Debt free by 40

MissRikkiC

Yep that’s it! It’s a bit cheeky as you’re in effect dodging the higher fees (and reduced IF period) for a money transfer by BTing instead but that only works if you do it to a zero credit card. It will then put the CC in a negative balance which you can either money transfer off (if they have the offer) as they can’t charge you a fee when it’s your money/refund your transferring, or if there is no option to do that, such as with Halifax at the moment then calling them and asking them to refund the balance instead. 

I’m just waiting on Tesc0w and then can do just that with the last of my loan. 

Can’t believe that sainsburyz are still going that via paper! Crazy really 

Bluegreen143

I’ve had a positive balance on a card before a couple of times (through getting a refund) and you can indeed just transfer it back to your bank account or another time I just used it for groceries and stuff til it was gone 😆

I’ve been inspired by your weekly budgeting btw, and set up a fresh YNAB budget tonight based on a spending amount for each week. Quite excited to try it! Once I record the spending in YNAB I’ll break it down into it’s categories (groceries, diesel etc) for record keeping but I think it’ll keep me focused knowing the overall weekly total too.

jokono

Good luck with the weekly budget @Bluegreen143 ! It works well for me but not having to get petrol and having Mr JKN also buying food definitely helps.

Olio had a big batch of T3sco products listed last night, I managed to get lots of veg, mushrooms, avocados, some very ripe bananas which I've chopped and put in the freezer to make ice cream, and  some rhubarb. I've never made anything with rhubarb so I have to google some recipes, I've seen crumble is very popular but that might not work because... keep reading to find out

While we were on holiday I got very bloated after eating, even if it was only toast with some salad/ avocado/ hummus and I didn't eat too much (I don't think). So it must've been the bread. My whole tummy was like a balloon, very hard and very uncomfortable so I decided to eat no more bread for a while - that was a hard decision because I love bread so much I could live on bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but feeling better is more important. While I was at it I thought I might as well go low carb so I will try not to eat bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. It's been ok so far, I even had 3 good days while still on holiday doing this - I spent most of the day at the beach roasting in the sun while the boys had a late lunch and then I only had a big salad or omelette for dinner. I imagine there might be low card crumble recipes, maybe using oats?

I've been to the library this morning and got some books on gardening/ veg growing/ allotment info. I am on the waiting list for an allotment and I need to start preparing as I have very limited experience with this. I'll check with the council if there's been any movement, I was 8th on the list a few months back. I had £4.25 in late fees and decided to pay that since it will be a very low spend week. I also went into B00ts to get some tape flossers for me and detangling spray and comb for Boy2. His hair is like wool, it gets so matted in the night, I don't know how he can rest when he's obviously rubbing his head against the pillow all night! It's good I had £8.50 in points - I get quite a few at once by combining the vitamin offers with recycling bonus - and I spent almost all of it only on the hair stuff. My £2 flossers came out of my shiny new Chase account and I was happy to see they don't round up exact amounts (.00) like Revolut do.

I'm off to the community larder soon, I hope they're well stocked this week. I reckon between olio, the larder and allotment at some point, I would hardly have to spend any money for my food. All the men in the house eat meat so there's still that, but I have found fish and a whole chicken at the larder before.

I sold a big item on the market place, cashed out £12 from prolific and sent it all to the small CC - £150.45 left to pay there.

I think there was something else I wanted to mention but I need to leave soon and this post is long enough, I might come back later.

I hope you're having a decent Tuesday 😁 and let me know if you have any low carb rhubarb recipes!

MissRikkiC

Love the fact you’re able to utilise the community larder and olio so much. Our food hub is also brilliant and whilst I was in Mat leave last time I found it really useful. Most days I could probably get there after dropping my daughter to nursery which is good. 

£12 from prolific is also really good! You must be doing some good surveys! 

jokono

Oh, that's nice you had that for while. I've only found out about olio about a year ago here on the forums but I don't think they had that much before anyway. It's been getting better every month, hopefully there will be more regular fruit and veg, usually it's just lots of bread.

The community larder I go to opened a few months ago but there are two others in the area, I just didn't know about them. It's subscription based, the more subscribers, the more products they get. It's getting better all the time, today I got a 48 pack of weet-a-bix, that alone covers the weekly subscription and more. Lots of veg again, they had fresh peas (yum), courgettes, tomatoes, peppers, lemons and nectarines. I got 2 bags of mozzarella which need using today so I might either have a huge caprese salad tonight or a veg bake with the cheese on top. I also got oat milk, chocolate porridge oats, some crisps for the boys and, to test my low carb commitment, some graze snack packs and olive oil and white wine taralli 💕💕💕. I can do this, I have three bags of the little carb packed snacking goodness, I'll give one each to the boys and keep one for myself for later. 

jokono

I checked the MSE credit club last nigth and it said I had 90% chance to get a 22 months BT from nat west with no fee. I already have 2 NW CC, the cashback one I used for the flights and the small CC that I'm aiming to clear before the end of the month. I didn't think they would give me yet another one, but I tried the elligibility check on their website and it was ok, I applied and will get the card soon. I won't be able to BT the flights so I would keep the Sainz for that, but I can BT the C4pit4l1 which ends in Nov, this way I'm saving £23 in fees compared to Sainz and I get 22 months to clear it compared to 14. Naughty Sainsobs only gave me a BT for 14 months with a fee (they also offer the same card for 22 months with no fee) but a £7500 limit, if my credit file wasn't good enough for no fee with a longer period, why did they give me such a high limit?

I have entered the C4pit4l1 card details for BT when I applied for the new card, but instead of transferring only the remaining £2300 I asked for £3k. I will close the account once that cleared and sent the £700 to the loan. I had almost £6k available to transfer but I was too nervous to try more. 😂 The loan is now at £10,090, very close to 50% ❤️

All my pots have been moved from R3volut to Ch4se. I found out today you can set up instant saver accounts in Chase with 1.5%aer. A lot more than the nothing% I got from R3volut.

jokono

30 hours after applying the new CC shows in the banking app and the transfer to Capital has been done! The Sainsbobs card is still pending two weeks later.

sashybo

I agree that Sains bank are realllly slow, it took ages for me to get the forms through and the actual card. Then the BT was slow too! I only stuck with it as I got the no fee 0% for 21 months.

jokono

Oh, well done Sashy on getting the better deal! The statement for the flights will be generated tomorrow and I'll have until August 2nd to pay, I think the BT should be sorted by then. I hope? 😬 They can't be that slow!
 
NW came back to me regarding my claim for the flights and asked for more info, I was able to provide everything, now it should be up to 10 working days until I hear from them again.

The council lady came back with a good but scary news that I am now the second on the list for an allotment and there should be a couple of plots coming up soon. Exciting but I need to start researching more seriously. I kind of wish I hadn't ordered 3 more pieces of fabric to sew and write about.

After cancelling the parking charge in Ald! I wrote back to the leasing company and they agreed to refund the £15 redirect fee, result! 💪💪

WinterWarrior

lots of progress since I last popped in! Well done you 😁
And an allotment soon 😮 I have room in the garden for veg…but no will to start the extra work 😬