Sass' 2008 DFW ramble thread

Sassamac

I have succombed to the idea that a diary is the best way to keep track of my DFW efforts (especially the ones that dont show up on spreadsheets). I can look back over the year and see the progress I have made, and hopefully gain some support and hints along the way.

We need £438 per month (inc. £205 to cover mortgage arrears) to cover all our repayments, but at the moment we're only about half way there (hence the mortgage arrears).

I have just switched the mortgage to interest only (a saving of £205 pcm) which means the mortgage payment is now just about affordable, and anything extra can go towards paying off the arrears.

efforts so far:

Set a Grocery Challenge budget of £150 for Jan, having spent £225 in Dec and £210 in Nov.

Joined the 4k per year challenge.

Set myself a target of decluttering and selling at the same time. I want to earn £1000 in the first half of 2008 and £500 in the second half of the year, just by selling off things we no longer need.

Saving all my £2 coins, though as I spend very little cash this isn't going to be much of a money spinner.

I have just paid in £21 of loose change (50p and under) which is money saved from 2007, so my loose change pot is starting nigh on empty for 2008.

Snaggles

Hi Sassamac!

You sound like you're already making some good progress with sorting your debts. Why don't you post your SOA so we can see if we can make any suggestions. Good luck with it!

hayley11

You sound really organised already, well done hun :T

Have you signed up to the cashback websites, quidco, greasypalm, topcashback to name a few?

Also have you considered doing online surveys or mystery shopping?

Hope to see your SOA so we can help you save some more money

Hayley x

redsquirrel80

Hello, recognise you from the grocery challenge thread!

Good luck, hope it all goes well for you x

Sassamac

I realised I have rather neglected my own thread so am now going to make a concerted efforted to keep this uptodate. I will start with a brief summary of our debts as at the new year;

Barclaycard - £600
HSBC CC me - £2200
HSBC CC DH - £1900
motorbike loan - £1500
mortgage arrears - £2500
HSBC overdraft - £1000
Barclays overdraft - £1000
Total - £10700

Sassamac

lastw eek DH and I were each offered a 3.9% deal on balance transfers + 2.5% BT fee to our HSBC cards (currently at 7.9% and 9.9%). So we transfered £300 off the barclaycard (21.9%) to mine, and £250 off the barclaycard to his. There is a dispute about a £50 payment that I paid online that hasnt been credited to the barclaycard. When it is sorted there will be about £18 left which I will pay off i full.

Current status;
Barclaycard - £18 or £68 (limit £4450)
HSBC CC me - £2500 (maxed out)
HSBC CC DH - £2150 (limit £9200)
motorbike loan - £1500
mortgage arrears - £2500
HSBC overdraft - £1000 (limit £1500 but we pretend its £1000 so we dont incur OD charges)
Barclays overdraft - £1000 (limit £1250)
Total - same - give or take £50

we have paid more off the mortgage arrears before the mortgage due date (12th) but then accumulated it again. we also had confirmation that this will be our last month paying repayment and will switch to interest only next month (just missed out, we thought Jan would be the first month of IO).

Sassamac

We now have a plan;
Step 1;
We have since been offered a 6.9% for the life of the balance deal with Barclaycard with no BT fee. So the plan once this is cleared is to clear DH's HSBC card onto it, as thats the only way we will get rid of the high interest rates were paying on his cash transactions and purchases.

Step 2;
Use DH's HSBC card to pay off the bike loan in full (the agreement allows us to pay off 6, 12 or 18 months early on the 24 month term so we can pay it off in Feb). This means instead of paying 23.4% for the bike loan we will be paying 14.9% which is the purchase rate. very scary as this is the first card purchase we will have made for about 18 months or so, but Im trying to view it more as just shuffling debts to the best place.

Step 3 is to pay off the mortgage arrears with DH's HSBC card so same applies as above. It will save us £35 per month in charges for being in arrears.

Step 4 is to find a BT transfer to reduce this rate, but the barclaycard offer ends before we can do this and our chances of getting new credit are slim. So really we're relying on Barclaycard to extend the current 6.9% offer.

The result of this plan will be roughly;
Barclaycard - 2150 (limit £4450)
HSBC CC me - £2500 (maxed out)
HSBC CC DH - £3650 (limit £9200)
motorbike loan - £0
mortgage arrears - £0
HSBC overdraft - £1000 (limit £1500 but we pretend its £1000 so we dont incur OD charges)
Barclays overdraft - £1000 (limit £1250)
Total - £10300
saved £180 from the paying off the motorbike loan early.
hoping to pay another hundred or two off the mortgage arrears before we pay it off in full.

Sassamac

Yesterday I spoke to a debt support worker. I was refered to her by the childrens centre where I go to toddler group 4 times a week.
She is going to give us a week or so to do the above mentioned shuffling of debts, and then write to the banks on our behalf to put our credit card payments on hold for 6 months or so, til we get back on our feet.
Her advice is to try and eliminate at least one of the overdrafts as they are each costing us about £12 - £15 per month, which I had considered an insignificant amount til I worked out that thats £300 - £350 per year! :eek:

As the mortgage arrears and motorbike loan will be dealt with at this stage, and assuming the banks agree to suspending our credit card repayments, we will only have the overdrafts to deal with.
So the plan then is to allow our income to build up in the account as we will be saving over £200 per month in minimum payments. So theoretically after 5 months we can close off the overdraft on the Barclays account, which also means we'll be saving another £12 - £15 per month, to put towards the CC's.
Only trouble with that plan is that putting payments on hold, ultimately means we will paying the debts off further into the future, but as it wont cost us anymore it doesnt actually matter.

Sassamac

Right, new mission for Feb - Im going to resurrect this diary and make sure I use it every day to keep me on track.
Im determined to change things this month.
I have done a new SOA for this month which I will post later, taking in account the changes with credit card shuffles, spreading the council over 12 months etc. and the fact that our childcare is now completely free. unfotunatley all of those savings put together dont account for the shortfall in my income, since my party plan business will earn me next to nothing in the next 3 months. (It was the difference between sink or swim in the run up to Christmas when business was booming).

Sassamac

GROCERIES MISSION
I have signed up to the Grocery challenge for my second month, having stayed under budget in Jan. Im trying even harder this month.
- I refuse to pay full price for a loaf of bread and even then it has to be under 50p, so unless it has a yellow sticker, or is on offer it stays on the shelf. (been doing this for 3 weeks already!) I dont buy value as I think its a false economy.
- I refuse to buy pizza (our weekly treat and the only meal usually that isnt HM), so will try buying bases and topping them ourselves this month.
- I have done a fortnights meal plan based on whats in the freezer, so just have to buy store cupboard stuff plus F&V to go with it (except the pizza).
- I refuse to pay full price for meat (generally dont, but now its a rule I HAVE to obey!) so again it has to be on offer or yellow stickered. I have a headstart as I dont need to buy any for the next two weeks.
- I refuse to buy any commercial / expensive cleaning (except laundry) products, so will start using vinegar / Stardrops etc.
edit:
- I refuse to buy biscuits. Its the one naughty snack we always have a constant supply of and there is only one left so as of today its HM biscuits only. Ive made cookies before but never normal biscuits so going to give it a whizz tonight.

As well as these rules Im generally going to try harder to economise. I have started this morning by buying a 10kg sack of spuds from the market which is 4 times the size for twice the price of supermarket spuds.
Im aiming to do a weekly shop on Fridays (even if it involves two supermarkets and a market) and ban myself from spending more than a fiver any other day of the week (in other words, bread, milk and reduced stickered stuff only).

Sassamac

DEBT MISSION

We have another appointment this week with the debt advisor, one who can help us more specifically with our finances this time. This time Hubby is available to hear what they have to say too. Going to make a point of acting on their recomendations and working through it.

Going to shuffle our CC's today as I still havent done it.

Hoping to try to spread the cost of things, just started to pay the mortgage weekly, and going to ask if we can have our tax credits weekly, spread the cost of council tax across 12 instead of ten months as of April etc.