Say No to Credit Cards Diary

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards · 19 June 2018 at 8:42AM

Moguline wrote: »

Well done SNTCC! You're doing so well. I too am enjoying the change in mindset and the feeling of being back in control of my life. I don't think it's sad at all - it's being proud of ourselves and owning up to reality.

Thank you Moguline. I was happy to read you are in the same mindset as well. It is really motivating I think. I just hope I can stay in this mode and it all does not come to an end.

Well, what is today bringing me?

Tea sorted out for tonight. Food budget going great which is amazing.

Petrol in the car is ok, I will have to watch what I am doing with it though.

Another sale on ebay last night so £7.07 profit after fees. Will update my signature in a moment. I really really cannot believe the amount I have made this month it is amazing.

Today I am also going to look around for an amazing insurance deal for the house which I hope will be at a great price with lots of cash back. It is due on the 17th July so I wanted to get some quotes to see what it is coming in at.

Next annual payment is tv licence on 2nd July. Once these payments have gone out and not on a credit card I am going to do the weekly tins for all of them. So I can be organised for next year. Life is looking good.

Right off to work. When I get home I am going to list the big bag of stuff I found over the weekend on ebay. Fun times.

Take care everybody

[Deleted User] · 19 June 2018 at 9:58AM

Yay, well done on the eBay sale! That June extra income is really impressive!

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards · 19 June 2018 at 11:56AM

Moguline wrote: »

Yay, well done on the eBay sale! That June extra income is really impressive!

I know I really cannot believe it, I just hope it continues.

You are doing so well on your journey as your debt figure has really come down in the time since your light bulb moment. What have you been doing to reduce it?

Take care and thank you for dropping by.

[Deleted User] · 19 June 2018 at 12:15PM

Yes, fingers crossed it continues!

Thanks for your kind words!

We've basically just drastically reduced our monthly outgoings. The biggest impact here by far has been getting rid of our car. I was paying £350 a month in insurance, petrol, tax, maintenance and parking (£90 a month at my work!). All this for a 20 minute horrible commute drive which still left me with a 10 minute walk from the car park to my work. I now walk to work (50 minutes each way) which is great exercise and has really lowered my stress levels. Husband doesn't drive anyway and has a 20 minute walk to work. This car-less life has also meant we take fewer trips to mindless money-spending locations at the weekend - we do a lot more things like going to library/museum/local park instead now which are mostly free.

We cancelled anything unnecessary - gym, my son's martial arts class etc. Saves £35 a month in total.

We changed from fibre broadband to basic broadband (saves £25/month). Changed energy provider and pet insurance, etc etc.

We also changed from getting most shops delivered with Ocado to mostly shopping in Aldi. Trying to get into batch cooking and meal planning to save even more. We also really limit eating out etc. Packed lunches all round! We probably save £250 a month on food/eating out alone!

Making all the changes above has meant we have gone from a £200 loss every month to about a £700-900 surplus, which we've been throwing at the debt.

The momentum keeps on building and we keep finding new ways of saving/earning a little extra here and there which is really helping. It's been hard work and a massive learning curve for me, I've always just spent any money that was available to me (and more!) but no more!

We've had our ups and downs, and this new lifestyle certainly takes some getting used to, but we'll get there!

System · 19 June 2018 at 2:02PM

Moguline wrote: »

Yes, fingers crossed it continues!

Thanks for your kind words!

We've basically just drastically reduced our monthly outgoings. The biggest impact here by far has been getting rid of our car. I was paying £350 a month in insurance, petrol, tax, maintenance and parking (£90 a month at my work!). All this for a 20 minute horrible commute drive which still left me with a 10 minute walk from the car park to my work. I now walk to work (50 minutes each way) which is great exercise and has really lowered my stress levels. Husband doesn't drive anyway and has a 20 minute walk to work. This car-less life has also meant we take fewer trips to mindless money-spending locations at the weekend - we do a lot more things like going to library/museum/local park instead now which are mostly free.

We cancelled anything unnecessary - gym, my son's martial arts class etc. Saves £35 a month in total.

We changed from fibre broadband to basic broadband (saves £25/month). Changed energy provider and pet insurance, etc etc.

We also changed from getting most shops delivered with Ocado to mostly shopping in Aldi. Trying to get into batch cooking and meal planning to save even more. We also really limit eating out etc. Packed lunches all round! We probably save £250 a month on food/eating out alone!

Making all the changes above has meant we have gone from a £200 loss every month to about a £700-900 surplus, which we've been throwing at the debt.

The momentum keeps on building and we keep finding new ways of saving/earning a little extra here and there which is really helping. It's been hard work and a massive learning curve for me, I've always just spent any money that was available to me (and more!) but no more! We've had our ups and downs, and this new lifestyle certainly takes some getting used to, but we'll get there!

It's good that you're making progress. However, a '20 minute drive, and a 10 minute walk to work' doesn't sound bad to me (or most people, I'd think), at all....

anita55 · 19 June 2018 at 3:05PM

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards wrote: »

Good morning guys

I did not get time to post yesterday as I was so busy with work, overtime, cooking and doing a lot of cleaning. I have decided this week I am going to try and clean all the work during the week, so to leave weekends free. Not sure if it will work or not.

This will leave my weekend free as I want to have a really good sort out in all the rooms to see what junk can go. Then the house will be all nice and decluttered which is great.

Tea for tonight all sorted. The food budget is going great. Last night I done gammon and instead of using two packets with two gammon steaks in each I used one pack and cut them in half. I find it quite strange but nobody noticed. So the other pack can be used for another meal.

Starting this diary has really changed the way I think about spending money and the way I use stuff in the house. I am into my seventh week of not using a Credit Card and I really do not intend using any because that is my new mindset.

This month I have to pay the car tax which I am going to get today from the car boot sale money, so that is an annual bill that is sorted.

My next annual bill is the tv license in July I think that is about £140. So at weekend I am going to ebay, ebay and ebay to make the £140 to cover the tv license.

September annual bill is the house insurance, that is usually about £160. So on to that next.

When I go into the town where we live I am going to go and buy some of those tins you cannot open and start budgeting for the annual bills next year so I don't have to worry about them again.

The key to this is organisation and I have decided I am going to be organised.

Roll on weekend when I have my next sort out. This sounds really sad but I am really looking forward to it.

Also at weekend I am going to an afternoon tea which should be really nice. It was a gift that somebody gave me months ago and I have never used it. So I got myself organised and found the voucher and rang and booked it. So that is Saturday afternoon taken care of and did not cost a penny.

Take care everybody and have a great day even though the weather is not as nice today, but I don't think we can complain.

There is a woman called the organised mum that can show you a way of cleaning 1/2 each day and have sat and sun off, really good you can find her on you tube, hope you don't mind me saying x

[Deleted User] · 19 June 2018 at 3:24PM

Sweetcake wrote: »

It's good that you're making progress. However, a '20 minute drive, and a 10 minute walk to work' doesn't sound bad to me (or most people, I'd think), at all....

Oh I know, it's not bad in terms of commute time - I used to do 2 hours each way! I just meant it was silly to be spending £350 a month for something that only shortens my commute by 20 minutes each way in comparison to walking!

And the 20 minutes at peak times only take 5 minutes at the weekend - so it was far from a pleasant experience. I just used to arrive in work stressed from being annoyed at bad drivers. :rotfl:

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards · 20 June 2018 at 2:43PM

Hi Everybody,

It feels so cold today after having all the nice weather, but we cannot complain.

Another two small ebay sales last night so after frees and profit it is another £11.53 to add to my June total.

Everybody is out tonight so only me for tea which is great and even better on the food budget.

I have just checked my bank and I have £87 left to last me until the end of the month. I started to panic a little but having given it some consideration it really is not a problem. All the DD have come out, I have petrol in the car to last me until the end of the month and also I still have money left in the food budget tin in the kitchen. So life it fine. I don't really have anything planned over the next ten days so everything will be ok.

Moguline - Thank you for dropping by. OMG I could not believe the changes you have made it is amazing. I think it was very brave of you to give up the car and I suspect a lot of people could not do that, so very well done. I thought of giving up my gym membership if I am honest. However, it is £20 a month and I go about 4 times a week. The gym is my social life, so at a fiver a week I really do get value for money from it. If I did not go then that would be a different matter all together. I think you are doing an amazing job and it really will be worth it in the end.

anita55 - Thank you for dropping by. I had a look at that lady on you tube. OMG she cleans all the bedrooms including changing the beds in 30 minutes. She is like a superwoman. I only watched one video but later on I am going to watch the rest. It would be amazing to clean all the bedrooms in 30 minutes imagine what you could do with all the extra time.

The more I go into this journey the more I realise it is about being organised, why was I not organised before I spent all of that money on nothing really.

A few more hours overtime in work again this week so that is good. I am looking forward to getting paid for it all. I am going to use it to pay for the house insurance and then after that I think I am home free for another year in respect of annual bills. So onwards and upwards with the weekly tins ready for next year.

I have booked two days off work at the end of next week, so I will have a nice long weekend. I have decided that when I am off I am going to sort out the loft as it is rammed with all sorts of stuff. When I have sorted it out anything that is no longer needed will be sold either on ebay, gumtree or at a car boot sale. I have been enjoying selling all the stuff over the past few weeks. It is started me thinking that when everywhere is sorted out and all the junk has gone I will need an additional income from other sources. However, this will have to wait for the minute as I am busy with work, overtime, sorting out, selling on ebay and car boot sales.

Right, my break is over now so back to work for me.

Take care everybody and have a really great day

[Deleted User] · 20 June 2018 at 3:37PM

Say_No_to_Credit_Cards wrote: »

Hi Everybody,

Moguline - Thank you for dropping by. OMG I could not believe the changes you have made it is amazing. I think it was very brave of you to give up the car and I suspect a lot of people could not do that, so very well done. I thought of giving up my gym membership if I am honest. However, it is £20 a month and I go about 4 times a week. The gym is my social life, so at a fiver a week I really do get value for money from it. If I did not go then that would be a different matter all together. I think you are doing an amazing job and it really will be worth it in the end.

It was a big step and so many people told us we'd regret it - however we haven't at all. Life is a bit slower without a car, but I'm enjoying that.

Obviously it would be much harder in a rural setting, but we live in big city with great bus links etc so it's really not that hard. I have one of those granny trolleys for my weekly shop now ha!
A lot of the changes we have made have made us realise what's important in life, and that's being together and being healthy so we can be together as long as possible. All the other stuff is just society's expectation of what you should have - fancy car, fancy clothes, fancy holidays, fancy meals out.
Now we try to think about what we actually want instead. And we have definitely realised that spending all that money wasn't making us happy - in fact, quite the opposite - it was an endless cycle of guilt and compensation.
We didn't make all of these changes at once, and they're coming more and more naturally.
But we're still at the beginning of the journey. Old habits do sometimes creep in and we need to stay aware of that. But heading in the right direction.

It's great that you have an attic full of stuff to sell! Use it to your full advantage!

[Deleted User] · 20 June 2018 at 3:38PM

Oh, and I've tried the TOMM method - I can see how it works really well, but I lack the self-discipline and energy to keep up with it, so always end up doing a 2 hour mad dash on a Saturday instead.

Decluttering definitely helps though - the less stuff you have, the less there is to tidy up!

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