary of with cash transfers? I'm sure I'm not going to be eligable for anything