Paddington's Debt Free Journey

Paddington75

Hey everyone, hope you're all having a wonderful evening.  My payday is finally here at last!  I've transferred funds over to my food shopping account and have also transferred my bonus plus a bit extra to my emergency fund which now stands at a healthy-ish £1,282.97.  I'm going to really pore over my budget again this weekend to see if I can afford to save any more towards my emergency fund this month, or alternatively make any overpayment on one of the cards.  Apart from that nothing much planned this weekend.

Paddington75

£50.00 overpayment made to the MBNA card today, on top of my regular payment which is due to go out on 11 February.  Food shop coming tonight, should be in the next hour or so, then I can plan all my meals for the next few weeks.  Hoping that I'll only need to do small top up shops for fruit, bread etc for a few weeks but we'll see.

I've also cancelled an old card that had a zero balance on it this evening.  Seemed pointless keeping it open and having the temptation every time I open my purse.  Feeling quite good about that, I didn't even have to phone them up as I was able to do it from my online account.  Hate having to ring to cancel cards as you always get the third degree about why you want to cancel and them trying to persuade you to keep it and transfer a balance to them.

BlueJ94

Paddington75 said:

£50.00 overpayment made to the MBNA card today, on top of my regular payment which is due to go out on 11 February.  Food shop coming tonight, should be in the next hour or so, then I can plan all my meals for the next few weeks.  Hoping that I'll only need to do small top up shops for fruit, bread etc for a few weeks but we'll see.

I've also cancelled an old card that had a zero balance on it this evening.  Seemed pointless keeping it open and having the temptation every time I open my purse.  Feeling quite good about that, I didn't even have to phone them up as I was able to do it from my online account.  Hate having to ring to cancel cards as you always get the third degree about why you want to cancel and them trying to persuade you to keep it and transfer a balance to them.

Well done! You're doing great ☺️ I paid my first Dmp payment yesterday and feel 10x better! 

Paddington75

I've been tilly tidying my accounts over the last few days and now have £1300.00 saved in my emergency fund which I'm really pleased with.  Three more credit card payments due this month, £200.00 to MBNA on the 11th, £250.00 to Virgin Money on the 24th and £52.00 to Tesco credit card on the 28th (although this is a Sunday so it may go out either on the Friday or the following Monday).  So that will be another £502.00 paid off this month.  At the end of the month I will transfer any money left in my current account either to my emergency fund or as an overpayment on one of the cards.  Only another three weeks until payday, the blessing of a short month this month, and I'm not anticipating any large items of expenditure so I'm hoping I will have at least £100.00 left over.  Fingers crossed  

BlueJ94

Well done! I'm following your journey to keep me motivated.

Paddington75

jadewest94 said:

Well done! I'm following your journey to keep me motivated.

Thanks, I've been following yours too

Paddington75

Eek ok I really need to sort out my meal plan for the next couple of week.  I have £86.24 left in my food budget account to last me until the end of the month, and although I had a biggish food shop on Tuesday last week I will still need to buy fresh fruit and veg, bread and sandwich fillings etc.  My food budget is one area I need to try and cut back on for definite.  I've been having Tesco deliveries lately to try and cut down my supermarket trips.  Normally (as in pre-COVID) I would go to Aldi but it's quite a small shop and it's impossible to socially distance in there properly.  I don't drive so I can't buy too much as I can't carry it all home and I don't want to be going in there too often buying bits and pieces.  

Sarahwithlove

Menu planning is key and having some cheaper meals. Jacket potato is a must for me. I bulk cook as well. Use less meat and add veg to bulk out. Carrot, pepper, mushroom and Courgette can be cut up and put in most things. If you use tesco then have a look and see what fruit and veg they have as their offer for the week and use them in your menu plan. 
Now you have 1k in your emergency fund i would be tempted to start overpaying the cards. 

Paddington75

Sarahwithlove said:

Menu planning is key and having some cheaper meals. Jacket potato is a must for me. I bulk cook as well. Use less meat and add veg to bulk out. Carrot, pepper, mushroom and Courgette can be cut up and put in most things. If you use tesco then have a look and see what fruit and veg they have as their offer for the week and use them in your menu plan. 
Now you have 1k in your emergency fund i would be tempted to start overpaying the cards. 

Thanks for the tips.  I used to be fairly good with meal planning but I'm so tired when I get home from work at the moment I tend to just veg out on the sofa.  I'm afraid I'm an extremely fussy eater as well!  I might have a weekend of seeing if there is anything I can bulk cook, I've got a couple of the Pinch of Nom cookbooks and I think there are some batch cooking things in there.  

I'm overpaying quite a bit on the cards at the moment, minimum payments on the two highest credit cards should be about £80.00 and I pay £250.00 per month on both of those, then the smaller card I pay £52.00 a month and think the minimum payment on that one should be about £20.00 so I'm content to continue keeping with those payments at the moment.  If I have any spare money left over at the end of the month then I will either spread it between the credit cards or put it towards the emergency fund.  I'd like to be able to pay a bit more on the cards if I can but I don't want to overstretch myself and leave myself short in other areas.  I was thinking of also opening another account to use as a "thrift" account to save towards birthdays and christmas - I have quite a large family with lots of nephews and nieces.

BlueJ94

@Paddington75 I love the chilli beef from pinch of nom! Maybe you could batch cook a load of them as a fake away?