The Final Bite of the Cherry- Journey to Clear £66k

WinterWarrior

I’m so sorry about your Labrador 😢 My Labrador is 12 and a half and I worry about her a lot. I hate how insurance companies take your money, but never want to pay out. It’s truly heartbreaking losing a pet, the grief is equal to losing any dependent or family member, but you should know that you did absolutely everything you could and your pup will have known that ♥️

Chrystal

So sorry for your loss, and agree with WW that it definitely is like losing a mush loved family member.

I've always had 'lifetime' cover for the insurance.  It means that any conditions which occur whilst you're insured are covered as long as you stay with that insurance company.  It's saved me a fortune in vets bills.

outoftheviciouscircle

Chrystal said:

So sorry for your loss, and agree with WW that it definitely is like losing a mush loved family member.

I've always had 'lifetime' cover for the insurance.  It means that any conditions which occur whilst you're insured are covered as long as you stay with that insurance company.  It's saved me a fortune in vets bills.

We had this. Unfortunately, they managed to link the condition to something he saw the vet for when he was a puppy. Something we were not told could affect him later in life so we had changed insurers a couple of times thinking he didn't have any underlying conditions.
Our other lab however has had allergies etc from the time the we had her so we have always made sure to keep the lifetime cover for her.

Chrystal

That must have been so distressing. They must have people beavering away in the background just looking for any loop hole to get out of paying!  

outoftheviciouscircle

Chrystal said:

That must have been so distressing. They must have people beavering away in the background just looking for any loop hole to get out of paying!  

I know, at the time I just didn't have the energy to argue with them but now I'm feeling like I want to appeal the decision.

outoftheviciouscircle

Had another couple of successes over the past few days. Our sky contract is ending on 05/05/23. I'm away Monday to Friday and while I'm away DH just watches Netflix and on the weekends we tend to just watch You Tube so we decided to just cancel it. it had gone up to £34 a month. I'm not sure if this means that I can now cancel the TV licence. I think I would rather just pay the monthly fee than worry if I'm doing anything illegal. Everything I've read suggests its okay???

The £600 I requested from Eon landed in the bank account today. I've transferred it to the savings pot but it will go to paying off one of the credit cards in April.I'm feeling pretty hopeful that CC1 will be gone by the end of April.

£7.45 worth of surveys completed today. I have this unrealistic aim of £10 a day but every time I even get close feels like a success.

outoftheviciouscircle

Not much to report this week. I'm away with work all week. It costs me a fortune in food and drink especially when I'm away for weeks at a time. I know I get all this back and I never go over my nightly allowance but I hate seeing the credit card shooting up the amount it does. I have to use the CC, as some months my work expenses can be over £700 and I can't realistically fund that from the current account.

Being away does give me time to focus on things like surveys and reading the success stories on the MSE boards really spares me on. 

Next Tuesday I will get my pay from my little 2nd job and my expenses. I'm hoping I will have enough to pay the £3500 Virgin credit card balance completely. Helped along with the cash from bank switches and the EON credit we had returned. It feels good seeing the debts disappear one by one, although the next one is a biggy. £9k on the Sainsburys CC. £3k of this is interest free until next April with remainder interest free until September 2024. I have been thinking about prioritising some of the smaller debts below £1k first as I can fully clear some of these in 2 months but these have an end date as they are paid by monthly DD so I think its sensible to go after the CC first.

outoftheviciouscircle

So I did a thing. I signed up to the YNAB free trial a week or so ago but only today got around to giving it a go. Well wow, I think I'm going to love it. I think the monthly fee will pay for itself, well that's what I'm hoping.
I'll hang fire on the reviews for now but I'll give it a month or 2 and post how its done.

Feeling excited for the months ahead.

outoftheviciouscircle

I've been awake all night because of the wind and rain. I have a 3 and a half hour drive home in this as well. I can guarantee one of the Severn Bridges will be closed because of the weather and add to the journey time.

Waking up early has meant that I've been messing around with YNAB. I have so many different days money goes into my account. Mine and DH main wages go in every 4 weeks, that falls on the 6th of April, my 2nd job pay goes in on the 4th of April this month I believe and I'm not sure on my work expenses. I need to check that.
I have assigned all my payments that go out before the 6th to see what I have left. Its enough to cover the credit card that covers all our monthly expenses(including my work expenses), the Sainsburys's CC minimum payment  and enough to add to my Christmas and holiday savings.

Work expenses were submitted last Wednesday and this months expenses are already at £214.78 and I have another 2 weeks of working away yet. They will easily reach £500 by the time they are due to be submitted for April. 

vampirotoothus

Hi, do you a Tesco credit card for the reward points? It will make you feel better spending on it for work if you get a free meal every few months. Good luck with the rest of your journey V x