March Update

Well I am down to only two credit cards and would like them both gone (forever) by July this year.

The higher interest changing card is going first and currently it stands at £4,560.49. The idea is to throw as much money at it till it is totally gone and to pay £100 a month on the other card until the first is cleared. This monthly payment is more than double the required payment for the month but as the credit card company has reduced the percentage you have to pay each month that doesn't say too much.

With that all under control - the rest of my finances are now very much easier to deal with. I have reduced my monthly expense to under £200 a month and my £5 a day spending plan is keeping me on the straight and narrow when it comes to spending. I now tend to leave my debit card at home and my one and only unchopped credit card is kept well away from my handbag.

I have a few bank accounts scatted about with small amounts in them which I need to sort out as I feel that changed bank accounts are just around the corner here in the UK. I keep getting asked if I want to open a premier account which cost over £5 a month and includes travel insurance etc. but I am not interested. On Monday when I was taking out my weekly spending money the question popped up on the cash machine outside the bank and if you are not careful you could end up with an account by accident.

Trip to Turkey in early May is still on the cards and as yet I haven't worked out the costs so I really must get onto that as it is now March.

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!

Getting Back To Where I Was

Another wet and wintry day in the UK and yet another visit to the library.... and behold lots of empty computers so I shell be able to get my 120 minute quote in full today. I have even brought a packed lunch to save some money!... well really it's because I totally blew my £5 a day budget on Monday when I had lunch with a friend (and of cause I paid), so now I am left with only two £5 notes and some copper to last me until Saturday.
Something good to note is that I have been able to clear my tax bill and so my next pay cheque and all from now on will be going to reduce my debt. Last year I got it down to under £8K which was great but now I need to get it below £7k before I can start to celebrate again.

January Update

Yep, at the library again and my time is almost up so I will have to be very brief.

Tax Owing £1,828.95 To clear this by end of month

Credit Card 1 £4,155.95 minimum payment only /need to reduce the interest on this

Credit Card 2 £3,278.19 minimum payment only

Credit Card 3 £ 670.77 minimum payment only /plan to clear this in Feb

Flexiloan £1,386.74 minimum payment only /plan to pay half of this off in Feb

I didn't have the time to do an update for December and this one looks bad after last year's success at getting the debt down. Like some others who PF blog I find it hard to cancel my credit once I have cleared the account but really need to do this to get out of debt.

"Great news! As a valued customer of XXXXXXXXX, we are pleased to be able to double your credit limit ...... to help you make the most of your card."

Now I know we are in a credit crisis (aka a credit crunch) and here in the UK we are in recession, the banks aren't lending and so credit is tight etc, so how come little ol' me is still being offered credit? When I checked my online banking for another account, I found that I have a special deal loan offer available. It really is all quite mad. I am one of the lucky ones and not effected by the credit crunch (so far anyway). But there is credit around in small amounts I guess.

2009 Goals

The big goal is to get debt free and this is the year!!
My major for the month of January is to pay off my tax payment by the 31st January, so by avoiding any interest chargers. To do this I will only be able to pay minim payments on all my cards etc, but this will all change in February when I should be able to clear my smallest credit card balance and also clear at least half of my flexiloan account. (Yes I know that I had clear both of these last year - grrrr!).
By March I should be down to only two credit cards and probably wanting a holiday somewhere warm? I know myself so well! My job is currently seven days a week and although I am getting time off most days it is not the same as having weekends off each week. The ideal holiday would be ten days in Turkey, where I could complete my scuba diving course. Of cause I would have to take my godson as he also wants to complete his "open water" dive course also and I would be paying for his trip as well. Gosh it all costs money doesn't it.
I would like to be able to clear my debts by July as I have promised my Mums I would come home for a long visit, which is not going to happen if I am still paying off debt.
Having read a book about a women who lived a year on a pound a day - I have been looking at my own spending which I have decide to reduce to £5 a day. Where I am now living that is going to be interesting, everything is so expensive and lunch at a cafe costs a minim of £5 (unless I have fried chicken everyday at £2.85 - not really the healthy opinion) and it is way to cold to be buying lunch at Waitrose and eating it outside.
Well these are my goals for 2009 - need to flesh them out and all that but so far they are very "do able". Now will have to get on and make it happen.....

January 31st

January is always overshadowed by the last day of the month - January 31st is one of the two dreaded dates for those of us self-employed souls, here in the UK. That big bill, which becomes due for the upcoming tax year is hanging there, waiting to pounce. And I am sure that the good folk at Her Majesty's revenues and customs are practicing their speed dialing techniques in readiness for the February 1st. As I have already had my taxes calculated by the IRD, I have thereby avoided the £100 fine for being late but I have a bill of £108 owing from the previous year and £1,720.95 due for the first half of 2009.
In total that will put my debts up to over £11k again but I plan to have it all cleared by the end of the month. Everything else will have to just have to make do with minimum payments.
I haven't had the time to read many post from all my favourite PF bloggers so I wonder how everyone else is doing.
I had a very cheap Christmas/New Year season and am really feeling the lack of internet, as I can't keep intouch with my friends etc. The library is ok but isn't open everyday and is no comparison to having online access at home.
Hope everyone is doing ok and really to face what ever the coming year has to throw at us all!