debt free in 1200 months!?

bountiful

bountiful wrote: »

NSD=:D, no NSD=:o

Mon 16th.......£1
Tues 17th.......£1.25:o
Wed 18th.......£17.76:o
Thurs 19th......£16.65:o
Frid 20th
Sat 21st
Sun 22nd

Thursday - All day bus pass (£5.80) which I made good use of by visiting a friend, then going to the beach for the afternoon ; bought a really healthy yummy sandwich and some halva (£3.40); spent £4 on 10 pairs of socks (Woolworths) for my neice's birthday present - and a card (£1.95) and a badge (50p); and a bag of sweets for myself (£1) naughty, naughty . Made the most of the sunshine - felt tired today, so didn't do any marathon walking or cycling, just mooched about a bit and made myself walk up steps and do hills round town etc.

bountiful

On a more serious note (OAMSN?) Today's post brought two envelopes from Halifax One Card: a statement from one computer, and a standard demand for payment plus 'we have already charged you' letter from another computer.
I phoned them up - with all my paperwork in front of me - and I was told that they have accepted my reduced payment offer of £4.46 (she might have said something about 3 months) but they couldn't stop the computer sending out letters and charging me late payment fees of £12 a time etc. I asked her to send me a written reply to my letter officially confirming that they have accepted my offer. When I receive that I can send off letter B which asks them again to drop charges and interest.

So - some action from Halifax One Card, Halifax Loan, and Housing Benefits - so far, so good. Need to hear from Post Office credit card, and Halifax current accounts re overdraft. I didn't feel afraid today:cool:

bountiful

bountiful wrote: »

NSD=:D, no NSD=:o

Mon 16th.......£1
Tues 17th.......£1.25:o
Wed 18th.......£17.76:o
Thurs 19th......£16.65:o
Frid 20th........£28.38:o
Sat 21st
Sun 22nd

Friday - it rained all day - so I am SO glad I made the effort to get out on the other days this week! Mobile phone top-up (£10); food (£15.87); postage - birthday present to my niece and a large letter that could have gone as an ordinary letter if I had thought to dispense with the paperclip (will know next time) (£2.48). Met a friend for afternoon tea which she kindly paid for.

bountiful

On a more serious note: Halifax have been ringing my mobile very frequently - and as I was not in a position to take the call I barred the number. When I got home I tried to phone them but just got an automated message. Eventually found another number - and got through to someone who said that my overdraft account looked fine, so it was probably about the loan account - transferred over to another person - did the little exchange of information etc and they agreed that there was a note that I contacted them on 18th and they had said they would not contact me again for 10 days - and they said SORRY and said they would make sure nobody else phoned me. I said 'OK'. An hour later the phone rings again - I sigh - person says - "oh, I can see you phoned us an hour ago, sorry - we're on automated calling - sorry......" and put the phone down. :eek::mad::rolleyes::eek:

bountiful

bountiful wrote: »

NSD=:D, no NSD=:o

Mon 16th.......£1
Tues 17th.......£1.25:o
Wed 18th.......£17.76:o
Thurs 19th......£16.65:o
Frid 20th........£28.38:o
Sat 21st..........£17:o
Sun 22nd........£5:o

Well - no NSDs this week either!
Saturday's spends were laundry (£6.95) and food shopping (£10.05).
Sunday's spends were lunch out (£5) - I cycled for 2hrs this morning to get to a Buddhist meeting - it was a lovely day (I had my waterproofs and fleece with me because it looked a bit unsettled, but I didn't need them) - then on the way back, I cycled for an hour and got to the cafe stop, bought a sandwich and a tea and a tub of ice-cream - then cycled another hour home. It was the last day (sob) of my holiday...... back to work at 07.15 tomorrow for an 11 hour shift!!!!

So - the spending for the week was: £87.04 - not too bad I don't think. The costs which could be considered 'holiday spending' were £18.70 (plus the shorts from last week perhaps - bringing the total up to £48.70 - again, reasonable for a week's holiday spending I think? No?)

I am considering something Merlot said on another thread - about mobile phones and DVDs not being essential - should I cut out my monthly £3.99 to Love Film and stop putting credit on my mobile? They seem such small virtues.......

PS - after more careful thought - £87 is not good at all because I only have £53 a week to spend........... how much difference would Love Film and mobile make if I cut them out?

bountiful

On a more serious note: I had a letter from the Post Office refusing my reduced payment offer and saying that I must pay the minimum charge - and they cannot freeze interest and charges unless the account is referred to their legal department. This letter did make me feel a bit afraid again - so I got out all the info from National Debtline and read the instructions. They say it is important to stick to your plan - because if you pay one person more (because you are afraid) then it will compromise all the other arrangements with other creditors, and probably leave you short of money for food, rent and utilities etc. So - deep breath - I will send off the next letter asking them to reconsider.

tenmah

Glad you had a lovely week bountiful. Well done on all the cycling.

Stick to your guns with the Post Office. I am sure they automatically say no but they must be used to the process by now.

Good Luck at work tomorrow - it is hard going back after time off.

Seaxwyn

Hi bountiful. Your holiday week sounds really lovely, hope you are feeling refreshed.

Personally I would say ditch lovefilm. It's hard to see it as a necessity, especially if you are paying for a tv licence as well.

With the mobile, if you are paying PAYG then it doesn't cost you anything to have it, just try and use it as little as possible. Is your phone Orange? My daughter has an Orange PAYG phone and every time she tops up £10 (about once every 3 months) they give her 300 free texts. I'm going to go into the Orange shop today and see if I can have the same deal.

beanielou

Thats a good deal from Orange.

Seaxwyn

Right, I checked out the free texts thing. If you're on Orange PAYG standard tariff, you can switch to one of a number of other tariffs by phoning 343.

I chose Dolphin tariff - this gives 300 free texts each time you top up (plus free mobile access to Facebook, I wouldn't know how to use that fortunately!)

There are various other tariffs, eg 15p calls to any network, cheap overseas calls etc. It really is that easy - just phone 343 and listen to the menu!

Sorry bountiful, I have no idea if you even have Orange, but since I mentioned it on here I thought I would report back.