Dolly's Diary - 2022 and Onwards

LittleMissDetermined

Fingers crossed 🤞🏻 

_Dolly_Rocker_

It came. Just going to take the dog for a walk then I'll sort it in between work when I get back. 

Shall update you with my plan of action today at some point - yay!

LittleMissDetermined

Hurrah!! 🙌

_Dolly_Rocker_

And I can edit my posts - woo hoo it's all happening today. 

_Dolly_Rocker_

Payday is here finally. 

All bill money accounted for in the main account, all CC's paid and zero money left for the month. 

Right now I'm not in the best place but this year I am sorting that out. 

I know most won't agree but I do have another CC which I use right now for day to day spends and that does have a rather high balance right now but personally I want to deal with that one separately from the main debt. 

My aim is by the end of the year to have that at a zero balance. I'm going to reduce it each month by spending only what I need. When I have more funds in the account that this CC balance I'll start using my actual money to live. 

This plan is working out okay in my head anyway so that's how it's gonna go. 

Oh and yeah any survey cash I get will also go straight to this card.

_Dolly_Rocker_

Day to Day CC
So I know having one of these is the worst thing ever but it's just how I've gotten used to living. Paid for Christmas with this and also my car failed it's MOT so had to get that fixed.

£1,018.78 - January 2022

I've paid £276.00 to it today so aim is to spend less than that this month which I can do easily if I plan plan plan. I'll be paying pretty much the same amount to it each month plus any survey cash outs so the only way I'm getting rid of this is to stop living over my means.

WinterWarrior

I still have a cc, but pay it off as I use it. This sometimes results in a positive balance, but always at zero or credit balance. It took me a long time to get to this point and I’m just not disciplined enough to pay it in one go at the end of the month, that would just lead to it creeping back up. One thing I did do was reduce its limit to £2500 when I’d got it down and it’s fixed at that and never increases. It’s there as a safety net, but I hope to never owe on it again. Different methods work for different people, but for me reducing the limit really helped. A large limit left me with ideas of grandeur…’oh yes I could buy that £8k dragon/solid gold crown/other ridiculous thing if I wanted to’ 😬

_Dolly_Rocker_

Yeah that limit is at £5900 right now, it's been like that for years but I think I'll contact them to reduce it. 

In years to come I will have an emergency fund which will replace the need for any credit but I am a long way from that point right now. 

Being a new homeowner I feel like I need to keep it until I get that built up. 

It's like a vicious circle isn't it. 

LittleMissDetermined

I have a ridiculous combined credit limit of more than £62k. I haven't reduced any yet as I still have a heft amount still to pay and I want to keep my 0% transfer options open.  It also keeps my utilised % of credit low which is good for the credit scores. 

Once I've paid them off I will probably close all but 2 and then use them for things I may need additional protection for such as holidays, white goods etc, but clear the balances immediately.

That's the plan anyway

LMD x

WinterWarrior

I agree, they are good for protection as long as you pay off immediately. Also good for quick access for repairs and emergencies as often our emergency funds are squirrelled away somewhere that isn’t easy access. If I had a big emergency I would have to wait for the premium bonds to pay me back, so the card would be invaluable then. But I do like the small limit. When you get to the point that everything is paid off then that available credit means nothing. My credit report has a few ambers now because I don’t use credit, when I owed money they were all green! It’s a crazy system.