Fancy Paying off Credit Cards?!

Ok so with this post you are going to have to bear with me. You will have seen (if you are a follower of my blog or have just glanced down my list of tasks) that one of my challenges is to pay of my credit cards. Well this is the one task that is proving more difficult than the others. In fact difficult is not really the word I need...impossible fits it better! I have debts which amount to just over half my yearly salary which I have accrued by basically spending too much money on things that I see in shops which at the time look beautiful or useful (of course when buying things I follow William Morris' Golden rule of "have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." In fact I have found by having just one house that you rent it cuts down on your spending than having 'houses'). If you know me you probably don't think that I spend lots of money on myself. I don't wear glamourous clothes or own 100 pairs of shoes (just 50 pairs) and I don't go out every night of the week or even every weekend. What I do buy though are a lot of books. I also went part time at work at the end of last year due to health reasons and for several months ended up having to live the end of each month on my credit cards until I was able to sort out benefits. Ok so that's enough about how my selfish living has got me into this debt.

How I've been paying it off is like this:
I've been paying the minimum repayments which amounts to £280 a month. This is actually now an unmanageable amount and I can't afford to keep this going. I have contacted one of the credit cards and have reduced the repayment of that one by £100. This has made the repayments a bit more manageable for me but still very difficult. They are also still charging me interest so the amount is going up not down and will do for the next two months until they stop the interest.

As you can see my repayment plans is not working and it's going to take me a lot longer than two years to pay it off. In fact as it is it's going to be at least 10 years if not longer. So,

Here's how I plan to now get out of this debt before I'm 30...



By using you! You probably don't think this as a very good way of me paying off my debt but please continue reading and you never know you might just get caught up in the excitement I am feeling about this project! A colleague of mine is currently reading a book by Karyn Bosnak who basically got into a lot of debt, lost her job and then set up a website asking people to give her just $1. Sounds stupid? Yes maybe but don't laugh yet. It worked! After 20 weeks she had raised $13000 of the $20000 she needed. What I plan to do is instead of coming up with some fanciful new idea I will recycle a perfectly working plan. Afterall doesn't the saying go if something's not broke don't mend it?! If you wish to find out about the cheeky Karyn have a look at www.savekaryn.com (she's not asking for money now as the sale of her two books is probably doing her just fine!). If you wish to give me some money then please do feel free to do so. Here are the instructions how:

Log in to your Paypal account (If you don't have one go to www.paypal.com)
Click on Send Money
In the box there is an option for purchase and personal. Click on Personal
In the to field type in gouldylock@yahoo.co.uk
In Amount type in £1 (or more if you are feeling extra generous but really just £1 would be great!)
Click gift
Click on continue

You will then see my update on this blog letting you know how many other kind-hearted, generous and a little insane people are donating for the Alice Gould Charity.

Ok so you are giving what do I promise in return.

1. I will not spend on my credit cards (i have already stopped doing this)
2. I will not apply for any more credit cards
3. All money donated to me through this scheme will go to pay of my credit cards.
4. Once debt free I will buy you a pint/a cake/chocolate/a coffee (please delete as appropriate!) - in fact this means you will NOT be GIVING to me but rather INVESTING as many of these things are worth more than £1 (just in case 10,000 people do end up donating I may need to waiver this promise as I'll end up getting in more debt than I am now just buying cakes and pints for people!)