I am an unashamed credit card tart and recently I've been moving money around and closing down no-longer-used credit card accounts.

Nationwide: somewhat tedious time on hold on a Monday morning, but then very straightforward conversation lasting less than 3 minutes (including the security checks).

Sainsbury's Bank: No on-hold time at all this morning, but then having cleared security, I was passed to a separate department to "handle closures". What they actually mean is "try by hook or crook to prevent you closing". I went through several iterations of politely and firmly saying "thank you but I just want to close the account" until I reached "look, all I want to do is close the account, that's what I rang up to do and I don't appreciate this hard-sell approach at all", at which point he finally dropped it and finished the remaining faff quite quickly.

The chances of me EVER banking with Sainsbury's again are rapidly diminishing, especially after a couple of minor irritations while using them (a lost payment that eventually got tracked down and the incurred interest refunded; trying to get a credit limit rise got the response saying "sorry, you have to wait until you've had the account for 6 months" - even when I'd had it for more than 6 months, at which point I gave up).

At the end of April (when I last posted) I was 95.4kg.
At the end of May I was 94.8kg (0.6kg lost)
At the end of June I was 93.8 (1kg lost).

This follows essentially no change for the five months before May, so I am relieved to see things finally moving downward again. I think the focus for me on sleep and exercise is paying off weight-wise as well as in general sanity-maintenance.

The nicest thing about June was I spent a week in France eating whatever I felt like, and had no weight gain on my return - previous trips always seem to have added a kg or two to the scales, so perhaps I am doing better at staying in touch with what my body actually wants.

I suspect my minimal alcohol intake may have something to do with it as well: maybe the 'stop eating, I'm full' signals come through better when sober. I'm not being puritanical about drinking, but my body is consistently signalling 'stop drinking, do not want' after fairly small amounts (1-2 units at most), and this has been the case since I had Charles. (When I was pregnant, it was amazing if I could actually drink a whole unit of alcohol in an evening, even though I was 'allowed' 1-2 units once or twice a week).

Dear HMRC,

No, you haven't "changed my tax code following receipt of your tax return". It is in fact exactly the same as it was beforehand, as it should be.

Also, if you could sort out whatever weirdo rounding errors mean you think fanf owes you exactly £1, that would be nice.

No love,

Rachel