Cutting it Fine - the challenge is on!

savingholmes

That sounds like a plan. We did Mondays and Thursdays pre pandemic to try and stay on budget.

Fortune_Smiles

I have one delivery a week.  It's just a matter of getting used to it.  There's an independent supermarket a couple of miles up the road so I pop up there if I forget anything.

Fortune x

SandyShores

Thanks Saving and Fortune.  Its definitely the way to go, Mr Shores is always happy to nip out for an item or two.  I need to sort out a regular list, but I don't think my next one will be until after Xmas now as all slots seem to have gone.  I've bought myself a pass, so as long as the delivery is over £40 it will be free.  Shopping has definitely gotten out of hand lately, and I hadn't realised how much of my weekend/energy it uses - hopefully these next few shops will be the last ones.

Edit - so just looking at our credit scores.  Mr Shores recently took out a credit card to use for work expenses - but apparently he needs a limit over £4k to increase his credit score.  The other thing is that he needs to be on the electoral role longer - not a lot we can do about that as we only moved last year.  And the only other negative is that he recently opened his credit card account.  So, apart from raising the limit on his card, its just a matter of time and making sure all the payments are made on time.  I can't see us raising the limit on the card, unless we raise it to £4,100 as he only uses it a couple of hundred a month then pays it off on pay day. 

Mine's pretty similar - need to live at my address longer, and then the score went down a bit when I did my current account switch.  I have got quite a lot of available credit on 4 cards so I'd like to reduce that just for my own peace of mind.  I tend to use Amazon as I like getting the voucher to spend, but I've also got three connected to bank accounts - I feel like I should close a couple though, even if its just to reduce the number of accounts and log in details I have.

savingholmes

I was unaware that the size of your credit limit impacted your score - other than if you use too much of your available credit or if you have too much available full stop. I plan to cancel a couple of mine but in the the first month or two - that can lower your score briefly.

SandyShores

Hi savingholmes.  That's what is says on the credit score report - to improve his score Mr Shore's needs to raise his limit over £4k on his card, but he's got a pretty good score anyway so I'm not sure if we'll bother at the moment.  I've got 4 cards but really only use one that I pay off all the time and then occasionally if I've got a big purchase I might use one of the others just to give a few extra weeks to pay.  Its a bit like my bank accounts in deciding to shut them, I've a bit of a soft spot for them

savingholmes

Yes - I have to repeatedly tell myself - these cards are not your friends - (except when handing out gift vouchers) - it's not free £. It's a future headache every time you use them... I agonised over reducing one of my CC limit's down - only to get a new card that offered me 3x the amount. 

SandyShores

Savingholmes, that is the word 'agonised', thank you.  I read a book about making decisions and it said that if you are undecided about a course of action then just choose any, because if its not clear then you don't know and its better to make a decision than to be paralysed with indecision.  I used to be the sort that agonised over decisions, never making any.  But more recently I have used the Just do it  tactic occasionally and have to say that I've not regretted anything.  Well maybe in getting rid of some things I have a moment of wishing I hadn't, but in reality its just a moment and then you move on.  I'm sure they say you regret the things you don't do more (not sure about that - it depends what you've done ).  But I certainly don't regret getting back on the property ladder.
 

savingholmes

I think as well if you do something simple like flip a coin to make a decision - if the wrong one comes up - you automatically know in your gut and therefore know which decision to take even if it was opposite what you expected.

debtfreeoneday

If I struggle with decisions I’m a big believer in going with my gut. Not always turned out quite right..

SandyShores

I like the idea of flipping a coin savingholmes, and then seeing what your gut says about that.  I've tried to make decisions strategically but just ended up going round in circles, so I'm going for my gut feeling in future debtfree.