Ready to be debt free

DD265

Wow what a boring month it has been finance wise. I guess that's a good thing really.

I have thought about following the Payment A Day thread but I already kind of do something similar with Lloyds Bank Save The Change although that goes into savings. I must ask OH to contribute some of what he owes so I can pay down a credit card. I have been trying to decide which card to focus on or whether to split, but the reality is although I know January is a bumper wage, I don't know what it'll be so I can't decide yet.

My passport has arrived (the pages seem very different to the old one) so that's a good thing and no stress about that.

One of the mogs is in to the vets on Friday; hopefully very minor. I do have a little money set aside for vets bills in the joint account but I'm not sure whether it'll be enough.

Pay day next week thankfully!

DD265

:eek: I need to build that vet fees pot up much much faster. I know what to expect with horse vet costs but wrongly assumed that small animals would be significantly cheaper because you take them there and the vet can therefore see more in a shorter period of time etc.

I don't begrudge paying it by any means and we'll go back on Monday and I'll pay it again (hopefully less though as we shouldn't need more "stuff" to walk away with). I think I'll ask for an itemised receipt next week though then at least I know the basic consultation fee for the future.

Most importantly, Moglet is OK and will be a lot more comfortable now.

Bobarella

Vets bills can be very stressful. You want the best for your pets of course.

DD265

Bobarella wrote: »

Vets bills can be very stressful. You want the best for your pets of course.

Absolutely, and in the grand scheme of things £70 (plus another £50 I guess next week) isn't that much. It's just more than I was expecting!

I'll probably increase the amount I pay into the joint account every month to set aside extra for vets bills until we have a really nice buffer there. I don't think I'd notice an additional £50 a month disappearing right after pay day, whereas £70 right at the end of the month is more noticeable and still harder to come by.

I set up a standing order for £50 a month to my savings account, in addition to the Lloyds Bank Save the Change which puts maybe £20 in a month, and next week I shall have £500 in there. :beer:

Bobarella

£500 nice!!

DD265

Well I get to test the theory about horse vs cat vets fees, with an emergency out of hours call out to a very ill pony this evening. Thankfully it looks like he's going to be OK but he gave me a scare.

Mom has been holding onto pony's bank account so we'll use some of that to cover the vets bills; it's what it's there for. The insurance wouldn't have covered it anyway as he's only insured against accidents, not illness.

I did try to do some shopping today but failed. I wanted to buy a single save the date card for our wedding, to give to a relative with dementia who keeps asking about the date. I am not going to bother with save the dates normally. Couldn't find any save the date cards anywhere, nevermind just a single one! Will go to Etsy or something.

DD265

My saddle is gone at last, and the £500 cash I received for it is sat in my purse ready to be paid in tomorrow.

So far I have £378 coming in tomorrow from work expenses, the above £500 and £250 from my OH currently sat in the joint account. I'm expecting to have around £750 to "play with" from my salary. I'll need to work out budget for the trip to Dubai as I can't expect it all to be expenses paid, plus there are other non-essentials that I budget for.

I'm debating whether to try and pay off the Barclaycard in full - it currently stands at £1400 - or to pay a chunk off that and a chunk of the MBNA card which is £3000. I could of course also put some into savings. Both cards are interest free but I think it'd be motivating to have one totally paid off - on the other hand the higher balance of the MBNA card bothers me! I could also hold on to the money to pay the next venue deposit via debit card rather than credit card; the credit cards are interest free for now after all. We have had an offer from a relative who's hoping to be able to pay the deposit for us, but I've heard enough horror stories to not count the contribution until it's in our bank account.

It's very unlikely that I'll have another opportunity like this, this year, so I want to make a wise decision!

DD265

So it turns out I probably could have paid off the Barclaycard in full, but I haven't.

Instead I've paid £300 (over 10% of the outstanding balance) off the MBNA card, and my direct debit for £100 will go on the Barclaycard. I need to decide whether to make that up to 10% or pay 10% on top.

For now though the remainder of my "spare" money is set to one side and I'm going to play it by ear. The biggest risk is that I know it's there and end up burning through it so I have to exercise control.

I was tempted to move it to my savings account which would almost give me that 1-month's-bills buffer I was after, but then I'll be extremely reluctant to withdraw it and I think it'd be more useful paid off the credit cards.

I want to get the Barclaycard into a position where my £100 a month direct debit will see it paid off before January as that's when interest becomes payable. That way I can focus on the MBNA card and just let the Barclaycard tick along nicely.

DD265

I just logged into both credit card accounts and at some point my MBNA limit became £8100. :eek: I'm not going to reduce it right now simply because I don't know what I'll be doing with either card at the end of the year when the current deals run out. I'm confident that I'll get another deal out of Barclaycard but I've not had to try that with MBNA yet. I guess it also means that my usage:available credit ratio looks better.

I was thinking about paying the Barclaycard down to £1000 and the MBNA card down to £2500. That leaves me with £500 of my currently "spare" cash should something go awry and I'm feeling a bit like it might at the moment. I'm reluctant to pay the MBNA card by standing order (I don't trust that it'll hit on the right dates etc, and I can't DD a fixed amount) but I could manually round the minimum up to £250, which would see both cards cleared in December assuming no new spending/additional over payments.

It could just be because I'm feeling ill, and between the horse/cats they've been racking up vets bills (and I know I have a large wedding deposit to pay next month) but I am struggling with the thought of making those payments. At the same time I worry that I'll end up burning through it. I'm trying to convince myself that paying down the cards is way better than any retail therapy (and that neither are going to cure me) but it hasn't worked yet.

Bobarella

I saw save the date cards in Next today. Don't know if you still want them.