£50k to zero - made it across the finish line

It has been a much more active day than I expected! Work was open, and I got to my meeting via two buses, with only one undignified plop onto the pavement n route (I like to think I looked as graceful as a tree being felled, but who am I kidding? :rotfl: )

MSE-type-things:

1) I may be going in for *yet another* balance transfer shuffle this month, as MBNA have kindly replaced the offer that ended yesterday with one offering 4.9% at no fee until March 2022. I am going to hang on until all my statements come in mid-month so I can see exactly what expires when, and see whether I will actually gain any time from shuffling again.

2) Claimed a free pint of IPA from Brewdog (they are giving away a million pints) - not sure if I will be going past a Brewdog pub between now and the end of April,but if I do, then I have an emailed voucher to use.

3) Decided not to splurge on the planned £2.80 mug of hot chocolate on the way back from my meeting; instead bought a small bar of chocolate to enjoy with my made-in-office cuppa.

Thanks Strawberryfield - apparently I have this falling thing down to an art, no bruising!
It has only been two and a half weeks since I started posting here, but it already feels like a lot has changed. The thing that I am most pleased about is that for the first time in a decade, my pre-debt sensible self appears to be well and truly back.
When I read back through my first post I can now see that I had hit a really low point, but writing it down has galvanised me into action in a way that what I will now call my five watt LBM in December 2016 did not quite manage.
The last couple of months have seen us overhauling our expenses to save hundreds of pounds a year, saving £1500 upfront towards a repayment, shifting more than £5.5k of high-interest debt onto a low rate, paying down a few hundred £ extra, and doing loads of little positive things.
Here's a list of some of the habits I have got myself into since December 2016. Husband is happy to go along with most of this stuff.

1) Any loose change smaller than a 20p is decanted into the piggy bank on weekly basis. When it gets full, coins are bagged and banked and chucked straight at a credit card, or used for work lunch ingredients.

2) All shopping outside of large bi-monthly online shop is now paid for in cash.

3) Supermarket loyalty cards are used whenever possible, and rewards spent when they become available to reduce food bills.

4) Prepackaged meals are not bought unless they have at least 75% yellow label discount (this has probably saved me more money than anything else; I used to have an horrendous M&S ready meals habit)

5) NSDs are had whenever feasible (this is a new thing for me since January, but so far at least 4 a week)

6) DIY lunches for us both every day

7) I log in to bank & cc accounts several times a week, update debt totals spreadsheet after every statement/payment/overpayment and note down next mini-goal. This is also a massive change; other than my current account I ignored everything for YEARS. Literally. My CCs were on minimum payment direct debits and I had no clue what the damage was (thank you, anaemia brain fog)

8) Clothes buying is absolutely minimal - I plan to buy nothing new at all during 2018 (possible exceptions - replacement underwear/socks). H will need new boots at some point, and possibly a pair of jeans, but that!!!8217;s pretty much it for the year.

9) No spends on haircuts (not a new one - we have been totally DIY for the last 7 years, my hair is long and straight and easy to trim and mot dyed, so this is an easy one, and I have been cutting husband's hair for 20 years)

10) One in three out rule for anything that is a want! and not a need. I actually started this a lot more hardcore at 'one in, ten out' when it came to clothes, to make me thing really hard about whether something was actually a need, and prompt me to weed the wardrobe properly.
11) No excursions unless paid for entirely by selling stuff on ebay
12) Getting in the habit of not leaving things on standby (another obvious one)

More when I think of them!

Hi Magpie! I decided not to post the SOA for now as we have changed and re-jigged so many payments, contracts and utilities recently that there are quite a few numbers still in flux. I want to monitor things for a month and deal with the possible double payments from utility & phone contract switching before re-aligning the pots again and putting it out there for review!
Although I am a lot happier with the vast majority of the numbers now, there are still potentially plenty of savings to be made in the next few months with policies that renew in the summer, plus I have one interest-free credit payment that ends in July that will free up another £72/month. The real focus is on earning more!
The current SOA is light years away from what I would have posted if I had been here a year ago and I will not be shy about asking for suggestions when the time comes