Credit Card Execution 2015

Positively

Hello! Loving all these diaries! I am just going back to running to keen to keep up with your progress, I had a bit of moment this morning when I decided to run instead of thinking about payday and shopping and budgets and bills, so now I feel virtuous and ready to tackle all of the above. Look forward to hearing how you get on

janeypoo

Hello Positively!
Yay for getting up and running, I always feel running (even at my slow pace) helps clear all the cobwebs and put perspective on things. Yes, I'm in the sh*t, but yes I'm also now tackling it and taking positive action....
My current training is 6 days a week (Monday I get to rest, yay) but at least in that time I can't be spending money or eating.....

janeypoo

Small win today. Sold 3 things on ebay last night for £54.50 so transferred that straight to CC2. Trying to hit the biggest interest rate first!

janeypoo

So, what would you do?

I have £23 in my purse. Part of me wants to put it into the bank and put it straight to a credit card. But the rest of me wants to see how much store-cupboard food I can get for this to save money later......

Do I challenge myself to a week's shopping on this?

At least I haven't spent it yet

snowscreamer

janeypoo wrote: »

So, what would you do?

I have £23 in my purse. Part of me wants to put it into the bank and put it straight to a credit card. But the rest of me wants to see how much store-cupboard food I can get for this to save money later......

Do I challenge myself to a week's shopping on this?

At least I haven't spent it yet

I would check YNAB to see how much you have spent already on food this month vs how much you budgeted, and go from there!
But seriously, the great thing about YNAB is that cash in your hand is no different to money in your bank account - it's all budgeted as one. Try and wait until you are starting to run low on food before doing a food shop at all. And don't go to the supermarket when you are hungry!!
We tend to do our main food shop online which gives you more control over spend as you can remove items if you go over budget rather than be embarrassed at the till. I still tend to end up a little over though (working on it!)

janeypoo

Thanks Snowscreamer. I'd like to get to the point where I have a "set" weekly menu, and therefor online grocery cart is remembered and easy. What do you do about the delivery fee? Do you find that this is better than the potential overspending if you go in person?

My nearest "big" supermarket, ie not an Express or Local is quite far away, about 12 miles, so the expense of fuel and time wasting would probably just get eaten up by the delivery charge.

Plans for the weekend will definitely be to get a meal plan going. Nutrition is super important to me at the moment, due to marathon training, but it's all ultaimtely good, clean food that means buying it in the rawest (and cheapest?) form. So no packet foods or ready meals is the aim.

snowscreamer

janeypoo wrote: »

Thanks Snowscreamer. I'd like to get to the point where I have a "set" weekly menu, and therefor online grocery cart is remembered and easy. What do you do about the delivery fee? Do you find that this is better than the potential overspending if you go in person?

My nearest "big" supermarket, ie not an Express or Local is quite far away, about 12 miles, so the expense of fuel and time wasting would probably just get eaten up by the delivery charge.

Plans for the weekend will definitely be to get a meal plan going. Nutrition is super important to me at the moment, due to marathon training, but it's all ultaimtely good, clean food that means buying it in the rawest (and cheapest?) form. So no packet foods or ready meals is the aim.

We use Ocado (I know not very MSE but the drivers are good, the range is good and the Waitrose own is decent quality). We pay a monthly subscription of £2.99 to their "SmartPass" scheme which allows unlimited deliveries Tuesday-Thursday plus 10% off some top brands.
I'm pretty sure that will work out cheaper than petrol (even excluding overspends in store). We are lucky as although we are quite rural there is a big out-of-town Sainsbury's in a nearby village, probably just over 3 miles away. But we only use it when we have people coming over and weren't organised enough to plan ahead and get Ocado delivery.

DebtFree2012

Found you

I'd put the money to the CC.

janeypoo

I did it!

£23 on to CC2.

Every day I go home and hope for a Balance Transfer offer to CC3. It has a £1500 limit but it'd save money.

Other tasks for this weekend, in addition to meal planning, is to sell my BMX. It's a really good one, so should get well over £100 for the frame alone. An it's currently not getting the love and use it deserves so should be set free!!

janeypoo

Well it came, as I'd been hoping! A 0% BT for 6 months (before it hikes back up to 24.9%). So I've just tried to transfer £1350 on to CC3, as there's a 3% fee for the BT and need £100 spare according to the T's and C's.

Fingers crossed!!