Cutting up the cards and saving for a house - one debt at a time!

stokegal

Another NSD here today.

Finally managed to put the decorations in the loft (all 9 boxes of them 🙈)
We had a lovely stew for dinner and there will be enough for leftover for lunch tomorrow.

DS had wanted to do an outdoor activity which cost £30 tomorrow so I was juggling some pots around to see where I could pay for it however when we checked it is all sold out so will look for a cheaper activity to do - maybe go for a walk 🤷‍♀️

The Lego train listed on eBay is now up to £54 - there was a quick flurry of bids on it this afternoon and a woman has bought another item for £2 so will put that money will go in my PayPal pot to pay that off.

I checked on the MSE eligibility checkers to see if I could qualify for a 0% balance transfer card however it looks like my utilisation is still showing as too high as the only ones I was eligible for were from the sub prime lenders who charged high transfer fees, only 6/9 months at 0% then up to 34.9% after.

On my credit file it shows that I am using 69% of all my credit available, after all my payments have been made this month (plus any interest added) I should be at 42% utilisation so hopefully this will open some more options for me.

rocks+mountains

Good Luck with your diary!

I think like you said you should have some better CC options if you can get it a bit lower next month hopefully once it all updates. I've had to wait for a couple of months to pay a chunk off and finally yesterday got some decent ones! Had about 6 months of paying interest on the CC and hated every second. Approved and new one should be on it's way with balance transfers done!

Hope you haven't been feeling too bad today, I have an 11 month old and oh I was so happy when I got over the nausea stage! Like you say half the new fangled stuff just doesn't seem needed at all. Only thing I really swore by was the SnuzPod we had (or similar bedside crib with a drop side so could be up to the bed) just so easy at night, really found it amazing. You can get some almost perfect ones 2nd hand for not much and just need a new mattress.

savingholmes

Have you checked you have no missed payments? I find the credit reports are 3-4 months out of date on average - which can be good when you are borrowing a lot in a short period but bad when you are ready to borrow another time having just cleared a load off - as it takes frustratingly long to update. I think it looks at your utilisation rate per card not just overall. I also reduced my available credit over time too - but always made sure it was 50% more than I needed to keep a good utilisation rate.

stokegal

rocks+mountains said:

Good Luck with your diary!

I think like you said you should have some better CC options if you can get it a bit lower next month hopefully once it all updates. I've had to wait for a couple of months to pay a chunk off and finally yesterday got some decent ones! Had about 6 months of paying interest on the CC and hated every second. Approved and new one should be on it's way with balance transfers done!

Hope you haven't been feeling too bad today, I have an 11 month old and oh I was so happy when I got over the nausea stage! Like you say half the new fangled stuff just doesn't seem needed at all. Only thing I really swore by was the SnuzPod we had (or similar bedside crib with a drop side so could be up to the bed) just so easy at night, really found it amazing. You can get some almost perfect ones 2nd hand for not much and just need a new mattress.

I’m hoping options will open up soon - I wasn’t even eligible for the sub prime lenders 2 months ago so it’s definitely going in the right direction. Good job for you that yours is all on 0% - I begrudge paying £200+ interest  a month - this month it should be down to £120 interest but that’s still too much.

I’ll have a look at the SnuzPod thanks! I’m amazed at all of the stuff that’s now available and the fascination of having personalised... what happened to handing clothes down.. you can do that if you’ve got their name on everything lol

savingholmes said:

Have you checked you have no missed payments? I find the credit reports are 3-4 months out of date on average - which can be good when you are borrowing a lot in a short period but bad when you are ready to borrow another time having just cleared a load off - as it takes frustratingly long to update. I think it looks at your utilisation rate per card not just overall. I also reduced my available credit over time too - but always made sure it was 50% more than I needed to keep a good utilisation rate.

Thanks - my last late payment was 37 months ago when I changed jobs and my DD’s failed 🤦‍♀️

I’ve been checking Credit Karma and Experian and both seem to update within a week of the end of the month with the updated balances so I’m hoping it won’t be too long.

CC1 - £0 / £4000 - 0%
CC2 - £0 / £1500 (currently has a balance of £1000 but will be paid off next week so probably won’t be updated on credit file till next month) - 0%
CC3 - £0 / £350 - This did have a limit of £2k but Tesco reduce it every time I reduce the balance - 0%
CC4 - £6600 / £10000 - (currently at £7200 but will be paying £600 off before the statement date) - 66%
PayPal Credit - £175 / £400 - not sure if this is included in utilisation as it isn’t on Credit Karma - 43.75%
Very - £650 / £2500 - not sure if this is included in utilisation as it isn’t on Credit Karma but have included it anyway as I have just reduced limit from £3500 to £2500 - 29.5%
Studio - £0 / £300 - opened this for the 10% first order discount, never used it so have requested it be closed - 0%

Total - £7425 / £19 050 = 39%

The only other negative thing that is showing is that I have opened 3 new accounts in the past 6 months. 2 are phone contracts as mine and DS were up for renewal. The 3rd was for Amazon Prime through my health insurance - they pay the £79 upfront and then charge you £7.90 a month or you earn activity points to pay for the £7.90 - last year I ended up paying every other month so it was a £35 saving for something I would have bought anyway. 

stokegal

Afternoon everyone!

It’s been a very lazy day today - I’ve been sat on the sofa binge watching Netflix in my Pjs taking advantage of this being my last weekend off before going back to work.

I’m off tomorrow as I have a scan at the hospital which I’m quite nervous about as I’ve lost some weight since being pregnant and due to COVID my OH can’t come with me. Fingers crossed everything will fine though!

Money wise - today will be a NSD. I have sold a couple of things which will be collected tomorrow for £14 and the lego train is currently up to £64 with 4 days left.
I also went through my budget for the month and after all DDs, debt overpayments, food shopping and petrol budgets I have £223 left to last me until the 25th January. It’s DS birthday at the end of the month and I have taken £200 out for that so I have £23 but don’t have anything else to buy. OH is starting his strict diet tomorrow so won’t want any takeaways and as we are in tier 4 there is nothing for us to do so I’m confident I can smash this.

Parkyp

Good luck with scan, my sister in law was concerned when she had lost weight but was caused by her morning sickness or anytime day sickness 🤷🏻‍♀️, not eating what you’d normally eat because you feel sick etc. She was fine after First 3 months had Passed x

stokegal

Thanks ParkyP - the “anytime of day” sickness is definitely relatable 😂

rocks+mountains

It will open up with the new cards, it's just the wait for it is awful. It took us about 6 months  of having to pay interest but that was due to being on Mat leave and not having the money and the amount on there spiralling a bit! Got it down and now the option is there with cards, like you say the £120 a month I was paying was just ridiculous. I had always been quite careful but seeing that no wonder people can get into such problems.

I think with your utilisation now another month and something decent should pop up for you hopefully. 

And good luck with your scan tomorrow. I did see they had started to let partners go for the scan but its rubbish if it still isn't at your hospital. I wouldn't worry about the losing weight too much. I was that nauseous I didnt gain weight until about 18 weeks. I only ate things that were beige!

savingholmes

I lost weight with my first too - I didn't stop throwing up until around week 22. Hope the scan goes well tomorrow. 

stokegal

rocks+mountains said:

It will open up with the new cards, it's just the wait for it is awful. It took us about 6 months  of having to pay interest but that was due to being on Mat leave and not having the money and the amount on there spiralling a bit! Got it down and now the option is there with cards, like you say the £120 a month I was paying was just ridiculous. I had always been quite careful but seeing that no wonder people can get into such problems.

I think with your utilisation now another month and something decent should pop up for you hopefully. 

And good luck with your scan tomorrow. I did see they had started to let partners go for the scan but its rubbish if it still isn't at your hospital. I wouldn't worry about the losing weight too much. I was that nauseous I didnt gain weight until about 18 weeks. I only ate things that were beige!

£120 a month interest when you’re on mat leave is crazy - maternity pay is only something like £150 a week 🤷‍♀️ My work introduced enhanced maternity payments last year. I work for an American company who offered global statutory minimums but a new HR director introduced 4 months leave at 90% - this was amazing for us in the UK but an absolute game changer for our US office where previously they had nothing apart from the promise to keep their jobs open for 4 weeks.

Beige food sounds about right! I had weight loss surgery in 2019 so struggle to eat at the best of times now my diet has become even more restricted. I’m now finding that all the things I struggle to eat because of my weight loss surgery like carbs are the only things I can face eating. I’m just trying to make sure I keep on top of my vitamins and whenever I do feel like eating make sure I do (I ate half a popadom and a banana at 11pm last night after falling asleep at 7 🤦‍♀️)

The NHS had given guidance for all trusts to allow partners into all appointments but I can’t see one trust that have done this this according to the pregnancy group that I am in. OH feels slightly put out as it’s his first baby but we did have an early private scan at 8 weeks and will have another at 16 weeks so he can be more involved.

savingholmes said:

I lost weight with my first too - I didn't stop throwing up until around week 22. Hope the scan goes well tomorrow. 

Thank you for the reassurance! The sickness is awful! Luckily I’m not sick too many times it’s just the constant nausea that gets me 🤦‍♀️