First Diary

TravelGirl84

I think it's fine to segment your life. If that's what works for you that's great!
I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year!

mnkone

Thank you, I hope you had a good one too!


So new year and the first of my posts.


All my end of December/start of January payments are paid and I am all up to date with everything.
I have 2 weekends away, including Disney Paris at the end of the month, just before payday, so I have made sure I have all the money sorted and it doesn't effect my end of Jan wage.


It will be nice to get away even for a few days. But as soon as I get back and get paid I will be reassessing the finances, as I have a little more than expected thanks to a slight increase at work, when I get paid I will know exactly, but could be an extra £60 - £80 a month take home. As well as a possibility of a few ££ from a Wonga claim (borrowed 2014 - 2016), even £10 would be nice, as I paid just over £3,100 in interest!!! horrendous when I look back at it.


This is only the second January in around 12 years which has started really well and I really hope that's a good sign for the whole year!

mnkone

3 weeks into the year and pushing ahead.


I decided, after around 10 years of leaving it, I would look into starting my own business, over the years I have designed logos and clothing for friends that started businesses, only to watch them stop within the first year, on each occasion being close enough to them to know it was solely because they didn't want to do it anymore. Which I just think is a shame.


So over the last 3 weeks, I have build a website (still offline until I get everything in line I need), have a brand, a concept for the first line, with designs almost finished, I have 3 sample items i am really happy with, which means i will be able to start ordering stock soon and then the site gets put live.


Even if I only sell 1 item a month, I design every day pretty much, so its a good outlet for me. But you never know what it may bring.


I am not posting this for any other reason, other than to put up my experience so far, as I have come across people that always say they dont have the money to start anything like this, which I thought too, but £50 for 3 sample tshirts (expensive I know, but the templates are more expensive the first time, then all items are cheaper from then on) and then building the site myself (not on a template, but actaully learning HTML, CSS and some bootstrap), its all been pretty cheap. I will have to start paying when I put the site live, but its all coming from disposable income, so all manageable.

mnkone

So everything has been going well, paying off what I can where I can, then the banks decide to increase the interest they charge. Spoke to them today and they said it was the FCA's decision, to which I stated, the FCA said they have to charge a simple annual rate with no unauthorised charges, not that they have to increase interest. The lady on the phone just turned nasty. Well that just showed me they didn't want to know, complaint email sent to the CEO, CC'ing in watchdog and the FCA.


Annoyingly, if the % increase stands, my interest goes from £46 - £50 per month, to around £100 per month, but the complaint included affordability and if I need, I will go to the ombudsman with it.


Not letting it get me down or annoy me, I will get on with things and continue as I have been.

mnkone

So 24 hours of chasing the bank, seeing what my options are and sorting thing out to make things easier for me in the long term, not just thinking 3 months ahead.

The bank have been zero help, so I started looking online to consolidate what I had, including half of my overdraft at least. To my amazement I was preapproved for a loan to cover all the debt (except the large loan), on a better rate than the overdraft and all the loans. My I&E is now much better than what it was, I am paying over a longer period, but I have more money monthly and even with the longer term, I will pay just over £1,000 less interest in total. Updates below.

Loan1 – £15,300 – £331 Per Month
Loan2 – £4,000 – £135 Per Month
Overdraft – £1,500 – £30 Per Month
Total – £20,800

Monthly I&E is now;
Ingoing – £2,448
Bills – £1,300
Transport – £56
Denplan – £21
Debt – £496

Remaining – £575

So from that remaining I will be lowering my overdraft by £150 per month. So that will be gone within 10 months.

I feel like I am making some bigger positive strides, then after the overdraft is gone, that money should be able to go onto overpayments on the smaller loan to get rid of it quicker.