Becoming obsessed....

savingholmes

It's a great time to start  diet. We all need something to control LOL and there's precious little else. 

Seasidegal58

I hear you on the diet EO!  Perhaps reading about your efforts will give me some much needed motivation!😁

EssexOstrich

Thanks @savingholmes, that's exactly what I thought! 
@Seasidegal58 I'm very unmotivational when it comes to diets, I'll be the one encouraging you to eat cake  I've decided to not weigh myself. I know what I weighed before lockdown and I know (from my split jeans!) that I've put on weight and if I don't see progress on the scales I'll give up... so I'm just doing it and hoping I feel the difference in my clothes and ability to reach my own toes.

In money news, for the first time in what feels like FOREVER we are not overdrawn on any bank account. Such a lovely feeling! It's like a fresh start and I think it'll help me move forward. Today's job is to tidy things up a bit. I need to work out our exact bill payments for the month and as hubby gets paid weekly, set up a transfer for an averaged amount each week as a minimum commitment to avoid going overdrawn again. Eventually I'd like to reduce the overdraft when I'm more confident I've sorted myself out. Payday on Monday and I'm trying not to get too carried away with overpayments in case any part of life resumes in the next month and I find myself having expenses again. I will be bumping the EF up to £1000 which makes me breathe easier.

Hope everyone has a good bank holiday 

EssexOstrich

Job done! Standing order set up for bills and weekly shop, plus a small contingency amount. I've also paid the remainder of my salary off of one of my loans which has knocked 3 months off the term. Hoping to make another next week which will knock another 5 months off. I know the snowball says I should pay off my lowest balance first but this particular loan has 6.9% interest and did have 3.5 years left to run so I figure I can save a fair bit with a few overpayments, and then go back to paying down the credit cards which are all on 0% now.

The diet is on day 5 and no slip ups yet! Feeling quite positive about it right now and grateful that I can't physically go out for dinner.

I also spent yesterday sorting out the laundry. Such a crappy job but glad it's done! I can't work out where it all comes from. The towel pile is HUGE!! I think they must all dry their faces once and sling it in the basket. 

joedenise

If the loan is the only one you are paying interest on then I think you're right to be overpaying that as long as you are able to pay of the 0% cards before the 0% runs out.

Well done on sticking to the diet.  It's never easy but probably a bit harder at the moment due to the shortages in the shops, although that it definitely getting better.

savingholmes

It's good to celebrate the wins along the way. I too find I am more motivated while winning than when I feel I am failing.

EssexOstrich

So the diet is going ok... no idea if it's working due to my daft idea of not weighing myself beforehand but as I've no idea, I'm still on it!

Feeling happy that the debts are coming down, albeit slowly but I guess it's taken me at least 20 years to get to this stage so it won't be a short-term thing to get out of it, as much as I'd love it to be. I've made quite a few overpayments on 1 of the cards and 1 of the loans and am still really loving the fact I'm not overdrawn.
I've signed up for Prolific and done my first survey, earning £8.50. I also have a pile of stuff to eBay (oh the effort!) so must get round to doing that whilst I still have the luxury of time on my hands.

Other than that, just plodding along Oh and changed the name of the thread!

Bizzywizard

Hi,
I have just read your diary, you have done really well. I had £20k worth of debt in May 2019, so have been working on getting it down over the last year, the majority will be gone by December this year. I have 4 cards (one will be gone by this month). I found I could cope better with only a few cards to pay off. Martin Lewis posted new info a few weeks back regarding emergency fund (EF) and paying credit card debt off. This might be worth a read on the main page of his site. He is saying use you EF to pay off interest incurring debt as savings in EF are not making any money currently in bank accounts. This does not include 0% cards. So I have been paying more of my debt off and only have £200 EF in my and DH ISA account (savings to me, rate is 0.6 and rubbish). I'm NOT saying you need to do the same, but its well worth a read. Best regards Bizzy

EssexOstrich

Thanks @Bizzywizard. £20k in under 2 years is amazing, well done! I keep arguing with myself between paying down one card to reduce the amount of debts to manage, or bringing down overall balances. I'll have a read of the EF stuff, I'd love to make some more payments but not totally trusting of myself yet and having never had an EF it's a nice feeling to have a tiny bit of security. My main priority is to not add to my debts so I might keep putting small amounts in and then make a bulk payment every so often if nothing 'emergency' has come up, as a compromise. Thanks for the info x

EssexOstrich

Update, almost 2 months in.
Loan1: £6000 (3.9%) - now £5775.66
Loan2: £3227.28 (6%) - still £3227.28 - stupidly took a payment break in haste pre-LBM!
Loan3: £2592.47 (6.9) - now £1971.89 (settlement balance £1690.14 due to overpayments)
CC1: £9196.90 - now £8599.47
CC2: £2820.06 - now £2581.86
CC3: £2705.36 - 21.7% - now £2669.28 (now on 0% for 29 months, 3% fee added to balance)
CC4: £2338.03 - now £1796.24
CC5: £556.59 - 16.9% - now £0
Storecard1: £234.61 - now £0
Very: £225.07 - now £0
Paypal Credit: £157.75 - now £0
Overdraft £1050 - now £0
EF £0 - now £1000
Total including overdraft £31104.12 - now £26621.68

Still a veryyyyyyyyy scary figure but going in the right direction at least. This takes in to account 3 months of salary (including leftovers of March), I'm trying to pay off as much as poss before normality resumes as my overpayments will be a lot less then. Also have a big expense coming up to do with the eldest 2's uni accommodation (that they're not even living in!) so will be slowing down quite a bit from the beginning of July