One Step At A Time - My DFW Diary

EmptyPurse

Verbatim wrote: »

Oh shucks EP,

Sorry to hear that. When do you get the expenses from work? can you get them to cover the interest or at least pay up front in future so you don't have future interest charges on account of work?

</p>
I got the expenses from work last month but of course I spent that on other stuff because my spending was out of control. And I just buried my head in the sand and 'forgot' that they'd show up on the credit card. How bloody stupid is that???

Not made a lot of progress on my DFW journey in the last couple of days. I'm embarrassed at how much I spent on the dress for the wedding yesterday; the only bright spot in the darkness is that I was sensible enough to pick something that goes with accessories I've already got so I don't need to buy new shoes/hat/handbag/pashmina etc. I also managed not to go overboard when I bought the present; I'd have liked to spend more but figured that they're not close friends so would have to make do with a 'moderate' choice from the list. Normally I'd spend quite a bit more just to show how generous I am.........silly, I know!

EmptyPurse

Right, I've got a few decisions to make. I've been approved for a new credit card that has a much lower interest rate than two of my current cards. Trouble is that I'd hoped they'd give me a higher limit than I've been offered. I don't know why the limit's fairly low - my credit rating is excellent despite my debts and my other cards have much higher limits. I rang up the new issuer last night to check whether they'd given me a low limit because of my current debts; I thought if I explained that I wanted to do a straight transfer and actually cancel one of the other cards they'd be happy to match the limit on one of my current cards. But it seems they're happier for me to stick with the low limit, do a partial transfer and keep the other card open rather than what I wanted. It doesn't make sense to me as I'll actually have more credit (and therefore more potential for getting into more debt) by doing what they want, but never mind.

The original plan had been to transfer all of the money from CC1 to the new card as CC1 has the highest interest rate (22%). But now that I can't do that I'm thinking about transferring the money from CC3 instead. If I transferred the money from CC3 and used the very last of my savings to pay off a bit more of the debt on CC3 I'd only have an outstanding balance of £1,000. CC3 often does low balance transfer offers so I could then transfer virtually all of CC1 onto CC3 at a lower rate in a couple of months' time.

That all sounds horribly complicated but I think it might be the best plan of action. Can anyone see any flaws here? Have I missed anything obvious?

Verbatim

Have you put the figs into the snowball calculator? I think it's at "what's the cost". The usual advice is to attack the highest interest card first as that is what gets the debt paid off most quickly, and pay minimum payments on the rest until that's gone and then throw everything spare after minimum payments at the next highest and so on until they're all gone. I would have thought you'd be better to get rid of as much of the highest rate onto the new card and pay as much of the rest of cc1 from your savings as you can and concentrate on finishing cc1. Someone else might have a better idea though.

It sounds as if you really need to cut up or freeze all your credit cards tho' as while you're still spending on them you'll never make much progress. make sure you cut up the new one! :money:

Starlett

Hi,

On the credit card front... don't know if it's a help, but I've cut up the ones that are ridiculously high and out the other one with the lower rate is in a sealed envelope in a box on top of my wardrobe, stupid I know. and I've left sticky notes all over it reminding myself not to use it! But it means that if the world tumbles down I can use it! Good news though, I've not actually spent a penny on it since I re-homed it from my purse!! I now get work to pay my expenses up front to save the interest and for me it's working!

On the wedding outfit thing... any friends/family the same size as you with something you could borrow? A bottle of wine to say thanks is way cheaper!

And hey... keep your chin up... you'll get there, stick with it!

Starlett

EmptyPurse

Yup, the credit cards are definitely being cut up as soon as I hit payday (nine days' time). Between now and then I've got one card that I am only going to use for totally unavoidable expenditure because I haven't got things properly sorted out yet.

Had another disaster this morning Went to pay for something on one of my debit cards and the card was declined. Luckily I had another card with me. But I was completely puzzled as I've been keeping a *very* close eye on things lately. When I checked my bank account online it turns out that some stupid website has just debited me for a yearly subscription for the grand sum of £80. I'd completely forgotten that I'd signed up on a special offer this time last year and had no idea that they still had my card details.

On top of that my boss got me to pay for a work lunch yesterday which I wasn't expecting; I only had my debit card with me so that's come out of my bank account as well. I could have coped with one or the other unexpected expense but not both. Now I've only got £1 in my account to last me until payday. Oh c**p.

EmptyPurse

Another payday approaches and yup, you've guessed it, I've had a complete disaster of a month financially. I just don't seem to be able to stick to my budget for more than a few days each month

But right now I'm sitting here in total amazement at the 'financial advice' give their customers. I popped into my bank at lunchtime to sign some paperwork for a new 0% CC (don't worry - it's for a balance transfer, not spending!!!). The woman on the desk talked me into having a 'financial review' - boy does she need to visit MSE fast Basically she went through my monthly expenses and drew up a "budget". She forgot to include anything for travel to/from work and didn't factor in annual spends - just my monthly direct debits. Then she tried to convince me that a consolidation loan would "save me money" by showing me the monthly repayment sum, conveniently ignoring the £3k+ in interest I'd be paying over the life of the loan. :eek:

Somehow I don't think I'll be taking out that loan when she rings on Thursday to 'follow up' our meeting....

Verbatim

EmptyPurse wrote: »

Another payday approaches and yup, you've guessed it, I've had a complete disaster of a month financially. I just don't seem to be able to stick to my budget for more than a few days each month

But right now I'm sitting here in total amazement at the 'financial advice' give their customers. I popped into my bank at lunchtime to sign some paperwork for a new 0% CC (don't worry - it's for a balance transfer, not spending!!!). The woman on the desk talked me into having a 'financial review' - boy does she need to visit MSE fast Basically she went through my monthly expenses and drew up a "budget". She forgot to include anything for travel to/from work and didn't factor in annual spends - just my monthly direct debits. Then she tried to convince me that a consolidation loan would "save me money" by showing me the monthly repayment sum, conveniently ignoring the £3k+ in interest I'd be paying over the life of the loan. :eek:

Somehow I don't think I'll be taking out that loan when she rings on Thursday to 'follow up' our meeting....

Well done EP.

Hope you have more success this month. Scary stuff work expecting you to pay for a lunch though. have they paid you back yet? It's a bit much to expect this when you're struggling. can you tell them it's not on or would that be difficult?

EmptyPurse

Verbatim wrote: »

Well done EP.

Hope you have more success this month. Scary stuff work expecting you to pay for a lunch though. have they paid you back yet? It's a bit much to expect this when you're struggling. can you tell them it's not on or would that be difficult?

It's really hard to say 'no' to work as they have no idea about my personal finances (and I don't want them to, either!). Thankfully I got the money back for the lunch fairly quickly. But I've got to go away on three work trips in September/October and will have to pay for my expenses out of my own pocket, which is going to be a complete nightmare - I think I'll end up having to put around £600-£800 on a credit card. Ho hum. Meanwhile it's pay day tomorrow and I'm absolutely *determined* to get a grip on my spending this month.....

EmptyPurse

Going back to my mini rant about the bank earlier this afternoon, why is it that the bank really "cares" about "helping" me to reduce my debt and are prepared to lend me £xxx as an unsecured loan at a vastly inflated interest rate but will only give me less than a third of that as a credit card with a 0% interest rate for balance transfers? If they really cared they'd be keen to get more of my debts onto the 0% deal rather than giving me a loan. Wonder if it's something to do with the fact that they'd make more money out of the loan :-) Me, cynical about banks? Never :-)

EmptyPurse

Oh boy. Two months later and I've made no progress whatsoever. I've just been burying my head in the sand.

I really don't know what's wrong with me. I love the idea of being in control of my finances and getting to the stage where I'm saving/investing instead of paying off cards but I just don't seem to be able to stick to things on a day-to-day basis. Ho hum.

Still, I seem to have got over the worst of the depression so I'm going to have another go at debt busting. Things I need to do today/tomorrow:

- Talk to the Tax Office about my tax coding (I might be on Basic Rate/Week 1, even though I've been here for over a year. Hope I don't owe them any money!)
- Update my accounts on MS Money
- Transfer the last of my savings (£250) from my ISA to pay off some of my overdraft
- Rewrite my monthly budget
- Think about possible savings on bills etc

Any thoughts/advice/useful tips gratefully appreciated, as always