Working Hard Debt Diary - Here goes

lisabell

Hi have just read all of your diary wow you really are doing so so well and should be so proud our debts are kind of similar to yours also think my OH is similar to yours too im trying to do everything to cut down but he is determined not to loose his sky tv and season ticket for his team.
Good luck for next month and congratulations on clearing that credit card debt.
Will keep reading with interest.
Lisa

WorkingHardDFW

Thanks for the comments lisabell & Verbatim - much appreciated.

Verbatim - No I'm not menu planning and I know I should be. I think in an earlier post I said that I know I should be doing it but don't seem to be able to find the time......not really good enough I know.

So my thoughts are that I've a family party next weekend (could do without the expense but these things have to be done!) and I will menu plan that this weekend so that I can really focus on getting the best value from my money and offering a good spread for everyone.

I will also committ to menu planning for next month as well. I know that I need to do it but its not got to the top of my list

WorkingHardDFW

Offically now moved from BT to Sky for phone/internet package :j . Should now be saving £40 per month so not to be sniffed at.

Ebay listing ended at the weekend. Not all my items sold but some of the clothes I put up would be better for the Autumn (I'll not make that mistake again). £25 income which is not brilliant but all helps and not bad for stuff that was just lying around the house! Must get more listed this week however the week is quite manic and I need to get myself organised for the party at the weekend.

£75 tracking in Quidco for switching to Scottish Power :T .

Home insurance is due in July so hopefully another opportunity to reduce costs and get some cashback.

DD goes to secondary school is Sept :eek: and we promised her the ubiquitous mobile for her b/day in August but also the fact that we'll give it to her early. Therefore need to ID the best phone/package etc for her......

There is always something to pay out for....

WorkingHardDFW

Quite a MSE day today in that I have:

• Bought some wine for the weekend party. Shopped around and ordered a case from Virgin Wines, used a MSE voucher and got £20 off therefore paying £4.24 per bottle for some decent wine which should last through the weekend:rolleyes: . Just the food order and prep and house to clean, etc etc
• Posted on the mobiles board about getting my DD a mobile and how young ones use their phones. I saw Martin :money: on its Pays to Watch talking about the package which meets your usage pattern being at the core of which phone to go with. Some proper research will be needed.

I'm loving being with Sky for Broadband mainly because I'm saving money against BT - small pleasures!! LOL

The bad news____________I've gone way over my food budget again £312 to date and the month hasn't finished yet . Its better than last month but still not under budget which isn't good. I've got to stay under budget next month.......no excuses I've just got to do it.

beanielou

Staying under food budget is hard!!
Make sure you only get your DD a PAYG!!!

WorkingHardDFW

Yeap you're sure right beanielou it is hard and I reckon based on the advice I've got on hear that I need to:

• Menu plan
• Systematically shop ie shop on a particularly day for the weekly fruit/veg etc - I'm rather more hit and miss at present
• Ensure food stocks are Ok for weekends - OH likes more elaborate b/fasts for himself at weekends since he plays cricket and often misses lunch - lack of choice makes for grumpy OH (can't have that LOL!)

I'm getting some excellent advice on the phone issue from the phones board http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=11064827&posted=1#post11064827 - Lots more work to do next week:rolleyes:

Verbatim

I will also committ to menu planning for next month as well. I know that I need to do it but its not got to the top of my list [/quote]

It gets easier! Do you have family staples/favourite meals? When writing a monthly plan you might find it's mostly these plus maybe some new ideas from cookery books or the old style board. We tend to eat mostly veggie meals during the week and have more meat and fish at the weekend. I also enjoyed (sad I know) finding new cheaply made recipes and found cookbooks from 30s 40s and 50s interesting. My husband wasn't too keen on the wartime recipes I found with v little fat, meat or cheese and loads of veg but I tell him it's all so much healthier!

WorkingHardDFW

Just done a big online tesco food shop for the month but also to cover this weekends party. Tried to keep the costs down, shifted to value products where possible and got a lot for my money which was good.

Just done the now 4 (was 5 last month) CC payments for this month when we get paid last week. Sad to say I love putting the figures into the spreadsheets and seeing the totals slowly coming down.

We are still in the throws in the mortgage holiday this month is month 3 of 4 so the debt is tumbling a little quicker than normal. The off side to the mortgage holiday is that the mortgage will go up slightly from 1/8 but our increased income and reduced outgoings will cover this.

Forecasting forward I've ID that our debt at the end of the year will be £32k which will be a mightly £20k down from its height in 2007. I would love one way or another to get the debt under £30k by the 31/12 £29,999 would do me lovely. Its the thought of going under another marker. My forecast doesn't take account of reducing interest so maybe we'll be a little nearer by the end of the year. Keep on ebaying!

Once the morgage holiday ends in July we've got a longhaul to clear the next CC with a current balance of £6717. From July to Dec we'll be able to thrown £630 pm at it giving a reduction of £580 pm but it won't be clear by the end of the year unless we can really throw some extra dosh at the card. Keep on working hard...

WorkingHardDFW

Long week but we've got there!! Maybe even get to have a beer later tonight

Just got the target cc in and they are offering a BT at 7.92% LoB + 3% handling fee is used before 30/6/08. So I've plenty of time to make a decision. This is the card which will be cleared in full next month and has a limit of £5300.

We've also got a B/card which is now clear and has a limit of £5800 and for which i'm sure a BT will come through!!

Question is do I suffle things around.

We currently have four cc and one huge overdraft (plus 2 loans!) as outlined below:

• Card/Interest/Limit/Balance
• Barclacard/Not had a BT offer ---yet!/£5,800/£0
• IF Low rate card/Int charges at 16.9%/£10,500/£9,142
• RBS Platinum Card/Two rates£3.2k on 1.16% & 2.7K on 0.491%/£6,650/£5,588
• Halifax Visa/Various rates avging 23%/£5,300/£1,828Lastest BT offer 7.92% LoB
• Overdraft 15.24%/15.24%/£5,000/£5,000
• MBNA Card/Int charged at 0.16% monthly/£6,900/£6,729

The overdraft we're not reducing on a monthly basis until the very last. I know its got a high interest rate but we felt our priority was reducing the cards.

My question is do we use the BT offer from the Halifax (when the card is clear next month) to:

• move our debt around ie one CC to another?
• move our OD to CC ?
• leave well alone and carry on as we are?

Clearly if we move the OD debt to CC debt we'll be paying less interest pm but we'll also have less 'spare' money to throw at the target cc which will be the MNBA card one the Halifax card is clear. That doesn't necessarily mean our DF date will move back since we'll be tackling more debt at once? I'm not sure I'm making a whole lot of sense here. perhaps I need to play around with my spreadsheet forecast a little to see how it all impacts?

I guess I'm a wee bit nervous since we've still got a mountain of debt to clear and I don't want to get it wrong.

Any thoughts appreciated as always :rolleyes:

WorkingHardDFW

Posted my previous post on the cc boards to get some extra advice. What am amazing group of experts we have lurking on the boards :T . Got some great advice and learnt some things I didn't know before. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=11232647&posted=1#post11232647

Still not sure of the best way to go since I'm plain scared of applying for a CC until we are in a much better position. At least now though we've got two clear Cc's with which to move some balances around to get a better interest rate. Whilst I'm scared (that is the word and I know its irrational) to apply for another CC I'm happy to just shuffle around the debt to reduce the rates.

If we move the OD to the B/Card CC (6.9% LOB Fee free) then it won't affect our DFD although it will reduce the interest although is should take us sub £30K by the end of the year!. Our DFD is worked out on our own spreadsheet and isn't scientific enough to calculate reducing compound interest rates but it does for us! We've got a whatsthecost.com one was well. Given than from next month our income will increase by £200 pm and taking account of not paying interest on the OD but on the CC we'll still be able to throw a whopping £500 pm at the target cc which will be the MBNA card. Got to be a huge improvement on our position this time last year (LB was lighting but hadn't quite come on full!!).

Had a family party at the weekend which I managed to produce on a budget. Lots of cheap bulky meals, which everyone raved about, and with plenty to go around. I was a little concerned about feeding 14 on a budget but I managed it. Made a bit of a mistake on the wine - did my reasearch and ordered a box of wine from Virgin and got £20 off in the process but it didn't arrive in time - so I had to go to Tesco on Sat pm and buy some off the shelf! Not quite as good as value. Still tasted good though.

Off to focus on doing half term on a budget now although I am working for two days so that reduces opportunities for spending. Wish the weather would improve though....