Well another week is almost over and we're having a wonderful weekend here in London. I was back in Richmond Park for my walk/jog around the park this morning and it was full of joggers, dog walkers, family picnics, cyclist and ramblers. Here's hoping for a glorious summer this year.
I still have £2.90 in my purse for this week which is very good going. On Friday I was meeting a friend for lunch and only had £9.60 left from my £5.00 a day plan. No credit card or debt card in my purse to fall back on, just £9.60 cash for a lunch in Richmond - not easy but I did it (with change too).
I have been reading lots of blogs this week and have taken a couple off my blog roll as they had stopped posting. And am very pleased that NCN is back giving sage advise on his weekly broadcasts. Lots of good news from PF bloggers some of whom have cleared their debt which is fab news. Cynthia and her family have cleared their debt and she has renamed her blog "The Grass is Greener". Way to go Cynthia!
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Thursday, 21 May 2009
A Fiver a day keeps the debt away
I am back on the £5 a day deal, after about two weeks off it and I still have £17.09 left until Sunday. So I am back on track with with this concept, which is very pleasing as it gives me a micro budget to play around with during the week. (yes I am a very sad person I know) A micro budget is very helpful to teach you to be thoughtful with your money. I say 'thoughtful' instead of 'careful' because it you really 'think' about what your going to spend your money on you will be careful with it.
Spending only £5 a day has made me change brands (for cheaper options), made me go further a field looking for the best value for money and it has taught me that I can live without having money in my purse. If you don't have it you can't spend it.
Why did I freak out if I had nothing in my purse?
I don't mean having money to pay my bills - I pay them all by direct debt or standing order. I believe the idea of always having cash in hand (or today a credit card at hand) is a modern concept. Did it worry people 50 or 60 years ago?
Was it advertising via the media that has brainwashed us to believe we need cash/credit to hand at all times just in case we see something we really, really want?
Self control is the battle we are facing in the slogg of getting out of debt - self control is not PC now days because we live in a very self absorbed society. "Self control... (if I can remember the words from the Sunday school song) .. is just controlling my self, it's listening to my heart and doing what is smart". Out of the mouths of babes huh!
Have you tried living on a micro cash budget? Give it a go.......
(and if you haven't read it yet get a copy of Kath Kelly's book and see how she lived on only £1 a day for a whole year - Kath you are my hero!)
Spending only £5 a day has made me change brands (for cheaper options), made me go further a field looking for the best value for money and it has taught me that I can live without having money in my purse. If you don't have it you can't spend it.
Why did I freak out if I had nothing in my purse?
I don't mean having money to pay my bills - I pay them all by direct debt or standing order. I believe the idea of always having cash in hand (or today a credit card at hand) is a modern concept. Did it worry people 50 or 60 years ago?
Was it advertising via the media that has brainwashed us to believe we need cash/credit to hand at all times just in case we see something we really, really want?
Self control is the battle we are facing in the slogg of getting out of debt - self control is not PC now days because we live in a very self absorbed society. "Self control... (if I can remember the words from the Sunday school song) .. is just controlling my self, it's listening to my heart and doing what is smart". Out of the mouths of babes huh!
Have you tried living on a micro cash budget? Give it a go.......
(and if you haven't read it yet get a copy of Kath Kelly's book and see how she lived on only £1 a day for a whole year - Kath you are my hero!)
May Update
It's quite weird to see my debt balance as less than 5k, that was usually the balance owing on one credit card. What a strange journey I have been on. Okay what is happening this month?
I plan to pay a minimum of £1,100.00 off my debt - less than I had plan at the start of last month but my holiday spending was about £500 over what I had planned.
So my snowballing card which is currently at £1,812.10 will be reduced by 1k and my second card will be down £100. So total for the end of May should be £3, 754.51 not including interest changers.
My pay days are Sundays and so the cheques don't get banked until the following Monday or Tuesday so I will not be updating my figures until the monies have been cleared though my account.
In June I should clear my snowballing card and then I will only have one card left to clear before I can say I'm "debt free".
I plan to pay a minimum of £1,100.00 off my debt - less than I had plan at the start of last month but my holiday spending was about £500 over what I had planned.
So my snowballing card which is currently at £1,812.10 will be reduced by 1k and my second card will be down £100. So total for the end of May should be £3, 754.51 not including interest changers.
My pay days are Sundays and so the cheques don't get banked until the following Monday or Tuesday so I will not be updating my figures until the monies have been cleared though my account.
In June I should clear my snowballing card and then I will only have one card left to clear before I can say I'm "debt free".
One unexpected expense for June is my helping out some friend move house which will include me taking some time off work and probably hiring a car for a couple of days. I will have to see how much it is all going to cost me and try and keep it all to a minimum. (Try really, really hard to do that!)
In the end of July I have my next Tax payment of 2k due but I am not including that in my debt balance because it will be a new debt and not an old one.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Taking A Break
I have just come back from a weeks break in Icmeler, Turkey - where I completed my Open Water Scuba Diving course along with my godson Joel. He did beat me in the final exam by miles but I have dived off a boat and have also dived deeper than him so there!!
Poor Joel - he only just scraped in on completing his diving as the day before the final exam and the big dive off the boat he injured himself and we had to rush him into a medical clinic for stitches (no swimming for at least ten days) and if that wasn't enough he then broke his arm and spent a few hours on Monday morning having his arm reset and getting it plastered (no swimming, fencing etc. for the next six weeks at least).
Other than that it was a great holiday - really the sun shone, the water was warm and it was a very laid back holiday. I can't say enough for the medical treatment Joel received, he was in and out with his broken in less than 2 hours. The NHS could never get even close to that on it's very best day. Even when I broke my arm as a kid it took all afternoon to get the x-ray, have my arm reset and then get it plastered.
Now I have to wait for the insurance to repay me for all the cost - I haven't included it on my debt, as I hoped to have it all sorted by the end of the month. If it is not I will include the costs in a separate listing in June but really hope that, that doesn't have to happen.
Poor Joel - he only just scraped in on completing his diving as the day before the final exam and the big dive off the boat he injured himself and we had to rush him into a medical clinic for stitches (no swimming for at least ten days) and if that wasn't enough he then broke his arm and spent a few hours on Monday morning having his arm reset and getting it plastered (no swimming, fencing etc. for the next six weeks at least).
Other than that it was a great holiday - really the sun shone, the water was warm and it was a very laid back holiday. I can't say enough for the medical treatment Joel received, he was in and out with his broken in less than 2 hours. The NHS could never get even close to that on it's very best day. Even when I broke my arm as a kid it took all afternoon to get the x-ray, have my arm reset and then get it plastered.
Now I have to wait for the insurance to repay me for all the cost - I haven't included it on my debt, as I hoped to have it all sorted by the end of the month. If it is not I will include the costs in a separate listing in June but really hope that, that doesn't have to happen.
Friday, 1 May 2009
What's My Score??
I have just checked out my credit score with Creditexpert.co.uk and yaaa-me!!
I have gone from 696 "Poor" in 2007, to 818 "Good" in 2008, to 969 "Excellent" in 2009.
So my credit rating is now (according to the site) above average - 71% of people have a score lower than Excellent. Wow that puts little ol' me in with the other 29%. I am well chuffed!!
According to my report I am not perfect yet as; I
I have gone from 696 "Poor" in 2007, to 818 "Good" in 2008, to 969 "Excellent" in 2009.
So my credit rating is now (according to the site) above average - 71% of people have a score lower than Excellent. Wow that puts little ol' me in with the other 29%. I am well chuffed!!
According to my report I am not perfect yet as; I
"have several credit agreements and outstanding balance is high"
But as you all know (and are all doing yourselves) I am working on it give me a little more time.
The report needs a little up dating as it still shows my total debt as £6,673.00 - so really I wonder what my score would be if they took into account my current debt?
Any way I am pleased as punch and will treat myself to a further credit score when I reach my DFD and see what they have on me then.
Friday, 24 April 2009
April Update
I am getting so excited - I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (and it's green) and am counting down the weeks till I will be debt free!
We have just had the government budget and no good news there - I should be grateful the Labour government did give us a minimum wage but really other than that I have gain nothing from more that ten years of Labour government. And the credit crunch will only really affect me when (not if) my taxes or national insurance goes up. I have worked out my tax for this last year and have added it to what I need to pay by July 31 but I haven't added it to my debt total. The amount I owe is the highest amount yet - so looks enormous but I have already paid some of it and the rest will be no problem once all my month debt payments are no more.
My best friend LJ has been busy booking a holiday for me, her eldest son (my eldest godchild) and herself and we are off in just over a week. I know..... I know .... I am clearing my debt but as I have been working very hard to the last four months with out a break I could really do with one. Even if this one involves my having to study up before the trip and will have two days of attempting and hopefully passing my Open Water Scuba diving course. I will be doing this with my godson Joel (who will be turning 11 years old just after we get back) - so I really have to pass this course or I will never hear the end of it. The holiday is all paid for and the spending money is coming out of this weeks cheque. We are off to Turkey again so I am really, really looking forward to it!
Goals for next month to get my debt down to £3,200 and continue with my £5 a day budget. Beyond that I have been thinking about what happens next. I would like to take a long visit home to NZ but at this current time I don't know how wise that would be, so am having a rethink. My work is going okay and I don't want to leave my employers in the lurch, they have been asking if I had any plans of leaving as they really want me to stay. But my Mums is wanting me to come hope for a visit (and to stay!). So I will have to make some decisions! It's getting time to really work on plan "B".
We have just had the government budget and no good news there - I should be grateful the Labour government did give us a minimum wage but really other than that I have gain nothing from more that ten years of Labour government. And the credit crunch will only really affect me when (not if) my taxes or national insurance goes up. I have worked out my tax for this last year and have added it to what I need to pay by July 31 but I haven't added it to my debt total. The amount I owe is the highest amount yet - so looks enormous but I have already paid some of it and the rest will be no problem once all my month debt payments are no more.
My best friend LJ has been busy booking a holiday for me, her eldest son (my eldest godchild) and herself and we are off in just over a week. I know..... I know .... I am clearing my debt but as I have been working very hard to the last four months with out a break I could really do with one. Even if this one involves my having to study up before the trip and will have two days of attempting and hopefully passing my Open Water Scuba diving course. I will be doing this with my godson Joel (who will be turning 11 years old just after we get back) - so I really have to pass this course or I will never hear the end of it. The holiday is all paid for and the spending money is coming out of this weeks cheque. We are off to Turkey again so I am really, really looking forward to it!
Goals for next month to get my debt down to £3,200 and continue with my £5 a day budget. Beyond that I have been thinking about what happens next. I would like to take a long visit home to NZ but at this current time I don't know how wise that would be, so am having a rethink. My work is going okay and I don't want to leave my employers in the lurch, they have been asking if I had any plans of leaving as they really want me to stay. But my Mums is wanting me to come hope for a visit (and to stay!). So I will have to make some decisions! It's getting time to really work on plan "B".
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Just a little bit more
To get under the £6k I have paid £3.40 onto the credit card I am working on clearing first and so have brought my balance down to only £5,998.30. A land mark balance in my very checked history of being in debt. My lowest balance in the last 10 years (yep you read that right!) is £6,662.28 and that was back in December 2004. My total debt is at it's lowest level ever!!
This is how my March balances have looked over the years:
This is how my March balances have looked over the years:
2002 £9,141.24
2003 £8,653.76
2004 £7,263.07
2005 £8,147.84
2006 £9,255.26
2007 £14,524.62
2008 £11,828.20
2009 £6,001.70
Getting to where I am today has been a slogg and it has been sometimes the little things that have done the most towards getting my debt level down. I haven't finish quite yet and I have planned a holiday in early May but it is has been budgeted in and is currently all paid for. I will be using my April savings for my spending monies so that should cover it.
Goal for April is to be under £5k by the end of the month - shouldn't be a problem!!
Thursday, 19 March 2009
BALANCE ALERT BALANCE ALERT
It has taken a while but I have finally gotten below the lowest record balance I have had in about a decade. Way back in December 2004 my total debit balance was down to a mere £6,662.28 before it slowly (but insistently) climbed to the heights of £20,056.05 in June 2007. That amount really horrified me - how could I be in so much debt but have nothing to show for it? And so my blog journey started.
Now my total debt is £6,637.58 - OK that may only be £24.70 less than my lowest balance but it's a huge breakthrough for me and better still it is not yet the end of the month so I am working at getting below £6k by the end of the month. The getting out of debt business is getting lots of fun.
Haven't done so well on my £5 a day plan last week - brought my big bro a belated birthday gift, new earphones for my ipod and some stationary that I needed to that blew the plan for the week but I am back on track this week. I wont beat my self up as I have been very good and I haven't been using credit (rule No. 1 is still in place).
My NoCreditNeeded goal of clearing my debt by the end of this month is not going to happen but ending it under £6k is a reason to celebrate I reckon!
Now my total debt is £6,637.58 - OK that may only be £24.70 less than my lowest balance but it's a huge breakthrough for me and better still it is not yet the end of the month so I am working at getting below £6k by the end of the month. The getting out of debt business is getting lots of fun.
Haven't done so well on my £5 a day plan last week - brought my big bro a belated birthday gift, new earphones for my ipod and some stationary that I needed to that blew the plan for the week but I am back on track this week. I wont beat my self up as I have been very good and I haven't been using credit (rule No. 1 is still in place).
My NoCreditNeeded goal of clearing my debt by the end of this month is not going to happen but ending it under £6k is a reason to celebrate I reckon!
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, 28 February 2009
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.
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!
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