Newbie Kicking the debt

Trixi89

Quick update - I haven't spent a single penny since my last post... hurrah! hubby is home now (he was away for two weeks) so he's doing the first half of this months shopping.
Bensons called yesterday afternoon and said they had been waiting for us to go back into the shop to get our refund. So we had to travel 50 miles ish up the motorway to get it (water of petrol and money) but I finally have £1681.01 refunded on my Barclaycard. It hasn't taken effect yet but it's processing so YAY!!
I had stopped smoking till hubby came back, he wants to quit too so we are both stopping in the morning (again)

Kitten868

Hello! Another military wife here I think you're doing great and just not buying crap will do you wonders.
I think you should move your card to Nationwide. number 1 you get £100 for switching if someone recommends you. 2 they do one account with no fee for overdrafts for a year or the other one where you're charged 18.9% which will be less than your current fees I think. plus you can get hubby to change then you'll both get £100! Makes it much easier to get rid of.

Please get the Benson's beds credit card closed now. I love love love closing credit cards.

I'm also wondering how you get so much in tax credits. I work part time but I'm going to have reduce my hours for school hours soon and wonder if im making myself worse off.

Keep it up xxx

Trixi89

Hello Kitten. I won't be for much longer as he is discharge date is October eek! I'm really scared about that especially financially.
I still haven't spent a penny which is great.
I would switch my bank but we are hoping to buy a house and want our credit scores up and a good indicator is having a long term bank account.
Also not all my income is coming from Tax Credits hun, I do get some but not a lot, and also some child benefit, but I also have child maintenance and other bits coming in to make it up. I did work part time which made me worse off, and I tried full time doing 35 hours a week while still having the school runs to do which was madness and again, I was mildly better off but never had a single weekend off in two months so I just couldn't do it. It hard when hubby is away a lot too


Benson's refund has finally come through which is fab. My Barclaycard now stands at £253.22 with a minimum payment of £43 this month so almost down to £200 already which is great.
I've had some of my money come through today and paid all the bills except my house insurance £17 and whatever I spend on food and my overdraft is now sitting at £1,200 so if I try and keep my half of the months spending to about £100 i'll be super happy.
I then get the rest of my money which is £300 end of this month which I'm not sure what to do with yet. I could clear my Barclaycard but my MasterCard is a higher %.


Total paid off (including benson's refund) so far this month - £2108.83


Happy Month so far, unless my urge to spend gets the better of me




Overdraft - £1,203/£2700
MasterCard - £540.21/£2200
BarclayCard - £253.22/£2600

pennystretcher

Hey hun, how are you getting on? I know where you are coming from - I still go through the occasional "spending sprees". However after taking control of my finances (haha, they were mine to start with, but pushed the responsibilities to companies who were willing to give me credit) I have learned to curb my sprees.

One thing that might help you is Marie Kondo and the Magic of tidying up. (google Konmari ) I no longer shop as much as I already have things I love more than what see in shops or just because I feel I have enough. Worth exploring...

doingitanyway

pennystretcher wrote: »

I no longer shop as much as I already have things I love more than what see in shops or just because I feel I have enough.

Lovely. Just where I want to be