Working Hard Debt Diary - Here goes

WorkingHardDFW

Just discovered Green Metropolis for selling books....this is what we've got loads on and they've not been going that fast on ebay.

I just wanted to share that

Seaxwyn

Hi Working Hard,
I've been using Quidco for a year and they have always paid out, though it does take a few months for the money to come through. I think they are pretty reliable, however you do have to compare all the deals available. For our car insurance, it still worked out cheaper for us to go with one that was not on Quidco.

Good luck with Green Metropolis. I have sold a lot of books on Amazon, its' very easy and maybe worth trying if you haven't done so before.

Good luck with everything!

Wildchild_2

Just wanted to say I think you are doing really well and keep up the good work. Hope you reach your goals :T

WorkingHardDFW

Thanks Wildchild

Well I've taken the plunge and bought my car insurance through Quidco and got, hopefully :rolleyes: , £90 cash back. How FAB.

Can't quite get my head around weather this is extra income to be thrown at the debts when I get it or whether it should be used to go into the car costs account to reflect the true cost of the insurance. I'll ponder that whilst I wait to receive the money back.

I'm please that I've finally done it though. Just waiting for my OH's insurance renewal now and that should be another amount of cash back.

Took youngest DS into town this am after school and spent some money on a coffee and a drink. It came really hard since I've hard virtually no cash in my purse since before Christmas. Funnily though I've still managed to spend quite a bit as my new and fantastic spending diary is showing. I actually felt guilty for taking DS in for a coffee but at least I was focused on what I was spending and the fact that I did have the money.

Busy week ahead back at work, ebaying all over the place and just keeping on top of everything.

WorkingHardDFW

Just received the lovely lovely cheque for £1000 to pay off the cc's :T . Cheque is in the envelope to post to the account where the debts funds go. Once it clears I'll pay it off the CC. My signature has been updated accordingly.
OH car (the one he's not selling) was MOT'd today and only cost £45 :T which was under budget - it all helps.

I've worked quite a few extra days over the last few months and I worked out today that it should bring me £600 after tax!! Again this will go straight at the debts when its paid which may be Feb now.

Ref the cashback money from Quidco et al. I think that I will use this to throw at the Debt rather than pay into the car account. Pyhscologically it will feel better than seeing the £90 go into the general savings. It make not make DFW sense but it will make us feel better!

WorkingHardDFW

Feeling good since I've renewed both car insurance via the cash back sites and will add £125 to throw at the debts when they come through in a few months:T

Bad news is that I took Autoaid out on us as a couple instead of breakdown cover following Martins advice on the subject. Unfortunately my OH's 2nd car (:mad: don't go there I have got him to agree to sell it :T ) is not covered since its too big in engine CC. I didn't read the small print on the policy....lesson learnt. So next week I'm going to have to get the local garage out to start it and MOT it so that it can be sold - what a pain but - thinking positively - it is being sold.

Cracking on with my Mum's house insurance now....oh how I long for the saturday nights of old

WorkingHardDFW

Just an update.

I'm feeling a bit down in the dumps even though I paid £1k off one of the CC's today. I think its the January blues mixed with having such a long road ahead of us.

We are in control of our spending for the first time for forever which has got to be good news (thats how we got into this place) but (i can be a glass half empty sort of girl at times) this has situation has to go on for such a long time.

DH still hasn't got around to selling his second car. I've removed it from the budget which allows us to stay solvent and I'm hoping it goes by the end of Feb but no action on it yet. We had words last night about the matter which is never good.:(

I've got really frustrated with my Mum's insurance quote. She lives in a new build and the postcode for her house isn't yet registering on the insurance co's websites. This means I can't buy it online yet and save her some extra money:mad:.
I went for a job interview last week for a full time position:eek: . I currently work part-time around the little ones. I've still not heard (which I'm guessing isn't good) but that hasn't helped the blues. If I took it - and thats a big if since it would impact on family life very severely - the money it would bring into the house would knock years off our DFD. The plus side (if I don't get it) I guess was my other option was to start working for myself in my spare time (youngest DS goes to school in September) and I've not moved this forward, as I promised earlier in the my post, mainly due to lack of confidence.

Like a lot of us we have our heads above water and are in an improving postion but I need to think seriously about how to generate extra income to clear these debts of ours. Plus it won't take much to go wrong and it could all go pear shaped.

In summary after a rather rambling post I guess what I am saying I need to decide what I am going to do and get down and do it - Procrastination is the thief of time...

Lemon_Tree

Hi
Just found your diary and take my hat off you to. You've made some life changing decisions and it's not always easy to recognise them when we're looking at our own actions.
Hope you get the car sold, maybe you should take it out of OH hand and list it in the auto trader. When we finally got around to putting my OH's car on there it sold within 2 weeks and he'd had cards up in shops etc for a couple of months. It turned out to be a great start to our wedding fund.
Looking forward to travelling along this journey with you as our DF dates are very similar.

WorkingHardDFW

Hi and thanks for the post Lemon Tree.

I think you are right about my OH's car. Its been a thorny issue since he got it - I've refused to drive it which has been a very grown up attitude :rolleyes: . I should take matters into hands and get rid.

I notice from your sig that you did fantastically well knocking £9k off your debts. Well done you :T . How have your managed to do it and keep on rtrack.

I do find these boards are such a great help. Whether its reading peoples inspirational stories or picking up tips and hints they are all great.

WorkingHardDFW

Feeling slightly more positive this week as I made a £1k payment off the first target cc. I've sold quite a few items on ebay as well so I should have another £50 coming in. With the small bits I prefer to let it mount up to about a £100 and then make a payment off the card. Somehow it feels better!

Things to think about:

Changing job and or working full time
I've started applying for new jobs which pay quite a lot more than i am on now. Many of these are full time so hopefully there is a hard choice coming about whether I go full time. At present I'm thinking just go for it and when a job offer comes in make a choice then. So all my spare time seems to be spent completing application forms etc etc. It takes up so much time but I guess it will be worth it in the long run! I've got another interview on Wednesday. I made myself laugh though when I found out was in Oxford (the job is locally) and I costed out the petrol and my time . I saw a post a while ago about top tips and the time v money thing which I think is what prompted the job hinting.

Taking a mortgage holiday
This one came to me a few days ago and I've not checked it out with my mortgage provider or done any bottom line figs yet. The idea was to take a 5 month mortgage holiday and use the £4875 not paid out to pay off another card. The principles behind this were that our FT mortgage finishes in one year and we want to be in a stronger position when we start shopping around. We realise that this would add 5 months to our remaining 14 years but if things go to plan we will have cleared at least two this year with our loans ending in 2009 we'd be in much better position. Once we are DF we can overpay the mortgage. We've never taken a mortgage holiday before (even when my OH was out of work for six months) but it feels like a sensible option for getting the debts sorted asap.

I appreciate that we've not gone into fine detail of this (it may well be a daft idea) but I'd appreciate my fellow DFW's thoughts.

OH's car is still not sold but its going into the garage on Tuesday :T