My Debt Free Journey

abaka

Thanks Mliz!

I paid my minimum payment of my Halifax card which was my PAD. (42.40).

I went ahead and switched my bank account from Halifax to Nationwide.  Not sure how I’m going to cope and had a few doubts whilst doing it!  Have set it for next week to make sure it’s up and running in time before Payday.  Nationwide have also upped the switch fee, it’s now £200 which quickly put any doubts I had in doing the switch out of my mind!

Wife’s birthday on Monday coming….and I made a massive boo-boo!!! Forgot to budget for birthday cards and flowers!!  Ordered those tonight and will pick up flowers over the weekend!! 

Means I just have to revise my planned end of month payment to MBNA.  I was planning to send 320 to MBNA and I’ve now revised this to 300!!!  

I’m going to order us an Indian meal for dinner on her birthday and then take her out for dinner the next day….Hoping what I’ve got saved there can claw me back some funds. But considering what she’s put up with from me and how supportive she has been with me getting my finances back on track.  She deserves to be spoiled!!

Keedie

Sounds like you've got a good plan going on @abaka and having money set aside for celebrations makes a big difference. And to have a plan for MBNA and be able to still buy forgotten items and claw it back shows how far you've come. From what I know of your diary, if this had been a year or nine months ago you would not have had a budget for your wife's birthday and any excess emergency spend would have been on the overdraft of credit card. So you should be really proud of yourself.

It's great to see you PADding as well, and you've got a sensible approach to your mortgage and overpayments, so keep going.

abaka

I was also looking today at my organisations pay award.  Potential increase of £1925 a year.  However it has to be agreed by 2 out of 3 main unions…One has already accepted and one has rejected. Final position won’t be known until end of month!!! Really hoping it will be accepted as if it’s not, we’ll likely end up striking and taking months to resolve…

Would probably give me an extra £90 in my pocket.  The back pay alone would be very welcome just before Xmas if it gets accepted! (Backdated to April 1st).

I have also seen a loophole which means I’m not eligible for the cash back for my switch.  I had opened my Nationwide Account before this offer launched and this deal is for existing customers (the previous £125 deal was for existinfg account holders).  Furious as £200 would be helpful!!!!

I think I will move all my day to day banking to that account however as it pays 5% ApR on up to 1500 and I still have a bit of my savings from inheritance.

Anyway - Today I made a PAD of £2 to my mortgage!

abaka

Ok.  So went on hold to Nationwide.  They were as baffled by the T&Cs of the offer as I was, but they have an eligibility checker online (discovered by the agent) and my circumstances seem to show I’ll get the offer!!

I hope so.  Part of the T&Cs is the existing current account has to be completely closed down.  The Halifax account I’m closing is my longest existing financial account (2009) so it would be a shame to walk away from that unless I’m getting financial reimbursement!

abaka

Payment of 5.24 made to MBNA CC (PAD)

abaka

Woke up this morning and my MBNA bill had generated.  I was expecting it to be 2.5% of the balance but apparently MBNA only do 1% (I wonder if they’ve recently changed because I genuinely remember them being 2.5%)…so I was expecting a minimum payment of nicer £90 and it was only £36.  

I made a PAD £40 payment since I had budgeted for £90.  But means I can roll the other £50 into the other MBNA
That means I can pay the other MBNA off a lot sooner than I thought.  I was anticipating  it to be paid by Feb/Mar but if I can likely throw another 50/60 at it each month, I might be able to clear it by Xmas/Jan!

Nice way to start Friday and the weekend off!!!

LittleMissDetermined

Excellent start to your Friday! My MBNA has always been 1% plus any interest but it's great that it frees up some funds for you to redirect where it's needed the most
LMD x

abaka

£25 Pad for MBNA today. 

Busy day for me today.  Friends are coming up to drop wife’s birthday stuff off and then we’re going to my parents for a bit of lunch.

I need to go and get flowers/cake for my wife’s birthday on Monday.

Also need to make a trip to Argos to bring something back for a refund!  I saw a post on FB about price difference Argos are charging and one of the items in the post was something we bought for Daughters Xmas…A baby born changing table, was £40 in Argos, but Amazon had it for £20!!!  There was another thing we hadn’t bought yet, and Argos were charging £60 whereas most other places were charging 20-25!!!

Shocked as always thought Argos were reliable and reasonable with prices!  Ironically we bought in Argos as it meant we could spread payments using PP Credit (although I just went ahead and paid it off as I didn’t like seeing the balance on my PayPal….A eureka moment!). but also because we researched the actual doll we’re getting our daughter and Argos was best priced.  Didn’t even think twice about the other stuff.   Going to be very studious now before buying anything else!!!

LittleMissDetermined

That's a huge difference in price! I saw a facebook post the other day where someone had said a toy they had been putting money away for had increased in price at Argos, and someone commented that it's because they have to have things at a certain price for 90 days before their 'sale'... I believe their toy sale is coming up.  I thought this was rather immoral and it's made me consider whether Argos should get any of my future purchases! 

Glad you managed to get it cheaper though, it definitely pays to shop around. And well done on the Eureka moment!! 
LMD x

KeepOnKnitting

I've just had a read through of your diary, and I want to point out something I think you have missed in those days when you despair.

I can't remember the exact figures you mentioned, but I think you said you owed £11k pre-covid. Between consolidation and life, your debt was nearer £30k a couple of years later. You were overspending the best part of £1k per month. You are now clearing over £500 a month off your debt. That means you have corrected the balance by about £1.5k per month. That's a massive achievement.

You've had some hiccups, but that's the best part. They are all learning points and you are learning. Those hiccups with the paypal interest and whatever would have happened even without your learning, but you'd have coped with them far less well if you hadn't made such radical changes.

Congratulations, you're doing ace!