Say No to Credit Cards Diary

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards

Good Morning Everybody

WEEK 2

I cannot believe it is only a week since I started this diary. I have talked to some amazing people, thank you for all your help.

FOOD - I have withdrawn £20 from the bank and put it into the car boot sale tub so there is £240 in that now. This is the food budget for June. This is really scary as sometimes I would go to the supermarket and spend £100 - £120 in one week. Over the past few weeks I have been experimenting with different shops and looking on my supermarket in advance to see any offers. I am going to have to up this big time.

The food menu for the week has gone really well this week and did stop me buying more than I needed last week, so this is going to be something that I am going to have to use all the time.

PETROL Tomorrow I am going to go and put £50 worth of fuel in the car and I am going to try my hardest for that to last me the full month of June. This is also going to be very tough and something that I have never done. So I think I am going to have to start running again. I used to do a lot of running and don't really know why I stopped because I loved it. So my plan is all the trips to the post office, my mums, my dads are from now are going to have to be on my bike or on foot. I want to loose a stone so that will fall in line.

Yesterday I took a look at the the DD coming out of my account. I cannot do anything about the water rates they are fixed. The gas/electricity was changed about three months ago and is a really good deal, so there is no movement on that. However, I feel happier now that they have been checked.

I really do not know what has happened to ebay as I have not had one sale since the weekend. I think it is a fixture of the warm weather, kids of school and it coming to the end of the month and people waiting for payday. Just hope it changes soon.

Job s for today:

5 items listed on ebay.
Food menu for next week
Get ready for tomorrow the first day of the rest of my life when the budgets actually start.

Take care Everybody

XXxxXX

allthe7s

Morning Say No

Good luck with your ebaying. I really must photograph and list my things, I've been putting it off.

I'm impatiently waiting for my new cc statements so that I can get an updated total and make my next payments.

Have a good day x

Scott-Weiland

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards wrote: »

Good Morning Everybody

WEEK 2

I cannot believe it is only a week since I started this diary. I have talked to some amazing people, thank you for all your help.

FOOD - I have withdrawn £20 from the bank and put it into the car boot sale tub so there is £240 in that now. This is the food budget for June. This is really scary as sometimes I would go to the supermarket and spend £100 - £120 in one week. Over the past few weeks I have been experimenting with different shops and looking on my supermarket in advance to see any offers. I am going to have to up this big time.

The food menu for the week has gone really well this week and did stop me buying more than I needed last week, so this is going to be something that I am going to have to use all the time.

PETROL Tomorrow I am going to go and put £50 worth of fuel in the car and I am going to try my hardest for that to last me the full month of June. This is also going to be very tough and something that I have never done. So I think I am going to have to start running again. I used to do a lot of running and don't really know why I stopped because I loved it. So my plan is all the trips to the post office, my mums, my dads are from now are going to have to be on my bike or on foot. I want to loose a stone so that will fall in line.

Yesterday I took a look at the the DD coming out of my account. I cannot do anything about the water rates they are fixed. The gas/electricity was changed about three months ago and is a really good deal, so there is no movement on that. However, I feel happier now that they have been checked.

I really do not know what has happened to ebay as I have not had one sale since the weekend. I think it is a fixture of the warm weather, kids of school and it coming to the end of the month and people waiting for payday. Just hope it changes soon.

Job s for today:

5 items listed on ebay.
Food menu for next week
Get ready for tomorrow the first day of the rest of my life when the budgets actually start.

Take care Everybody

XXxxXX

Your doing really well keep it going.

Food and petrol/diesel are two of the nightmares re budgeting I don't know if the same has happened in your area I live in rural County Durham diesel prices in recent weeks have gone from £1.23 upto now about £1.38 in some places. Its an utter pain try shopping around with it, we get our diesel in Sainsburys £1.26 and use the good old nectar card too.

Re food my best advice is try discounters like b and m and home bargains for bits and pieces, my diets quite strict as I exercise and train a lot so I eat a lot /oatmeal/rice/pasta/quinoa noddles/fruit/sauces etc. I use discounters to buy those and I find they are miles cheaper than big supermarkets.

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards

Good morning everybody,

I cannot believe it is another amazing day, this is brilliant.

allthe7s - Thank you so much for dropping by. Ebay is one of those things I think. It is so hard to get motivated to start listing things. However, once you start selling a few things that motivates you to list more. It is worth it in the end. What more could you ask for decluttering and having more cash in the bank. A win win situation.

I know what you mean about credit card statements I am waiting for the one from cc4 that is the 4th of every month. We really are sad, but it is nice to put the figures into a spreadsheet and see the total amount come down.

Scott-Weiland - Once again thank yo for your advice. Petrol is a pain at the moment as the prices keep changing. I wanted to save about £20 a month with reducing the amount I am running around in the car. However, as the prices have gone up I dont know if I am going to be able to do that now. But, I will give it a go.

It is great advice about B and M I went there about two weeks ago and some of the items I have been paying say £1.49 in A*da was .89 pence. It is unbelievable for the same product. So I think what I am going to do is go maybe once a fortnight to stock up on that type of products. This will really help with the reduced food bill.

I also train quite a lot so I need good food so I think the food budget is going to be challenging, but do able with workarounds.

I meant to say this month is the first month in a long time that I did not have any purchases on any of the four Credit Cards. :j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j I also had money left in the bank at the end of the month. It was not much but it was actual cash left over. So this shows things are starting to sort themselves out.

To be honest I am really looking forward to the month of June to get started with food budgets, petrol allowances and also I have sent myself a target of £300 extra income from ebay, car boot sales, change around the house and cars, foreign money change. This will go straight off CC4 as £300 of the balance on this card will start accruing interest in July so that needs to be gone by the end of June.

Jobs for today are:
- I have collected all the change that is sitting in various draws, pots and surfaces around the house. I am going to take it to the bank and deposit it into my account. In the Natwest they have the machine to put change in and it goes into your account. There is no charge for this so a better option than the money machines in the supermarket.

- Whilst in town I am going to go and take the $55 dollars that I found in a draw and change that to pounds. I am going to deposit that into my bank account as well. This will be a good start to my target of £300 extra income this month.

Take care everybody

XXxxXX

enthusiasticsaver

Well done on not using the cards. I hope you meet your target of £300 extra off CC4 before the 0% deal expires.

Starmummy

Hi SNTCC
just read your diary you are going great guns. The boot sale sales are incredible. You seem really motivated.

Best of luck

SM

Scott-Weiland

So what type of training do you do???

Yip shop around and nectar cards and Tesco club cards are a must lol. I here what you say re asda I buy all my household stuff in discounters then I use a butcher for all our meats where I can bulk buy.

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards

Hi Everybody

Well changed the dollars and took all the change that was lying around the house and cars to the bank. It all came to £82.56 so a really good start to the month. I just wish I could do that everyday, now that would be amazing.

enthusiasticsaver - I am going to make that £300 and pay it off that card as I am not paying interest. This is the new organised and motivated me, and your advice has help me become that person so thank you. A month ago I would not have took them dollars that were in a draw and get them changed and I would not have took all the change to the bank. But £82.56 is a great figure to pay off CC4 and makes reaching £300 more achievable.

Starmummy - Thank you for dropping by and reading all my waffle. I am motivated and I think I have got that way because of writing this diary. I am going to try and sort another load of stuff out tomorrow and go the boot sale again on Sunday. I just hope the weather is good.

Scott-Weiland - Discount food shopping really is the way to go. You can save a fortune if you are organised. I do three bootcamp classes a week, a yoga class and try and do some running in between and the odd weight lifting session. What do you do?

Right I am off to clean, sort out and tidy some of the rooms in my house. My moto is if nobody uses it, it may as well be sold.

Take care

XXxxXX

NeverendingDMP

Well done on not using the cards. It will get easier and then eventually you will forget about them as being a means of purchase.

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards

Good morning Everybody,

Another amazing day.

NeverendingDMP - Thank you so much for dropping by. I am determined I am not using the C/C anymore as those balances are coming down.

I filled the car with fuel and spent £51.20 so I am hoping that will last the rest of the month. So I am going to try and use my bike and start walking / running when I can. This is going to be really tough especially as the price of fuel has gone up.

I went food shopping and spent £61. I went over by £1, however the big packs of chicken was on offer from £10 to £8 so I got two of those which will last two weeks. I thought I would get two because I do buy a pack each week and it was saving £2 a pack. So the shopping will be less next week. So I feel I spent £53 this week with £7 left for bread and milk in the middle of the week.

Paid all the minimum payment on my 4 cards for June so now to start on the overpayments. My aim is to pay an extra £300 off CC4 as interest is gong to start getting charged on this £300 from July. So today is going to be an ebay day.

Hope everybody has a great day.

Take care