I can't beleive how easy it can be

joeyjimbles

I've just read the whole of your diary over my morning coffee. You are doing so very well and despite setbacks, I do admire your perseverance. I will be cheering you on to the finish line of your credit card and waiting expectantly for whatever you choose to do next.

BEAT_THE_DEBT

HI , you are doing so well. I am also being mindful re food and making sure I plan and use up food as not to waste x

Bonglecat

Well it all went a bit wrong on Saturday, we had a rebellion here. Yup DH said he was sick of eating the same things and that I was going too far with the economising. So I amended the shopping list, from the butchers I got 2 chicken breast, 3 tomato sausages and the butcher threw in a handful of chicken pakoras as I asked what they were total cost £3.50. I sent £8 in the greengrocers as I get extra veg to make a chicken stirfry and a punnet of strawberries. So I gave him the stirfry for dinner on Saturday and sausage and mash today, I did have the nutroast myself and I have extra portions for later in the week.

He also moaned about the quality of the pizza we got last week, so I had to get a more luxurious brand but they were on offer at £5 for 2.

I am going back to my schedule and doing Chilli tomorrow, but I may have to come up with something else on Thursday.

I ended up £32 in Pets at Home as they had felix on offer and the fussy puss cats like a good selection. £16 at Mr A which was £6 on treats and things for DH and £10 for a new umbrella as I broke one and lost another in the space of 2 months. Also on Friday I forgot I was meeting a friend with her son for his 1st birthday, so I went to Mr M for an emergency shopping session £9 on a T-shirt and shorts for his holiday, £1 for a card and £2 for a gift bag.

So basically at the end of the weekend I was £48 overdrawn, oh well so near and yet so far. I transferred £100 from the savings to keep us going. I still have it in my plan to pay off around £1400 on the cc this month, but I will see how things go with my numbers on Wednesday.

joeyjimbles

Best laid plans and all that, eh? DH may be back on board now you've mixed things up a bit. My lot are fussy about pizza but seem to be quite ok with the Ald! ones and if its mid-week then they'll be quite happy with those 3 for £2.70 ones they do in the freezer as long as there is a bit of pepperoni or ham, onion and peppers to pop on top.

Bonglecat

Okay so PAYDAY:j:j:j And that means another payment n the credit card, I paid a bit extra than the £700 I was planning so that I now owe a nice round £1500. However I had hoped to add my savings in there and make it £1000 but one of the cats seems to be having trouble with his teeth at the moment (he isn't insured) and my car needs the water pump looking at so I held back.

But still a nice reduction anyway. We are on holiday next week so I really need to watch the pennies not too many meals out etc. We aren't going away just doing gardening and maybe a day trip. It is a little frustrating that I am so close to DF that I can taste it but it is still a couple of months off. Don't wish your life away Bonglecat.

Bonglecat

Fortunately in the end the car repair only cost £96 and the cat £120, so I still had some savings left over at the end of the month. It is pay day again today and after a lot of thought I decided to risk it and use the little bit of savings left plus my usual payment to completely pay of the credit card.

So sing after me (to the tune of Tom Jones Sex Bomb) :dance::dance: Debt Free, Debt Free, I'm so Debt Free, you can do it baby you can be Debt Free!!!!!!:dance::dance:

Okay we all know that's not true, I still have the car finance and the mortgage. But all silly debt as I call it is GONE for good. :j

I will up the monthly savings Standing order to £1,000 next week and hopefully sometime around October I may be able to repay the car finance 2 years early . After that I will need to have a think, yes it would be lovely to start really going for the mortgage but lets face it the house needs some serious work including a new boiler so that may take priority.

But at the moment I will bask and order a Chinese takeaway for dinner. _party_

Kitten868

Massive congratulations! That's fantastic news! So pleased for you!
My car finance is with Volkswagen and they allow you to overpay any time to bring down monthly payments. Would it be better to pay them each month? To get it down?
Right then get yourself a list of house repairs and get yourself quotes. We will spur you on with the targets xxx

Bonglecat

Kitten868 wrote: »

Massive congratulations! That's fantastic news! So pleased for you!
My car finance is with Volkswagen and they allow you to overpay any time to bring down monthly payments. Would it be better to pay them each month? To get it down?
Right then get yourself a list of house repairs and get yourself quotes. We will spur you on with the targets xxx

Good ideas there Kitten, my finance is with Black Horse so I'll need to investigate. We've already had a quote on redecorating the living room but things have changed since we got that. Mostly me convincing hubby that we don't really need to move the door and to scale back his building work ideas. :eek:

Now one other thing I could do with advice on, my cc is one where I get store vouchers as a sort of cash back. Should I start buying all my groceries on the cc and of course completely pay it back each month, probably using DD so that I get vouchers. (or even switch to a straight cashback card) Or is that too much temptation for me and I wouldn't be able to control, so I would be better just not using the cc at all?

triple_choc_chip

Hi Bonglecat, congratulations on reaching this point. I remember reading your diary when I first joined mse, you've done brilliantly.

When I was first debt free I wanted to use my Tesco card for the vouchers but felt the same as you do at the moment. I decided to make a payment to them each weekend to cover what I had spent during the week so I was spending from my current a/c but getting the points IYSWIM.

I trust myself now to go a whole month but it took a while. Recently, Tesco has reduced the points earned so I'm re-evaluating; at the moment I'm using a 3 mth cashback offer with Halifax Clarity so using that card instead (I usually only use it abroad). I also have a Santander a/c for my d.debits and savings so I may consider getting their card for the cashback. It's nice to have options!

Good luck with the rest of your journey x

joeyjimbles

Missed your wonderful news - well done, that is such a great achievement. As for the CC I think triple choc chip has a great solution - especially the paying weekly thing though make sure you don't mess up your credit card t&c's by paying before it has registered that you've made the spend. Not sure how damaging that would be but I know they don't like you to have a positive balance. Once again - congratulations