New Mission, New Diary

MoneyMission2015

Hi SS


Thank you. Yes I was exactly the same. Actually I was inspired by your post about it, because I saw that you had bitten the bullet and gone for it so I just thought if I don't try I'll never know. I feel so much better now knowing that I wont be paying any more interest once it's all sorted. I've not got any cashback cards, I think I'll leave that now until I'm debt free. I do use TopCashBack all the time though when I buy something online. Last year I earned over £400 cashback just from them!


Your food was looking yummy too. Another post of yours that inspired me to get off my !!!! & sort that out. So I picked up my click & collect order yesterday and have a few meals planned that I want to make, which I will do tonight when I get home. I wanted to do it last night but ended up doing a lot of running around most of the evening. Good thing is usually if I've had a busy night I end up going for the takeaway menus or chip shop, but we had salmon in the fridge & my husband had already prebaked some sweet potatoes so we just warmed the potatoes up, cooked the salmon & I had some spinach in the fridge so that was my dinner last night.


It's a little bit sad but I'm excited to get my new cards in the post. But in the past I would have been itching to get them so I could spend, spend, spend but now I want them so I can balance transfer & save myself money.


I think I'm just becoming ever so slightly obsessed with this money saving malarkey :rotfl: I think the things that have really spurred me on are


1. I'm no longer living in my overdraft.
2. I've got proper savings in my account.
3. I've got room in my budget to keep adding to my savings. In the past I'd always moan about how I wish I had money left over every month to save, when in fact I always have had but I've just chosen to spend it instead. With the help of YNAB I can see that now.
4. I can see the difference in my credit file already. A few months ago I got rejected for the Barclaycard balance transfer card, but now I've been accepted so it's obviously improved.


My goal this month is to check out some proper savings accounts. I've always just had the savings account that was linked to my current account. The interest rate is depressingly low. I did open a post office savings account years ago but haven't used that for a very long time and again I think I only used it because the introductory interest rate was good for the first 12 months.


So if anybody has any suggestions on savings accounts please let me know.


I'm in work today but feeling a bit bleurgh. You know when your head sort of hurts but also feels fuzzy, that's how I feel today . But I've taken some tablets now so will hopefully be feeling right as rain once they kick in.

snowscreamer

Am very excited that I posted something inspiring and helpful! These boards have helped me so much with my mind change (and YNAB). I think the key is finding changes to make that you can stick to in the long run to forge a healthier relationship with money. Much like losing weight I guess!

When we've tried doing sandwiches for work previously it always fails after a couple of weeks because we just don't have the time, energy or inclination to do it in the morning or night before. Similarly we tried with soup but it was boring and not filling enough / not enough protein (both trying to eat more protein as we go to the gym a lot).
I am desperately hoping that pre-prepared re-heatable meals of some description in a tupperware might last. And I think aiming for 5 a week is destined to failure as there will always be some days where lunch out is more convenient or you fancy something different.

Re savings - I put our savings into Zopa. We have temporarily stopped topping it up until the credit cards are paid off, but it generates a return of about 5% at the moment. Effectively you are lending microloans of £10 a pop to people who then pay it back with interest. So it's not easy access whilst it's lent out but then if you want to withdraw you can turn off re-ending and start to drawdown repayments at no charge.

Hope you are feeling better soon!

MoneyMission2015

I agree with you. It would be silly for me to say that I cannot buy any more clothes for instance, because I know I'd get fed up of the strictness of this and end up going on a spree, so instead I have a clothing fund budgeted in my monthly budget and have a target in my head that I should hopefully reach in a few months, so when I reach this target I will treat myself to a few new items. It's just learning that it's ok to spend money on myself, but it's not ok to spend money on myself if we haven't got it in the budget. As I've said before, in the past I wouldn't care what was in the budget or not & we would just buy what we want, when we want it, often put on credit cards. But now I can already see a difference in my finances & feel much more positive about money and even though I'm still building up my little pots, I know they will get there so I don't feel like I'm depriving myself :rotfl:


I sometimes bring sandwiches to work but don't bring them too often because I know I'll get fed up of eating them. So I am the same, I will bring food in some days but other days I will grab a few pounds out of my spending money pot to buy something.


I will look at Zopa. I'm going to spend an hour this evening doing some research on savings & try and come to a decision before the end of the week.


I am feeling much better now thank you SS. I took some tablets which helped & then our company director was in today and was popping out to grab himself some lunch, so offered to pick up some lunch for the rest of us (only 4 of us in today). So we put our orders in & when I handed him the money for my wrap he wouldn't take it and said he would pay for us all today. Very kind of him, although not really on the money saving mantra, so maybe I should direct him to YNAB to help him budget

snowscreamer

How are you doing today MM? My balance transfers have completed and I am about to phone CC2 provider to move back onto full repayment every month on that card :j

I am hoping from my side that I will now never have to switch off that DD or go into my overdraft again! We shall see but as for right now I'm feeling confident!!

MoneyMission2015

Hi SS


Not an awful lot to report today. I've had a text message from Barclaycard to say my card will be with me within the next 2 days.


Oh actually I do have something to report. My whole life has now been put on hold because I am too busy to do anything else, as I have now managed to get the YNAB app working on my phone! So as you can imagine I am as obsessed with this as with the desktop version and keep opening the app, even though nothing changes because I've not spent any money :rotfl:


Great news that your transfers are done, I cannot wait for all mine to have gone through so I know exactly what the balances are. You seem like you have good control over budgets etc now so hopefully you wont cancel that DD again. Have confidence, you will be fine.

MoneyMission2015

Back in August last year I had a letter through from credit card 2 (the one with highest balance on it) regarding PPI mis-selling. I've previously claimed PPI back on a loan I had years ago because I was told on the phone that I would need the PPI to get the loan, so an obvious case of mis-selling.

Anyway, this letter arrived just a few days before we were going on holiday so I didn't get round to reading it. As we were away for 3 weeks, by the time I got home I had completely forgotten about the letter. Then at the beginning of January this year while having a bit of a declutter, I came across the letter & completed the form, thinking why the hell not. I remember when I took out the card I was never asked about whether I wanted the PPI & it was just on the card statements for a while before I realised what it was. Anyway, when I realised what it was I called them to cancel it as the company I worked for had quite a generous long term sick policy.

Anyway I'm rambling. Sent the form off in January to see if I would get a few ££'s back.

I've had the decision today, it arrived in the post while I was at work. Turns out I will be getting a payment of just over £2,000!! They gave a breakdown & the PPI I had paid was around £600 but then they calculated the interest I paid on the card & then the 8% interest they add on and it works out at the amount stated above.

I am absolutely thrilled at this. What a great letter to come home to! Hand on heart I was honestly expecting to get maybe £200-£250. That wasn't based on any calculation, it was just me thinking that it wouldn't have amounted to much because I actually thought I'd cancelled it around 3 or 4 months in but it must have been longer than that.

I don't know if they pay that off the balance owing on my card or if they send me a cheque. It doesn't particularly matter because I will be paying it off the cards regardless, but it would be easier if they took it off the balance for me so there would be no temptation to spend it : )

It's going to make a great difference to the overall balance of my debts & will be such great motivation seeing that balance reduce so much.

snowscreamer

Fantastic news!!

MoneyMission2015

Transfers are not done yet. I know it will take a while, I'm just being impatient because I can't wait for it to be sorted so I know my full monthly payment is just paying the balance, no interest at all.

I've had a letter for our home insurance renewal. Surprisingly I logged in to the account to get the renewal price & it has gone down by just over £100 for the year. I am going to get some quotes though just in case I can shave a bit more off it. I actually have enough money in my savings account to pay the annual amount too, so I think I will do that because this current insurance year I have been paying monthly so there has been a monthly interest payment on it.

The way the savings account is at the moment looks like I will be able to also pay my car insurance up front, so fingers crossed this remains the case. Car insurance isn't due until august anyway so I have a few months until that payment goes out. Again, I am currently paying it monthly so annually will save us some money there too.

We did a grocery shop today. We went to Costco so I was able to get some stuff in bulk. I bought a large pack of chicken which I have split into freezer bags & put in the freezer. Also got bagels - can you freeze bagels I wonder? We also got some chocolate chip brioches. Our daughter likes them as a breakfast treat some mornings & the packs in asda or tesco don't last long in our house, but in usual Costco style they came as 2 packs of 12 & were around the same price as a 10 pack in asda : )

I also got bread, pittas, sweet potatoes, a pack of 6 shower gels for £5 which will last us ages because the bottles are huge, smoked salmon & Philadelphia for my bagels and lots of other things that I have plans for.

Our youngest daughter was with us & she asked if she could have lasagne for dinner tonight, so we have treated our girls to the ready made lasagne from Costco. It is a huge batch & I know they have enjoyed it in the past, so we will cook it tonight & then they can also have it tomorrow.

We have so much to do this weekend & unfortunately I don't think Mother's Day is going to be very relaxing for me. We have a lot of clearing out to do around most of the house because we have some decorating being done & I have to order some new furniture soon too, which will end up taking up another weekend because the room the furniture is going in to needs to be emptied for a new carpet & for the new furniture to go in.

Oh well, the house will look great once it's all done & hopefully in time for the nicer weather when we start to have bbq's and house parties. For some reason we always seem to be the hosts, rather than being invited elsewhere. Maybe I need to stop my husband cooking so well!!

MoneyMission2015

I have to accept a home insurance renewal soon in case the prices go up!

MoneyMission2015

My Barclaycard has arrived. I logged on to the account last night. The balance transfer hasn't gone through yet but it is showing a pending transaction, so I just really want that to complete so that I can see exactly where I stand with balances on everything.


My Halifax card hasn't come through yet but I have had the PIN through so it must be following shortly.


I just want all the balance transfers to go through so that I can see exactly what is left on the interest charging cards, so I know what's left to transfer over & then deal with the Next account.


I also need it all sorted so that I know exactly what payments I need to set up for the cards.


With the Barclaycard at the moment I have set up a Direct Debit to take the minimum, just so I know I won't miss a payment. Once all transfers are sorted and everything is on the 0% cards I will sort out how much money I will be paying off each.


The Halifax card has a 0% period of 18 months so just to be on the safe side I want to clear this in 17 months at the most. So this means I have to pay around £205 per month to clear this. Currently over all the debts I have I am paying around £730 per month to everything including overpayments, but most of the balance currently has interest added every month. So if I continue with this when everything is transferred to the 0% cards, I will be paying £205 to Halifax & £525 to the Barclaycard, which I am transferring all the other debts to. So if I keep up this level of repayment I will have both cards clear within 17 months :j


As far as I can remember the Barclaycard is actually on 36 months 0% so there is no rush to pay it off so if I need to decrease the level of repayment at any time for any reason I do have that option, but I would prefer to pay it all off as quickly as possible, so that is my current plan.