Endless.

Insurance. Car, home, life, pet... it's endless. It's also big business. So as two renewals - home and pet - popped through my letterbox it's time to investigate some new deals. We have a wonderful shoopers website based in the UK where you get 'cashback' for shopping through an affiliate site. Quidco. In the last five years I've earnt £890.

So the first one is for my beloved four legged friend. No deals on Quidco for him, but seeing as the renewal was £14.34 a month , I found a better suited policy for £8.21 a month. £73.56 saving a year. *Little Dance*. Don't you just love phoning the big companies and saying I want to cancel...just wait until it's the CC companies.

Home Insurance, here is the biggie. , so many options, so many prices, so many comparison sites. If I go through Quidco I can get £50 - £60 cashback, paid in about 6 months time, for validation purposes.  I have an inbox full of quotes, but I'm still umming and ahhing over Home Emergency Cover, Personal Belongings taken out of the house, accidental damage, endless. But I reckon I can save myself £17 a month if I take the basic cover. That's £200 a year plus the cashback.

Ah decisions decisions. The main thing is I'm on the right track.

So I have my progress bar, and there it is the ugly truth. £27256. That's not coming down very fast this month. But it will. In 248 days I will have paid the big loan off, maybe I should get a progress bar for that. It's all positive visuals that I'm doing it.

Knowing

Right at the back of my mind somewhere there is a positive thought that I know I'm going to acheive this. I know I will, because I have to. This time last year I was stuck in a very dead end job, one that was doing my self esteem no good. I went for 9 interviews. None were meant to be.

A year later I have a very different job, pays a little more, totally new sector, meet loads of people, overtime is regular. But last Summer I couldn't see a way out. So come Summer 2012 I will able to look at this post and see how far I've come.

I have been worrying this week, and felt a couple of panicky moments. But I'm not going to worry anymore. It seeps into your general well being, the children pick up on it. (I say children, I'm the shortest in the house...)  But if I'm happy, they are happy. Ripple effect.

I did have progress bars and a nice new template on my blog, but it looks like someone had access to a Back Button during the outage and they've gone :(

On the ebay/Amazon front I have two book sales and a game sale under my belt so that's an extra £10 flying towards my account.

On the food grocery budget I am having a great time finding loads of websites with some great foodie ideas. Stuck in a rut with our current repetitive menus. Think food could be the subject for next post.

Take A Good Look Around

...because I'm not coming back. No not my blog, I mean this whole rock bottom, strapped for cash, only £7.22 pence in my purse for 2 days scenario. Car is running on fumes, can't do a decent grocery shop, utility bills looming, late on a couple of cards and basically quite cross with myself for letting it happen.
So I'm not returning to this state of play again.

On the plus side I had £18 on Monday with which to feed the family for the week, and having routed through the freezer, bought a few basics, I have done it. Just got to get a couple of add ons for tomorrows evening meal and mission accomplished.

So maybe it's a good thing I can't do a full on grocery shop ? Maybe this was the lesson that needed to be learnt ? I have funds arriving in my very overdrawn bank account on Friday, and it's also payday. Today I will budget for next week while this very skint week is still fresh in my mind.

I've Ebayed and Amazoned ! Have bids and watchers, should reach target.

Going to get over this hurdle and take strength from this week. Because I really, really will do what it takes not to be this penniless again.

Relentless

What a week ! And what I've learnt ! Okay so with all the Bank Holidays, Royal Weddings, Easter and School holidays not a lot of working days have been consecutive here in the UK. So the credit card with the huge interest rate of 37%. ? I was late paying it. Totally my fault didn't allow enough time between transferring funds and it clearing to the account.

And what a situation that created. First contact was by mobile, while I was at work, not good. So I call them after work and explain. They of course explain about the humoungous charges they have placed on my account, as it took me over the limit etc etc. They weren't intimidating, but safe to say I started to worry. Worrying is not good. Doesn't acheive anything. So within 24 hours I made the account good, made another payment.

However due to 'records not updating until midnight' I then received two txts and three calls at home from them within 6 hours. This is scary stuff. I really don't like these people.

I'm not shirking my debts, I have every intention of paying it all back, but I will remember how they play the game. I know they are only doing their job, I appreciate I owe them a considerable sum, and I broke the rules. I never ever want to be in that situation again.

So this has put my budget deeper in the brown stuff and I now need to up my game over the next 2 weeks. I have a mountain of 'stuff' to ebay/amazon that I've been procrastinating about. Looking at comparable items it could be £200 at least. So you know where I'll be...

And Breathe...

Well made the call, and as you all said it was 100 times worse in my mind, the rep was helpful and gave me a number of options. So I can breathe on that one.

Fired up by a positive outcome I built myself a beautiful spreadsheet, an honest budgeting piece if work.
I have to admit over the past few days I've been wondering if a DMP would have been a way out from this financial mess, but changed my mind after reading of charging orders and court appearances. Plus from January next year the loan will be gone and I will have a whole new set of figures to play with. After everything has come and gone I am £2.54 a month overspending, I can make that up.

Now on another subject I see a lot of talk on PF blogs about coupons and vouchers. Never really investigated this. But now I will, it's just pure laziness. There are a couple of UK sites that have printable vouchers but I'm sure there are more if I dig a bit deeper.

One example of my laziness in this area; the local supermarket has a car park voucher scheme, once you pay to park you get the money off your shop at the checkout with the little voucher on the parking ticket. How many of these little ticket stubs are lying around in my car ? Probably 30. So that's around £12...

Just lazy.

Make That Call

So May is here, but there is trouble ahead. As predicted I am going to be struggling this month. Rather than put my head in the sand I will have to phone one of my creditors re the minimum payment. I 'm not going to make it on time, no matter how much I juggle and fiddle with the figures. Had this account since I was 18. ( Thats nearly 25 years...) I used to pay the balance off every single month - then. Started off on the right foot. Still we will see what happens. Stay tuned.

 I am feeling positive, it's a big challenge, but how proud of myself am I going to be once I've done this.
My credit rating is shot to pieces. I never ever want credit again. I think cash is king after the financial nightmare we've all experienced.

So wish you all a good Sunday.

Let The Battle Commence

Like many others my big downfall is grocery shopping. Two growing young men to feed and I find myself totally disorganised on the shopping front. One week I menu plan, organise a home delivery, no impulse buys all sorted. Other weeks - like now - there is a long weekend approaching and we are down to nearly nothing, which means I will pop into local supermarket on my way home from work and spend £30 - on what ?

May and June will be tight, with utilities bills and car servicing. But having done a budgeting spreadsheet for the next year, this is going to be my final lean patch, by the beginning of July I'm going to be 75%out of the overdraft. August and September look decidedly less red and more pink :) I know I need to start an EF, but every penny is claimed until early Autumn.

So the only way to ensure I get this right is too stay on top of the grocery budget. Do a week in advance and stay that way.

I see plenty of menu ideas on the web, I am a real foodie- so lets get it on !

Red Doesn't Suit Me

Thank you for the welcome fellow PF'ers :)

The trouble with this in the red business is that it can invade your whole life. I have to tell myself it doesn't define me. I'm not walking around with a big red 'In Debt' sign slapped across my forehead. Sometimes it feels like it. Stops me doing things.

When this is all done, and present calculations indicate just under 4 years, I'm looking forward to being able to just be. There is a real sense of freedom about being debt free, but it's so long since I've had that feeling it's going to be amazing when I get there !

So what other gruesome debts do I have to tell you about. I have one card that interest rate is...37% ! Have had this card for over 10 years and I owe £8,111.56. This is the card that really got me in to trouble. Started off as 0% balance transfer offer some time last century. Slowly but surely everything increased, interest rate, credit limit and of course the balance.  At one point I owed a massive £10k on it. This is my focus.

So I need some progress bars, because I'm going to smother this card, every spare penny I have is going to be thrown at it. This card needs a witty nickname...

Off to find some gadgets....

Ugly Debt

So I have this loan. I've had this loan since January 2008. In 9 months I will be free from it's clutches. It is my largest debt repayment each month. When I took it out it was just at the beginning of the well documented credit crunch. Our financial status was okay. Not rolling in it, but fair to say we weren't struggling.

Yes it was a consolidation loan, I know the pitfalls of them...now. So 39 months later with a total change in financial reponsibilities I know I'm hanging on by a thread til this loan ends. I owe £2,709.99 on it.

No chance of paying it off any quicker, just got to hold on tight until it's over. No I'm not wishing my life way, babies will conceived and born in those 9 months ! But what I will do is learn to stick to a budget, make do and mend, snowflake away at my other debts until January 2012. And then I will be £301.11 better off a month and be able to beat the rest of the ugly debt away.

So that's the plan, it's the little things that make the big things happen, 100 pennies in a pound. I'm going to get there.

A Girl In The Red

A bit about me. A few years ago I had a blog. I loved my blog. It was just me bumbling on about the stuff that life throws at you, and how you try and throw it back sometimes !  It's gone now because that was a different life. Something sad happened within my family. I'm just coming out of the aftermath, grief is a hard experience but one that has to be endured if you are ever going to get better.

I don't want to get all morbid and miserable on here because this blog is about moving forward so let's catch up a bit...

So why RedGirl ? Because I am totally up to my eyeballs in the ugliness of debt. Last blog was a little bit about my financial situation, but now things have changed, sadly for the worse money wise. There is no wonderful Back Button in life, you can't rewind and replay to change the outcome.  So it's time to tackle this head on.

I'm always easily inspired, but quickly distracted. My motivation is like the tide, sadly it runs out as quickly as it runs in. I'm full of ideas but I'm fickle, jump from one chaotic plan to another, lots of sideways steps. I know about snowballing, menu planning, card tarting, defaults, credit reports and budgeting. Just got to get off my bum and do them !

This blog is the way to stay focused, I know it works. I've lurked on many PF blogs. Smiled, nodded and totally understood.

I will get myself a ticker, a savings fund goal, a DFD calendar, all those things because they all help to push me a little further.

Here goes....