A welcome wake up call

DebtFreeMonkey

Congrats on the balance transfer! I may just look into doing something similar. My Bcard has a ridiculous amount of interest on it.

Yes, the podcast is called You Need A Budget (YNAB). I just went back and found the ep on the player I use. It's '338 - Budgeting is Spending' and it's super short, to boot. Less than 5 minutes but a great bitesize thing to listen too regularly. I just found this for you so you don't need to find it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcnWjTww0p0

Time to let go of yesterday and beating yourself up. You know what to do. Now, you just need to it and I know you can.

savingholmes

Great news on the balance transfer rate - still need to make a plan to regularly over-pay. Have you come up with some thoughts yet?

twiggy86

Thank you Alicia1804 - I’ve just downloaded that episode and will have a look through the others.

Savingholmes - I’m playing to thrown everything I can at the debts! This month I’ll hold off as uncertain how tight I can pull things in but hopefully be able to pay a chunk off at the end of the month. I’ve got lodgers money sat in a separate account at the moment in case either I have to return some if he does leave or I need to dip into it. If not, I’ve decided I’ll use it to clear next.

Just been to get petrol but instead of going to the one I drive past, I went probably 500 meters past my house where it was 6p a litre cheaper - saving £2.47!

I’ve also signed up to prolific today as been reading around and some people seem to make a fair amount! Plus re-started doing one poll, had about £24 just sat in there from a few years ago!

Need to remember my old ways that all these little bits add up to a lot!

savingholmes

Great news about one poll

twiggy86

So I've been back on here a week! And I'd say it's been quite a productive week, even though the debt figures haven't really moved anywhere! Waiting on my latest statement for two (today/tomorrow) and then the interest will be added and I'll do an update on where things stand with all the re-shuffling I've done!

I've also been keeping a spending diary this week and all spends have been accounted for. I've spent:
£56.86 on general spends
£56.83 on groceries
TOTAL £113.69

This is quite a bit above what I had budgeted for this week. However, The general spends includes the weekend when I had unscheduled plans and ended up having lunch out both days (could have been organised and taken food I know). Plus I paid £10 for a baby shower I'm going to next month.

The groceries doesn't actually include that much food for us but includes dog food (40 pouches for £9 which will last a month) plus some bits for the tortoises as their bulb went.

I did also spend £58.01 on petrol but haven't included that above as that's budgeted for separately. But if I did include it, it would take the total to £171.70.

It looks like a lot but I need to remember that I have no idea how much I was spending previously. Can probably safely add £20ish for lunch, £5ish for fizzy pop, £2.50 for parking at the hospital, plus a takeaway!

twiggy86

So now that my card shuffle is all complete and all interest added for the month, below is a summary of where things stand:

Next - £363.05 @ 23.90%
Bcard - £691.74 @ 18.52%
Vcard - £4,383.94 @ 18.33%
Hcard - £4,766.37 @ 4.94%
MBNA - £3,099.69 @ 0%

I will be working them down in order of highest interest goes first! Hoping if I've still got lodger's rent intact at the end of the month (depending on if/when he moves out) that will clear Next!

twiggy86

So, I'm already at the impatient "just want this debt to go down already stage"!!!

I just used £50 of the lodgers rent to pay off some of the next. I figure, if he leaves now he wouldn't get it all back anyway so think I'm safe! FYI - he is a friend so whilst definite notice of when he's going would be nice, I wouldn't demand it of him.

Need to be cautious of too many extra payments this month, until I am confident OH is sticking with his job. So ideally need a bit of a buffer too (have got some money put aside but it's already earmarked for the garden renovation!)

twiggy86

I'm pleased to report that I had a very MSE style weekend! Probably the biggest thing is that we didn't have a takeaway (or two) like we normally would! The only money I spent was on some groceries and some hair dye. So yesterday I dyed my hair myself and my mum waxed my legs (and she bought the strips!) - no she isn't a beautician, just a diamond!

I also had a bit of a tearful chat with OH about money. He's spending as he wants, whilst I'm trying to watch every penny. I did say that I don't expect him to give me everything he earns, but a bit of consideration and help is needed. Hopefully he does the trick (it normally does for a while until he forgets again!)

Been making a conscious effort do congratulate myself for all the little MSE things over the weekend too. Like making a freezer inventory - we have two fridge freezers and I want to defrost one as its looking a bit icy, so need to run them down so that everything fits into one. Also found a new app called Sweatcoins which gives you rewards for walking (outdoors only though) - just downloaded it so will see how that pans out.

Right enough waffle!!!

twiggy86

Received £9.64 from Prolific Academic, so I used that plus a bit more of the lodgers rent to make a payment of £24.64 off Ne*t (it took my account to a nice round number!) Feels really good to finally be making steps to clear it - why haven't I just done it sooner?! I've got a further £7.63 ready to cash out and £6.25 pending in PA, may cash out tomorrow as they pay on Fridays and Tuesdays so see if anything else becomes payable before then.

I also raided OH's change pot - only a small change pot and I just snaffled the 1p, 2p and 5ps. Need to bag it up to pay it in the bank - they've annoyingly taken away the functionality on the self serve machines to just dump it in (which I found out after I walked there in the rain!)! Also nabbed his old style £1 coins to change those as well! He is happy for me to raid his money to put towards the cards as was only sat there anyway!

Onepoll is slowly creeping up and is now on £32.30. Bet it takes me forever to get to the £40 cashout mark!

So the short version of all that rambling is... the little bits are mounting up! :rotfl:

twiggy86

Bit deflated today as I had two slight fails today! I realised I'd put something in the wrong column of my spreadsheet - put the interest in the payment column so I thought I'd paid off more than I had! Also thought I had enough currently set aside for debt repayments to clear Ne*t but forgot I need to make a payment to Vcard yet this month! Still I am just getting this all sorted so won't beat myself up!

Instead I've decided to set myself some interim goals:

GOAL 1 - Clear Ne*t by the end of August (£269.41 left)
GOAL 2 - Clear Bcard by end of Sept (£691.74 left)
GOAL 3 - Total debt to be under £10k by end Dec (£3,334.61 left)

These may not all be achievable (see below) but I figure if I set a goal to push for then I'm more likely to achieve good progress, even if I miss the goal! Of course interest will get added to the above figures so will be a bit more to clear than the above figures to pay to meet those goals - good job I took steps to reduce my overall interest!

The last few months of the year are my most expensive - OH birthday, my birthday, car insurance, home insurance, car service and the word I won't say yet! If I'd been organised, of course I'd have money put aside for all these things but never mind, I won't let that stop me trying my best to get as much debt cleared as poss!