Taking back the control

Thick_n_Thin

Thank you lemon tree... you are so right, a £1 a day does add up, if I could save that much as well that would be Xmas 2020 sorted, you’ve got me thinking now....

Lemon_Tree

You're welcome, glad to have helped to fire up the little grey cells

Thick_n_Thin

Not posted for a few days, not much to report, a no spend day today, much needed after an expensive weekend ( planned ages ago) that will be my last extravagance for a while. Need to get started on my Christmas shopping now!

Thick_n_Thin

I’ve just cancelled my now tv subscription, just in time before my payment comes out tomorrow, only £8.99 a month but every little saving helps.
I have done the majority of my Christmas shopping, I have had to cash flow it all and will fall short before I get paid again on Christmas Eve so I will have to increase my overdraft sadly by £150 but will pay this back the minute I get paid. I am determined to budget properly for Christmas next year. I’m going to try and wrap some presents today but I’m going to use up my leftover paper from last year instead of rushing out and buying fresh new rolls. I need to write a few Christmas cards as well... this seems to be a dying tradition now and the amount I send and receive seems to get smaller each year. Apart from posting 2 eBay parcels I am going to aim for a no spend day!

Thick_n_Thin

A £2.50 PAD made to the Tesco credit card! A no spend day!

Thick_n_Thin

I have just raided my paypal account to send a £13.50 overpayment to the Halifax credit card. Can’t wait to see this card gone now!

Thick_n_Thin

Finances are all over the place at the moment, I have increased my overdraft to £550 and unfortunately will need to increase it again to buy my Xmas food shopping at the weekend, I have really finished my presents now but I am nervous that I haven’t bought enough for certain people and I’m worried that people will be disappointed but I really can’t afford any more so I am going to get it all wrapped and hopefully it will be enough!
I am going to try and fully clear the overdraft in January, I will pay the minimum on the Halifax card and try and juggle a few things around and hopefully get it gone once and for all, I’ll then have a clean slate to start with and start clearing the last £1200 on the card.

Thick_n_Thin

Been thinking a lot about my finances today and the next couple of years and where I want to be, I think I have said in earlier posts that I want to start overpaying the mortgage so I really want to start this on 2020. We have an isa with aprox £13k in it and I am thinking about withdrawing it and paying it off the mortgage but I also like the security of knowing that we have a safety net as well. It’s just an idea at the moment and something that I need to give some more thought to. Work is particularly trying at the moment and I would really love to be in a position to reduce my hours or even take advantage of a yearly sabbatical, again something that I need to give some serious thought to in the new year!

enthusiasticsaver

You seem to be doing well. If you have £13k in savings why do you not pay off the debt? How much are you paying in interest on overdraft and credit card and how much do you get from the ISA? Is it a cash isa?

Thick_n_Thin

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

You seem to be doing well. If you have £13k in savings why do you not pay off the debt? How much are you paying in interest on overdraft and credit card and how much do you get from the ISA? Is it a cash isa?

The Isa is from when we where on a interest only mortgage, it was set up to pay off the capital but then when we changed to a repayment mortgage we still had this pot of money, we did dip into it at one point and to be honest I can’t remember what we spent the money on, we pay £111 per month into this and had really earmarked this as a bit of a saving pot for retirement. I don’t look at it regularly and I have no idea if it’s growing in the right direction. I don’t want to use it to pay off the credit card as at the moment it’s at 0%. I like the idea of having a savings buffer but I would love to be mortgage free also and to pay 13k off would be a big chunk paid off. I’m still mulling it over in my head. I’m going to get Christmas out of the way and then speak to OH about it.