The way forward....

MrFrugalFever

Taxation makes your eyes water on payday! I have always managed to just come in under the £50k / 40% threshold. Often feels like you go to work for the first week of the month for absolutely nothing!

Paydaypayitback

Hi all. So heading towards the end of the week and I have managed a couple of no spend days this week and have managed to stay within all my budgets. Food shopping on Saturday but is all budgeted in my weekly spends and this month feels like I am now just plodding on. 
On positive news my car insurance renews next month and after shopping around I have managed to get it £20 cheaper than last year (not a massive saving but a saving none the less). Few more pennies into the Save The Change account so that is rising slowly. 
I have a store card payment to make next week and hopefully will have a few NSDs.

Paydaypayitback

Well.... today I have started to save towards my emergency fund / longer term savings. I have managed to put £140 away which is money that was budgeted under spends that we haven't used (mainly due to using less petrol in lockdown and the food shop coming in under budget). I am so pleased I have finally focused on this and started to put money away for the emergencies that often spring up. I have also created an Excel spreadsheet that I have allocated pots to help me budget. I have done pots for car repairs / MOT / pets & pet insurance / christmas / birthdays & gifts etc etc. I feel I am finally starting to get somewhere on this debt busting journey.

Sarahwithlove

That's great well done. You'll find as you get further into this more and more pots will crop up I'm afraid but that's not necessarily a bad thing I think! 

Paydaypayitback

Happy Monday!! everyone. Hope everyone had good weekends. My weekend was very good. I managed to once again remain within budgets for both shopping and petrol - something I would not have achieved a few weeks ago. We have a pet kitten who will need to go into the vets for an operation in the next couple of weeks but again I have this budgeted for under my pets and pet insurance category so all covered.
I also have some VERY good news to help with my debt busting. I was accepted for a 0% card with a limit of just under 6k on Friday. I have no idea how I managed to get this card as I have 1 default registered on my credit file from mid-2019 but otherwise all payments etc are up to date. The card is 26 months interest free on balance transfers / spends and there are nil transfer charges. This means I can transfer my highest 2 credit cards (39.9 % 29% APR) and clear some of the debt that little bit faster. I am over the moon at this as I though I had NIL chance of getting a good card deal anytime soon. I don't usually apply but it appeared on my CreditClub credit files as a 80% possible acceptance so I thought lets give it a go - I am so glad I did.
This week may be a bit difficult to have any NSDs as its school half term but I am hoping I can make it work under our planned budgets which should be achievable.

Sarahwithlove

That's great news well done. Will save you lots on interest and gives you some breathing space. 

Paydaypayitback

Sarahwithlove said:

That's great news well done. Will save you lots on interest and gives you some breathing space. 

Absolutely this will ease the pressure a bit. Can anyone advise me on whether I should close the cards that I pay off with the new card. My credit limit usage on my credit report is 88% which is damaging my credit score (I think). Am I better leaving them open ans destroying the cards so I am using less percentage of my overall credit??
Also does anyone know how I may have possibly been accepted for one of the best 0% offer cards going at the moment even though I have one 2 year old default on a loan account - which I am still paying to clear. I am confused about it to be honest and had to call the bank twice to confirm I had been accepted and to confirm the limit they gave me was correct, lol.

Paydaypayitback

So today will hopefully be a NSD. I have a nice long weekend booked off work this weekend to spend some time with the family over half term, no planned spends over the long weekend but hopefully I should have enough budgeted to cover any potential unplanned spends over this time. I think the plan is to have some quality family time watching a few movies, doing odds jobs (I have a longgggggg list of them to do) and generally taking it easy. Food shop is already budgeted and I have petrol for the car budgeted although not planning on driving very far. Hopefully should be able to get to the end of the month within all my planned budgets and potentially with money left over too...!!

MrFrugalFever

From the start of this pandemic I have refused to do any stockpiling or ‘panic buying’ as I don’t believe it is necessary, however, I have always made sure I’ve got enough food to last me 2 weeks not 1. It is just the dog and myself at home and whilst I could ask friends / family to shop for me I’m terribly independent and prefer not to. 

Last month I had to self isolate for 10 days, fortunately a negative test and no symptoms. I knew I had enough resources in the house to get by for 10 days so I saw it as an opportunity to try to do NSD’s, which I had managed to do. I have now committed to adopting this approach in the future once IVA is finished. Bizarrely with the IVA, it is within my interest to spend everything every month....seems so backwards now to when I first entertained it! It makes me shudder at the thought that I’ve bought for the sake of buying and have £1 left in the bank at the end of the month!

MrFrugalFever

Paydaypayitback said:

Sarahwithlove said:

That's great news well done. Will save you lots on interest and gives you some breathing space. 

Absolutely this will ease the pressure a bit. Can anyone advise me on whether I should close the cards that I pay off with the new card. My credit limit usage on my credit report is 88% which is damaging my credit score (I think). Am I better leaving them open ans destroying the cards so I am using less percentage of my overall credit??
Also does anyone know how I may have possibly been accepted for one of the best 0% offer cards going at the moment even though I have one 2 year old default on a loan account - which I am still paying to clear. I am confused about it to be honest and had to call the bank twice to confirm I had been accepted and to confirm the limit they gave me was correct, lol.

Personally I would close the accounts to completely remove any temptation at all, it will be too easy to re-order another card, find the card details or something like that leading to a spend. Your current journey is more of a marathon than a sprint so what your credit score is today is irrelevant for tomorrow (providing no defaults / ccj’s).

i personally would be aiming for a ‘clean slate’, start a fresh when debt at £0 and be very careful / selective about whom and how you conduct your future business. 

For me in my own circumstance, I feel as though when my Iva ends I do not wish to have a credit card for fear of putting myself back in to an unstable situation so I will go for a while without one until I can psychologically deal with it.