Update (sort of)

This is a very brief update as I don't have the current figures for Credit Card No. 2, so I will have to update again this evening if I get the time. Still I am very please the total is now below the £8k mark once again and my networth chart is once again heading in the correct direction.
With only two bills to clear it is starting to feel like the end is near! This time next month (G-D willing) I shall be doing the happy dance!
I will increase my payment for Credit Card No. 2 by £25.00 per month and pay all the rest into Credit Card No.1 which should put the two cards neck in neck i.e. balances will be very much the same.
So hoping next month to have my total debit down to £6237.64 which will be the lowest it has been in over ten years.

I will be debt free!

Getting Better All The Time

If you have been following my £5 a day plan you will know that last week I was only using the £15 I had left over from the week before and on Sunday evening I still had £6.68 in my purse. So I really have gotten this £5 a day "sorted" (as they say up here).
Currently I am waiting for my pay cheque to clear before updating my current debt level but it will be under £8K, so it's all good!!
One confession I do have to make is that I spent £48.81 on my paid off credit card - I was buying some Opera DVDs (for my Mum not for moi) and lots of online sites will just not accept debit cards. Happily I have since paid the card in full so will not occur any interest etc. (i.e. didn't break my rule of increasing my debit so I got away with that one).
Still haven't decided about changing my currant accounts - they make such a big deal about them here in the UK and they were not easy for me to get either so that too makes me a little wiry of changing them. Should I change to a building society or not? I've looked at possibly joining a credit union but have found them to be a too unknown quantity for my liking.
I need to spend some time just reading up the blogs I have been following but of late just haven't had the time. So don't really know what's going on with everyone else. Hope you are winning your battle with debit!

What Still Remains

This £5 a day deal is really working for me - on Monday morning I still had £15 in my purse from last week and so have decided not to take out any money for this week at all.
I have closed my ISA account as I don't have any saving in it and have made the decision to send all my savings back home (ie. off shore) and have closed my web saver account (the interest on the account had gone to almost nothing). Two reasons to do this is it will stop me spending it and I would have monies in my account back home for when I need to make payments. Am thinking about changing my bank accounts for a building society too.
I have paid off my Flexiloan for the second time in about four months, it's one of those account I find really hard (read that as next to impossible) to close as it is instant access to cash, without the inconvenience of a credit card. This leaves me with only two credit cards again to clear so next month I will be throwing everything at my card with the highest balance and the highest interest rate. I have turned down the offer of a refinancing loan of 9.9% (been there too many times) and am committed to clearing what I have left on my cards asap!

Remembering Africa!!

With interest rates tumbing here in the UK - that 14% African rate looks just too good to be true!

Fun, friendship and uniforms? Well two out of three isn't bad - a Ugandan Compassion project.

These guys are really proud of their home made foot ball and asked me to take this picture of it!

When you think you have it hard - take another look at someone else and then count your blessings! (And when you have done that - look at what you can do to help someone else)

A picture is worth a thousand words isn't it! And helping out one child sounds really great when your at home - when I got to Kenya there were just hundreds who really needed help. Have you thought about sponsoring a child? Why don't you stop thinking about it and just do it!

Winter Wonderland

We've been snowed under in the UK - it's the most snow I have ever seen since I arrive in the UK in 1993. It has brought back lots of memories of living in Chicago and my very first white winter. It has put a stop to my walks around Richmond Park - it would take twice the time at the moment and I really don't want to be breaking an arm or a leg at them moment.
On Monday my bank was closed, I guess the staff just couldn't make it in as there were no buses running and very few trains. (So my pay cheque was banked a day late) As the library is closed on Mondays I had nothing else to do but stop in a cafe for a decaf latte - me and every one else it would seem! All the cafes along the road where heaving! I later heard that the pizza shops were also doing a roaring trade on Monday.
I have been keeping to my £5 a day - some days going a little over and some days going under but either way it balances it's self out.
I have taken up an offer from my bank and transferred the balance of one of my cards to my MasterCard with them at 0% interest for nine months.
This weeks pay cheque is going entirely towards my debt which is a great feeling - OK I am paying today for yesterdays spending but I am clearing the debt which is the good thing and I am not adding to it, as I used to.
By the end of the month I should be down to only two credit cards to clear and I should be able to reduce one of them by at lest £1600 in March. Three payments like that and I should be able to clear it. But till then I am looking forward to getting below the £7k mark!