My debt-free diary

laura2481

Hi
This is my diary of how I am going to get myself out of debt.

First things first- I need to find out exactly how much I owe and who to. I think it is around £5000 but may be closer to £6000. (the £5000 may be wishful thinking!)

I have 4 credit cards and i don't even know what the interest rate is on any of them (except 1 which is 0%!)

I also owe my boyfriend some money. In fact i borrow money of my boyfriend quite regularly as he seems to be really good with money and able to save lots while i seem to be really talented at spending money!

My first goal is to figure out how much i owe which i will do on Sunday!

thepinklady

Hello Sarah - welcome to the forum. This place is sooo good and everybody is so friendly and has lots of good advice.

Once you have worked out how much you owe why not put together a SOA (statement of affairs) and i'm sure plenty of friendly users will be able to give you advice.

Look forward to reading your diary.

Good luck

Hayleyx

tylersbabe

hi Laura2481

you have come to the right place everyone here is reallly helpful

You sound like I was (and still am to some extent) I had no idea what |i owed or where!

Good luck with your journey and post your SOA (when you work it out) there are loads of people on here with great knowledge who will help

laura2481

Thanks for friendly replies.
I am absolutely dead set on sorting out how much i owe, although i think i might get a bit stressed out! I've always been a bit of a 'head in the sand' kind of girl!
I've also been sorting out things to sell on ebay, got a few odds and ends that should make a few £'s. although i will probably have to wait until after i get paid in order to cover the ebay fees and postage! lol
Well, that;s it for now. I will post again tomorrow with my SOA. hope it won't be too scary! :rolleyes:

laura2481

Well, it's D-Day!
I am absolutely gonna figure out how much i owe and gonna put a plan together on what i'm gonna do about it! Even all the little bits and pieces i owe my BF. (adds up to quite a bit i think! ) I just gotta get up the nerve to go upstairs and start sorting through my paperwork. Not looking forward to this at all.
:eek:
Well, I will post my SOA later. And maybe some of my plan to sort it out!

laura2481

Well, i did it. i got organised! and this is what i've come up with.

• Current monthly income £1132 after taxes and student loan is taken off.
• Current outgoings for mortagage, insurances, bills,travel etc £952
• This leaves me £180 to live on for stuff like clothes and going out etc
  

So it's not as dire as i thought it would be. AS LONG AS I STICK TO MY BUDGET!! (Duh!)

I've also added up where all my debts are. Now i haven't included my mortgage and my student loan as they are not a problem. My mortgage is always paid and i don't even notice my student loan as it just comes straight out of my wage.

Debts currently are:

• Barclaycard: £977
• HSBC Gold Card: £2275
• Halifax CC: £1564
• Overdraft: £200
• BF: £230
• Loan: £?????: I pay £48 month
  Total £5246+?

Again, not as bad as thought, so i feel a little more cheerful. I thought that it would be a lot nearer to £6000 before taking into account the loan that i have that i'm not sure how much is left to pay. I think there is around a £1000 left. I'm gonna have to speak to the bank. I just HATE banks. lol

Well, the next stage is formulating a plan to sort this out! I would ideally like to get as much cleared by next year as possible as we will be renewing our mortgage next year and i think i'm gonna need to have a little extra money available in order to cover the interest rate rises :eek:

elantan

good plans ...loving the colour changes ...i've only just learned how to quote someone lol

Numpty_Monkey

Well done on getting organised,:T it took me a while to work out the full extent of my debts,

sidnee

Good news, a productive Sunday in my book! Well done!

Two things:

1. Your credit cards - can you detail the APR's, min payments etc?

2. It would be useful to see a breakdown of all your outgoings (the £952) to see if we can increase your disposable income further ... a good thing is to get a second opinion on a detailed SOA, where other savings could be made - especially if your mortgage payments are to rise!

laura2481

Any amount's in purple are half of the total monthly bill as my BF pays the other half. All the green ones are just mine.

Income:
£1132
Outgoings:
Mortgage: £227
Insurances(life, buildings, contents) £35.50
Elec £8
Gas £9.50
water £11
TV £6
Food £70
Homeserve boiler Ins £3
Petplan Ins £5.50
Council Tax £39.50
TV/phone/broadband(virgin) £15
Savings £66
Barclaycard £21
HSBC CC£50
Halifax CC £30
Loan £47.94
Bus travel £36
Contact Lenses £20
phone £20
ABDO registration £26 (essential-i can't work without it)
Total outgoings: £746.94 (less than i originally thought, i must have done my maths wrong!)

that means i could have £200 for living expenses and have money left over to pay off credit cards

laura2481

This is all the info i have on my credit cards:

Barclaycard

• Limit:£950
• balance: £977.16
• interest: 24.9% purchases, 27.9% cash. i was naughty and used this one for cash advances too.
• transfer reate: not allowed (unsurprising really)

Capital One

• limit: £4000
• balance: £0:j
• interest: 24.09%
• transfer rate: 24.09%, 3%fee

HSBC CC

• limit: £3000
• balance: £2275
• interest: 15.9%
• transfer rate: 15.9%, 2.5% fee

Halifax CC

• limit: £1600
• balance: £1564
• interest: 0% until 6.4.08
  16.94% after
• transfer rate: 0% until 6.4.08
  16.94% after

I rang credit card 2 and tried to get them to drop the rate so i could get most of it all together but they were not playing ball. i even threatened to leave but they weren't really bothered. :rolleyes: