£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Wysiwyg49

Just to divert the topic from teaspoons :rotfl: I think I've fallen into a trap with a zero interest balance transfer...maybe someone on here can advise.

I transferred one lump to a 0% card and it expires in Sep 2018. Failed to get my overspending under control as quick as I thought (ever the optimist) and transferred some more later, to the same card. But the offer had changed and the exp date of the 0% for that extra ££ is Oct 2017. I am paying it off as planned, BUT just realised the order they apply the payments is to the oldest balance first.

So this means, after Oct this year I will pay interest on part of the balance! Unlikely I'll pay it all off by then. Should I get another 0% card and move it before then? (This started out as a 2 year plan so Sept 2018 is still fine.)

Treadingonplaymobil

Wysiwyg49 wrote: »

Just to divert the topic from teaspoons :rotfl: I think I've fallen into a trap with a zero interest balance transfer...maybe someone on here can advise.

I transferred one lump to a 0% card and it expires in Sep 2018. Failed to get my overspending under control as quick as I thought (ever the optimist) and transferred some more later, to the same card. But the offer had changed and the exp date of the 0% for that extra ££ is Oct 2017. I am paying it off as planned, BUT just realised the order they apply the payments is to the oldest balance first.

So this means, after Oct this year I will pay interest on part of the balance! Unlikely I'll pay it all off by then. Should I get another 0% card and move it before then? (This started out as a 2 year plan so Sept 2018 is still fine.)

One of the reasons we have had to get a new 0% deal is exactly the same thing (although we knew at the time we did the second balance transfer that was the case, we just didn't have any choice at the time). I think the most sensible thing, if you're likely to be accepted for a 0% is to apply for one a few weeks before the 0% expires. The catch is that it has to be for the entire balance, as they'll presumably transfer any balance from the longest 0% deal first too.

Treadingonplaymobil

Whoop, final coat of paint done on the front of the house - started painting at 7am and was done by 10am (tiny house front! The joys of living in a titchy bungalow), including the very dingy rough rendered low wall between us and the neighbours. It all looks so much smarter out there now. Can't wait to get the little fence up at the front and put our plants out. I would say the makeover would be complete then, but I've decided today that I want to chisel out some old bricks lining the path and bringing the gravel right up to the edge of the path.

Also managed to declutter and clean our horrible little utility/downstairs toilet, and it looks slightly more civilised in there. It's got a horrible ancient pink bathroom suite, but because it's in a single storey annexe, it's likely to be demolished if/when we do any sort of extension, so it seems mad to spend money on it (see, I can be sensible!).

Today hasn't quite been a NSD as I snuck out to buy an aero bar earlier, but other than that and a pot of cream, it's been spend-free. And DH managed to only spend on Saturday sweets with the DC, despite being out with them for about 5 hours (3 hours of it on a walk with Beaver group, but they took snacks and lunch). There's hope for us yet.

Have been contemplating all the camping gear we need (a little) and want (a lot). I need to get all our camping kit out and have a proper look at what we have and what state it's all in. I always have The Fear the first time I get our tent out each year - it's a beautiful big canvas bell tent, but I always worry it's going to have been fractionally damp when it went away and have gone mouldy, despite us leaving it in a room with a dehumidifier for a week before packing it up (bell tent = another investment purchase that I absolutely love). We are camping five times (some weekends, some longer) between mid-July and the end of August :eek:

to do today:
1. Try again to tidy and declutter the utility room, which has become a bit of a dumping ground. done.
2. Knit a little more of the socks for my mum's birthday present. done.
3. Plan budget Father's Day gift/activity. Have been having a think about this and no real inspiration is striking. Have decided to visit a local tent show (I know. The glamour) as we need new sleeping mats (currently have cheap deflating airbed) and they're likely to have some out to try, then we can hunt online to get them cheaper.
4. Check whether we have any more homemade candles, and whether I need to order essential oils to make more if not. still not done.
5. Menu plan and shopping list for next week - needs to come in under £70, preferably under £60 to allow for top ups. not done yet, will do tomorrow morning before DH takes the DC shopping.
6. Check DC1's cub camp packing list and see if we need to plan on buying anything. not done
7. Prep some work social media posts for next week, as I am not keeping on top of daily posting at the minute. not done.

to do this week:
1. finish painting the pickets for the front fence. have managed a few more, hoping to get another batch done tomorrow
2. plan June's working time (still haven't 'gone back' to work thanks to half term). Done!
3. roughly plan out summer working time (i.e. where I can squeeze in the odd hour while the DC are on holiday). done.
4. apply for new 0% balance transfer card. Done, accepted, DFD recalculated.
5. research utilities providers - I suspect we can move again and save a little bit. Done. No real saving, but have avoided a price rise.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 18: Day 1

Morning! The sun is due to put in an appearance here today, so I'm hoping to get a few laundry loads out on the line.

I have miles more on my list than I am actually likely to achieve today - the list in my bullet journal today has a slightly crazy 33 things on it. Wonder how many I'll have ticked off by the end of the day. For starters I'm just about to do menu plan and use My Supermarket to keep it within budget. After the overspends in the first few days of the month I am down to a weekly food budget of £70pw, so am hoping to get it <£60 to allow for top ups.

to do today:
1. menu plan and shopping list.
2. Paint another batch of fence pickets.
3. Chisel out some bricks next to the garden path to see how it looks.
4. Laundry x1,000,000
5. Mend DS2's shorts
6. Mend DS1's school trousers
7. Plan next week's work out.
8. Few hours work.
9. Empty shed with DH and deliver junk (broken old cupboard and table that were there when we moved in) to the tip.

to do this week:
1. Make picket fence panels.
2. Finish digging trench and gravelling under fence location.
3. Go through camping stuff and plan what we need for the summer's camping trips.
4. Keep focusing on smaller business while main business is quiet - made a couple of sales yesterday, the attention does pay off.
5. As my mum about the chair and relist it with better description (assuming it doesn't sell by Tue).

Weekly budget round up
Last week's debt total £56,216.10
This week's debt total £56,462.86
Total paid off last week -£246.76 (increase due to balance transfer fee)
Grand total paid off £2,145.37

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 18: Day 1

Wow, busy day. Got lots done, including about a million loads of laundry, so now have ironing pile of doom and somehow still have laundry in the basket. This seems unreasonable. I added an extra 5 items to my list today, making a whopping 38, but managed to cross off a moderately impressive 22 items, so a mere 16 to carry forward to tomorrow :T . I did sort some annoying boring chores like setting up security key on my phone for online banking and swapping over DS2's school trousers for the next size up though, two jobs which have been moving from daily list to daily list for at least a week.

Was very impressed with my menu planning and DH's Lidl/Sainsburys shopping - the total for the week was £51.09. I did have to wiggle some things round in My Supermarket to get it that low, and be selective about what we stock up on this week - we needed big bags of rice and lentils as had run out, so a couple of things, like stain remover, have had to be postponed until next week. However, that does give us a little leeway for a top up shop, plus hopefully a couple of quid leftover at the end of the week (unheard of in recent weeks!).

to do today:
1. menu plan and shopping list. done, very successfully.
2. Paint another batch of fence pickets. done. Have realised that I don't have enough paint, so will need to fork out on some more at some stage.
3. Chisel out some bricks next to the garden path to see how it looks. not done, but DH did angle grind away the base of some concrete fence posts that were in the way of the new picket fence, so some progress in the front garden.
4. Laundry x1,000,000. Done.
5. Mend DS2's shorts. Not done.
6. Mend DS1's school trousers. Not done.
7. Plan next week's work out. Done.
8. Few hours work. Done, amazingly, in between everything else.
9. Empty shed with DH and deliver junk (broken old cupboard and table that were there when we moved in) to the tip. Shed emptied, but junk is sat in garden as the tip closed earlier than we realised. At least we checked before loading up the car! Need to sort out all the remaining stuff at some stage.

to do this week:
1. Make picket fence panels.
2. Finish digging trench and make gravel channel under fence location.
3. Go through camping stuff and plan what we need for the summer's camping trips.
4. Keep focusing on smaller business while main business is quiet - made a couple of sales yesterday, the attention does pay off.
5. As my mum about the chair and relist it with better description (assuming it doesn't sell by Tue).

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 18: Day 2

Just remembered another good MSE thing I did yesterday. I have two CCs that I don't use, one with a limit of £2k and one £8k (this used to be my 'everyday spending' one which we were constantly spending on then doing balance transfers into 0% deals). I closed the £2k one (don't even have a card for that one, but it's an HSBC one leftover from my student account days, and I could theoretically get a card and spend on it) and reduced the limit on the other to £3k - this is essentially our 'emergency fund' while we don't have one, as it's the only cc we have with no 0% balance on it - i haven't used it since LBM, so I'm comfortable keeping it - the CC isn't kept in my wallet. This has reduced our available credit by £5k, which I think just helps my occasional 'ooh, I have tons of credit available' mindset, and hopefully will also help with any future mortgage/0% applications. In a few months we will also be able to close the MBNA card which now only has a balance of £650ish since transferring it to the barclaycard (which has always had a £15k limit, so didn't need to be increased to absorb the MBNA balance) so that will be another £9k of available credit gone. Feels good and productive to get those things done, even though they don't actually affect our debt.

to do today:
1. Ironing (the pile is towering over me on the sofa as I type)
2. Paint another batch of fence pickets.
3. Chisel out some bricks next to the garden path to see how it looks.
4. get another couple of laundry loads done
5. Mend DS2's shorts.
6. Mend DS1's school trousers.
7. Pack and post orders for smaller business.
8. Work on newsletter for larger business.
9. Reply to some work enquiries.
10. Declutter and clean our room (finally have finished downstairs by doing a room a day).
11. Do some more knitting on my mum's socks.
12. Book camping weekend with friends for August.
13. Delete £3k limit cc from the 'wallet' on the computer so I can't be tempted to use it for online shopping at Christmas or similar.

to do this week:
1. Make picket fence panels.
2. Finish digging trench and make gravel channel under fence location.
3. Go through camping stuff and plan what we need for the summer's camping trips.
4. Keep focusing on smaller business while main business is quiet - made a couple of sales yesterday, the attention does pay off.
5. As my mum about the chair and relist it with better description (assuming it doesn't sell by Tue).

stoplurking

Hi ToP

Serial lurker here, I love reading your diary and look for update every morning. You're doing really well, your mindset is shifting even if slightly held back by teaspoons etc!

Re item 3 on this week's epic list, just thought I'd say that Aldi are doing camping stuff as part of their Special buys promotion sometime in the next week or two. Might be some things you identify as needs that you can get there and they're usually reasonably priced, good quality etc.

Good luck with it all. X

Edit - just noticed they have festival-type camping stuff on offer at present. The other camping stuff goes on sale Sunday 18th June. You never know, might be worth a look. X

enthusiasticsaver

Reducing credit available is sensible in your situation I think but bear in mind that on mortgage credit scoring they look at credit availability against credit used and high percentage of credit used is frowned on. Saying that I still think if you have the mindset of I have credit available therefore I can spend then reducing ideally the number of cards and limits is a good idea.

How are you getting on with monthly spending pots and do you have one for home improvements to do some of these smaller jobs until you are in a position to do extension/alterations?

Silver_Queen

TOPM your to-do list exhausts me every day just by reading it!

I just wanted to echo what enthusiasticsaver is saying...as far as I recall, I thought it was best to have a large amount of available unspent credit rather than having less credit but all of it utilised. Do you have the willpower to keep the cards but not use them? Or maybe cut up the physical cards but don't close the account?

Treadingonplaymobil

I'm aware of the theory that lots of unused credit is good but (a) I wasn't comfortable with having that much available, given my, ahem, spending history and (b) DH is the one with the credit 'problem' in that all the cards with big balances are in his name, because it's always easier to get a card as an employed person than a self employed, so he has always applied for the new 0%s. I have one £18 direct debit for work that gets paid on my remaining CC every month and then paid off in full, so my personal use of available credit (excluding mortgage) on paper is about 0.6% even with new £3k limit.