So what's next? 19 June 2018 at 5:13PM in Debt free diaries 172 replies 14K views

Dragonpie

I have recently started to address my debt, it is definitely manageable at the minute but I have a lot of uncertainty regarding jobs at the minute and am due to be made redundant in September. I have figured out how I intend to proceed with repayments either way but feel like writing this diary will make me a bit better at sticking to my plan! Plus any advice that people can give will be appreciated
Currently I have a loan with 38 payments left at £295.57, a Tesco CC which is rapidly nearing the end of my 0% offer with £2556.40 and 2 other CCs with BT offers ending in June 2019 with balances of £2356.69 and £3255.30. The plan is to pay off the Tesco CC, then attack the other 2 and finally overpay the loan when all CCs are done (then think about the mortgage!), this plan only works if I find a job however otherwise, I intend to still have paid off the Tesco card by September and then stretch my redundancy payment with minimum payments until I find work and can start repaying again.
I have already started to address my overspending- food, particularly lunch at work, clothes and shoes seem to be my weaknesses so I am taking my lunch to work and have deleted my shopping apps from my phone.

onedaysomeday

Good luck with everything and fingers crossed a job comes up for you x

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

Hope that you get a new job really soon.

Dragonpie

Thank you both.

Last 24 hours have been a bit up and down - I had a job interview this morning which seemed to go reasonably we!!!314;l but last night my mobile phone appeared to give up charging so I ended up ordering a new one, although I will be selling my current phone as the main issue is the short battery life and other than that is in good condition, it still mean that I have spent money that I hadn't intended to!

Dragonpie

Things have already changed a lot since I started this diary... I have a job! It is for the same business so no redundancy payout but wages will be increasing slightly. The aim is still to get the Tesco card paid off by September and then I will be setting up direct debits for the amounts needed to pay the other cards off by the end of their 0% periods. All being well, I should still have a bit of wiggle room in my budget but have the cards paid off without interest.

Dragonpie

PS I am also planning on trying to earn a little bit extra by selling DVDs, CDs and blu rays as well as a few dresses from a brand which usually sells well on eBay.

Dragonpie

There has been a hiccup in my plan! I naively assumed that MBNA would pay any funds to the balance transfer with the 0% offer ending soonest meaning and unexpected £20 interest. The offending balance has now been transferred to my Tesco card meaning an increase of about £1180 on the Tesco balance and a decrease of £1130 on the MBNA. I'll chalk this down as an expensive lesson learned!
I've also learned that I cannot be trusted with a credit card for day to day spending, even if I do get rewards. Today I have deleted record of theCC on all online shopping which I regularly use and from tomorrow the card is staying at home and I will withdraw my budgeted spending money and keep in envelopes.

Dragonpie

I am still struggling to stick to a budget but I think I am improving! I am allowing myself £20 each week for spending money and £40 each week for household spending, I have just spent nearly £50 at Iceland but that should provide me with all the protein (meat,cheese and eggs) for at least a month so am hoping to only spend £20 each week on top up foods. I also went via Quidco for my Iceland shop and used a £5 voucher

Starmummy

Good luck Dragon. keep up the good fight and congrats on the job

Dragonpie

Thanks Starmummy. :-)

I'm aiming for a NSD today, I prepped my lunch last night and have empty water bottles to fill in my desk drawer, fingers crossed!

Dragonpie

I was sooooo close to a NSD, until I got a message telling me that we needed tortoise food! Only 50p but still not a NSD. Still an improvement on the £10ish that I used to spend though and I can always try again tomorrow.