Teetering on the brink

DrunklMunkee

LOL - I have been told that I am "a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic"!!!

I wear it as a badge of honour

stymied

I quietly popped along hoping to find out what was in the box labelled projector….

shirleytch

Hi EatingBeans I have been reading along and wish you well.  You are doing great.  When TopCashback have the promos on like today you can click onto Topgiftcards and buy a gift card for loads of places inc supermarkets.  This qualifies you for the bonus and you can always use a supermarket voucher.  I just got a Tesco one for £5 today and cash back is already payable.  Hope this helps 

EatingBeans

@stymied I completely forgot about that box - thanks for the nudge! I will take a look and report back.

@shirleytch  Buying gift cards! Oh so simple and yet sooo awesome to know! This little bit of knowledge would have helped immensely yesterday - I am going to make a note of this one so I don’t forget! Thank you.

Glad to report I have woken up this morning feeling much better. Urge to spend has lifted and I am back to thinking how I can find ways to put another big dent in the debt this month. 😁

Part of me is embarrassed for sharing my depressing moments of weakness on here yesterday - it would have been very easy to just not write it down - but then I think the diary wouldn’t be a true reflection of my journey. I have thought about it and decided, no, I AM going to write about the challenges too, even if they make be squirm a little reading them back. I am sure it won’t be the last, or lowest moment I reach in this marathon of a journey to debt free, but at least it will be real! Apologies now for anyone reading along. 😬

EatingBeans

Oh, and I also wanted to report that one of the first things I did this morning was check to see if MBNA were still offering me 0% balance transfers. Happy to report that yes they are. New offer is 0% for 15months for 5% fee. Not the best deal they have ever given me but 5% still beats the standard interest rates I am paying. 

Now I just need the new statement to generate next week as that will confirm how much debt I am paying standard rate on MBNA, and it should hopefully confirm if they went ahead with raising my limit. Then I will plan this month’s credit card shuffle to see how much I can winkle back onto 0%. 

Obviously the plan is still to pay off as much as I can regardless, but every £ saved in interest is just another £ that can help pay down the debt faster. 

Fingers crossed for good news next week. 🤞

EatingBeans

Something I learnt from reading the news this morning - back billing by energy suppliers was outlawed by Ofgem in 2018! I know, I know, lots of you probably already knew this, but I did not. 

It is the concern over suddenly triggering a massive back bill that has stopped me switching energy suppliers for years. Lots of people have told me it won’t happen but my experience tells me different as I did receive one of these massive bills and I had to pay off every penny! Now I know if I do get one I can fight it, I would happily switch suppliers. 😁 Something to make a note of for when my shiny new fixed term ends. 

EatingBeans

@stymied

Well I opened the “projector” box and blow me down but it does indeed contain a projector. Not the type that I was imagining though! It is an old fashioned slide projector, still in it’s original box (which was inside the box I was looking at), still working, with all it’s original packaging, a spare bulb, lens cap, and even it’s original registration card from when it was purchased on 4th May 1965! 🤣 How awesome is that! I mean I’ve checked on ebay and I think it is only worth about £30 but I just love the fact that somehow this clearly loved object has been on it’s travels all these years, passed through so many hands and has somehow found it’s way to a pile in my living room without me even knowing! 

The best bit is, I also found an instruction card inside the box that matches an old collapsable screen that I do know I have (sadly a bit of it broke last week), but now I know it is also 60 years old, who can blame it! I was going to bin the screen at the next tip run, but I might see if the person buying the projector also wants the screen as they may want to repair it and keep the set together. 🤷‍♀️ 

BadBookkeeper

Good tip about the TopCashback I usually buy birthday cards that I need from moonpig or card factory but think a gift card for supermarket is a better idea, I also find myself looking for something to buy just to get a bonus. 

EatingBeans

Having never checked out the option of buying gift cards to save money, I thought I would check out gift cards available through TopCashBack this morning. It seems that if I buy a gift card for Tesco’s, (literally 200m away), then I get cash back on the gift card and still get Tesco club card points. Also, if I redeem my cash back as an e-gift card rather than just get cash, then they give me a bonus amount on top. The gift cards can just be stored in my Apple wallet, so no faffing around with paper tokens or anything. So basically free money for a bit of admin and preplanning. 👍 Ok, that i can do. Just means one or two less Morrisons deliveries a month which is probably for the best anyway as I need to start getting into the habit of walking to the shops again. Or I could be really lazy and time it with topping up my petrol and drive there! 😬

EatingBeans

I was feeling really tired and my face was paining me somewhat so I decided to take a couple of painkillers and head back for a nap. 2 and a half hours later, I have woken up with a banging headache. 😞 What is wrong with me?! I normally struggle to sleep for more than 10minutes in the day… unless I am ill. 😱 I am really hoping I am just tired and I didn’t pick something up while I was in the office. 🤞Maybe I will feel better once I have had lunch. 

In more positive news, I also woke up to a £1.50 voucher for PetsAtHome to treat my guinea pigs for their 3rd birthday - I had completely forgotten it is today. Now, I am not making a special trip just for £1.50 (sorry piggles), but it does look like I will be having a trip to the vets with our youngest cat this month so I will find myself in the store anyway. £1.50 is unlikely to stretch very far in there but I’ll see what I can do for our sweet boys. 😁