This time I'm sticking to it!

PurpleFairy26

Sounds like a great plan. 

Baileys_Babe

I like the idea of having a debt you focus all your overpayments. It should help you stay motivated as you will be able to see your progress.

Kitten868

Hey!
I'm another one with a spends account. I actually have a bills account, food account and then we each have a spending account. 
I can't leave it to the end of the month and see what's left. I have to pay it all off the cards on payday then not have the opportunity to overspend. And I have to tick off my debts so minimum payments to all but one card. Attack hard all and any overpayments on that card and then close it and move on to the next. Got a weird obsession with closing credit cards. I'm a bit mad. 
Happy pay day! Xxx

Kitten868

Oh always minimum + at least £1. Normally a nice round figure. Xxx

rdone

I've just SORN and reduced* DH car insurance seeing as we're not using it for the time being.  We still have my car for food shopping.  So when we receive the refunds for them they'll be going against the Sainsburys card.

It's parked in a secure off road place but we kept fire and theft on it - you just never know!  So we'll be getting a 75% refund either when the policy ends (October) or when we reinstate the insurance.

rdone

Kitten868 said:

I can't leave it to the end of the month and see what's left. I have to pay it all off the cards on payday then not have the opportunity to overspend. And I have to tick off my debts so minimum payments to all but one card. Attack hard all and any overpayments on that card and then close it and move on to the next. Got a weird obsession with closing credit cards. I'm a bit mad. 

When I say "leave until the end of the month" I mean any over payments.  We're paying above minimum on all cards at the moment and they go out by DD.  We'll just add any spare cash to these payments at the end of the month (this is because we don't have an emergency fund at the moment - it's started but very small - so I don't want to put spare cash at the beginning of the month and then half way through find I need the money).

I can't wait to close the cards, the majority of my thinking is going towards ways I can get them paid sooner.  It's definitely become an obsession.  And aren't all the best people at least a bit mad?

rdone

Had £3.53 cashback put into my bank account this morning so have transferred that - every little helps right!

Have £25 pending as well so fingers crossed that becomes payable soon!

rdone

Also, just thought that my holiday in September is most probably going to be cancelled - 9 countries in two weeks, could you imagine all the quarantining we'd have to do!
I worked out a while ago that we'll probably lose about £150 each (worst case scenario).  It's sad that we can't go on this holiday as we were going from Reading to UlaanBataar on a train - next year it is!

I booked two flights (one we've already been told we can get credit for, the other we have to hope will be cancelled), 8 hotels (all on free cancellation, 6 paid a returnable deposit) and two trains (one is euro* which you can easily move your train) all separately.  Just glad I hadn't booked any more trains yet!  And those visas, they cost about £300 each so a saving there. 

Any money that we've already spent and will be refunded I will put against the Sains card.  Anything that hasn't been spent and is still in the holiday savings account can stay there.

rdone

£150 DD has gone out of HSBC this morning taking it down to less than £1000!!  Very exciting to see 3 figures instead of 4.  I also though the last payment to that would be in December but I'd miscalculated and it's November - happy days!

rdone

Two DDs came out today to sains and virgin cards which were £250 in total.  Also received a refund of £47.70  for car hire that we never used in March so I've put that against the sains card.  Once the rest of the bills go out in a few days I'll be adding around £500 (hopefully more) to the Sains card which will bring that down nicely.

Spending diary is going well and we're both pleased with the amount not being spent.  It's also really helping seeing the categories so we can see exactly where the money is going.  Savings pots are also started to have something in.