Teetering on the brink

EatingBeans

BadBookkeeper said:

Good luck on your journey.  There’s a Martin Lewis bill buster programme on tonight at 8pm, might be worth a watch. 

Thanks BadBookkeeper! Definitely sounds right up my street. Hopefully it will be available on demand later so I can watch it. (I already hate not having a tv licence! lol)

Sarahwithlove

Have you been off sick then? Are you back to work now? Do you have the option of overtime or a 2nd part time job? Do you have any skills that could lead to some self employed work? 

Who are your credit cards with? Are you folding on clearing one and making minimum payments on others? How do you currently split the debt payment? 

EatingBeans

Ok so I am already feeling a bit more optimistic! I have joined the waitlist for Prolific, signed up to Olio, and sold my cello on ebay for £185. 

On hearing news of the sale, my dd instantly asked if we could earmark some of those funds towards some kit she needs for her upcoming Duke of Edinburgh expedition - no doubt not wanting to ask before now as she knew I didn’t have any money to spare. Bless, she is so sweet. I am just counting my blessings that thanks to our previous camping trips we already have 95% of the things she needs! Sure, I can stretch to some waterproof trousers and a whistle! Haha

EatingBeans

Sarahwithlove said:

Have you been off sick then? Are you back to work now? Do you have the option of overtime or a 2nd part time job? Do you have any skills that could lead to some self employed work? 

Who are your credit cards with? Are you folding on clearing one and making minimum payments on others? How do you currently split the debt payment? 

I was off sick on and off for about three months pre Christmas. First with covid, then a chest infection, then a weird stomach flu until my doctor said I have now become dairy intolerant. All very odd but that is on top of the Trigeminal Neuralgia which keeps me from leaving the house in the cold. I am fortunate that my employer lets me just wfh if I need to and I flex my hours when I am having really bad days but it means a second proper job is not really possible. Ebaying is about as good as it gets. Sadly overtime is not a thing for my job and whilst technically I could do bookkeeping (ironic right?!), I am only available on evening and weekends which doesn’t really fit for that type of role. 

Debts are split:
NatWest CC £12,018 22% no fee balance transfers but at 22% interest
MBNA CC £10,534 , approx £2,500 at 26%, the rest 4.9% or 0%, amazingly still offers 0% offers with 5% fee but not enough space on card to take advantage. A further £2k will revert to standard rate in July.
Barclaycard CC £9,667, of which £3,700 at 25%, the rest at 0%, no longer get bt offers
Fluid CC £772 0% new card, but only % for 6months
TSB Overdraft £577 39%
Loan from my brother £5,400 (I know I am very blessed to have such an accommodating brother!)

I pay fixed amounts to three CC as a base level (all just slightly above minimum atm because it helps with the maths!)

NatWest £270
MBNA £150
Barclaycard £150
Fluid is minimum payment only
Loan from my brother £50pm 
I then pay a rounding figure to my overdraft to make up to £700, so about £30.
Generally I aim for debt with the highest rate for anything extra but the account with the overdraft is also where I keep my sinking fund money for annual expenses so whilst I have a virtual overdraft amount that I owe, I also have a virtual pot of money that reduces the actual balance of the overdraft in the account so i pay less interest. (I realise I have reached the creative way to calculate debt at this point but it means I don’t have a savings account earning virtually no interest on money put aside for annual expenses at the same time paying ridiculous interest on an overdraft) If I just pay off the overdraft and don’t use virtual sinking funds I know I tend to underestimate annual expenses. This way I still put the right amount of money aside. It makes sense in my head! lol

My current dilemma is which cc is best to pay down first so I can take advantage of the 0% offers still being offered to me. I am thinking if I make space on Natwest I can move debt from MBNA and back again so all the MBNA is on the lowest rate. If by some miracle I can wiggle it all back to zero percent I think I will be fine and I’ll be able to pay it all down over time. It does very much rely on them still giving me zero percent offers though. 😬

CreditCardJunkie

I found that additional income was the quickest and easiest way to clear debt. Surely you could get some freelance bookkeeping in the evenings? 

Regarding getting in touch with the card companies @sourcrates has a wealth of knowledge about this sort of thing and whether a debt management plan may be a better way to go about it as it does sound like you might be struggling with the repayments

NeverendingDMP

Vinted  or eBay maybe for the waterproof pants? Or ask on olio. They seem to have give/wanted sections on it. I'm new to olio this week so also still learning on it!

EatingBeans

CreditCardJunkie said:

I found that additional income was the quickest and easiest way to clear debt. Surely you could get some freelance bookkeeping in the evenings? 

Regarding getting in touch with the card companies @sourcrates has a wealth of knowledge about this sort of thing and whether a debt management plan may be a better way to go about it as it does sound like you might be struggling with the repayments

Sadly, most bookkeeping jobs require you to be available during a weekday, I am still looking though so you never know.

I just can’t even think about a debt management plan at this point. Give me a few more months and I may change my mind but it would be really difficult for me to accept. Not sure why, it might even be the most logical thing to do. There’s just something in me that screams NNNOOOOO at just the thought of it. 😬

EatingBeans

NeverendingDMP said:

Vinted  or eBay maybe for the waterproof pants? Or ask on olio. They seem to have give/wanted sections on it. I'm new to olio this week so also still learning on it!

Yup, ebay is totally where I was planning for the waterproofs! It never occurred to me to check olio for that so, I will check that out too. Thanks!

EatingBeans

Well today is a better day.

I signed up to Prolific yesterday and I have a couple of studies available to me today so that’s looking promising. Apparently I need to use my laptop to do them though so I might need to borrow one from a daughter 😬 (good job they love me!).

I also opened my post to find MBNA offering to increase my limit by £1500 next month! This will be a godsend if they do in fact raise my limit and still give me the 0% offers as that will mean approximately another £30pm goes to paying down debt rather than interest. With such limited ways to earn more cash, reducing interest is going to be crucial to my journey, and any decrease in my credit utilisation has surely to help my credit score.🤞

I also stared at my budget again today and decided the Tado subscription can go. Tado controls my heating and is my absolute best friend because it keeps the house at just the right temperature to help with my Trigeminal Neuralgia, but, do I really need to pay for it to automatically lower the heating when I am out the house if I am currently never leaving? Probably not. I can still use the timer functions and manually switch it to Away mode if i do leave the house so, that’s another £3.99pm saved. 🤑

Off to make another coffee now. Second day in a row I have made my morning coffee and then forgotten about it until it was too cold to drink. Bugs me as I defo cannot afford to be wasting stuff like that. Maybe the answer is to just stop drinking coffee? 🤔 Hmm, not sure if I am quite up to that yet! 🤣

vampirotoothus

Hi, I often forget my tea, microwave for 1min 30 seconds and good enough to drink. Good luck on your journey. Get that SOA posted up, to see if anyone has ideas for you. V x