Bathgatebuyer SOA - give me some ideas please

Craig_THW

skintscotslass wrote: »

Are you a Jambo or a Hibbee BB? I'm a Jambo for my sins lol

:rotfl: Why is it i read the whole thread and that was the first question i asked myself too :P

Funny How we both ruled out Livingston! :rolleyes:

Karmacat

Looks to me like you're doing really well, bathgatebuyer - the only thing is, about the professional fees, I think you wrote £600 per month - everyone is really hoping thats a typo. Even if it isn't, and you do reclaim in full, you have to support that in your cash flow, so it does have an effect.

To me, the big difference you can make is in income: not referring to your job, but, since you're an engineering type person, maybe you'd be able to get your head around matched betting or something?

Kevicho

bathgatebuyer wrote: »

Yup. If I was not a member, I would be sacked as professional indemnity cover is part of my fees, and I'd be opening my company wide open to legal dispute if I was signing off jobs as an 'unqualified' professional.

That's only one of my professional memberships too - gave up two others as my company is only willing to pay for one lot of fees.

Can you get this cover elsewhere?
Not knowing what you do im not sure if thats a relevant question, but a change in career may be wise if you are paying a third of your wage to memberships of a society you get very little else from.

bathgatebuyer

Craig_THW wrote: »

:rotfl: Why is it i read the whole thread and that was the first question i asked myself too :P

Funny How we both ruled out Livingston! :rolleyes:

Most definitely neither! Afraid I support one of the longer established professional football clubs in the country!

Should have stressed to everyone, the professional fees are £600 a year, not per month! Oops!

Craig_THW

bathgatebuyer wrote: »

Most definitely neither! Afraid I support one of the longer established professional football clubs in the country!

Should have stressed to everyone, the professional fees are £600 a year, not per month! Oops!

Ooo.. is this a challenge.. Hmm Ignoring Geography a wee bit and going buy your clue.. I'll Hazard a guess at Kilmarnock?

Thats a little better! at 600 a month sounded a bit funny!

bathgatebuyer

Could be right!

Karmacat

Dee-dah, dee-dah (thats a siren, by the way) football diversion!!!!!

Whaddaya reckon about finding further income? :rotfl:

bathgatebuyer

An update everyone:

Cahoot Loan - now completely paid off after 4 years of hell. I ahve written to them to ask for their confirmation that this is settled and asked that they ensure they update my CRA information;
HBoS - £750 balance although they've answered my CCA request with an appplication form that has none of the prescribed terms - now in the hands of Trading Standards;
RBoS - Balance now £1,600;
Sainsburys VISA - Again, have sent a CCA that doesn't have prescribed terms in it, so I've offered to settle the account by offering 25% of the outstanding balance (presently £1600). Awaiting their response.

I did give up my gym fees for a few months which has allowed me to save for my June holiday spending money, but have benefitted from a £1300 bonus from work and a pay rise as of mid-April which will go a long way to tackling these outstanding debts.

I really believe I'll be debt free this year. I'm trying to keep part of the bonus as 'emergency money' - I used to suffer from really bad panic attacks worrying about bills and demands coming in the post and the peace of mind knowing I have that there is fantastic. I know it could reduce my balances further and I may put half of it towards debt, but at the moment, I do like having a savings account with money in it!!!!

So, my financial achievements since first posting this in November:

I have paid off Cahoot;
My council tax payments are now down at £90 per month as my arrears have cleared;
I have reduced my Sainsburys Visa balance to £1600;
Got my car through it's MOT, service and bought a year's tax for it as well as new tyres;
Got a £1400 a year pay rise and £1300 (after tax) one-off bonus;
Survived Xmas without any cash problems;
Set up direct debits to make minimum payments to these credit cards - top up manual payments will be made by BACS on pay days too.

Things feel really positive at the moment. I can see the progress made - not as good as I'd have liked, but I have tackled the car's big outlays in one in Jan and Feb, so that's those out of the way for another year.

Things are good.

ZTD

bathgatebuyer wrote: »

Things feel really positive at the moment. I can see the progress made - not as good as I'd have liked, but I have tackled the car's big outlays in one in Jan and Feb, so that's those out of the way for another year.

Things are good.

Those in bold are the biggies - the rest is only money.

skint_spice

You are doing really well bathgate and you are so nearly there now - well done. Also you've got that holiday to look forward too so be proud of yourself and enjoy it all. x