Geriatricmum vs inner voice: A monologue

Geriatricmum

Reduced my credit limit on the Barclaycard to £1100 now the BT has gone through. Means I can't spend if I get itchy! 

Took some soup into work today and some random oat cakes I found in the pantry. 

Apart from my bus fare I didn't spend any money today 😁

Inner voice : I saw you eyeing up that woolly hat in that shop on the way home 
Me: shhh inner voice. Just go to sleep. 

enthusiasticsaver

Well done on reducing the CC limit, not giving in to the urge to buy the hat and taking in lunch from home. Three good moves there. 

Geriatricmum

I have updated my wee spreadsheet. 

I'm confident I can clear the Barclaycard by May if I pop £180 on it every month, that BT definitely helped.

By the end of the year I think I can clear 4 other blocks of amounts from both virgin (£350.37) and MBNA (£59.82, £372.60, £776.25)

I've also broken down the balances for each card and there's definitely more interest risk on the Virgin. So I wonder if it might be worth popping more on this card once Barclaycard is cleared off to attack  the £2,452.44 balance, but then there's an over 2.7k balance on MBNA where the 0% finishes in May.....

Me: "my brain hurts, I don't want to make silly mistakes by putting money in the wrong place" 

Inner voice "don't make a plan for the bigger amounts yet. Wait until May then see what 0% offers you have. Don't look too far into the future or it'll put you off."

Me: "good thinking inner voice" 

enthusiasticsaver

Here I agree with inner voice.  Don't look too far into the future.  You have a plan so run with it for a while.  

I think I now get your spreadsheet. 

I think you should focus on MBNA even though Virgin is charging interest.  Most of that MBNA will be off the 0% by May and the rate is 28% compared to 20% on Virgin.  If you are able to get more BTs in a few months time it would be worth doing that.  Once Barclaycard is gone you can direct the £180 across both MBNA and Virgin. 

enthusiasticsaver

The end of week roundup was useful.  Why do you think you failed on buying the lunches and how is the grocery budget for January looking? 

Geriatricmum

enthusiasticsaver said:

The end of week roundup was useful.  Why do you think you failed on buying the lunches

Habit, lack of time, being tired after sorting things in the house after the kids are in bed. I don't have as much energy being a Geriatricmum!

I have soup again today. 

and how is the grocery budget for January looking? 

It is currently under £7. We get paid on Monday so . DH said he'd cover any more food with his CC but that's not the point 😔

I think we've done well overall considering the budget was raided by the car repairs. 

Spendless

Next time you do your grocery shop, buy multi packs of cupboard snacks eg crisps, nuts, s'free jelly, cake/biscuit bars, cans of pop  etc. Have them in a convenient place split into days if need be, get your  'packed lunch bag' whatever it is and whilst you make tea throw in one of each of your cupboard snacks. It means you're only ever going to have to make the 'main' part eg sandwich/salad. You could also add items that can be assembled whilst you're on your lunch break instead eg crispbreads and tins of tuna. 

redofromstart

A few weeks ago the hat would have me itching too, but frankly I now haven't got the disposable income which helps. 'Do I really want to burn savings/add to the debt?' works for me. 

I used to pack up the pre prepared bits of lunches a few weeks in advance, carton of juice, crisps, penguin type thing etc, then I was just grabbing a bag out of the big bag even if I hadn't sorted a roll.  It saved me from me 4 times out of 5.

Aimingforthegoodlife

Sounds like you are making good progress!!

Geriatricmum

Spendless said:

Next time you do your grocery shop, buy multi packs of cupboard snacks eg crisps, nuts, s'free jelly, cake/biscuit bars, cans of pop  etc. Have them in a convenient place split into days if need be, get your  'packed lunch bag' whatever it is and whilst you make tea throw in one of each of your cupboard snacks. It means you're only ever going to have to make the 'main' part eg sandwich/salad. You could also add items that can be assembled whilst you're on your lunch break instead eg crispbreads and tins of tuna. 

That's a good idea, I'll do that with the next shop. I'm not keen on sandwiches but a nice salad with some dinner leftovers might be OK.