I am being upgraded from Mum to Nan - I need a plan!

beanielou

Have a good day

mark55man

Lovely diary thank you.

As you are doing so well, and I think you should (and do) trust yourself to manage your money since your LBM have you thought about using a 0% purchase card?

We did this and it worked to take the sting out of a 0% BT cliff edge we were facing, and which I didnt want to incur another 3% transferring.

We applied for sainsbury's 31month 0% deal - (as a bonus you get extra nectar points for sainsbury's) then put all our routine shoipping on it and paid the minimum for it, but paid the remaining balance off the 0%BT cards. Effectively doing a BT to the new card and not increasing overall debt.

You mentioned you had a monthly card you paid off in full why not replace this with the 0% purchase card. It seems like you have a good few months before your cliff edge so could make a bit of a dent in it (and might let you use your emergency pots to clear completely without completely draining them).

Anyway - not for the feint hearted as it adds complexity and another CC into the mix, but it worked well for me and allowed me to avoid a £4K BT which would have cost £120-£160

Hope this helps - keep up the good work, and good luck

Mum2Nan

mark88man wrote: »

Lovely diary thank you.

As you are doing so well, and I think you should (and do) trust yourself to manage your money since your LBM have you thought about using a 0% purchase card?

We did this and it worked to take the sting out of a 0% BT cliff edge we were facing, and which I didnt want to incur another 3% transferring.

We applied for sainsbury's 31month 0% deal - (as a bonus you get extra nectar points for sainsbury's) then put all our routine shoipping on it and paid the minimum for it, but paid the remaining balance off the 0%BT cards. Effectively doing a BT to the new card and not increasing overall debt.

You mentioned you had a monthly card you paid off in full why not replace this with the 0% purchase card. It seems like you have a good few months before your cliff edge so could make a bit of a dent in it (and might let you use your emergency pots to clear completely without completely draining them).

Anyway - not for the feint hearted as it adds complexity and another CC into the mix, but it worked well for me and allowed me to avoid a £4K BT which would have cost £120-£160

Hope this helps - keep up the good work, and good luck

I have worked out how to use the quote function by accident rather than design. Joy!

Hi Mark88

Thanks for providing me with another alternative to the dreaded balance transfer with its associated costs (even though they are generally cheaper than paying interest). I hadn’t even thought about going down this route and I like this option. The but is coming..

The everyday spending card is already with Sainsbury’s who I have been with for over 6 years. I would need to investigate other long term 0% deals but don’t know if I will get approval for another card until my debt has come down a bit further. I’ve not applied for any credit this year, so I am going to think about this as soon as Barclaycard 1 has been paid off on August 1. This will also give me time to get used to my new adjusted budgets so I don’t dig myself into a deeper hole as appreciate it will take discipline.

Wardrobes and drawers have been gone through but as expected got rid of very little as I am generally good with spending in this area. A couple of old jumpers have been binned along with two handbags that looked like they had seen better days. All bags are now neatly stored and the linen ones will go through the wash to freshen them up. I found £8.93 in loose change along with 3 lighters, a few cigarettes (from my pre-vaping days and were quickly scrunched up and binned before temptation got the better of me), old receipts, mouthwash, handwipes, half opened pack of tissues, 4 packets of half opened mints an antibacterial hand wash oh and the obligatory crumbs. 3 or 4 of the bags have been used this year so the mind boggles.

I also now have a small pile of ironing which I knew I had but pretended I didn’t by shoving it to the back of the shelf (out of sight, out of mind logic, a bit like my debt last year really). I iron the minimum. I try and buy clothes based on this condition so will try and get that done before I go back to work. The incentive for this is I will have 3 extra skirts to choose from for work this week but I am not sure it’s incentive enough. Remember the ironing water? I am going to use some of this that is standing idly in the storage / airing cupboard.

The shelf in the wardrobe in the spare room has a few crates of mainly decorations so am not going through those just yet. I found some birthday cards still in their bag tucked between them. I recall buying them in the Card Fy, 10 for a £1 but that would have been at least last December so have added them to the card box I bought from a book club many moons ago to use in future instead of buying ones at the last minute for infinitely more than 10p.

Meal plan is complete. I have prepared salad for the next 2 days.

Tonight - Prawn & avocado salad
Tuesday - chicken salad
Wednesday - smoked haddock, poached egg and saut!ed courgette (0 haddock left)
Thursday - HM shepherd’s pie (2 portions left)
Friday - garlic prawn linguine (almost 2 large bags)
Saturday - HM pea & gammon soup with ciabatta (1 portion left) – didn’t have this last week due to meal planning going awry from Wednesday onwards
Sunday - Dinner at Mum & Dads

Notes in brackets to remind me what I have / run out of.

Am running very low on washing machine tablets. I always buy Sainsbury’s own brand so will have to see if I can stretch them to last until the next visit.

Work lunches already organised from last week.

Confession Time:
I have booked a 3 day break in July in the UK. The whole family are going so hotels have been paid for at no cost to me thankfully. I have decided if a miracle should bestow me and I have any budgets left from the monthly entertainment fund this will be carried over for the next couple of months to help towards fuel, parking and meal costs. Will have to dip into savings if necessary. I could have said no but (a) I didn’t want to as we will all have a good time and (b) many questions would have been asked and my family don’t know about my debt.

mark55man

I'm glad you liked the idea, although credit (ha!) to you for being cautious.

Don't beat yourself up about a few days off, family times are always important. If pushed to do anything too extravagant you might decline by saying you are being frugal at the moment so that you a pot for your new grandson when he arrives.

It does help to share stuff generally, but sometimes its best to execute your plan on your own until you have made good progress. Plus we're all here for debt busting support. As you can see from my signature, if I had half your discipline I would be well clear by now, but we're all getting there at out own pace

Mum2Nan

What a contrast in the weather from the last few days. It's been thundering, lightning, heavy rain and misty for the past 3 hours or so and with no let-up in sight and the temperature has dropped several degrees. The thunder was so loud at one point it sent both L&H running under my bed. So pleased to be home today.

I am already thinking ahead to Thursday, pay day and Friday, debt reduction day. Time is flying by and it's because this year I have been mentally living one month ahead of everyone outside of debt world. Once June's main D/Ds have gone out it will then be July for me! I don't think having the 'credit card new month' a week after payday is helping either so am going to see if I can bring the statement date forward a few days.

Mark88, I am not really disciplined as the level of debt will confirm and my antics on Saturday night and the agreement to the family trip yesterday will also testify. It's only since I signed up here that I've really stuck to a budget although I had reined my spending in considerably between December and then. I do wonder how much farther ahead I might have been had I signed up sooner.

I don't feel too guilty for agreeing to the family trip. I had planned days out for summer anyway although this would have soaked my entertainment budget so will swap them around. I'm not paying for the hotel which will be the most expensive part of it. Days out would still have required fuel and some spending money. I think I have convinced myself enough now!!

Other than anyone reading this diary, no-one, family or friends know about my debt and that's the way it will stay. My parents are from the 'save before you buy' generation so would be shocked and a little disappointed I suspect but even more importantly I wouldn't want them to worry which I know they would. If, when the time comes and decide to take out a 0% purchase card and get declined (no doubt on affordability), I still get regular offers from both Barclaycard and Halifax so will just have to balance transfer between the two. As the balances continue downwards, I don't see the offers drying up anytime soon. The idea being that I will only have to balance transfer the absolute minimum amounts.

As the weather has been so dismal I have been doing some budget reconciliations and it's all looking good so far:

Cats: £3.50/£45: Definitely won't need to use the rest of this pot as I still have plenty of food, treats and a 1.5 bags of cat litter.
Grocery Shopping: £49.70/£100 or £150 (£250 on SoA).
Fuel: £30 / £50
Entertainment: £19.51/£35
Miscellaneous: £35.99 + £25 Nectar points
Health & Beauty: £18.49 + £4.98 Boots points
Presents: £5

Anything left at the end of the month next week for me will be split 50% debt and 50% family trip. I am going to budget £200 for this which should be plenty, hopefully.

Chicken salad for dinner tonight is not sounding too appealing right now but I have to stick to the meal plan as the other 3 are set for the working week for quickness.

Mum2Nan

One of the items I put on eBay last week sold for £20 plus P&P. Very happy with this as it was the more expensive of the two. Just waiting for payment to be made and then will use it towards Halifax 2. I have relisted the other one.

The tracked cash back on my Quidco account has risen to £24.19. Hope it all gets confirmed soon.

No money has been spent today.

A good day.

beanielou

Good news on ebay.
Glad you have had a good day

Mum2Nan

Today have repaid my savings account with the £315 I borrowed to part pay the two D/Ds to Halifax 2 and BC1. In addition, I paid the balance of the D/D to BC1 so no D/D will be coming out for June.

Have also transferred savings to cover my pots.

eBay item has been paid.

Other money spent today:

£5 for another present contribution at work. This should be it workwise until July I think
£20 for god daughter’s birthday present.

Sainsbury’s have agreed to bring my closing statement date forward so will start nearer the beginning of the month from July.

Tomorrow, loan comes out which will take me under £21K.

It will be a trip to Sainsbury’s on Saturday morning, with a list as I will need fuel, milk, bread, fruit & veg. Will remember to pay half card and half points this time.

Work has been very busy but managed to get away on time. It was touch and go mid-afternoon.

Another good day, all in all.

beanielou

A good day indeed

Mum2Nan

A mixed bag of news today!

I received an offer on my other item I relisted on eBay but it was a bit less than I was hoping for so sent a counter-offer which was accepted and I've already received payment. I have two other gift sets I may put on but I did give half a bag of lotions and potions to my neighbour who works as a mobile hairdresser in sheltered accommodation who thought they would make good use of it. The old stuff was binned.

A work colleague is going through a hard time at the moment I think. We've known each other for around 13 years and get on very well so hoping she feels she can confide in me or someone else at least at some point. I did suggest lunch, coffee or a drink after work next week (not very MSE I know but sometimes needs must) but she was very non-committal.

I've been food shopping tonight at both Sainsbury's and Aldi. It's a bit of a hassle and effort on a Friday night but it was surprisingly fairly quiet and I know I will be pleased in the morning. I wasn't overly impressed with Aldi, a lot of their fruit and veg had use by dates of either tomorrow or Sunday which is really no good for me as I will be having dinner at mum & dads on Sunday, having not seen them last weekend so as I had a little left over from my previous shop didn't bother. I almost stuck to my list but cat food was on offer so bought 2 boxes even though I don't need them. :mad: Total combined spend was £32.09. :mad: I forgot to get petrol even though I drove past it to get to Aldi :mad:

In MSE news, the loan payment has gone out and so did the remainder of my Halifax D/D which I thought was going out on Monday. I've adjusted my balances but the loan will go up tomorrow as I can't see the monthly interest has been applied, unless TSB are going to waiver it for this month due to the banking issues I suffered earlier last month. Wishful thinking on my part as I don't think so either

I've received a 0% until June 2020 offer from Barclaycard at a reduced fee of 2.4%. The temptation to pay off the Halifax 1 debt is certainly tempting, especially considering I am going to need to free up as much credit on Halifax to balance transfer (the minimum!) from Barclaycard early next year (assuming I don't take out or get approval for a decent length 0% purchase card) but we are only just in June and things are ticking over nicely at the moment so may be I should wait and hope for a similar offer nearer the time? This is one of the things I do dislike about being in debt is knowing what to do for the best.

Well, despite being told the weather 'could be a danger to life' we have had nothing but sunshine although it's very humid out.