My debt-free diary

jellybean08

well done you. i know what it feels like when everything just goes arghhhhh and you wanna just curl up in a ball but it's best to tackle it head on. it's good you spoke to your boyf, the extra support will help you through. just take it one debt at a time if that's easier, and watch the spending!!
:j

laura2481

Better day today! Had a nice surprise at work was- given £110 of Capital Bond vouchers as a bonus from a supplier which can be used at lots of places like HMV, Boots, Debenhams etc so £100 is going towards Xmas presents, and I'm keeping £10 for myself (I have my eye on a money box from Boots that adds up your money as you put it in. Sad I know!) Had our first 'Financial Friday' meeting where I talked through my finances (I think he was quite surprised at how much it all added up to!) We also made some plans for cutting over-all costs, like reducing our heating bills and stuff. So, all in all, think we made some progress today!

laura2481

Today I will be sorting out all the stuff w eput on my to do list on Friday- I will post later what I have managed to do!

laura2481

Debt in march: £5865
Debt now: £6809.

That means i have overspent by £118 every month to add on that extra grand. stupid stupid stupid.

laura2481

Had quite a good 'money saving' day today.

1. As it was my day off I didn't need to spend any money
2. I sent off from free energy saving light bulbs from my electricity company
3. I switched some money from my Barclaycard to my HSBC card because the interest is about 10% less
4. I set up paperless billing on my Virgin account which means I can keep an eye on them and save £1 per month
5. We changed our home phone as the one we had needed to be plugged into the mains all the time so was eating electricity for no real reason! My BF swiped a broken phone from work, they were throwing it out because it won't transfer calls to other lines, but we don't have any other lines!
6. Worked out a spreadsheet showing incomings and outgoings. If everything works out I could be out of my overdraft by February, this is including extra expenditure over Christmas!
7. Listed several items on Ebay, one has a bid already so will sell and another has 2 watchers so I'm hopeful!

So a productive day overall! All little things, but I'm hopeful that it will soon add up!

laura2481

Everything is still going well, £3 left out of this week's budget to last until tomorrow!

laura2481

Halifax frustrate me soo much. About two weeks ago I asked them to increase my credit limit so that I could transfer my Barclaycard balance and get everything together but they sent me a snooty e-mail saying that they review their credit limits every six months and they will increase my limit then if they feel like it. Basically.

Today, I have found out that they have just increased my limit from £2500 to £3350. Which is exactly what I asked them to do 2 weeks ago. Why didn't they just do it then!!!! Grrrrr

Anyway, at least it means I can transfer the £687 off my Barclaycard, onto my Halifax and then I've just got 2 cards, and 2 payments. Gonna claim back some charges off Barclaycard too. I feel a little easier doing it when I don't owe THEM anything!

laura2481

It's about 8% less interest on the Halifax card compared to the Barclaycard. It's also the card I've had the most 'glitches' on, like withdrawing cash so I have a 27% APR on some of the balance of that. I'll be glad to get rid of it!! :j

laura2481

:mad: Finally started sorting out my credit cards, transfered £220 from Barclaycard to HSBC card, carefully worked out that if it was +2.5% transfer fee I was still within my credit limit. Got a letter today saying £36 over limit. I forgot to take interest into account and the woman on the phone never said anything.:mad:

Why is it all so hard?! You have to be some kind of financial genius to get through the maze of the financial world, and I'm obviously NOT a finacial genius!

Anyway, paid the £36 and have now transfered the remainder of my Barclaycard balance to my Halifax card, and £100 from HSBC to Halifax so that I'm not flying close to my limit on either card, so it shouldn't happen again!

On the up side, i can now get rid of my Barclaycard :T

laura2481

New credit card SOA

HSBC CC

• limit: £3000
• balance: £2897
• interest: 15.9%
• transfer rate: 15.9%, 2.5% fee

Halifax CC

• limit: £3350
• balance: £3096.35
• interest: 16.94%
• transfer rate:16.94%, 2.5% fee