Hopefully debt free before Mortgage renewal in June 2026

Cara_

Another good month and the end is in sight.

I see you only bought food on 2 days during September; I recall you spent slightly more than your usual weekly shop and were intending to make it last over a week. Did this work out well? It's something I do when there are offers on and it does reduce the spending on food.

I assume you are 9 months alcohol free.

I hope you are intending to do some of the October self care suggestions, in particular the seasonal treat as you deserve it as a reward for your efforts.

Tezzadp

I had a nice little surprise today. My car insurance is due for renewal on 30th October and the optimum time to get quotes is around 26 days from the renewal date. I NEVER auto renew my car insurance with my current insurer as they generally charge more than what you can pay if you compare prices, i think companies do this on purpose as some people often either simply stick with their current insurer for the sake of ease and others forget to disable the auto renew option on their current insurance. 

My current insurance quote for the same policy i had last year (which was £232.79) was £378.60. A massive £145.81 (62.6%) increase ! So i did 4 searches on comparison sites. I usually just use Compare the market as i have found that the cheapest over the years. But i did additional searches this time.

Here are the results, all with the exact same details : 

Compare the market £166.31
Money supermarket £186.58
Confused £155.47
U Switch £155.47

All for a full year fully comprehensive with no additional excess. 

(I didnt realise that U Switch used the same search system as Confused.com until i started filling out the questions and noticed it was the same format, i expected the same quotes as the result but i carried on with it anyway just incase, but yep it was exactly the same as Confused.com. I didn't know this, but now i do, so no need to do an additional search in the future)

Anyway, i went through Confused.com and paid the full year in one go £155.47, which is a massive difference to the renewal price of £378.60 i was quoted with my current insurer (£223.13 LESS). With going through Confused.com i was able to claim a free gift of a £20 Just eat voucher, which will be emailed to me in a few days time (a small treat for the end of the the month or maybe i can save it until the end of the debt paying year). And also i am able to claim a free drink from Greggs 1 every month for a year. So i can grab a free drink on my way to work one day a month for the next 12 months. (Dont worry i wont be tempted to buy additional items while im in there, i know thats their ploy haha, im too money conscious for that) 

First thing i do/did when buying my insurance is to turn OFF the auto renewal - thats the number one rule and tip i would give anyone. 




So i have taken the £155.47 from my Savings/Emergency/one off bill account to pay for this, which leaves the account balance at £655.91


No other spending today

No direct debits today

Natwest CC Daily payment £3.80 Total daily payments made this month £18.90

Total of all Natwest CC payments, including weekly and monthly payments made this month £79.90 leaving a balance of £1625.81

*This month refers to 30th September to 30th October (the day before pay day)

Tezzadp

Cara_ said:

Another good month and the end is in sight.

I see you only bought food on 2 days during September; I recall you spent slightly more than your usual weekly shop and were intending to make it last over a week. Did this work out well? It's something I do when there are offers on and it does reduce the spending on food.

I assume you are 9 months alcohol free.

I hope you are intending to do some of the October self care suggestions, in particular the seasonal treat as you deserve it as a reward for your efforts.

Thank you, yes its getting closer to the end now and im getting more and more excited as the days and weeks pass. 

Yes this month i only did the 2 food shops, for one reason or another i ended up going on different days during the week and spent more than normal, so i tried to make my shop last longer than normal to make up for the extra spend and to get myself back on track with my usual Tuesday food shop visit. To be honest i didnt like it, i found myself running out of some things before i was at my food shop date like milk, or things for sandwiches or lunchbox for work, where as if i had done my usual weekly food shop i wouldnt have run out. i was more conscious about trying to make things last longer and i didnt enjoy it. Im going to try and stick to my usual Tuesday visit in future if possible and spend a little less and stick to my budget. But i guess it what works for you, if you can make it work then thats great but it just wasnt for me. 

Oh yesss i forgot to put my 9 months Alcohol free post on. only 3 more months to go for the full year with that also. 
 

I will watching a scary movie and be sorting out my closet and getting my warm coats out and at the ready for the winter ahead, im not sure about a treat, i may use my free £20 just eat voucher at the end of the month to have while watching a scary movie for halloween, but i dont think i will have much else as a treat tbh.

Tezzadp

                                                 

Spendless

Great news re car insurance. Check the small print when the vouchers arrive as they only might be valid for a limited period. 

 Something Ive noticed, or rather not noticed. What sort of account have you got your emergency savings in? I notice youve never mentioned interest being paid out. If its not in an easy access saver Id get it moved to one. Theres guides on this site for where. I know youve been wary in the past and spent savings but that was old you, youve been proving all year long that youre capable of addressing the situation and changing. 

Tezzadp

No money spent today
No direct debits today

Natwest CC Daily payment £3.81 Total daily payments made this month £22.71

Total of all Natwest CC payments, including weekly and monthly payments made this month £83.71 leaving a balance of £1622.00

*This month refers to 30th September to 30th October (the day before pay day)

Tezzadp

Spendless said:

Great news re car insurance. Check the small print when the vouchers arrive as they only might be valid for a limited period. 

 Something Ive noticed, or rather not noticed. What sort of account have you got your emergency savings in? I notice youve never mentioned interest being paid out. If its not in an easy access saver Id get it moved to one. Theres guides on this site for where. I know youve been wary in the past and spent savings but that was old you, youve been proving all year long that youre capable of addressing the situation and changing. 

Thanks. I checked how long it was valid for before i chose the just eat voucher instead of other options. It's valid for 12 months, where as the other options were Sainsburys voucher which was only valid for 30 days and i dont even shop at Sainsburys so it would just force me to go and maybe spend more than i needed to just to spend the voucher. I know i could have used it for money off a weekly shop one week but i think Sainsburys is more expensive on the whole so i will just stick with going my usual weekly shop and have the Just eat voucher as a little treat one day in the future. 

My Emergency/Savings account is a Primary Savings account with RBS, its just a separate account i had a while ago that i just use to keep it out of sight and out of mind when i access my usual Nat West current accounts and things on the app/online banking. If i cant see it, then i dont think about it and am less likely to spend it .... that's the theory anyway. It does pay interest but very little, especially for the small amount i have in it. It's only something like 1.06%. I dont really bother with looking at accounts with higher interest rates as i dont have enough money in the bank for it to make much of a difference tbh. If i had £10k+ or something then maybe it would be worth shopping around for higher savings interest rate accounts, but right now it doesnt affect me that much.

I simply transfer the small amounts of interest it does pay every so often back to my current account in order to keep it at the right level according to my own savings accounting that i show on here.

Spendless

Don't dismiss your savings as not being worth it. I earnt 93p on a balance of £265 last week for the month. That was monzo and I have  that account  purely cos I wanted a savings account with named pots. 93p isnt much I agree, but its money for nothing. Dont think you need loads of savings first.  You dont have an issue paying small amounts to pay back debt. Apply the same principal to savings. 

Tezzadp

No money spent today
No direct debits today

Natwest CC Daily payment £3.82 Total daily payments made this month £26.53

Total of all Natwest CC payments, including weekly and monthly payments made this month £87.53 leaving a balance of £1618.18

*This month refers to 30th September to 30th October (the day before pay day)

Tezzadp

Spendless said:

Don't dismiss your savings as not being worth it. I earnt 93p on a balance of £265 last week for the month. That was monzo and I have  that account  purely cos I wanted a savings account with named pots. 93p isnt much I agree, but its money for nothing. Dont think you need loads of savings first.  You dont have an issue paying small amounts to pay back debt. Apply the same principal to savings. 

That is very true. I will keep transferring it back into my current account for now and use towards paying off my debts but when my debts are paid off i wont have to and it can just go towards growing my savings .... Hopefully.