debt free in 1200 months!?

Burlesque_Babe

bountiful wrote: »

Does your £3,800 for 2008 include rent/mortgage payments - or just grocery and fuel and stuff?

hi - no, it doesn't include mortgage payments - they are over £7000 alone :eek: :eek: . The figure (I've managed to 'upgrade' to £4,000 as I've taken a new job so things might be a tad easier) is for literally everything except mortgage, water and council tax.


I'm not doing very well..........:o .........although I know my weakness - just 'popping' to the supermarket......:rolleyes:

bountiful

Mum_of_3 wrote: »

I just wanted to reply about the degree thing and tell you to keep plugging away at it.
If you give up now in your third year you'll feel awful and those two years where you have worked so hard will be for nothing. I assume this year is your last? If it is explain everything to your tutors and see if you can postpone graduating until November at least that way it gives you a few extra months to catch up on all your essays etc.

Also a big incentive to finsih your degree must be that once you graduate you should hopefully get a better paid job and be DF even sooner

M_o_3 (who misses her home county of Cornwall badly)

Thanks for your encouragement - I have been doing a part-time Foundation Degree for the past two years - yes, this is my third year - I will need to do another 2 or 3 years part time to get a BSc. I did an Access course before that - so I have been studying for four years whilst working full-time. The first two years were relatively easy, the second year a bit more challenging, but this year I just haven't had the time to read enough to do the course justice and am falling further and futher behind. I am considering leaving with an HNC - then maybe doing OU to top it up gradually. I am not optimstic about a degree being a passport to a better paid job. I am 53 yrs old and I have not noticed any openings locally at least. I currently have an opportunity to apply for a deputy manager's post at work (I work in a residential care home for adults with learning disabilities) and in my heart, I really don't want to do it. What with the other stuff going on in my life at the moment, I just don't think I can sustain the pressure of all these things I am trying to do. I know that probably sounds defeatist - but I kind of feel I need to look after myself - and that taking the pressure off myself to achieve, achieve all the time seems the right thing to do. I could then just (!) work full-time, spend time with my friends, do the voluntary work I enjoy, maybe go swimming, do yoga - feel happy?:o

bountiful

keren29 wrote: »

i
I'm not doing very well..........:o .........although I know my weakness - just 'popping' to the supermarket......:rolleyes:

I know that one! Since taking on my DFW habits I have now developed a weakness for BOGOFS and price-reduced items!

:rolleyes:

bountiful

Just tried to listen to son telling me about how he is managing his debts - two cameras on HP he has been paying off for ages + missed payments and charges etc - a stupid Credit Card with Capital One for a ridiculously high % because his credit rating is so bad, and a student loan up to the hilt and a student overdraft up to the hilt. He is so confident that he's managing it all OK - seems a total mess to me.
For my part - I'm screaming internally - I have to pay £625 rent, £625 deposit and £117.50 fees on Monday when I sign the tenancy agreement on new flat. I have £260 in the bank, £400 overdraft facility on new Alliance & Leicester account, a new credit card with £1500 limit (which I got to transfer my Post Office credit card balance to for 0% for 9 months) ....landlord can't pay the deposit back until I leave on 5 March - don't get paid until 29th Feb. I was trying to see the best way to move money around to incur the least cost - because seems like I will have to draw cash out of the new credit card for the £700 quid I need on top of the £660 available in A&L. And cash withdrawals are NOT 0% in fact they are more expensive than my old credit card rate for cash withdrawals. :mad: I did wonder if I could transfer money from new credit card to Paypal and then from Paypal to my current account, which would mean that ? credit card transaction would be a purchase and attract 0% - but PayPal charge for making a deposit from a credit card, and I can't work out if it would be cheaper to do that, or just draw cash from the ATM with the credit card. I have already damaged my credit rating by using my credit card for cash in the past - I spoke to them and they said that they could see I'd been withdrawing cash (when I moved house last time) and that in their experience people who use credit cards to withdraw cash are pretty desperate (how right they are!) See - my head's in a right state. Over and out.....

bountiful

My signature is wishful thinking - must amend it. My credit card is still with the Post Office at 14.9% and my overdraft is still with the Halifax at 15.9% - neither of them have been moved yet.......

Seaxwyn

Oh poor you, what a tough situation having to come up with that money from nowhere. Could you ask Halifax to extend your overdraft for this short period until you get paid and get your deposit back? OR can you transfer the balance from the PO card to the Halifax and then use the old card to draw the cash? It sounds very tricky and I wish I could see a solution.

I think you should go with your gut feeling about the job. If you don't want the extra responsibility and stress, don't apply. It may well come up again at a better time. I've made a similar decision myself - we'd be much better off if I got a well paid full-time job, but I don't want the stress so I persist in working as a jobbing freelancer, which has lots of financial uncertainty but allows me time and freedom to work around my family, obsess about my debts etc etc.

bountiful

Oh thanks Seaxwyn! it was really great to read your message.:T
Things have shifted today - and posting on here helps that process I think.
I went into university today with all my library books determined to chuck it all in - felt quite tearful. Luckily (?) a friend I call my 'study buddy' was in today and took the time to listen to me - basically helped me get it all in perspective, work out an action plan and move forward. So grateful to her for that!
And she echoed your sentiments about the job thing. She went for a promotion to a senior support worker last year, and says it was a mistake to do it at the same time as studying (and she's young and single) - and reckoned it would be better to wait until I felt ready to take on the challenge. So - what with that, and what you wrote, I feel better about not applying.
Finally, the money thing sorted itself out without my help: I phoned Halifax to activate my new card and was told that they had already transferred £1400 to the Post Office card (I didn't know they were going to do it - I must have ticked a box somewhere!). So - although I am not reducing my debt right at this moment - there is £1400 available on the Post Office card which charges less for cash withdrawals than the Halifax. I will draw out as little as possible and pay it back as quickly as possible - to minimize the damage.
Phew - there was a big full moon last night - perhaps that's why I was feeling so desperate?
Thanks for your support and encouragement.;)
News just coming in....... have earned another £1 on Lightspeed somehow - so that's another £1 to PayPal.

Seaxwyn

Great, I'm so pleased to hear that all those decisions got made and without further angst. There will be plenty more job opportunities at other times, so no need to regret letting that one go. Onwards and upwards!

bountiful

:AYeah, you are so right.... I told my manager that I was not going to apply at the moment and she said "what a shame" and offered to give me bits of training to help me gather skills in preparation for applying in the future - she also agreed that the first three months of the new job would have been a very steep learning curve which would coincide with a really pressured three months at college - so - phew - that one's off my back.

:mad:Came home last night to a bill from South West Water for £152.49 - I seem to have lost my right to pay by installments. My breathing became much harder and the skin on my face kind of fell another few degrees earthwards. Went to bed and put the duvet over my head. Woke up this morning and just paid it out of my Alliance & Leicester current account - I am going to have to settle all the bills when I move at end of month anyway - and I am going to have to use the credit card to pay my moving in costs - so - pointless to stress myself even more about trying to avoid it.

:eek::eek:I bought myself some Kalms! I am feeling SO stressed. Anyway - have my lists - packing boxes, doing change of address notifications.

Off to work at 5pm for a sleep-in and sweet, sweet friend is picking me up at 1pm tomorrow and treating me to lunch - before I navigate for her across Cornwall where she is giving a buddhist study lecture.

:jMy brother sent me a picture of a scan showing my soon-to-be great nephew! First 'great' for me! It's a pivotal time for me in many ways!

:oThis forum is so so supportive - no-one else could really be bothered to read about these minutiae and anxieties - it's stuff we have all (mostly) got going on, and just don't really talk about, do we? xxxx

beanielou

What kind of buddhism does your friend practise do u know?
Is it Nichirin Diashonin?
Enjoy the lunch.
I find Kalms are good!