I am Broke – Still don’t have a lot of spare cash, but I have enough money to make choices with what I do with it, ie my pay is not all going on bills and necessities.

I am single. – Engaged to be married, we had a modest backyard party to celebrate that I’m told was enjoyed by all. Wedding can wait until we can afford to pay cash for it.

I am male. - no change to report
I am a Leo (not that I actually believe in that stuff, but if my weekly horoscope is good it gives me something to actually look forward to) - No Change

I live alone. – I live with my Fiance and two cats.

I am straight (but occasionaly use hair product) - no change to report

I drive a 29 year old car that has been in my family for 27 years through three generations. - Sadly this car become uneconomical to repair, I now have a reliable fuel efficient 18yo diesel dual cab. If it had aircon it would be perfect.

I have a tempory contract with a never to be named government agency. - I now have the luxury of a permanent position and regular reliable income.

I like living alone (most of the time) - I am very happy living with Fiance, though still enjoy time to myself

I am a little over 6 feet tall. – no change, however my feet are bigger….. go figure.

I sail (on someone elses boat) once to twice a week over summer, much less in winter. – Haven’t sailed for a while. miss it a little bit.

I pay rent (who would give me a mortgage, and how would I service that and the credit cards) - Got a mortgage through a less than ethical mortgage broker, this is what caused the global financial crisis…… but my credit is good.

I have an Xbox but i just sold most of my games on ebay, I use it mainly to watch DVD’s. - Don’t use the Xbox much, never got the Xbox 360, though did score a Wii from my Fiance’s parents a couple of Christmas’s ago.

I have an Ipod which I bought as a reward for myself for walking to work, I figure I have already paid for it with the money I have saved in parking fees. - Upgraded to Iphone – awesome.

more to come when I feel the urge to share intimate personal details, or something - I’m a very private person………………. still.

I paid for it on my credit card.

Crazy but I had a plan

1. Saved two thirds of the price before hand.

2. Waited till my credit card interest period ticked over so I got the full 55 days interest free period.

3. Didn’t buy it until I knew I had the cash flow to pay it off the interest free period expired.

Win Win for everybody.

At the moment I am balancing my desire to get rid of all my personal debt with doing some much needed renovations on the house.

I’ve restructured my debt into three parts.

I have a credit card with a balance transfer offer at 3% until may next year, the balance is $8000.

I have a personal loan with the balance of $7000, Interest rate is 11.24%.

I have borrowed $11,000 from a friend, who borrowed it from a bank,  I’m paying back $250 a month, interest rate is 12.54%

My current goal is to pay off the $7000 as soon as possible to remove the compulsory repayments I have and reduce my fortnightly repayment burden.

I’ll post more about my plans when I get the chance, but it’s all looking good.

At this point in time I have three active credit cards as well as a consolidation loan. I also have an inactive credit card that I got two years ago because it offered a 0% balance transfer. Unfortunately they offered me such a low limit that it wasn’t worth initiating the card because by the time the extra annual fee was taken into account I wasn’t actually saving anything.

So without further ado here is my state of financial ruin.

Gold Card One $8,036 (limit $8,000)

Gold Card Two $15,065 (limit $15,000)

Plain Card $2,964 (limit $3,000)

Consolidation Loan $14,000 (approx*)

I’ve been in denial for some time now and while I was aware of the separate balances I haven’t added them all together until now.

The Grand Total is $40,065

* the consolidation loan sends me a statement every six months, from memory the balance was around this amount last time I got a statement.

I’m fully aware I’ve been getting myself further into debt, but I’m also happier than I’ve been in a long time. The debt is manageable on a week to week basis, but I need to start putting away some money for the future, so I’m keener than ever to kick this debt in the butt.

Since my last post I have :

• moved house
• gone without a home internet connection for two months
• celebrated Christmas and new year
• Been on a couple of 4 day camping trips
• Bought a Kayak on my credit card
• Gone away to the mainland for a 5 day weekend (ony paid for airfare and food)
• Gone away to the mainland for work three times (fully paid by work)
• Blown out my debt to worse that it was when I started this site.
• Got myself a girlfriend (she is/was living on said mainland, hence 5 day weekend)
• Booked a 7 night overseas holiday for myself and girlfriend (more debt)
• Provisionally sold a couple of domain names I don’t need any more.

There’s probably a few more things that I haven’t mentioned, but it’s been a busy time.

Watch this space.

I said I’d never do it but I’ve bitten the bullet and gone into a share house, I’ll be $600 a month ahead on what I’m now paying in rent, plus sharing expenses like power and phone.

The downside is I’ll be using my car to get to work so I expect my transport expenses to rise a little, but not by $600 a month.

And yes, I will be putting the difference towards paying down my credit cards.

More news when I’m back online.

I’m also moving house over the next few weeks. I’m biting the bullet and giving the share housing thing a go. It will save me $600 a month in rent, most of which I can put towards the credit cards. I’ll have some extra expenses now that I’ll be out of walking distance to work, but I don’t see them costing $150 a week.

I said before that I’d explain my lack of posting when I was ready to talk, still not quite ready yet. But it will help explain how I ended up in this mess.

The bad news is that I also have some domains to pay for which will push up my balances a little more.

While I’m busy in this world of high finance I’ll jot down my balance figures and give my first credit card status report in quite some time. It’s not going to be pretty, actually I can say already that my credit card debt levels will be significantly higher than the last time I bothered to post them.

Hopefully this little reality check will help keep me in line with my spending.