Working Hard Debt Diary - Here goes

WorkingHardDFW

Thanks NovaPost & Enjoylife for your support and advice.

I will definately try the site you've suggested for tracking daily spending. OH and I were discussing this am how to track the daily spending. Equally we are planning to book our holiday this weekend and we were discussing ways we could cut back on this too. Not having a holiday is not up for discussion I'm afraid.

Ref the bank charges. Its not something I've really considered since we've gotten into this position without incurring any apart from overdraft interest and never had a cheque bounce - although we were very close at the end of November :eek: . Thinking about it though we've had a few occassions were we've been charged a late fee for a CC payment being a few days late, usually through me forgetting to pay it in time! I'm sure I've read something about these being reclaimable - I'll investigate further. My only concern would be that since we (like a lot of us folks) don't have a lot of room for manouvre and if the CC company turned around and said yes we'll refund your money (its not that much £100 tops) but then expected us to close/pay off the debt we'd be stuck. I guess I thought that I'd sit tight until we were in a better position and tackle it then.

You are so right about the turn around from debt to credit being a slow process. Althought out LBM was six months ago its taken us this long to get a real handle on where we were overspending and how to stop it. Some of our bad habits have been in place for years. One classic that I've read others relate to is the company car /expenses thing. Over the last few months we finally got a handle on what we should be doing (expenses income being stand alone and being used to pay for petrol in the forthcoming month) but we've been mismanaging it for years.

I've viewing the last six months as our protracted LBM and I'm aiming to see my signature vastly improve during 2008:cool: . The only way is up!

WorkingHardDFW

Afternoon All

Well I've done it. I've finally got my head around the budget and our finanacnes for next year:j . They are not good (but I know that already) but they balance and the things can only get better.

By way of going through this process in the last few weeks, although our LBM was a good few months ago, its taken us this long to get down to the detail of what we were spending, where and why. It feels like we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. As I said the incoming and outgoings balance now with only a £1 spare. However I've correctly budgeted for our petrol (a major feat since this is where we've run up a huge amount), birthdays and other expenses. I feel so proud :T

I've finally set up my spending diary, nothing fancy, just a spreadsheet with the necessary info on and a empty choccy box for the receipts. My top item is the letter spike for myself and OH to put all receipts on so that I can track them. Simple things for simple minds but as long as it works.:o

I've finally sold by shares which will bring me in £1k towards my clear a debt by April 2008 challenge. Hopefully this will come in this month and the reduction in the monthly payment to the card will allow more debt reduction !! Its addictive this MSE DFW things isn't it.

I've got my OH to reduce our Sky to the min, from £38 :eek: to £16. This was quite a big achievement. I was going to cancel it completely but I want to pick up the sky broadband/talk thing in May when my BT contract expires not at the full whack I hasten to add.

Got my OH to sell his second car. Don't even go there with this one - I know and have thought all things about it possible and I've refused to drive it. It was bought about 1 year ago and is completely unnecessary with 2 drivers why would we need 3 cars!!! :mad: . However my long standing perseverance has finally come off and he's agreed to sell it :T . With the car gone it brings our budget into balance. I've tasked the OH with selling it and getting the max money possible. That should bring us at least £1k if not more. Which again will go towards Debt target number 1.

My car had its MOT yesterday and it only cost £45 which was FAB. I love it when things are under budget.

I reaslised from going through the finances that I'm due a payrise next month which will be great. Equally my youngest Ds will get some extra funding at nursery. All small amounts but it all helps.

My worries at this point are much like everyone else. I feel that we have the situation under control. We know what we can spend and we've a system for tracking what we do spend. We are both aware of debt of the situation and are working hard to bring our DF date down. Any bonus that OH gets this year will be thrown straight at the debts. Getting back to my worry its really if the bank or any of our CC's decide that they want payment back immediately.

The rational part of me knows that we've not missed any payments and had no cheques or anything bounced but my emotional side (listening to the radio headlines about the continuing credit crunch) fears the letter from the bank. However if that happens we'll deal with it like all of us wonderful DFW's.

Sorry for the slightly boring post but the aim of my Diary is to motivate me to keep on going. We've got a long way to go to our DFD and we need all the motivation we can get.

belfastgirl23

Well done on all the hard work!!

I can't imagine anyone coming after you about CCs as long as you're keeping up minimum payments you're their dream customer

Don't forget with your spending diary to watch out for 'cash' spends that you might not get a receipt for - eg newspapers - I was buying a local and a national paper at £1.50 per day plus weekend nationals at about £3.60 which added up to more than £10 a week...that habit got cut well down similar eg coffee in starbucks etc.

And you'll be amazed how fast time goes till your DFD...three years go by in a blink these days and then think of all the £ you'll have coming in - you'll feel like a millionaire and will have developed all the good habits to help you use it better.

Keep at it!

chevalier

Your posts are not boring. It is always interesting to see how others deal with their debts. Always handy to have another perspective on things. Keep up the good work
chev

WorkingHardDFW

Thanks for your support its so appreciated.

These boards are so helpful. They make you realise that your situation is not unique and as the old saying goes a problem shared .... This is particularly true since like a lot of us I guess not even our closest friends know about the situation we are in.

Good point about the cash althought the first spend on my spending diary was cash for two kids annuals in Waterstones does to a £1 each. Apart from being a complete bargain (got the Beano and the Dandy which DS&DD love) they fell into miscellanous spending !! Shows what a long way we've got to go.

I feel like my day off has been productive.

Now to collect the kids and chaos for a few hours - wouldn't change a thing!:rotfl:

WorkingHardDFW

Another productive days leave!

Posted 25+ items on ebay. Not all of these were new, some were relistings but hopefully quite a lot should go. I've a couple of high value things on there so fingers crossed.

Received a cheque for £128 from an old savings account which I got my OH to close in November. paid the money into the Debt fund and will transfer if off the debt when it clears. Updated the sig to show £300 off debt by April. I won't out the £1k from the shares until i receive it.

Now I'm going to take my car insurance renewal to see how far I can reduce the cost and how much I can get back!

All good fun:rolleyes:

NICKYS32

Hi have you tried going through quidco for your car Insurance?. I got mine from Lloyds TSB through them and managed to get 120.00 pounds cash back, which made my car insurance for the Year 80.00 pounds fully comp. I do most of my online shopping through them and have had 400.00 pounds cashback in a year with house and car insurance and changing utility providers. It costs 5.00 pounds per year which is taken out of your first lot of cashback. www.quidco.com

Well done

Seaxwyn

HI WorkingHard

I've just read your whole diary and it's not boring at all! I agree, being a DFW is utterly addictive. I kept a spending diary for the whole of last year and it is a huge eye-opener to see how much you really spend on various things.

Hope 2008 goes really well for you, with the shares, the car sale and ebaying, it looks as if your total will be tumbling fast.

WorkingHardDFW

Hi and thanks Seaxwyn

From looking at your signature you've achieved a massive amount during 2007. £11k is a year is fantastic - well done.

Its just keeping the motivation and commitment going during the difficult times.

WorkingHardDFW

I've just been working on getting a new quote for my car insurance. I've been checking using Quidco and hopefully I've managed to get it down to a cracking £120 off the renewal from Morethan if the Lloyds TSB pay the cashback through Quidco.

As I said in earlier posts I've only recently got the hang of Quidco etc:o and I'm a little reluctant to pay press buy. Why you may ask. The price I pay to LTSB is £20 less than my renewals from Morethan. How reliable are Quidco at paying out? I guess I'm asking since the bottom line insurance cost could be cheaper using a different provider not allowing for the Quidco cash back.

I've seen lots of posts from MSE experts but since I've never used Quidco I just wanted a bit of advice. It does seem like I'm nik picking.

Any advice given that I've my OH car insurance and my Mum's home insurance to do this month as well.