My Debt Diary

Boggles1234

It does mean something similar to that Mabel!

Today I was having a good No Spending Day until I went a bit mad and bought a new stereo on eBay!

Just been and picked it up - a nice Pioneer HiFi with all separate components.

It's not as bad as you think to - it cost me almost NINE whole pounds!

And the DFW in me kicked in by suggesting we go for tea at Harry Ramsdens fish and chips so the parents treated me to feed and paid the petrol to get there and back
get much further. Just

Still waiting for the Halifax 0% CC to arrive before I can get much further. Just having a play with Google so it emails me the day before each payment is due so I can make any overpayments. Everything is set to minimum by direct debit and will make overpayments online as and when according to my snowball calendar thingie.

Boggles1234

Still no post from the Halifax yet. This means I can't actually start putting stuff into the snowball calculator accurately. I am going to make this months overpayment on the OD as that is what I would be doing if the 0% card had arrived so at least I am paying something off a bill.

Just looking at an ISA or high interest savings for my monthly emergency fund so it at least is doing some work for me.

Also trying to change my lifestyle so when debt is cleared i can save the repayment money towards a mortgage. By my working, next May i will just have a loan going out each month which should leave me £500 to chuck in a high interest account. I'll do that 11 months of the year and use 1 month's money to treat myself to a holiday or whatever so i don't resent saving it all and get tempted to dip into it.

Boggles1234

Nothing from the Halifax in todays post so i have set up payments assuming I don;t have halifax card and can then change it when it arrives.

Played with the snowball calculator to work everything out and have set up email reminders for the first round of overpayments.

Snowball Details For May

I created my debt snowball in May, 2008

At that point, I owed a total of £11,881.

By paying off £750 a month, I've managed to pay off £0, and currently owe £11,881.

My debt free date is January, 2010.

Boggles1234

I've managed to get a bit of casual work teaching computing of an evening. Earned £70 so i have just been and paid £65 off my Barclaycard and treated myself to a wrap and slice of cake from the local fancy deli. Hopefully doing some more teaching this coming week.

I've also had a letter from the Halifax containing my new PIN so hopefully the card will arrive this week so i can sort that.

becky_rtw

Hi There Boggles,

Just wanted to put my head in and say that it seems like you're doing great. Keep up the good work! My debts are a lot smaller, but reading your diary has got me motivated to keep going when I was having a bit of a down day. :beer:

Also on your other goals - I think there's a Losing Weight Old Style thread somewhere on the OS board...might be worth a peek in;)

rtw

Boggles1234

Hmmmm......

Just sorted out what DD's are due over the next few days and realised that my overdraft isn't looking as good as I first thought.

I pay wages in every friday so, including tomorrows, OD will stand at -£1500. However, loan, rent and CC payments are due out next week so it will fall to -£2000(ish). However i will be paying back so much a month off the OD (£5 for next 3 months 'til Barclaycard is clear then £200 til OD is clear) so I suppose it will be reducing gradually. I reckon if I update my signature amount on the 1st of every month it will at least stay constant.

On a lighter note, today was a no spend day and tomorrow will be the same as well. (hopefully)

Boggles1234

At last, the Halifax card came through today.

Tonight I intend to switch the Barclaycard and egg balances to that at 0%. Then if I clear the OD, I can clear the Halifax card before the 0% deal runs out.

This will mean ignoring the snowball calculator because I can't get it to cope with a reduced APR for 13 months. It tells me to clear &More first which means the Halifax would take 15 months to clear which wuld push it into the normal interest rate if that makes sense!

I know what I mean!!

Boggles1234

Righto, it's the first of the month so i need to update this properly.

I have transferred my outstanding Barclaycard and Egg balances to the Halifax card. I have paid this months rent, egg loan and car payment. They all actually go tomorrow but are already showing as paid on the online banking jobbie.

Here goes:

Masterloan - £5701.73
Egg Loan - £823.93
Car Loan - £300
&More CC - £1213.34
Halifax CC - £1586.20 (had to calculate BT fee myself pending statement)
OD - £1936.49

Total = £11561.69

Which means that my debt since the start has dropped by £193.41
And the good news is that this wasn't a full month so subsequent months should be higher falls as they will include payments off my Masterloan.

Off now to update my snowball calculator to reflect the balance transfers and so on.

My task for this week is to cut needless spending. Going home for lunch uses too much fuel so i shall take packed lunches and a book to the park opposite work instead. I have plans for this week to go for lunch with a friend mid week which will be £6.99 and that should be all I need to spend between now and Thursday morning. Fingers crossed.

Boggles1234

Taking a packed lunch assumes I am going to remember to get it out of the fridge before I go to work! D'oh!!!

Will try again tomorrow.

Boggles1234

Today I rang the Halifax to set up a DD for the credit card repayments. £140 a month pays it off before the deal runs out. Feels very wrong to be repaying the 0% card off first but it needs to be done.

Also realised I worked out the car loan wrong. I actually only have I more repayment left in July so from 1st August onwards I am going to repay the OD at the rate of £100 per month.

So by my working, next February the egg loan is cleared so that is £100/month to chuck at the &More card. The Halifax CC is cleared next March so that is an extra £100/month to chuck at the OD so I have made myself a little list of when each debt should be cleared as a bit of an incentive:

Car Loan: July 2008
Egg Loan: February 2009
Halifax CC: March 2009
OD: July 2009
&More: December 2009

Obviously this might be revised as I go along but at least I now know what I am aiming for.