19 Nov 2015

A question about : Frugal Fraggle's Financial Fast

After getting my debts under control and paid off a few years ago, I've not learned from my mistakes and have got myself into a sticky situation again. It's not past the point of no return - being strict with myself for a year or so should get things back to more acceptable levels, but I'd like to pay off everything as quickly as possible so I can start getting my credit rating back in line for house buying in a year or two.

To summarise, I have:
Ј490 credit card
Ј2,086 store account (annoyingly has 4-weekly payments, not monthly)
Ј850 overdraft
ЈA Lot owed to a couple of family members (no time limit to repay, but rather it was sooner than later, approx Ј5-Ј6K)

Everything was getting paid off steadily, until I took out hire purchase on a new car, which has eaten into my spare cash rather noticeably. I've not adjusted well to having very little 'spare' cash, so I need to become strict and organised, and stop wasting pounds that could be going towards my debts.

I'm going to start by planning ahead properly, taking packed lunches to work every day and cooking at home. Once I've got myself into that habit, the next step will be to do it more cheaply.

I also have some things I can probably get cash for via ebay, so I need to sort these out and start putting them on the site. And also reading all the threads on this forum has given me some good ideas title=Jumping

Hopefully there'll also be a chance of some overtime at work in the next month or so, which I will grab hold of enthusiastically title=Smile

I'll have a think about realistic goals to set for my debt-paying-off targets, and post them up soon.

Best answers:

  • Over the next few weeks, I'm going to work my way through all the below ideas to make some extra cash. The cash will go towards the store card debt, as it's the highest APR and also the biggest problem as it's 13 payments a year, not 12 (so I've had quite a few late payment charges too, due to not having the amount needed to pay it twice from one month's pay).
    Ebay - a few items of clothing/footwear that were quite expensive and relatively unworn. Also some plus size items, as they tend to sell quite readily.
    Game or Gumtree - Nintendo Wii that's no longer used, and a number of Nintendo games. I'm undecided whether to go for the lower hassle option (Game), or attempt to get more for it via Gumtree or Preloved. Also have an old Nintendo Game Cube and some games for that.
    Books - going to look at websites like Webuybooks.com and see what I can get for them. First step will be getting a list of all the ISBN numbers typed up so that I can compare across different sites.
    Survey Sites - I joined loads last year, then promptly broke my laptop so wasn't able to access them for months (most didn't work on the kindle). However the laptop is now fixed, so no more excuses. Plan is to use the vouchers earned to buy birthday/christmas presents, or other necessary items, then put the cash saved towards the debt.
    I'm sure there are a lot of other things I could be doing, including a whole lot of ideas for saving money (a lot of them gained from reading this forum), but that's a separate post.
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