In pursuit of happiness - the kebabmeister's debt diary!

yoshimi2306

Donna, do you have a CEX locally, our shelves were bursting with DVD's and we managed to take about 30 there, and got £55...it was store credit, but they tend to do ipods, phones, games & cameras etc too..great for xmas shopping, and we got more then we would have on ebay. On one dvd we even got back twice what we paid! We now buy all our dvd's there, then take them back when we're done...it's cheaper then renting!

LookingAhead

Hey karmacat I'm with you!

DK - do some 'shouting' every day. In life it seems, he/she who shouts loudest & longest gets things done. Perhaps you can schedule in 10 minutes very day to hound the council till they flippin' well sort something out.

donner_kebab

Hiya guys!

Loubie lou – Thank you! It’s so easy to let the spending etc get so far out of control, can’t believe that I was in the same mess one year ago and haven’t managed to knock any debt off at all, despite feeling that I had sold half the house! Seem to have a different mindset now and long may it continue. Thought about ordering a take out earlier, then thought no way! Costs so much money, it is sooo not worth it…that £20 take-out would probably end up costing £30 on the card and I could make it for a few quid. My cooker is broken at the mo, which is a nightmare, have worked out (from my old friend google!) that the element has gone. Usually costs about £100+ to replace it by an engineer so have found a how to guide with pictures and ordered the part last week, so when it arrives I hope to try and fit it myself! Save a few quid and not like I could make it any worse! Definitely want my SOA sorted this weekend, so keep watching!

Karmakat / Looking Ahead – You are both so right! I do need to sort it out; I am paying full rent on this place and what am I getting for it? Nothing but a house that should really be knocked down and started all over again. My daughter has never been able to play in the garden…previous occupants stole the back gate (that wasn’t the only thing…they even took the light bulbs and door handles when the left!) and the fence broke and the neighbours ripped it up! They have 2 dogs which are running about therefore she has never been allowed to play out there. I am gonna start with the bathroom I think, they took the bath panel when they went too and left some plank of wood which is constantly falling down on our feet or the cat! I am gonna demand they come here during half term week (which I am taking as holiday) and fix the blimin thing! Once they have sorted that I am gonna move onto the next thing and just keep hounding them until they do it…like you say, phone, email, post…the works! Will do this this weekend! I should shout more really…if I did that from the start I wouldn’t be in this state and that’s for everything not just the housing issue. I really need to learn to stand up for myself, I have took assertiveness courses before, but as soon as I am out of the class I go back to being a shrinking violet who wouldn’t say boo to a goose!

Yoshimi2306 – Well done on your light bulb moment! Good luck with everything! Yes we have a CEX in the centre of Bristol. I had completely forgot about them…took some things to them a while ago so am a member already. Will go on their website and use their calculator thingy to see what I can get for stuff. Used to think just cash, but you are right, would get more for part exchange…and with Xmas around the corner…could get a few good deals!

Right update for today. Total spend was only £1! 85p on milk and 15p in changing one of my ebay dvds to a buy it now price! Had an offer on one of them for £16, I said £17.50 along with the postage makes £20! Just waiting for them to pay up now as they have brought it using the buy it now! So hopefully, that's £20 (or a little less after everyone takes their cut!) towards my debt!

Yay! Off to find some food to dish up for tea! Back soon, luv the kebabmeister xxx

donner_kebab

Hooray! Ebay buyer has paid for the DVD! That's £20 towards the debt! Will list another one tonight to take its place methinks!

donner_kebab

For everyone who asked...here's my cat...going for the three count pin on one of my favourite wrestlers, Randy Orton! Doesn't really do Buzz any justice size wise but I assure you he is massive! Will have to try getting some more piccies! I love my cat so much, he means the world to me!

donner_kebab

Hello all,

Oh dear oh dear...just started looking at paperwork to get my SOA up together and have looked at my credit card debt first. Found the latest bills and started to cry...was awful, I always thought I had 5 credit cards but I actually have 6. Over £10,000 and I had thought it was about £6,000 this is so much worse than I thought. These are not as up to date as I would like as many of the cards are not available to check balance wise online. So they may be slightly more as they won't include anything that was put on before the start of my diary.

HSBC 1 - £3099.79
HSBC 2 - £1954.75
Barcalycard - £992.75
Tesco - £1310.27
Virgin - £2422.52
Egg - £739.67

I have a M&S card which I haven't used but has a low apr rate on it for the next couple of month...one of those life of the balance transfer rates on it. £2000 limit so not sure which ones to transfer to it...they are all at a high percent apart from Barcley and Tesco...don't know if bet to transfer 2 small ones (as that would mean 2 lots of interest on them being freed up) or one big one.

Least I haven't been out wasting money at the shops today I suppose. Only spent £4.82 on bits of food, e.g milk, veg for tea, cooking oil and some sweets for mini-me to eat whilst we were watching our movie together.

Feeling really quite down now as had no idea it was this bad.....

Karmacat

Oh Donner, I'm sorry you discovered this, how heartsinking.... but you know, if it had carried on unnoticed, you might have spent another couple of grand before you caught up on it, or ended up with a CCJ cos you didn't know to pay it. Anything could have happened. But still, right now in the discovery, its horrible.

As far as what to transfer to the low rate one, make sure the new one has long enough on it to make it worthwhile to transfer. If it literally only has a couple of months on, and you're charged 3% for the transfer and then it goes up to 17% or something after 2 months, you've probably lost out. But apart from that, the golden rule is to "snowball", see www.whatsthecost.com, I think, google snowball and money together if its not. That means, pay off the debt that attracts the highest rate of interest first - its tough, but you pay less interest the quicker you get rid of those high rate cards.

And your cat!!! Your beautiful cat!!!! Looks big, actually. My beautiful cat Willow was exactly the same colouring, fur and eyes, but she looked like a Russian blue, very delicate, very slim. And beautifully tempered, except when I woke her up so I could get into my bed. Hissing, spitting, biting, the whole works. I was so privileged to have her for so long...

You take care of yourself - you're in the middle of sorting it all out now, even tho this is a nasty discovery, you're on the way up.

G'night.

donner_kebab

Thanks for that Karmamat...you are right, if I hadn't discovered this now, it could (and would) have got a million times worse. It was such a shock, especially thinking it was about £6,000 and then finding nope it's over £10,000...I was so silly I didn't even know how may cards I had either. Think what I will do is transfer one of the HSBC balances onto there...as think the Tesco and Barcley actually have a lower rate apr than the rest. The M&S one if for the life of the balance, just need to find the paperwork that confirms all of this before giving them a call. What a huge mess...I went to bed after that post and then kept waking up...was meant to have a good nights sleep ready for my last longish run today but that hasn't happened! When my alarm went off this morning, I switched the thing off and then slept for 2 more hours! Gonna go out for this run in a bit...nothing like a run to help clear your head and focus. Need to workout other outgoings today, like my loan repayments etc which is going to be another shock to the system. I don't know what to do...what happens if I can't fix this mess? What if I can only ever pay minimum payments and this debt does not ever shift? I am scared...:(

Karmacat

With the minimum payments thing, remember Martin's clever little trick, applicable if you're paying interest in your minimum payments. Say the min. is £80. Next month its £77. But you know you can afford £80, cos you paid it last month. Don't reduce the min. payment according to what they say, pay the original min. payment every month. It cuts about 40 years off the debt! I know its in an article somewhere, but have no clue as to where, sorry. But its a great concept: consumer revenge indeed. Don't worry, you can do it.

donner_kebab

Never thought of it like that! Will have a get a better grip on all of this, some of them are paid by DD each month so don't even bother taking any notice...don't even look at any of it (up until now) as have usually thrown the statements straight into the drawer...not even opened them some times, talk about burying my head in the sand! Can't believe how silly I have been but glad that I have done this as like we said before, could have got a lot worse.

Right I am off for my run now...Buzz is eating my trainer so better dry the drool of it first!

Back soon!