Jumping on the debt diary bandwagon! My attempt to keep myself sane!

girl-about-town_2

Have paid off another £70 from Paypal, and waiting for £70 more to hit my account, then it will be straight off the card! Very exciting! With the £300 I can hopefully pay off from my salary this month, this should take the total down to just over £800 which is so so exciting considering what it was a while ago! I'm becoming really determined to get rid of my card by March, I think its doable with a bit of effort on my part!

The only trouble now is just how obsessed I am with checking my bank balance to see if things have credited or have gone out yet! Even when I know its the weekend and nothing is going to have changed! Perhaps I'm becoming a little obsessive compulsive??!!!

And exciting news, I've been accepted by AQA! woo hoo! Have completed my initial 30 questions and just waiting to sort my review now, then you will never get me off the computer!! (Although typical bad luck stylee - my laptop decided to give up completely this morning - it is well and truly dead, though it did live for 4 and a half years which isn't too bad!) I do really want to get another one but I just don't think I could bear to part with the money!!! Such a scrooge these days!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

girl-about-town_2

Have just paid £300 from my salary off my credit card bill which takes it down to just under £900 which is super exciting. Unfortunately today I had to buy a new laptop after mine died a slow and painful death!! I got a really decent one for £400 (I'm typing on it now!!) and paid for it out of the spare on my overdraft. However, I am hoping to try and earn enough through AQA to pay for it as soon as possible, which should be easy with my super fast new laptop!! I'm not going to add this total into my overdraft figure as it will hopefully disappear fairly soonish!! Justification!!

welshgirl78

Well, girl about town (GAT!) you are doing v well and am impressed to hear about your new money obsessions! i am totally obsessed - and also outraged at how many pressies your boyfriend gets... mine def does not!!! (although we agreed cheap pressies for Christmas, I gave him playing cards and he gave me GHDs... felt a little bit guilty!)

Anyway well done, you sound so positive and motivated - what about joining a challenge like Make £10 or Olympic Challenge to keep you going? I find it v useful... plus helps me force me to do my AQAing when I REALLY can't be A****!

Shall be keeping an eye on your progress - Good luck xxx

girl-about-town_2

Hi Welshgirl78!
Thanks for your comments! I know I should join more challenges, and anything that motivates me to do some aqa questions would be a good thing!! I thought I would be far more motivated to do some but I just seem to have had no time to myself - though my boyfriend thinks its v cool so maybe I can get him to do the questions and I'll take the profits!! Not very fair!

As for the boyfriends presents, the reason I gave him so many is cos he never buys anything for himself - I don't think he thinks he deserves it (which is so not true!!) so I just want to spoil him! ALthough his frugality (is that a word??!) is why he has no debt and lots of savings, unlike little miss spendy here!!! Oh dear!

ANyway, have just paid off another £80 off the card - a long overdue repayment of money I lent to my sister! And have also found out that I have been overpaying on my studio rent so when I get that refunded that should be another £60 at least to pay off! Wahoo!! Card balance is now under £750 which is so so exciting!!

And have about £9 of change in my wallet which I'm super tempted to put into my sealed pot, I know I'll regret it as soon as I do it though, and I should probably see if I can live on just that for this week!! I can try at least!!!

Wish me luck!!

girl-about-town_2

Don't feel like I've made any real progress the past since my last post - have had a low couple of days so haven't been feeling particularly motivated! Seem to have been spending quite a bit but a couple of purchases havebeen on things that I can play around with and sell on for a profit which will all add to the total in the end!! On the plus side, picked up my cheque for overpayment of studio rent today - another £ 80 to come off the cards once I''ve paid it in on Monday! wahoo! Shoudl bring CC total down to £654 but I'm sure I'll be able to find the extra £4.79 to take it down to £650 exactly!! (How I love a round number!!) Now I just have to make £40 last until the 13th! WIll definitely be quite a challenge!!

girl-about-town_2

Have just paid my £80 refund cheque off the card, plus £4.79 of my money to take my total down to a round £650! If I can pay off £350 either from my next paycheck or ebay or a combination of both, then I'll have paid £2000 off since September which is super exciting!!

girl-about-town_2

Received £30 from AQA this morning so have paid it off my card immediately. Which takes my cc balance down to £620 which is super! I know I need to put some money aside for the taxman but things are really tight right now (I've got £23 to last until next Wednesday when I get paid!!!!!) so I think that will have to wait until next month!

entity786

Hi
have you considered securing a second job, just couple of evenings a week. Ideally the job should be on route to home from your first job so you do not incur any additional cost in terms of travelling. It also saves time as it is "on route" to home. If you can do this it will become a regular income adn additional income to help clear your debts. I did this and i net extra few hundred punds every month.

You need to ask your self what you really need? Do yo really NEED a contract phone with that particular tariff? Check you r bill, do you actually utilise all of the free minutes? I left contract deals as i realised i do not NEED that many minutes and now use 02 pay as you go.

If you are serious about reducing your debt and start saving you have to be very scrupilous with your self.

ask your self do i NEED that when you get the urge to go on a shopping spree.

girl-about-town_2

Hi Entity786,

Thanks for your comments. At the moment my job is over long days (until 8pm or 10pm) so another job after that isn't really a viable option. I signed up to AQA last month so have been doing that whenever I have time, plus I make things which are then sold on Ebay to top up my income.
I am signed up to my phone contract for another 12 months, I do find I use all the available minutes/texts because my boyfriend lives a half hour drive away so when I can't see him we can still keep in touch, which in turn saves on petrol!

You're completely right about the whole 'do I need that' mentality - I've been doing that recently and it really works - I'm proud to say I haven't bought anything unncessary since Christmas!!

I'm very impressed that you've managed to become debt free and build up such substantial savings in a relatively short period of time!! What's your secret???!! lol!

Thanks again for your comments - its inspired me to do as much with AQA as possible to build up an extra couple of hundred pounds a month!!

entity786

Hi g-a-t

Im glad you found the information helpful. My secret is i secured accomodation with a family who charge me no rent. Not to say i do not contribute,i do. But that is what family are there for, in your darkest hour you should be able to count on them. Logically, i thought about it if i rented i would have had to fork out at least £400 per month plus bills, and the second job, the odd occasional cash in hand job, tutoring local students and so on. As a smoker i switched from Cigarettes to hand rolling tobacco (i save £100 per month £1200 per year- HUGE DIfference). You do what it takes, at the end of the day its what you want to achieve and it all adds up.

invested money in premium bonds where i have had some good wins.

If your boyfriend lives with in a 5 mile range and he is the person you predominantly talk to consider a CB. Argos sell them for arond the £50.

If you are under 24 visit

http://www.blyk.co.uk/

they are awarding free sim cards offering 217 texts messages, 43 minutes of x-net calls - NO CONTRACTS and NO COSTS. In my second job I am senior Youth Worker and my service users have showed me this.

Keep sticking to the "do i need" philosophy.

I hope this helps.