October (what happened to September?)

Well it sure has been awhile and I have been switching jobs and have been all over the UK. I didn't blog in September as I didn't have any of my paperwork to workout where I was up to. Infact I thought I had lost monies or spent way more than I was aware of because I had to pay my (reduced) payment to the Inland Revenue from my Flexiloan account. I had to reduce the payment from £1000. to £740. as my jobs have been only 6 day a week. I only own the IR about £500. now and then that is all cleared until the end of next January. But I am now budgeting to have the monies set aside each week to pay for my income tax.

The missing monies were not lost but rather I was not counting the last week of September - so all is well. I can clear the IR bill in full at the end of next week and really get my teeth into my Credit Cards and Loan accounts.

I have applied for a Northern Rock loan at 7.9% to replace my Flexiloan(14.8%) and clear one of my Credit Cards (19.9%). It seems a good deal - I can make overpayments and pay it off early if I want without paying any penalties. Well I think it is a good deal, they can only say no and I don't think my credit worthness can be any worst at the present.

Currently my total debt is under £16,000 and by the end of the month it will be just over £14,000 so I think I am doing well. In fact I haven't spent any monies for about a week now as my overdraft is at it's limit. And I feel really good about it. My problem is I have been increasing my debt without really being aware I was doing it. But hopefully I have seen the folly of my way.

I am taking up the 10-10-80 philosophy and have rewritten my budget but will have to work out a new DFD. More about that in my next post.

August Update...

(I have been having problems getting back on this site hence my delayed update)
Well, new job and new address and new monthly debit payment amount - and it is lower than June and July by about £300.00. Because of this I have had to contact the Inland Revenue and reduce the monthly payment of £1000.00 that I had arranged with them, to £740.00. This means that I don't clear my IR debt until October.
In the mean time I have applied for and receive a Barclaycard (my first) but they would only give me a credit limited of £850.00 and when I phone them and asked if I could do a balance transfer this dropped to only £775.00. As my HSBC Mastercard has shot the interest rate up to 19.9% I felt any reduction in the balance was a good thing. The Barclaycard is 0.00% for 14 months.
So to date my total debt now stands at £16768.78 aprox. This doesn't include all my payments for this month. Will have to do a final total at the end of the month.
Because of my new job I have be clocking up a debit balance on my current overdraft which is not good. It stands at about £150.00 at the present. I will really have to monitor this one.
I am looking at a DFD in late September/October, I haven't include my Tax for 07/08 which will start to become due in January 08.

July and Taxes and the online service

At the end of May my debts totalled £18912.57 and at the end of June they totalled £17197.29. Down by £1715.28 which is great but I now see the interest I am paying out and it really hurts, as I have such a small monthly spending allowance. My interest is over £150.00 a month. It is no wonder the banks love to give credit. I pay most of my interest to the bank which has given me the two loans and a credit card.

I have had some other good news this month in that I have gotten back six months worth of charges from Creditexpert (an online credit info company). It's only just over £35.00 but that's better than a slap with a wet fish.

I decide to get online with my Taxes for 06/07 and do my tax return online, something I had done in the past. Got it set up again - the online help service desk staff are very good. But my computer is on dial-up and sooooooo sloooowww... and finally the page would change. It took about an hour to get the self employment tax return done - I didn't have very much to fill in, so had to keep waiting for pages to change. Well it is now done. But I think something has gone wrong somewhere. I had hope in doing my tax returns now, to have lowered what I currently own the taxman. But this doesn't seem to be the case at all.

The Tax Man (and I know that more women work for the inland revenue than men but my guy is THE taxman) had sent me letter outlining my arrears with the revenue, and the balance, after payments I had since made was £3612.45(this is the tax for the whole year). As my income for the year 06/07 not as high as the previous year my tax payment should have been less by about £600.00 but to my horror my arrears balance is now to be debited for £4550.85 at the end of the month and my current arrears is now £1779.00, so the final end of July balance will be £6329.85. Hells teeth! Last year my total tax bill was only £3680.00 and I had declared a larger income than 06/07 tax year. So there is a problem here which needs to be fixed. Or it will make my end of month balance for July look like I haven't started to clear my debt. The online service is all very well but what happens when it screws up??

I have yet to be paid for the last two weeks and only have one more week to go at my current job - hopefully I can get my next job quickly and get two more weeks in on this month. That will get me two weeks ahead on my budget and keep me in the black on my accounts.

I hope at the end of the month I feel I am getting somewhere like I did at the end of June.

Start date...

It's June and summer is sometimes almost here!

And after ten years in debt - I have decide to take the bull by the horns and get my finances in order.

Yep, ten years in debt and I have a little pile of cash books to prove it. The problem is the debt have been hovering for years just below the ten thousand pound mark but has jumped recently to just below the twenty thousand pound mark. That was quite a shock I can tell you - and to think that I could get that much credit is madness.

So this is probably the tenth time I have have really tried to get my finances into order but hopefully the time that I do.

Of my debt about £3500.00 is Taxes which I need to get cleared up asap, the taxman is not a nice guy to owe monies too, so I am hoping to make payments of between £700-£1000.00 monthly payments until it is gone. And then use that money to start clearing my two credit cards and then hit my two loans.

I am self employed and so it can be a little iffy with just how much I will be earning each month but am hoping to clear at lest £1500.00 (remember that is before tax). I am working on the principal that once I have cleared my debts I can set monies aside to pay my Taxes as soon as they become due.

My credit cards are gone - yes I have cut them up a few weeks ago telling myself that there was really no reason for them to take up space in my purse if I was not planning to use them again. It is funny how attracted you can get to something that is bad for you - it is called habitual behaviour and I had to end the relationship with my credit cards. They have left me with £6000.00 in debt.

The other culprits are my loan's - yes not one but two, and the second is a Flexiloan. How much fun is that!!!! Together they make the other half of my total debt being £4000.00 and £6000.00 respectfully.

Unlike many I don't have a mortgage and all my debt is unsecured - well I don't have anything you could secure it too. I have been basically homeless for the last seven years and stay with friends when I am not working. When working my job provides me with accommodation and meals, so it is aways pointless to share a flat and anyway I have always be trying to clear me debts.

Sorry if this is getting a bit long in the tooth now and the spelling is probably terrible (sorry dyslexic) but this the background of me - and what I want to be is debt free by October 2008.....................................

watch this space and I will try and keep you up to date with getting into the BLACK............