Countdown from £28k...

monetxchange

Great news on the balance shifts. It's crazy how much progress you can make when interest is out of the way.

I feel you on the living the London life thing, especially as I'm a fellow Londoner with a similar amount of starting debt! I spent my whole 20s just spending on everything and nothing like there was no tomorrow. It's one of my only regrets that I didn't get hold of it sooner. Easy to look at it as an old sensible person now I guess! But getting a separate spending account honestly will be a gamechanger for you, I'm sure.

ryanm8655

Can completely relate to both the actions and regrets. I was always falling back on my wages increasing in the future but that just meant I spent more when I got there...

ryanm8655

A pretty cheap weekend.

Didn’t go out, despite being tempted at some points.

Went to my old uni library to do some job applications (partly because I wanted to get out of the house but also to make it easier to focus as living with three kids). It was about a 60 mile round trip so used a bit of fuel but I hadn’t used my car for a while (can’t remember the last time I filled up). Did forget lunch (was hoping I could hold off until a roast when I got home) so ended up spending a fiver on a coffee and a sandwich but that was all I spent all weekend.

Planning to do the same next weekend but might take my own coffee and food.

There is a uni reunion happening at the end of the month, which I forgot about. It’s only about 30 miles away but transport options home are poor so considering a cheap hotel (will be cheaper than a cab) or trying to arrange a lift (a big ask). Probably looking at £150 with a hotel. I think Southampton has Uber now though, so maybe a cab won’t be horrendous...

On another note, what a difference exercise and a lack of booze does for your wellbeing and also the sharpness of the mind. (Ok, not completely booze free, had 2 glasses of red on Saturday night).

Thanks,
Ryan

Edit: having reviewed hotels the cheapest I can find is about £70, remember booking a hotel there on the day for about £35 so might just wait until last minute...for that I could probably get a cab home...

ryanm8655

Small gains...

Made a thermos flask full of coffee for the train this morning and have both lunch and dinner in my bag (won’t be home until late).

Also left my wallet at home so no risk of spending (have train ticket on my phone).

Just got my nationwide debit card for the flexplus account. Should have a £100 windfall from that soon enough.

Waiting on the NatWest credit card so that I can take advantage of the balance transfer offer and get rid of most of the interest bearing mbna balance.

Also noticed booking train tickets a month in advance literally halves the cost of the commute. So have decided I’ll start using my BA credit card again just for travel costs and clear it in full each month. Gets me some points for my travel and I’ll never have the card with me so no risk of other expenditure, will also enable me to easily track what I’m spending on the commute.

EssexHebridean

Bear in mind you WILL need the card for collection of tickets from the station Ryan so don't leave that for the day of travel and then find you can't collect, will you! Great idea for tracking your spend though and saving some money as well.

You're doing so well with all this - well done!

ryanm8655

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Bear in mind you WILL need the card for collection of tickets from the station Ryan so don't leave that for the day of travel and then find you can't collect, will you! Great idea for tracking your spend though and saving some money as well.

You're doing so well with all this - well done!

Thanks for the reply! I download the tickets through the app and have them in my wallet on my phone :-) just need to make sure I charge my phone ha.

ryanm8655

Some more small steps...

I’ve negotiated an additional work from home day for the next 6 weeks or so, which cuts the commute cost by a third effectively.

I’ve also prebooked train tickets up until the last week of November, this has brought them down to about £30/day. Will be paying a bit more next week as it was too soon to get them considerably cheaper...

Briefly met a friend for a drink before my train. Had a swift pint so spent about £11 as I bought his too (he’ll usually by the first round and I got there first, so not an issue). I do feel bad for spending but that was the kind of thing that used to turn into about 6 pints when I lived in London.

Also had to buy my dinner as my train was cancelled so got home super late (spent a fiver).

On the plus side that spend should be completely offset by the refund on my train ticket.

Wfh for the rest of the week so I’ll be hitting the gym and avoiding spending where I can. Need to buy a few groceries to contribute so will probably spend about £30. Need to top up fuel soon (first time for a few weeks) but reckon I can get through to next week (have just over a quarter of a tank).

NatWest card hasn’t yet arrived but when it does I’ll sort the balance transfer.

Think I’ll do a review at the end of the month to see how the cards are looking.

ryanm8655

Another Friday night trip to the pub avoided and I’ve turned down the opportunity of a roast at a pub on Sunday (nothing beats the home cooked one). Mainly because next weekend will be pretty expensive and boozy.

Spent about £60 on groceries this week to contribute in lieu of rent (a little shy but rounding up). Had to buy cat litter and food (damn pets are expensive). They feed me too so the least I can do. Also had a coffee at the gym for £1.90 (wasn’t planning to but the equipment I wanted to use was busy).

Had a small glass of wine with dinner (bought a couple of bottles in the groceries).

Rugby, gym and a games night with the family planned for today.

Have suggested dinner in the week next week with s mate I keep turning down pub trips with. A local pub that does really good food have a 2-4-1 evening so suggested we go there. I’ll be driving so won’t be drinking so shouldn’t be more than £20 depending on what I eat/drink.

No sign of the NatWest card so I’m wondering if they’ve changed their mind. The offer was for bank account customers and I’m switching on the 22nd (did the switch before applying - it was a speculative application I didn’t expect to get approved. It says 7-10 working days and technically it’s only been 6 so perhaps I’m being paranoid ha.

enthusiasticsaver

You seem to be doing well on cutting back on spends considering you have been doing this for just over a month. Entertainment is a tricky spend to monitor as most people underestimate the cost of a night out once food, drink and travel costed up. I am a fan of a separate account for this and food and fuel and once it is gone that is it and I delay arranging things until the next budget reset date.

ryanm8655

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I need to do the separate account. Keep telling myself I’ll do it but haven’t yet.

Spent a little more on groceries at the weekend (another £12) and also briefly met a mate for lunch (the mate I was going to meet in the week), which was another £15. Not horrendous though.

Haven’t yet got the NatWest card so not sure what is going on there, had a request to sign the documents by text but clicked the link and it says I’ve already signed.

Another big plus, I got another £5k from Virgin on 24 months 0%, so assuming the NatWest card arrives that’ll be almost all of the debt on interest free again (around £3k not so I’ll focus on getting that out of the way quickly!).

My auntie also borrowed my car and kindly filled up with fuel (had less than a quarter of a tank).