Any chance of starting a Debt Free 2008 thread?

[Grouchyoscar]

I found last year's Debt free 2007 really useful and would like to do it again this year

Are any of the original MNers who did that one going to push the boat out again?

And can I join please

Me please.

We did well last year because of DH's payout from the army, we managed to clear the majority of the debts in one go.

However, we still have

• £200 overdraft
• £600 on my dads next account that I am responsible for
• £726.60 owed to the MOD from leaving the Army in rent and charges

We have already agreed to pay the MOD £40 a month, and may increase this if we are managing ok money wise.

The overdraft isnt too bad really, costs me less than £2 a month in interest, so is really the last of my worries.

Next account however is the stinger! Will be paying £100 off this month, and hopefully £50 a month thereafter, but the interest is quite high - was almost £14 last month in interest alone.

Currently, DH is on benefits due to being medically discharged from the army and unable to work, I have 3 kids under 4, the youngest of which is only 6 weeks old.

I have applied for a care assistant job at a local nursing home, its minimum wage for 37hrs a week, but the shift pattern means I will still see the kids quite a bit - shifts are 7.30am-1.30pm and 1.30pm-7.30pm, or you have the option of working a "double" so working all day to cover both shifts. The place is desperate for staff, so fingers crossed I get the job, just waiting to hear about an interview. Only thing that worries me is I have no previous care experience, other than being a mother of 3 kids!

Food shopping is my biggest problem, trying to get things we need rather than want, and sticking to the menu plan.... not sure why I bother doing one anymore because it never gets stuck to. Im also all out of ideas for cheap meals that my kids will actually eat, they dont like rice, not keen on pasta, so leaves us with meat,veg and potatoes almost daily!

there is a statement of affairs on the money savings expert site, i think...

I shall share my food shopping tactics. I never buy full price meat. My menus revolve around what is marked down in asda after 5pm. i take it home and freeze it - then defrost as necessary .

I'll join you too!

Not in any major debt but have just taken on a huge mortgage so we are really not getting ahead. If we don't stay on top of money this year I can see us slowly creeping into problems.

Have managed to cut shopping bill in half and we have done a thorough annual financial plan, which made my ears bleed but was very worth it.

We have decided to spread our money out over a number of bank accounts so there's one to save money for xmas and holidays, one to save for annual bills such as car insurance, home insurance, tax etc. An account for food, petrol and household items, bday presents etc and an account to save for big one off's that will crop up like decorating the baby's room and the fact that we are pretty certain both washing machine and tumble dryer are on the way out.

Have also put lots on ebay.

Jarm - we still have quite a lot of meat based meals, A large chicken will make 3 meals, casseroles can be bulked out with veg and dumplings, I also cook a piece of ham and we have ham, egg and chips and then use the left overs for sandwich fillings.

Jarm - the only experience I had before getting a job as a Care Assistant was looking after 2 kids!

A chicken for us usually does 2 meals and then sandwiches.

Our food bill has rocketed since DH has been at home, I had forgotten how much he eats! He used to have a hot lunch at work so wouldnt eat as much in the evening, now he seems to do nothing but eat all day (I dont really mind because he is soooo skinny and could do with putting some meat on!)

Ive got a few bits I want to sell, but cant be bothered with Ebay at the moment, its all sellers and no buyers! Plus the fees dont make it worthwhile really! MN buyers arent interested, either that or they just havent seen my post because they are so bloody many of them (ouch!) Thinking I will probably do a car boot sale next month once the boy has grown out of even more of his clothes lol

QOQ - Any chance of someone covering you on the organ one sunday for you to do a carboot? You can always take pics of the piano and make up a notice with a price and see if that helps - seen loads of people do that for large items at our car boots. Also on the car assistant front, any tips for interview?! LOL

All of you with storecards

Put them onto a 0% balance transfer credit card as soon as you can. That way you pay money of the debt and not the huge interest that goes with Store cards.

re PIANO: Oh yes, pic of piano and put up in your local shop.. mine lets you advertise for free so if you scoot round 10-15 shops in your area and casually drop it into conversations arouns your parish etc people might know somebody. Could you advertise it in your local free newsletter/paper? or in your school newsletter/noticeboard? sort of pitch it at the "great for a beginner" "great for a child to learn on" sort of thing.

Is there a cheaper alternative to eBay?

I am definatly in, at the mo I owe...

Barclays £6000 - Pay £104 a month for the next 10 yrs . I am really hoping to up my repayments at some point and clear it in 6 yrs instead.

Provident £410 - Pay £18 a week - Last payment June 13th June

Next £80 - Pay £10 a month but am hoping to clear it in next couple of months.

Capital One £400 - Pay about £25 a month but again hoping to increase this.

My mum - I owe her for my cooker and washing machine. Currently paying £30 a month for cooker and £20 a month for washer, but only 2 more payments for cooker.

Social loan - £10 is taken from my benefits each week for this. It finnishes in May.

I am going to have paid off my mum, Next and the social loan by June when the provident also finnishes, so then I will be about £42 a week better off and hopefully I can then increase my credit card payments and get that cleared.

JARM - re the care assistant job - no real tips. Just stress you're not phased by poo/wee/vomit (especially the sort which doesn't end up where we'd prefer it ends up - ie toilet ), used to splitting your time evenly between the children (so can split your time easily between residents) , cleaning up, patience of a saint etc etc

oh fckity fckity f*ck - yesterday I was told I would have a funeral to play for next week £55 - cash - very timely as I'm down to my last £35 to last me until the 24th (all bills are paid and I have enough "staples" - ie meat, starch for nearly 2 weeks worth of meals).....but I've just had a phone call to say that the deceased had requested someone else (a friend of his) play for it which means I won't be getting my £55 ARGHHHHH

Thanks QOQ x

I just wanted to thank whoever it was that gave the link to the moneyexpert 0% interest credit cards. I applied for the barclaycard platinum this morning and was accepted. It will save me £134 a month in interest. I will be keeping an eye out on this thread with interest for more money saving ideas which are desparately needed at the moment

Worth checking electric/gas dd's if you pay a set rate. I rang my supplier yesterday and found I was £300 in credit, so the monthly rate can come right down after they've refunded that.

I've just sold some dolls on ebay as well - finally - after relisting 3 times, so it seems people do have money to spend! That has netted around £700. Straight into the bank

QOQ - so sorry to hear that. I thought for a minute you were going to say the deceased had suddenly decided to miraculously wake up, or something!
Sorry about my smug sounding post below.

I suppose the wedding season will be here before too long?

I'd like to join, please.

We live abroad where we have set up our own business, so no fixed amount of money coming in, which can be stressful (and indeed IS very stressful at the moment). Luckily we aren't overdrawn in France (an imprisonable offence).

However, we still have a couple of accounts with our old British bank, and are overdrawn in these by about £6,000. We have a loan payment going out from one of these accounts which finishes in a couple of months (phew), but are paying out on an endowment that we took out years ago and which still has another 6 years to run on it.

Really want to be able to manage it all a bit better - know what is happening in all our accounts and curb my comfort spending habit, which is at a peak at the moment as dh and 3dc are in France and I am here doing supply teaching to earn us some money. Missing my family HORRIBLY and shop to stop the loneliness .

FA - yes very annoying - DH's expenses have just come in - so I'm going to see if I can sweet talk £40 out of him (we have seperate accounts and on the whole manage our money seperately - works well for us as I have no overdraft and a decent(ish) credit rating, he has a big overdraft and a cr*p rating .

Otherwise I'm hoping that I can (finally) flog my piano - clutching at straws last night I listed it on the Facebook marketplace - and have had a response already! Just sent further details to them so fingers x'ed that they decide to buy - I've listed it for £100 - but will go to down to around £80 if nessecary.......

I'm waiting for my statements to come through to find out exactly how much money I will owe from February onwards.

Id love to join please. We have 3 credit cards to pay off. Luckily i have a good job and as ds is now at school i can work more and pay them off. Because we have missed payments previously i know wed be refused a new 0% cc so transfer isn`t an option for us.

I researched our best option and this is what i`ve come up with from Martin Lewis in case anyone else in same boat.

I have 3 cc`s.

Figure out how much available cash i have to pay them all off.
Choose one with highest interest rate and pay minimum on other 2. However whatever this minimum is for the first month STICK to that payment.ie,minimum payment for cc 1 this month might be 45.00 but set up direct debit for 45.00 EVERY month.

After doing this for two cc`s bung everything you can at the one with the highest interest rate. So i could maybe pay 400.00 off my halifax cc and pay it off in 10 months.
Then i move onto the next one and pay off that ect.
Its called snowballing and apparently saves you pounds in interest and pays off much quicker.

I got my new Barclaycard Platinum last Friday which I was planning on transferring my present CC balance to as its 0% interest for 18 months but they've only given me a credit limit of £1,600 which is nothing. I presently owe £10,000 on my card so the barclarycard is worthless. I rung them only to be told they won't review credit limits until you've been using the card for 6 months. Consequently I've cut it up and thrown it away. What a pain that these companies don't ask you what credit limit you need - I realise your not always going to get what you want but it would save time if you gave them a figure and they told you out straight your not going to get anything like what you want.

Peacemakeruk - we had that happen with a O% card. We requested the card and to transfer the balance of a higher rate card (specifying the balance amount of course), and they approved it, but had lower amount approved, so they just transferred PART of the balance. It would have been nice to receive some type of notification that only PART of the balance was going to be transferred. But at least it did get rid of some of the interest payment. So now we're focusing our payments on the part that is still on the high interest card. I will be so glad when we've got things sorted again.

Right now, I'm trying to review my meal plans so that I can cut a little off our grocery spending. I've tried to stop using the clothes dryer to keep electric bill down, but it always seems to rain on the days I'm not working, and I get home too late to be hanging out clothes (don't like them hanging out overnight). There's just not enough room inside to hang anything to dry - or at least not enough room to make it worthwhile.

OK my bills have come in.. I have about3k on interest free credit card at the moment though approx 1k of that is my new bathroom which I have the money for in another account.

I will aim to have my CC paid off by July without going overdrawn on my current account or using my CC for purchases.

Ello -I'm still pootling along, I think I am better off than I was this time last year! Would be better if I stuck to the rules

I'll go find the list of things ot do from last time.

A round up of a lot of the tips/links so far:

• Decent food budgetting/planning - Email Flamesparrow at gmail dot com for a copy of Capp?s spreadsheet! (Didn?t want to tell everyone to CAT you Capp unless you wanted them to )
• uswitch
• s/o for savings AND a s/o for treats
• Work out the birthdays that will be coming across the year and make sure I put aside enough each month to cover the hell months.

BUDGET
Work out a spreadsheet for your monthly/weekly spending. Spend a couple of months tracking every penny you spend ? you will be able to see where your money trickles away to!!!

SHOPPING
*Shop online if you make a comprehensive list (it will cost more if you miss lots off)
*Menu plan ? easier to make a stickable to shopping list

• Use Quidco to get money back on shopping
• If you can be trusted to pay it all off before the end of the month, do your shopping on a Tesco credit card to get the points to use elsewhere
• Eat before you shop
• Buy extras like milk and bread at the corner shop ? what slight extra you pay for the milk, you save on not seeing tempting offers!! (4 pts of milk is actually CHEAPER at my corner shop than Tesco Express)
• Sign up for anything that will send you free vouchers
• Pay at the self service machines in Tesco as they accept all vouchers regardless of purchases
• Avoid gift/cleaning aisle in shops ? you buy things you don?t need FOOD ? Menu plan! It can be a 2 or 3 week mix n match type thing, but have some plan to help you shop ? Work out which foods can be economised on, and which are just not worth it ? value mushrooms are just an odd shape, value mince is more fatty, but if you strain it it is fine, but frozen mince tastes like disintergrated cardboard ? Cook bulk meals and freeze ? 2 packs of mince can often make 3 meals, where as 1 pack makes 1 n a bit ? Bulk meals out with lots of veg ? again, a Bolognese sauce goes a lot further if its filled with peppers, grated carrots etc ? Take drinks out with you so you are not forced to buy ? Get Fruit and Veg at markets (have discovered that DH works next to the people who supply the organic veg box people ? we are now getting organic veg for less than basic tesco veg prices

GIFTS
? Keep a list of birthdays with you so you can buy presents as you spot bargains
? Save for Christmas NOW ? Use a club or a separate savings account with a standing order - don?t wait and see what you can afford at the end of the month ? you won?t be able to

GENERAL
? Save up spare £1 coins and coppers etc ? You can get it changed at most Sainsbury?s in a machine ? it does take some of your money in a charge, but I never get it changed if I have to take it to a bank, so it makes more sense.
? Claim back you bank charges if you have them
? Cut up credit cards ? If it is not a matter of starvation or eviction, it is NOT an emergency
ITS NOT A BARGAIN IF YOU DIDN?T NEED IT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!

Hi girls. That sounds great, MOH

I have been looking at other people's threads on debt etc and found myself tinking 'crikey that's a lot' when actually it's less than mine

But at least my thought processes are on the right track now I guess...

Have just checked bank balance, and it is now around £1,500. I am very proud as it was only a few months ago it was pushing the 4,500 limit.

I wish I had never taken out the sodding loan when they told me to, now. Depending on my mental situation regarding taking responsibility for the whole thing, it could have been paid off months ago and I would not be in debt - however I think I was in a different place a year ago. I may well not have done what I'm doing now.

At this rate I am hoping to pay off my O/d by May/June, at which point I will start to save in a sep. account in order to pay off the loan faster. I hope this works.