Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility

enthusiasticsaver

Fantastic progress.

ChasingSunshine

Brilliant progress, you will be debt free in no time.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Oooh the home stretch. How exciting!

PositiveBalance

Hello Dr Spendlittle,


Good to have you back!


You're nearly there...keep focused...keep plodding...you won't know what hit your finances when you have it all paid off!

DrSpendLittle

'Stuff, Things, Interest and Fees' (post #310) from CC spends throughout 2015, 2016 & 2017:

January Paydown

2016-2017 Sport-related hobbies (equipment, nutrition, event fees): £2,015.83
2017 Summer Holiday: £80
2017 Music (equipment, gigs, records): £831.94
2017 Furniture: £581.30 - £516.43 (January Paydown) = £64.87
[STRIKE]2016 Xmas: £254.33[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]2016 Summer Holiday: £429.24 remaining (Original amount £921.41)[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]2016 Short break to a foreign city: £207.68[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]2015 Car service: £107.50[/STRIKE]

£1,200 pays off 2016 summer holiday, 2016 xmas and most of 2017 furniture

Previous Balance: £4,999.99
New Balance: £2,992.64
40.14% cleared

DrSpendLittle

Thanks everyone for all the positivity! Super pleased that it's nearly over! And, glad to be back. Had a manic busy start to the working year. Travelling here, there and everywhere.

My January repayments have been noted above - I've finally cleared the spends on my credit card that were attributable to my 2016 summer holiday, 2016 xmas and most of 2017 furniture.

It really is madness when you think about debt repayment in this way - I just can't imagine spending money like that now. I can't even remember what I bought everyone for xmas in 2016

In other news, I reduced my credit card limit on my B0S CC from £12K to £5K. I know I'll take a hit on my credit utilisation score as a result, but my overall utilisation is around 22% which I'm led to believe is okay. It'll be 0% in a few months anyway!

I currently have 2 empty CC's (B0S & JL). The other, B4rclaycard, has my outstanding £2,992.64 on it, interest free of course.

I've recently been thinking through what to do with them all. I am nervous about getting rid of all of them in one fell swoop (sorry Dave Ramsey!) until I have a decent amount of savings (i.e. £10K). That won't be until the end of this year at the earliest.

Part of me would like to keep the JL card as we do tend to buy furniture from JL and its nice to get the vouchers. But, I need to balance that benefit with the risk of temptation - I've been guilty in the past of credit card surfing. Naughty. I don't do that anymore but I do wonder if keeping it for the sake of potentially earning circa. £30 a year in vouchers is really worth it... Personally, I do find points / vouchers / cashback actually incentivises me to spend more than I'd planned... Probably best to bin it to be honest!

I may ditch the B0S one altogether too. It serves no purpose and I only ever used it as a balance transfer card. I have recently used it for work expenses and paid the balance off literally the next day. It's the same provider as my current account so is more convenient to use than the JL card as I see it in my online banking.

I would like to keep one card, mainly for security purposes - I was a victim of card cloning last year and whilst it didn't cost my anything, I did have no debit card for 3 working days. As a result, I feel the need to have at least one CC as a back up. Out of the three, I'm best keeping my B4rclaycard as I've had it the longest - around 20 years.

Lots to ponder!

I'm leaning towards: closing the JL card, keeping the B0S card until the B4rclaycard is cleared and then ditching the B0S card and keeping the B4rclaycard until I have £10K in savings.

DSL

enthusiasticsaver

I think if you are incentivised to spend more on a credit card to earn more in vouchers then you should get rid of it. The credit card companies rely on that so don't be sucked into that trap. Having one credit card I think is essential but I am not sure why you would need more than one. I agree keeping the Barclaycard is best if you have had that longest. When it is clear I would use it for maybe fuel or groceries and set up a direct debit to clear it in full monthly.

DrSpendLittle

Thanks Enthusiastic - I think that is precisely what I will do!

In the spirit of Wannabe's delicious sounding baking, I've just made some homemade peanut butter cookies to use up a random jar of natural peanut butter that'd been in the kitchen cupboard for yonks. Yummy.

Other than that, not a NSD as I've done an 0cado order and ordered some black jeans (thank's HHOD for all the jean chatter on your diary . Why is everything high waisted nowadays though?!?. My shape doesn't suit high waisted jeans whatsoever. Hoping low rise makes a comeback soon!

DSL

DrSpendLittle

CC Update

I cancelled my B0S credit card (the one I lowered the credit limit to £5K last week).

This is because I realised last night that I needed to keep the JL one open until March as I am due some ££s from them in vouchers and I don't want to risk losing them.

This now means I have a B4rclaycard with a limit of £11K and a balance of £2992.64 and a JL card with a limit of £2K and a balance of £0.

When I'm debt free, I'll cancel the JL card and keep the B4rclaycard for emergencies.

I'd written in the past about wanting to get rid of the B4rclycard as it was 'the one' that started the debt.

But there is something quite obstinate and contrary about keeping it, using it and never ever ever paying interest on it again. It fits my personality perfectly and I shall take great pleasure in doing just that

Not going to be a NSD - I'm making meatloaf for dinner (we have a ridiculous quantity of minced beef in the freezer!) and need to get some bits and bobs for it on the way home from work. But it'll be a LSD for sure!

DSL

DrSpendLittle

Ugh, the day is dragging and I find myself here rather than writing

Such good procrastination skills.

My jeans arrived this morning. I'm 80% sure they spark joy but I need to think about whether I want to spend £29 (40% discount, should have been £49) of my allocated £50 of personal spends on them. Will try on again when I get home. They're a bit higher on the waist than I was led to believe.

Someone mentioned Levis on another thread - think it was HHOD's. I may check them out too though that would entail a trip to a real shop in a mall. Oh the inconvenience.

Right, back to writing or my name will be mud.

DSL