New Year, New me

bigbeff

I have been a nationwide customer for 20 years plus... I just wanted another account. Its stressing me out! I'm going to list some more clutter to make me feel better  

bigbeff

I'm getting a little bit obsessive (that's a good thing right?!)

Listed a couple more items on facebook, and sold two more which is another £4 in my pot. 
Got some box files from FB to sort out some of my office paperwork and get me more organised - got a huge pile of paper to shred next time I go to work. Need a break from it (when you find bills from 2007, you kind of think you should have done this sooner!) 
Oh and I created myself a spreadsheet (who doesn't like a spreadsheet?) so I can record everything coming in and going out hopefully helping me to control things a bit better. 

How is everyone else's Sunday going?

ThisLife

Sounds like you're on a roll! It feels good to get organised. Don't let the Nationwide decision get you down, maybe they don't like you to have 2 main accounts. Open one with another bank. I have 2 accounts at different banks. It works well, one for salary to go into and standing orders/direct debits to come out of. Then another one which I transfer food/fuel money to. The 2 different cards saves me getting them mixed up when I'm shopping, I know which is which 

bigbeff

Good morning, 

I'm feeling a bit more on top of things now - still a bit concerned with the account rejection, but I am on top of it Writing down my spends really help and seeing what I have got from selling makes me want to sell a bit more - I'm off down the bank in a bit to pay £50 off my card - seems better to do that, then leave it sat in a pot in my office. Sold a stick blender and a calculator on facebook - another £6 in the pot, and I just found another scientific calculator so I might list again! 

I had a broken graphics tablet which I was going to take to tip, thought I'll risk it on ebay and already got bids, it's amazing what people will buy

I'm off to see what else I need to get rid of - a pending move where I'm downsizing really makes me realise I keep a lot of things that "may come in handy" and haven't been touched in years! 

Prolific hasn't given me any surveys for a few days - anyone got any other ideas?

bigbeff

Hi all, 

Well today I sold another item - £1 to add to my pot. 

I reduced my overdraft to £900 - it's only at £650 at the moment, but I thought I'd reduce my credit facility... I didn't need it so high. 
Thought I'd set myself a quarterly target, so by the end of March:

1) Nationwide CC gone! (currently £400) 
2) Overdraft gone! (currently £650)

I was overpaying my mortgage by £100 a month, but although psychologically I love the idea of that going quicker, I thought that money is better off being put towards my other debts first. 

Table sale on Saturday - hopefully I'll make a little more and clear some junk

joedenise

Personally @bigbeff I'd be clearing the overdraft, followed by the CC rather than overpaying the mortgage.  The mortgage is at a much lower interest rate than either of the debts.

Once the debts are gone you can concentrate on overpaying the mortgage using the money you previously used to pay off the debts.

bigbeff

I haven't posted for a few days, but still been plugging away. 

Doing a table sale today, hoping to clear some of my junk ☺️ I'll let you all know how it goes later. 

bigbeff

So, after spending the morning sat trying to sell junk, I made a grand total of £15! Barely worth it, but better than nothing, and got some good crocheting time in  

jusferbrowsing

That's a shame, still its £15 better off than you were earlier... and you don't know unless you try. 

Enjoy your crocheting.

LittleMissDetermined

After reading your diary, I am subscribing to cheer you along.  There are a couple of things I thought I would mention, the first has already been said about prioritising your debt-busting by order of the most expensive, so Overdraft, credit cards and then the mortgage. 

Well done on creating your spreadsheet, I have one for my bank accounts so I can track what needs to come out, what's available and it pretty much mirrors my bank statement but has a column for expenditure and I know exactly what I have left for the month. I also have another which tracks my credit cards, what I'm due to pay off and how much interest I will be charged. It really helps me focus on where my priority needs to be. 

I have had little success from doing surveys, they're sporadic and I've had much more money from receipt snapping apps such as Snap My Eats, Shoppix, Huyu, Storewards and ZipZero.  It takes a bit of time, but nothing compared to some of the surveys when you can get screened out right at the end!

I second the recommendations about using a slow cooker and batch cooking, it really makes a difference knowing that I have quick meals in the freezer that are cooked from scratch and that I know are healthy. 

The last piece of advice from me is to have a look on the challenge boards and see if there are some which could fit in with what you're trying to achieve, such as payment a day, make £x in the month, 2021-22 survey challenge, there are lots on there to have a look at and they can be really motivating.

I know you were disheartened by the total of your debts, but you've recognised and started to tackle it now and believe me when you're on a roll it soon starts to reduce!  In July 2020 I owed almost £32k. 18 months later I'm down to less than £13k. Honestly, I wouldn't have done it without the help of this forum. 

I'm sorry for such a long post, but I wanted to help if I am able to.
Lots of luck!
LMD x