Our road to recovery-Part 2

lucielle

Its all going in the right direction.
L

ltm07

Thanks Lucielle, just when I thought we were getting somewhere, I checked our interest rate on our OD with Halifax & was astounded to see it had increased from 13.35% to 19.5%:eek:. Done a bit of shifting around by transferring £1300 from Abbey & Nationwide ODs & another £2900 from Mint into Halifax account. It has put our DFD back another 5 years(it isn't quite as bad as new sig because there are still transactions going from one bank to another but even so it is way too far away & we are fed up of this now, so it's definately time to knuckle down). In past posts, as some of you may have read, I have had this 'knocked over by a bus tomorrow attitude' largely due to friends & friends of friends being very ill or passing away very young but I have to snap out of it. Yes life is short & we shouldn't let ourselves be dragged down by debt 24/7 but at the same time we should make the best of life & the best of life isn't grafting all week to pay so much of our hard earned cash out that it barely leaves us with anything to save or to buy things we need or want. The debts are our own fault so we can't feel sorry for ourselves, just angry & p1ssed off that we let ourselves get into this situation:rolleyes: ! I have said in a previous post that I have found my old self in going out for beers with pals, to the footy game etc. & I have enjoyed myself, but at the same time I know that I can't & won't fall into old habits ofs pending £50-£60 on a regular basis, just to feel like !!!!!! the day after & finding that I can't afford other things cos I have spent most of my cash on booze. So it is time to really start sledgehammering these debts. So I will be finding myself a couple of hours a week to pick up as many tips as possible from Martin & you good people,cos it is time to put the gloves on & fight these debts big time IYKWIM. Thanks for reading & all the best to you all!!

ltm07

Well having a quiet Saturday indoors for a change from the past few weeks(mind you the weather here doesn't really encourage me to venture far:rolleyes: . To be honest though quite enjoying chilling out with a one or two(or 3 or 4) cans. OH on nights & we're having a bit of a family gathering tomorrow for DDs birthday. Spent £165 yesterday at Sainsburys on food for party & other food for the week:eek: ! I know that we should have gone to Aldi & we do like Aldi, but we do our best to buy the foods,drinks etc. that undercut Aldi a little & also use our Nectar cards & have a 5p a litre off petrol, so we do recuperate a few quid through these. Stepped up a gear regarding overtime & I am getting back into the swing of it IYKWIM & am more focussed on smashing these debts than ever. Don't like doing too many hours at work but at the same time I don't like being in this much debt, so there's going to be no more moping around & moaning about these debts, we are going to work as hard as we can, that way we can have a few extras, whilst at the same time, chipping away at the debts as much as we can. Applied for new 6.9% LOB BT CC & find out in the next 7-10 days whether we have been accepted. Thanks for reading & all the best!!

lucielle

Hope you get as much overtime as you want.
L

ltm07

Thanks Lucielle! I am quite lucky in the respect that there is still plenty of overtime on offer at our place, especially as they were looking at every way possible to cut it down. Worked there for 11 years now & there has always been plenty of overtime. I go through phases where I do loads of overtime & then phases when I do not so much & in the past none at all, but I know that I have to do some just to keep us afloat. Had a day off today which I could have worked as overtime but OH wanted me to take the day off, as we had a party for DD's birthday yesterday & her birthday is today & OH quite rightly said that it would be nice for me see her open presents. I will be able to hopefully recuperate the £60 odd that I've 'lost' by not working today through overtime through the rest of the week & then it really is time to step up & earn as much as I can. The good thing is I do know when it starts to get too much & then I slow down again. Going to be a hard slog this month for us, but by us both doing extra hours we can hopefully still manage to pay a little off, or at least cushion the blow if we do add anythng to our debts! Thanks for reading!

lucielle

I think take it while you can. Good on you for having a day off with OH
L

debtdesperado

Hey LTM07

Thank you for your diary.. it's really interesting to read your journey and its ups and downs!

Just a thought, and not sure this might work (if anyone else can think of a flaw in it then please say) but with the money you have saved for the wedding and the money promised by your mother in law, is there any way that you could do your own 'balance transfer', by using the wedding money to pay off a high interest debt and then transferring the amount that you would have paid each month towards the debt back to the wedding account?

That way you would save the interest that you would be paying between now and the wedding? Not sure if you have enough time until the wedding to resave the initial amount though?

ltm07

Thanks debtdesperado! We would do that & it is probably the sensible option but we like to keep all ur wedding savings into a separate account so we know exactly how much we have & that money can only be used for the wedding IYKWIM. Had some cheques sent through the post from Citicard, with whom we lost our LOB rate with through me forgetting a payment:mad: ! Offering 5.9% til next May with a 3% fee. This will help us clear our overdraft,if we are accepted for the BT CC, til next May at least, so our highest APR will then be 15.9%, rather than 19.5%. Thanks for reading & for your advise.

ltm07

Well not been on for a a few days but hopefully things are looking up. Managed to get 19.5% OD down to £1,000, £300 of which is 0%. Going to have to look into getting another 0% CC soon as our Natwest one runs out soon. As everything stands though our DFD is now down to September 2016 so very pleased with that, especially with the monthly payments being set at £255. We have set our target at February 2018 as there will be months when we manage to pay loads off & other months wherewe may not be able to pay much off at all, but hopefully we can advance further & continue to bring our DFD closer. Still doing overtime, but nearly turned it down today,as I was just feeling tired. Glad I agreed to do it in the end as it is another tenner in the bank for us. Also we did a long overdue shop at Aldi last night & got a week's worth of food shopping for less than £40 so pleased with that too! Thanks for reading & all the best!

ltm07

Hi all! Well not been posting as often but still lurking alot! We were refused forthe 5.9%CC but have nearly managed to clear our 19.5% overdraft. Going to look into applying for a 0% card in a few weeks before the promotional period runs out on one of our cards. Been an expensive month, but hopefully will have knocked a couple of hundred quid off by the end of the month, thanks for reading & will update everything on Friday!