Geriatricmum vs inner voice: A monologue

enthusiasticsaver

So I would pay just above minimums to MBNA  and Virgin and do  the BT of £225 from Barclaycard then throw all spare money there until it is gone.  Once it is empty you might be offered a 0% deal. 

Geriatricmum

enthusiasticsaver said:

Goodness my mind is exploding just looking at those.  Am I right you just have the three cards but MBNA  and Virgin have several deals going at the moment?  Barclaycard is the one with no deals and charging 31.07% interest? 

Yup! 

When you say £280 is not realistic where has that figure come from? 

That was from a credit card repayment calculator. £280 a month is what I need to pay to clear the barclaycard by May. 

Do you pay £130 a month to MBNA and how much to Virgin?

Around £130 to Mbna, my payment went out yesterday and it was £130.06. Virgin is around £60

Have you done an soa to decide how much available you have to put towards debts?  

Hubby and I have been working to a budget, which covers all household expenses, loan debt, mortgage, Groceries, childcare. According to the budget I should have £580 a month to cover my own personal expenses, including my credit card debt, clothes, bus fare, lunches. It never feels like that much though because I just spend on rubbish. 

Sorry for the questions but my simple brain would struggle to cope with all the different deals all finishing at different times.  Surely a deal of £225 for 12 monhts is not worth bothering with on the MBNA? Or should that be £2250? 

Yes it's £225. 

I find your questions useful, thank you for taking the time to reply 

Geriatricmum

enthusiasticsaver said:

So I would pay just above minimums to MBNA  and Virgin and do  the BT of £225 from Barclaycard then throw all spare money there until it is gone.  Once it is empty you might be offered a 0% deal. 

This is what I'm thinking, although now I've made a payment to MBNA the BT amount will go up a bit so I'll wait till the end of the month. 

Barclaycard have never offered me deals on this card even when my balance was low many years ago. Once it's empty I'm going to cancel it.

I'm hoping once Barclaycard has gone and I start throwing money at MBNA I'll get enough room to then put balances that are costing me money on Virgin onto MBNA and vice versa. I feel confident I can keep track of when 0% deals end with the spreadsheet.

Maybe my credit score will improve enough to get a good BT card in a few months! 

enthusiasticsaver

OK so the key things I have taken is that you have £580 spare each month but that covers personal spends as well as credit card debt?

An easy win would be to take lunches to work and see how much that saves you.  I think I did that all my working life except for one day a month on payday when we  went out for lunch as a group of friends. Try it for a month and see how that goes even if you end up taking rolls, fillings, a multipack of crisps and some fruit to the office and sorting it out there. You will be amazed at how much that saves.  

Are you managing to live without spending on credit now?  Paying down the cards but still putting spends on there is counter productive so if you don't trust yourself not to spend on there remove them from your purse. 

I am not sure why the credit card calculator is saying you should clear the Barclaycard by May but I don't really know how the algorithms work for the snowballs.  They presumably don't know your budget though so my suggestion would be that you pay the £60 to Virgin as now and the MBNA £130 then after doing the BT from Barclaycard maybe pay £140 when you get paid and then any spare money through the month goes to it as well? That would leave you £250 as personal spends. 

Geriatricmum

enthusiasticsaver said:

OK so the key things I have taken is that you have £580 spare each month but that covers personal spends as well as credit card debt?

Yes, that's the case in theory, inner voice says I should make a note of what I spend my money on over the next three months and see where I can make savings. 

An easy win would be to take lunches to work and see how much that saves you.  I think I did that all my working life except for one day a month on payday when we  went out for lunch as a group of friends. Try it for a month and see how that goes even if you end up taking rolls, fillings, a multipack of crisps and some fruit to the office and sorting it out there. You will be amazed at how much that saves.  

Yeah, I just had a look at what I spent on lunches this week and it's shocking 

Are you managing to live without spending on credit now?  Paying down the cards but still putting spends on there is counter productive so if you don't trust yourself not to spend on there remove them from your purse. 

I've cut up my barclaycard and put my other two in my underwear drawer ha! 

I am not sure why the credit card calculator is saying you should clear the Barclaycard by May but I don't really know how the algorithms work for the snowballs.  They presumably don't know your budget though so my suggestion would be that you pay the £60 to Virgin as now and the MBNA £130 then after doing the BT from Barclaycard maybe pay £140 when you get paid and then any spare money through the month goes to it as well? That would leave you £250 as personal spends. 

I set a personal goal to get it cleared by May to coincide with the final payment of a joint loan. I thought having a goal might motivate me. 

Just checked my MBNA and I have £355 available on the BT. That would reduce my Barclaycard balance to £803.87.

Inner voice: "I still think you should hang fire on the BT. You could near enough clear it in a couple of months if you wait for your BT balance to build up"

Me: "but I'll save on interest and getting the balance under a grand is a real mental boost!“

Inner voice" boost will be bigger if you take £600 off it in 2 months time!“

Me: "I'll still be in debt though, it's not going to take me out of debt holding off" 

Inner voice: "patience is a virtue" 

Me: "small steps lead to big changes"

Inner voice: "live, laugh, love" 

Me: "you're just taking the pee now"

Inner voice: "dance like nobody's watching"

Me: "you've actually lost it" 

Aimingforthegoodlife

I like inner voice and you, I think it demonstrates the internal battle we are all having when it comes to these journeys! Try doing non spend days, and payment a day, they are both challenges over on debt free wannabe challenges page. There is so much inspiration over there that it helps with the motivation.

You can also do a soft search for a credit card on here, that would let you know if there is a 0% or even more that would be better as a credit card, without it affecting your credit score, unless you go for it! 

Good luck!

Geriatricmum

Aimingforthegoodlife said:

I like inner voice and you, I think it demonstrates the internal battle we are all having when it comes to these journeys! Try doing non spend days, and payment a day, they are both challenges over on debt free wannabe challenges page. There is so much inspiration over there that it helps with the motivation.

You can also do a soft search for a credit card on here, that would let you know if there is a 0% or even more that would be better as a credit card, without it affecting your credit score, unless you go for it! 

Good luck!

Thanks! It certainly helps writing it down, rather than sitting here stewing and picking at my nails!

DS1 has just fallen asleep so I'll have a wee explore of the forum. 

enthusiasticsaver

Reducing the Barclaycard to just over £800 now sounds like a win worth taking.  Nothing stopping you doing another one in a few months time and in the meantime you have saved 31% interest on £355.  I like inner voice but sometimes it pays to be decisive and your first instinct is correct.  You need to save interest and moving to 0% will do that.  Hopefully other options will come up but dealing with that Barclaycard is first plan. 

MFWannabe

I would definitely do the balance transfer 

Spendless

I'm another one with head spinning. Paying the Barclaycard which is the  highest interest first makes the most financial sense but do you want the satisfying hit of seeing something gone (which would be my temptation) which you could do with the Virgin card and your amount of BT -  I am mindful you've got another virgin where the 0% is due to finish in a couple of days though. Maybe someone could do the maths for you. .

Re - lunches - which is far more in my suggestion territory  comfort zone, in my last job I used to consider it my version of a supermarket meal deal with bonus - so my main was a sandwich or salad, snack crisps, cheese and biscuits, chicken skewer - really depended on what the main had been. Dessert was sugar free jelly, fruit, cake/biscuit bar etc and then a cold drink. Sort any Tupperware or similar you've got out to help with  organisation