The way forward....

Honeysucklelou2

Or put them in a container of water and pop them in the freezer 😉

Paydaypayitback

Hi all another Monday and a little closer to payday....... can't wait! So a quite weekend was had and I managed to stay within my budgets again so I am very impressed. Never thought I could manage this. I have petrol left in the car to last me to the end of the month and only small planned spends on milk and bread etc. 
I love the ideas for stopping me spending in the cards I pay off; especially the idea of freezing the cards in a block of ice.

Paydaypayitback

Hi all nothing much to report on the debt busting front. Three days until payday (at last) and I have money left over in most of my pots (pets, car, petrol etc), which has to be a first. The Save The Change has crept up over the past couple of weeks and I am surprised how fast the pennies actually add up. I have started the emergency fund and will add to this each month (hopefully I don't have any emergencies before I have a good amount in there). I have applied for my balance transfers at 0 fee onto my new 0% APR card and that should be completed in the next few days. I have set myself a new challenge which i have added to my signature block of paying off 12k of the debt by the end of this year. Not on target at the moment but I have just decided to do this so hopefully will catch up over the next couple of months. I did catch myself browsing through Amazon at the weekend and actually went as far as adding things to my basket but thankfully I didn't make the purchase.
I need to get a new car next year so was browsing the web trying to get an idea of current prices. I will need a family car but something that is fairly sporty and has a bit of power behind it. My wife allows me to have a sporty car as long as it meets the family needs too so I am happy with this compromise...... I am thinking some type of SUV but not yet decided.

Paydaypayitback

Hi all. So it was finally payday yesterday so a lot of my cards minimum payments are due next week. I have kept within my budgets and having a nice quite weekend so hopefully not many spends. 
I have updated my signature block which is always a great feeling seeing those debt go down and savings going up.

Paydaypayitback

Well this week has been a good one so far (I know its only Tuesday.... ). I have paid minimum payments on a number of my credit cards and have actually managed to make a small overpayment on a loan I have with some money I had left at the end of February. I think this is the first time I have EVER managed to make an overpayment on any of the loans I have had so I certainly hope I can carry on in the same manner. I have 57 payments left on the loan but most of that will be in interest so any overpayments I make now will be saving me money in the long run.
The Save the Change fund is increasing nicely and I have over £23 in there now - not bad as I only started it at the beginning of February. Hopefully this month I can make progress in my Pay Off 12k in 2021 Challenge as I am slightly behind for where we are in the year..... I WILL catch up and achieve it though...... well here is hoping.
Other than that I will keep plodding on again this month. Nothing planned this month and the only event coming up is Mothers Day. This is budgeted in my Birthdays & Celebrations pot so is covered and I just need to get my wife a small present from my daughter. Will let daughter choose it but I am sure she will need some guidance. I think I will get my daughter to make a Mothers Day card as it will save money (I am not THAT much of a cheapskate honestly) but more importantly I think it adds more of a personal touch with the thought that goes into it.

Paydaypayitback

So another Friday comes around and the debt busting goes on. I have managed to keep up with all minimum credit card payments, saved a bit more to my Save the Change account and managed to keep within all my allocated budgets. Another quite weekend ahead so no major spends planned although I was contemplating a takeaway for tonight or tomorrow. Don't think we really need it so may just get the recipe books out and make something nice whilst saving a bit of money too. I have spent slightly more on petrol this week than I would have liked due to a couple of unplanned journeys I had to make but I am within my monthly allocated petrol spends so not too drastic. Hopefully I can make it work over the month or it may mean a slight adjustment between my allocated pots.... not a massive drama but not something I want to become a regular occurrence.
I had signed up to BritBox over Christmas but realised we never actually watch anything on it so will cancel that once this billing period is over. We watch Netflix, Disney Plus and Prime a lot so although it may seem like unnecessary spending we absolutely get our monies worth out of them and to be honest they probably stop us going out and spending (pre lockdown days) as much. 

Paydaypayitback

Hi everyone. So another quite weekend keeping within all budgets so I am very happy with that. Minimum payments made on a couple more credit cards so signature block has been updated to show the new amounts. I have been making monthly payments on my Barclaycard under a payment arrangement that I had arranged with them for the past year. They gave me a great arrangement with 0% interest for the duration of the agreement. I have just been notified that this is now up for review. I really hope they don't start asking for increased payments with interest added. I still owe just under 8k on this card (down from 11.5k) and I cannot afford the full payments on it. If they do this is going to set me back massively. I will call them this week and go through my income and expenditure and hopefully they will extend the agreement. Other than that a hopefully quite week this week. Nothing planned so hopefully no unplanned spend will occur. Save the Change continues to rise with £24 now in there... not bad as I only started saving it just over a month ago.

Blackcats

Hello!  You are doing really well.  The save the change concept is great.  I do this too and have given it a fancy title of "accumulation of marginal gains pot" 🤣.  I put all my little money saving victories in here - things like money from £co, the discounts I get by signing up to newsletters when buying stuff.  For example this month I was buying a birthday gift from one of the big brand sports shops - I went through £co = £1, signed up to the sports brand newsletter (will unsubscribe now) = free postage £3.50.  I know it's not real money but I would have spent it if I hadn't done my little tweaks to the buying process.  I also got my £10 off voucher from the Lid* app - did a careful shop, maximising my "free"£10 and then put £10 into my marginal gains pot.  

As you say it's amazing how these little things add up!  Probably a clue for me about how my debt built up over the years .... little but often spends rather than saves. 

Good luck on your debt free journey. 

MrFrugalFever

Hi,

I think it’s really key to maintaining that self-discipline with putting ‘spare’ money away and not spending it, the problem with a lot of savings accounts is you can just transfer it to your current account within minutes and then it’s ready to be spent. 

I try to maximise my returns (Cashback/points etc) where possible, mainly with my everyday spending such as food and fuel, but I often find that just a small amount of time planning, researching and coordinating really can make a difference. When you’re facing numbers that could be considered as ‘eye-watering’, like I was, you soon realise that every penny actually matters. 

A phone call to barclaycard with a genuine and controlled discussion may prove to be effective, often companies like this will extend out their support as it is within their interest to do so, especially in the current climate (do stress the coronavirus pandemic will have had an impact on you). So good luck and I’m sure you’ll both reach a mutually agreeable arrangement. In the meantime, can you go further with your cut backs? I often have periods of ‘no spend days’, which can last from as little as 1 week to several months. They force me to think outside the box and get creative.

Paydaypayitback

Thanks MrFrugalFever I must admin Barclaycard have, by a long way, been the best creditors I have dealt with during my situation. They went through my income and expenditure and from that stopped all interest on the account whilst giving me manageable payments. This has been for nearly 18 months; I got a 6 month plan and then at review negotiated a 12 month plan. Hopefully they will renew the plan again but we will see when i speak with them. I have paid just over 3.5k off the balance and have maintained the payments on time, every month so hopefully this will go in my favour. You are absolutely correct in that every penny matters when dealing with large amounts of debt (or any debt as far as that goes). I suppose what seems a large amount of debt for one person isn't a large amount for someone else. My debt peaked at 55.5k and it was at this point I had my LBM and thought this has to stop. When debt was in the 20-30k region, even though still a ridiculous amount, I never saw it as such as my earnings more than covered it and still gave us the comfortable lifestyle at the same time. 
You mention cutting back further and if I am absolutely honest then yes we could. We have cut back a lot already (a lot of that not through choice but imposed by the lock downs which to be honest has helped a lot) but we certainly could cut back more. I still want to give my daughter a good childhood though and not let the debt impact on that so we now try to find things that don't cost as much to do. I would like to get my debt back down to (what I perceive) reasonable levels around the 20k mark and I will then be in a much better and happier place. I think I may just dance down the street the day the debt reaches that magical zero haha.
Blackcats that is a great idea of putting all the saving 'wins' into the pot as well. Like you say if it is money that you would have spent without the savings then why not. It is amazing how fast the small amounts quickly accumulate. I actually got 8p interest on my Save the Change account on the 1st March as well which is the first time I have had any interest on any saving for years, lol. Another incentive to carry on. As the old saying goes 'pennies make pounds'.