Third time's a charm!

twiggy86

I decided to have a slight re-shuffle of my pots - a necessity really to avoid spending on on the CC. I have cleared last months CC spend by using the money I'd put aside for the TV - meaning there is now only £39.11 put aside this month for that. But I can catch up once our money situation gets back to normal (albeit with my newly found MSE mindset!).

Balance transfer has gone through so I now "only" have 3 CCs with balances - albeit the total balance is over £14k!!! 

I also thought I would have to buy a new block of gym classes this month (£75) but as I have started netball I haven't gone to the gym as much meaning I had £60 still aside for that. So I have transferred that for food etc to give us a bit extra this month. 

I also realised that whilst I was getting sorted with everything else, I hadn't logged into my mortgage account in forever. So long in fact that it still had my old phone attached to it. So I couldn't complete the log in process and instead have applied for a pin so that I will then be able to get in - should arrive in a few days. According to my credit report my mortgage is approx £73 at the moment. In the short term, I don't have plans to overpay or anything, as want to get the other debts sorted first, but it would be good to know when my deal is up etc. Once upon a time I did have it set up to automatically overpay £100 per month but cancelled it (probably when we had a financial hiccup like we are having now) and never re-instated it. But that's a goal for the future. 

In terms of short term goals, I'm hoping when OH gets paid (fingers crossed next Friday!) to pay the following:

• Pay off anything I have put on the CC for this month (zero at the moment but almost getting to that point!)
• Clear next (£171.49)
• Replace money for TV (£160.89)
• Pay parents (£100) 

May not all be doable but if I don't try I will definitely fail!!! 

bigbeff

You are doing awesomely - my mortgage deal is due to end in 4 months too. I spoke to them, and just awaiting until they send a letter at 90 days. 

I'm going to have a little play with my pots tomorrow - Friday is my money day (although I check balances every day!) Been given an extra day of work due to storm coming in, so plan to use that constructively

twiggy86

Thanks @bigbeff - I "think" I've got another couple of years but could be totally wrong! 

I received £62.22 tax rebate (I thought it should be £62.50?) so rightly or wrongly I have paid that off next. So that currently stands at £109.27. I debated keeping it to give myself a bit more breathing space this month but decided the more I have, the more I'm likely to spend! I already "gave" myself the extra £60 but I am now in the "I despise spending on my CC" mindset so that will force extra frugality! I have already identified (through the aid of my spreadsheet) that I spend too much on food, particularly those extra little treats e.g. biscuits. I know I will be less inclined to do this if the shop is going on my CC! I really hate to think how much we were spending on takeaways previously, so at least that habit has been curbed!!! 

In non-MSE news - played my first netball game last night and it was great! It helped that we won but was so fun! So yes it is costing £5 per week, in terms of mental health it was invaluable! Lockdown has really made me feel like I've lost "me" along the way - so although I didn't play netball/ team sports previously, I went to circuits 3x a week, parkour, running events etc and particularly the social aspect was very important to me. 

twiggy86

Mixed bag this weekend...

The good:

• Saw my best friend's sons on Saturday - £0 spent 
• I had a lovely meal out with friends on Saturday night - "only" spent £20
• I finished my next crochet gift - a fire engine for my friend's son - £0 spent 
• I have paid over £500 towards my debts this month despite things being very tight (although see first bullet below!)

The bad:

• We are now onto the CC for spending as my current account stands at 4p!
• OH was delayed in finishing the job he was working on due to the weather, meaning it further delays when he will get paid for it 
• Despite the points above, I ended up offering to buy my OH a takeaway on Saturday night whilst I was out 

I'm not being too hard on myself though as I am still learning and trying to do better.

I'm waiting on £30 to become payable from TCB and also won't use all of my petrol "pot" for this month - so I plan on paying those off of next. I know it might seem silly paying off debt on one side and incurring it again on the other. But I feel like the more I give myself to play with this month, the more I will spend/ justify spending. So I would rather do it this way for now - make any sense to anyone else?! 

I've also logged into my mortgage account for the first time in forever! Its currently £72k and my current deal ends next July. Played around with the calculator a bit to motivate me to clear the debts and then start overpaying the mortgage! Motivation boost or what!!! 

bigbeff

I hope you had a lovely evening out. Don’t be too hard on yourself, £500 off the CC is great progress this month and only a few days of the month left. Little and often is the game I’m playing! 

I might play with the calculators Too - was overpaying my mortgage but decided I needed to overpay other debts first as they were producing more interest. Back to mortgage overpayments when I can!

twiggy86

Thanks @bigbeff. 

My OH has informed me that he is "hopefully getting paid tomorrow", so I'm keeping my fingers crossed but not holding my breath! I have no idea how much it will be either so I won't make any plans until it's materialised! 

I had the day off yesterday so I went for a run (furthest I've run in ages) and did some crochet. I made a jumper a while ago - loved it but had a couple of issues with the shape. The designer had subsequently updated the pattern which now included ribbing which would overcome my issues. So of course I had planned to make a whole new one... But why would I do this when I had a ball of yarn left over which would be enough to update my version and it would be simple to update the one I'd made previously?!!?!?! So yesterday I started amending the one I had made with the yarn I had and I nearly finished it! Pleased I stop to think about this one before making a non-MSE decision! Of course, I can make another in the future if I wish but given that I'm trying to use up my stash, this made perfect sense! Sorry a lot of waffle about crochet and yarn!

twiggy86

Today is my payday!!! OH didn't end up getting paid on Friday, so this cash injection is much needed!!! (I also got an extra £56.80 because of the work from home tax thingy!)

Thought I would review my progress for February:

• Paid £521.73 off my debts 
• Spent £201.15 on my CC 
• Interest was £19.17
• Making a total difference for the month of £301.41

Clearly I overextended myself with the payments as I ended up spending again and some of what I paid off was covering the CC spend from January - however I am still impressed with the overall figure! Also, it really helps not paying loads of interest! 

I would love to throw a load a the debts now but I think it is wise to wait until OH finally gets paid before I go too crazy! Also, some of the CC statements haven't come in yet - and it also doesn't help that I left my purse at home today so the one that I could pay, I can't!! I have however paid £12.92 off Next though which takes the outstanding balance to a nice round £100. Still hoping to get this cleared this month but that is all dependent on if OH now consistently has work and we get back to normal! 

I have logged all of my expenses this month and so intend to spend a bit of time considering where I spend. I think I can see that because I haven't been meal planning too far ahead, I tend to pop to Aldi often - which often leads to picking up one/two extra things each time. So I think/know I need to meal plan for a week i.e. less trips to the shop and therefore less extras. Maybe I'll make it my goal this month and see what a difference it makes to the total figure at the end of the month... challenge accepted!!! 

Tied into the above I also only had 6 NSDs this month as I always seem to need something. Maybe I'll manage more of them this month too!!! 

bigbeff

Awesome work Twiggy! I'm new to the meal planning too - I only went to the shop once in the last 4 days (before it was nearly daily!) About to plan next 3 days now We made a huge lasagne on Sunday and that fed us yesterday too! Today's dinner is freezer roulette - finishing off old stuff before I start labelling new stuff!

enthusiasticsaver

I know it might seem counter productive to save whilst clearing debts but given your OHs erratic income having some emergency savings would be a priority alongside debt clearing. The reason for this is that it is demotivating to pay money off debt then have to spend on credit later on even in the same month due to having no emergency savings. I get that you think that having money lying around will tempt you to spend it but if you think of it as money not to be touched except in dire emergencies (car repair, no money for food or essential machine breakdown) that might help.  

Also maybe get in the mentality of takeaways/meals out need to be earned, such as a treat on payday or within a monthly entertainment budget. 

Given that Next is so expensive in terms of the interest rate on the card I would close it once it is clear. 

twiggy86

Thanks @bigbeff and @enthusiasticsaver for your comments. 

I totally agree that we need savings - because guess what... OH still hasn't been paid and now their truck is broke so he hasn't worked so far this week and who knows when it will be fixed! Life is really testing us!!! This is going into month 4 of having pretty much one wage between us! First we had covid isolation at the start of December, then Christmas (shouldn't have been a surprise as it happens every year!), and then the period of no work about 3 days after OH went back in the new year. I'm definitely having a pity party for one today as feel like I'm working hard just to struggle to get by. 

I'll try get out of this funk before I next post so it's not so moany!