£50k to zero - made it across the finish line

One-step-at-a-time

I ended up with a £2.65 spend yesterday thanks to yellow stickers! My haul was: three packs of pitta bread (to freeze, for lunch supplies) at 5p each, a fresh loaf from the bakery at 20p, Sweet potato wedges with dip to feed 4 for 70p, and a main course steak and pasta meal for two for £1.60. So I went over on my planned spend (and adjusted the meal plan to compensate), but got a main meal, a side, and three weeks of work lunch ingredients for my trouble. Ten days to payday and still on track.

One-step-at-a-time

Three days to payday and in the clear! An ebay item sold which meant that I can make £30 in overpayments and not run out of money before Friday. We have our meals planned for the rest of the week, the only thing likely to run out is milk, and I've got £6.28 in cash which will be more than enough for the odds and ends that are needed. Any money left over on Thursday night will be chucked at the card too.

One-step-at-a-time

Another flying update - I made it to payday still solvent. August is an expensive month (wedding up north, anniversary party in the midlands - couple of tanks of fuel and a hotel needed) but I'm hoping that the fund-juggling mojo will be strong.

Good news is that MBNA have reinstated my balance transfer offer, which means I can tart a bit of balance between cards a couple times, the net effect of which will be that at least £3k will drop from 4.9% to 3.9% for three years, and another £3k will remain at 4.9% for a few months longer than it's currently fixed for (all with no transfer fees incurred). Yes, it would be nice if I had some low fee 0% offers coming through, but I'll take any positive move that I can, and this bout of juggling will save me at least £90 over the duration of the offer, more if Hfax renew their offer next month and I have a few more weeks to play ping pong.

One-step-at-a-time

Signature update. The debt in my name has gone up, because I've agreed to use some of my balance transfer to take on the huge car repair bill that hubby had no choice but to put on the CC. It means a backslide of a couple of months, but makes far more sense at 3.9% than at 14.9%. I am feeling a touch deflated but I'm not going to let it derail me.

More annoying than that, the dishwasher died last night - looks like an electronic fault. Haven't yet investigated whether it can be a DIY repair. If it's truly dead, DH will probably kick up a fuss, but it's definitely not essential that we replace it. We've had a good 16 years out of it at least.

A couple of small ebay sales this week means another £20 will arrive in the CC pot shortly, which is a tiny silver lining. The decluttering for ebay has ground to a halt again purely because we've had a lot going on the last couple of weeks, but the week ahead is actually totally clear, so I'm optimistic that I should be able to get some more done.

All but two of my bill payments have gone out now, so it's almost time to revisit the August budget and see just how frugal we have to be over the next three weeks. I did get an email at work this morning about this year's pay negotiations and it's looking like we will get a raise effective August 1st for the first time in a long while, in the region of £20/month after tax.

One-step-at-a-time

OK, I redid the budget at lunchtime and it's made me very grumpy! I am really not happy with the concept of just paying the scheduled payments this month! However, this month's budget completely blows, due to the expense of the last few days. After bills I have £240 left in the bank; £45 of this is needed for my commute, the rest has to pay for three weeks of groceries and fuel and anything else that crops up.

Right, positive thoughts...
I did the latest bit of balance transfer at lunchtime. I redid the maths and figured that it was worth using the HFax 0% transfer for 15 months at 3% fee; I may not have paid it off by the end of the offer but it will save me more than £10/month in charges/interest.

Plan of action for this evening:
1) Put my little travel camera and a couple of lenses up for sale on ebay (it's a £3 final selling fee day today so that's given me a kick up the backside to try to shift the pricier stuff).
2) Respond to a job enquiry (potential earnings £150 before tax)
3) Photograph some Lego that a colleague has expressed an interest in
4) Log in to HMRC to figure out the tax rebate application (I have been dragging my heels on this for a whopping three months, which is really stupid as there's money owed to me)
5) Check my Circle balance on the offchance I have a couple of quid in there that I've forgotten about.

Those few small actions between them could potentially lead to more than £1000 off the debt over the next few weeks. I'll probably run out of energy before I get it all done, but the faster I act, the less interest I'll be paying down the line.

Drawingaline

The weather is so nice, maybe an outdoor picnic somewhere for your wedding anniversary? Splurge £5 on petrol to go somewhere with a view? Obviously this depends where abouts you live, but most places in the uk are a few miles from some sort of countryside or nice park.

One-step-at-a-time

I think if anything we'll probably defer it for a week until payday and allocate the entertainment part of next month's budget to a non-pricey cream tea at a cafe we both love - neither of us are great fans of picnics, and I've had just about enough of wasps hanging around my food already this year!
At least we've never been big on presents so that aspect of it will be no different to normal

One-step-at-a-time

Update on plan of action:
1) Put my little travel camera and a couple of lenses up for sale on ebay - partially done - camera listed, lenses to do next time

2) Respond to a job enquiry (potential earnings £150 before tax) - DONE

3) Photograph some Lego that a colleague has expressed an interest in - NOT DONE - if I am conscious early enough in the morning I can take pics on my phone in daylight and email them to her.

4) Log in to HMRC to figure out the tax rebate application (I have been dragging my heels on this for a whopping three months, which is really stupid as there's money owed to me)- NOT DONE but I know the score now - I need to apply via my SA form which I was planning to submit later this month anyway, and I can claim all the way back to 2014-15. Might ring them in the morning anyway for clarification; they may take pity and sort it over the phone as it's for my FT employment not my self-employed bits.

5) Check my Circle balance on the offchance I have a couple of quid in there that I've forgotten about.- DONE - no money in there.

Bonus: Yellow label bonanza. Sorted out a good chunk of this week's grocery shopping for the grand total of £9.25 (saving £14) - all stuff that was already on the shopping list, including freezable meat marked down by 80%, and four pints of skimmed milk which will last a good few days for 10p.

One-step-at-a-time

Good start to the morning. Online banking was done for the day by 8am, the last but one of the large bills for the month has been paid, and another £10 has been sliced off BCard from one of the ebay sales.

If I keep the monthly payments at their current level, the end of year balance (accounting for interest) would be around £1810, so my motivation for the rest of this year is to get shot of the rest. I need to raise £362 extra per month from now until the end of December :eek: . It's a pretty aggressive target and would mean that the DFD would come forward by 2-3 months

Drawingaline

Cream tea sounds good. It's amazing what you see as a 'splurge' when you are intensively paying down debt lol!

Good luck with the raising extra cash. I really ought to look at selling things but I just don't have the patience.