TMWM

What. A. Week!

Anyone else had a week of mostly meh’s?

Mine has been very up and down and a little bit spendy.

I’m struggling to keep myself motivated at the moment and to be honest I’m getting fed up of doing this debt free journey.

It’s just taking so long.

I have been doing it for a few years now and as strange as this may seem, seeing the debt numbers decrease just aren’t doing it for me like they used to. I used to get really excited about paying bits off here and there and making money through selling or match betting but I just feel so over it.

And I can feel how this shift is slowing changing my mindset little by little. It’s been eating away at me for a few months now, but I’ve been fighting it. A secret, constant battle inside my mind. Me V Me.

My mind telling me that it’s taking so long anyway you might as well have a little spend. Then the new credit card hits the door mat just at the wrong time and boom! I’m in the shops buying school shoes, a new hoover, tickets to festivals with my friends, clothes for my daughter and I even brought myself a new coat and winter boots.

Hundreds of pounds spent later and I wonder why I’m giving up. Why am I sabotaging myself. Do I not believe I’m worth a debt free life? Why do I believe I’m not good enough when I’ve come so far?

It’s so annoying. Sometimes you have be stronger than your own damn mind! You’d think you and your mind would be working seamlessly together. Clearly bloody not!

Well, sometimes they do I guess. I do eventually talk myself round.

Even with my huge mess up I’ve still paid off £19,543.30. That is still amazing. And I need to remember that.

I need to constantly remember that.

My new debt total is £16,363.74.

This is me acknowledging I’ve made a mistake and saying to myself now I’m going to stop.

Even though the spendy period has stopped, I am still not massively motivated to see those numbers decreasing so I’ve been racking my brains for something else I can do, which I will share with you shortly but first let me explain a little where the idea came from.

This week, one of my credit cards was soon to be coming to the end of its 0 % interest free period so I used another credit card that had zero balance on it and transferred the balance across (or most of it anyway). Here are the figures below;

Barclaycard

£8926.06 most of this balance is 0% but from the statements I can’t tell how much and when it will end. Guess I’ll have to call them tomorrow. I know my interest last month was about £11.00

MBNA was £7267.75 all 0% and this was broken down as:

£3715.10 balance expiring 4/10/2021

£3552.15 balance expiring 31/12/2021

I used the Tesco credit card and paid £5700 to MBNA which left a balance of £1567.25 expiring 31/12/2021. The variable interest rate will be 29.93%

Tesco was at zero balance. Transferred £5700 to MBNA. Charged £170.43 for the transfer so balance is £5870.43.  This is 0 % interest free till April 2023

I could use the available balance on my Barclaycard to clear MBNA in full but then had a thought.

I could set myself a Mini Debt Challenge of paying the rest of the balance on MBNA in full by the time it comes out of its interest free period on 31/12/2021. The balance is £1567.25 which works out at £522.42 a month or £120.59 a week (13 weeks till 31/12/2021).

This will be as well as making my normal minimum payments. It will be a stretch but it should, I hope, make sure I don’t over-spend. I have my Christmas budget sorted with money I’ve saved all year so I really have no excuses not to smash this.

I’m hoping that this creates the buzz I need to pay this debt off and take me off the spiral of doom I started on when the spending started. If I have to break this debt up into smaller chunks to feel like I’m getting somewhere, this is what I will do.

As ever I’ll keep you updated, for my own accountability and with the hope it helps someone else out there to.

Share your stories in the comments below, let’s do it together

Take Care

H