Say No to Credit Cards Diary

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards

Good morning everybody,

I hope everybody had a great bank holiday weekend.

I had a few sales on ebay over the weekend taking my total profit on ebay to £115.60 this month. I am loving this decluttering and getting my house back again.

Did my first shop at Albi and it was great. I bought a extra large chicken and cooked it for dinner yesterday it was lovely. Usually I would buy one of those smaller chickens in the bag and tray and it would be enough for one meal. Not this week I purchased what I would call the normal chicken an extra large one that was actually cheaper than the usual type I would buy, and it done us yesterday and we are going to have the other half for dinner tonight. So I will be doing that again as it really did work out cheaper.

One thing I wanted to ask about Aldi. When I went it was quite early in the morning and some of the fresh food had 50% off tape on them.

Is this normal for Aldi to do this?

Is it on fruit and veg and meat?

Also, is it always in the morning as supermarkets usually do that the last thing at night?

Sorry about all the questions but I am very new to shopping at this supermarket.

I spent quite a lot of time going through my four credit cards and making a spread sheet of the different deals, expiry dates of the deals for each of the credit cards. What a job that was. However, I feel like I know what I have got to face now, where I really did not have a clue before.

So my first challenge is CC2 has a promotional deal ending 28 October 2018 and the balance left on that offer is £2112.04. The interest rate will then go up to 28.99%. So this really does need to be address and fast.

I have found a transfer deal for 8.75% for the life of the balance and a 3% transfer fee, which I am not that keen on. So with my money saving head on I have decided to pay minimum payments on the other three cards and all the extra payments can be put to try and get rid of this amount before it starts incurring interest. I am not sure if I will clear the full balance by then but I am going to give it a go.

So September and October are the months I really really really look after all the pennies and the pounds to try and get this balance paid.

Let the challenge begin. Yesterday I sold two things on ebay so I paid the ebay fees and then the balance paid it to CC2.

So the balance today is £2095.00.

Everything else is ticking a long fine, it is just this balance, so that is going to be my main challenge.

lindez - That you for looking in on me. My dad is coming a long great. In fact I am taking him to a friends tonight and he is going to stay there for a few days, which will be nice for him. The balances are coming down which is such a nice feeling. Don't get me wrong it is hard work but it will be worth it in the end. I hope all is well in your world.

Take care everybody and have a great day

SNTCC

[Deleted User]

They do get these 50% stickers out in Aldi around 8pm in my local one.

You are doing so well, and how nice of your dad to thank you like that!

jwil

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards wrote: »

Morning everybody,

What a horrible day. I am so glad I made the decision not to load the car up for the car boot sale. Fingers crossed for next time.

Woke up this morning to two sales on ebay so that takes me to £91.23 profit this month from ebay sales. I am hoping this will start to pick up when the kids go back into school. Roll on September.

So with the ebay sales, the money from my dad and gift card from my friend for helping her that means an extra £541.13 this month, which is fantastic. I know some of it is in the form of a gift card that I am going to use for food next months but I am so happy with that.

Going food shopping later and I think I am going to try Aldi this week as I never really go to this shop. So from reading all the post about people saying it is great and cheap I am going to go and do a little tester shop. I have enough money in the food kitty to last until the end of the month, which is fabulous.

Later today I am going to have a good look at all my credit cards and work out when some of the deals will be ending on the 0% as I think some of them are due to end early October. I just hope I can find a way of moving the amounts to stop me having to pay interest on the amounts. That is my main job for today as I dont really feel in control of the cards at the moment as I have no idea when all the different rates change and that is no good at all.

jwil - Thank you for stopping by. That is a good idea for the lentils and the carrots. Do you family notice when you do this? I have added Ipsos to the list for when I get around to doing survey sites. It is great news on the 8% I just cannot wait to get it to 10% now,

Any way everybody have a great day and I am going food shopping now.

Well done on the eBay sales :T

My family don't notice when I add the veg and lentils

Glad you've saved well at Aldi. We've got one but I rarely go there as the quality of the fruit and veg is terrible. It's funny how they seem to vary.

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards

Good afternoon good people of the world,

It is starting to go a little bit colder now. BUT, I am not putting the heating on yet as that is just not right for this time of year.

Tea all sorted for today. I had a look in the freezer before and it is really full which is fantastic. I still have just over £10 in the food kitty so that is well enough until the end of the month.

Moguline - Thanks for the information on the Aldi stickers I am going to try this one night when I have some room in the freezer.

So my challenge for September and October is to pay as much as possible off the cc that will start incurring interest. Its balance was £2112.04, I have made a few sales on ebay and have paid all the profit onto this card. So as off today the new balance is £2087.50. So I have got to pay off roughly £240 per week over the next 9 weeks. Wow now that is going to be a challenge.

I am really going to have to pull all the stops out with this one. I am going to achieve this by:

1. 2/3 car boot sales.
2. Ebay, Ebay, Ebay, Ebay.
3. I am going to do the coin change run around the house again. Last time I think I found about £40
and that was three months ago so I want to do that again.
4. I have also got an old diamond ring that I was given by an old boyfriend 40 years ago. I am thinking I
may call into one of the gold shops and see the value of that and the price to buy. As I really do not
want it or need it. If the price is ok I may sell it.
5. Keep food shopping to an absolute minimum,
6. Keep petrol to a minimum.
7. No eating out or takeaways,
8. If I can find any extra work I am going to grab it by the horns as they say.

I cannot think of anything else at the moment, but every spare penny is going to be paid from that debt so I can reduce the amount of interest that I have got to pay.

I hope everybody is ok and being very frugal and paying lots from all these debts. Just think when we all do not have all these payments what we can do with all the extra cash as long as it is within budget of course.

Oh I forgotten to say it is now three months since I used a credit card so I am a happy girl.

Take care

SNTCC

Rachel24

If you do it like the 1% challenge it's just 100 Payments of £20. Every time you make a £20 payment you are so much closer. You can do it so you have done so well already!

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards

jwil wrote: »

Well done on the eBay sales :T

My family don't notice when I add the veg and lentils

Glad you've saved well at Aldi. We've got one but I rarely go there as the quality of the fruit and veg is terrible. It's funny how they seem to vary.

Hi Jwil,

Thanks for dropping by. I will give that I go with veg and lentils it is better for you health wise as well as your bank balance. Win , Win !!!!!

I know what you mean about Aldi. I went to try it if I am honest. However, all the fruit and veg I purchase was great and is no different to that you would buy in Asda / Tesco. I thought I would give it a go and if the fruit and veg had fur growing on it in no time at all I would not go back again. But to be fair to them it was a very good quality. I think it depends on how busy they are.

Take care

SNTCC

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards

Rachel24 wrote: »

If you do it like the 1% challenge it's just 100 Payments of £20. Every time you make a £20 payment you are so much closer. You can do it so you have done so well already!

Hi Rachel,

Thanks for dropping in and visiting my diary. I am going to give it a go and see what happens. I am not the type of person that if I do not pay all the amount will be deflated by that and give up. I am the type of person that thinks well I gave it my all and I have paid off xx.xx which is better than sticking my head in the sand.

Take care and have a wonderful day.

SNTCC

jwil

Good luck with the challenge!

If you haven't already, consider signing up to Prolific Academic. The new 'school' year will be starting soon, and surveys might pick up. You might be able to get some pennies from there

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards

jwil wrote: »

Good luck with the challenge!

If you haven't already, consider signing up to Prolific Academic. The new 'school' year will be starting soon, and surveys might pick up. You might be able to get some pennies from there

Thanks for the information. Next week I am going to start signing up to all of these survey sites. As they say Every little helps! Thank you for taking the time to let me know about it.

Since yesterday a few things have happened. I had another sale on ebay ( I have not updated my total as yet). Also I had a letter from an old energy supplier to say I had been over charged so they are sending me a cheque to the massive value of £9.95, but it all adds up. As soon as I receive it I will bank it then pay it off the CC.

The third thing to happen today is. Work do a conference in London every year and they have asked me to go and help out over the weekend. It is in September and they pay £100 a day for Saturday and Sunday. I signed up as soon as I was asked, as you also get two night in a hotel and a food allowance for the full weekend. So I will be paid this in October. Sometimes things just all start to fit into place and I just feel like that is what is happening to me now.

I have had a look at the weather for the weekend and that also looks great so fingers and toes all crossed that it stays like that and I can go to the car boot sale with all my amazing stuff.

Tea all sorted for tonight and the washing is all on the line outside drying instead of using the money eating tumble drier.

Happy times.

I will update my signature later as I am on my break in work.

Take care everybody

SNTCC

System

You are doing really well, I love your determination and enthusiasm. I hope the weather is good for your car boot sale. As you say every penny helps with the debt busting.

Keep posting I enjoy reading your thread.