Vegan, Bipolar and in Debt.

evkizzy
evkizzy Posts: 128 Forumite
edited 21 July 2016 at 4:21PM in Debt free diaries
Hello to all who didn’t immediately judge me and hate the title of this thread!

There are a lot of regular folk on these diaries and people who are in difficult employment/family/illness situations but as a fairly new member of this forum I have seen a gap. I am a vegan which means a lot of the branded products on offer are unsuitable for my lifestyle and I figured that by starting this diary I can open up a few eyes on more vegan/vegetarian specific offers from less well known retailers. I don’t know.

I’m Evy (Evkizzy) and I’m self employed (read mostly unemployed with lots of odd jobs that I do) and I was diagnosed with Bipolar II in 2010. This illness is not as simple as people think. I’m not crazy happy or severely depressed. I’m a weird mix but for the most part I’m pretty ordinary. I am sometimes hyper but frustrated or lethargic and unable to make sensible decisions for myself which is one of the causes of me getting into silly debt. I also find that I have a lot of more older friends so when we go out I am an equal despite not being on anywhere near equal salaries. They understand and sometimes buy me drinks or treat me to dinner but I keep up where I can.

I have a partner who is a great support and loves that I am creative (an artist and musician) and that I do a lot of work to make money that is non -committal so that I can manage my bipolar without getting overwhelmed all the time. We work really well together as a couple both romantically, supportively and financially as my SO has a good job and we agreed a percentage earnings system so whatever we earn, we work out the percentage and that’s how much we each contribute to the rent/bills/etc. except for gifts (he buys for his family and I buy for mine) and dates (he often pays but I make sure I take him out every now and then or treat him to free things like fancy dinners at home massages etc.)I’m paying about 20% of household costs as I only get working tax credits and a small amount of income from my jobs as an illustrator, life model and a PA (read private chef).

We discussed buying a house since we moved in together just over 3 years ago but that isn’t even slightly realistic given that I have debts and, because of our percentage systems, mean that he doesn’t have much disposable income for saving left at the end of the month. He has a tiny debt on a credit card (a few hundred which is manageable for him as he only uses his card for big purchases (gig tickets and white goods which I pay half for so I am a real joint owner). To even begin to save we first have to get out of debt ("we" meaning mainly ‘me'). So lets break it down a bit.

I have 2 credit cards and a loan. The loan was opened just over a year ago and it will be paid off in November/ December 2016. I am paying £200 p/m for this. My biggest issue is my credit cards. I have one at £2407.41 and another at £2029.34 (correct on 21/07/16). Both at 18.9% APR. I plan to pay an extra £100p/m to each card once my loan is payed off.

I am 27 years old and will be 30 on the 26th October 2018. My plan is to be 100% debt free by then. It is do-able but I need to make sure I have some (cheap) fun along the way so I don’t go out of my mind. Here we go!!!!
Ev Kizzy Make £10 A Day August Challenge: £364.54/£310
Loan: remaining balance £771/ £3,500 CCs: paid £194.76/£4436.75
NST No.17 for August.
SPC9 - #554
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Comments

  • evkizzy
    evkizzy Posts: 128 Forumite
    edited 21 July 2016 at 5:37PM
    I went to Next on the 16th of this month planning to buy just a pair of jeans (I have lost a bit of weight and my others were falling down). I went at the start of the crazy 50% off sale at 5am. I’ve never done that before but it was great as the stuff that I tried on the day before was significantly reduced. I used my knowledge from the MSE shopping tips to figure out how much they would cost in the sale and went with my £22 for a sexy pair of bootcut jeans with magical wobble-hiding powers. I ended up foolishly using my credit card and spend £159 on god knows what. There were no changing rooms available so I came home with 6 pairs of jeans to figure out which I liked best. I stocked up on socks as I find the ones in Next really last and wash well and got a few extra treat bits. The following day I realised I’d gon on a “bit" of a binge so my partner helped me with a mini fashion show while he critiqued my outfits. He agreed that I needed one pair of jeans so I could keep one. The skirt I bought was a “good item for going out later in the year” and “Them PJ’s are fab and you don’t have any cool ones for summer so you should keep those” according to him, so I decided to keep 2 packs of socks, a pack of tights, one skirt and “because they looked hot” 2 pairs of jeans and I sensibly took the rest back to the shop on Tuesday. I asked my friends and family on FB if they would offer to buy me early birthday gifts/ put towards and I got a few responses. My Bestie paid for the skirt, my dad bought the Pj’s my SO bought my socks and tights and I swapped him some BonusBond vouchers I had for cash which paid for one pair of jeans and I had a life modelling job on Monday eve which paid for the others. So I effectively got much needed clothes for free. You can never underestimate the kindness of others.
    Ev Kizzy Make £10 A Day August Challenge: £364.54/£310
    Loan: remaining balance £771/ £3,500 CCs: paid £194.76/£4436.75
    NST No.17 for August.
    SPC9 - #554
  • evkizzy
    evkizzy Posts: 128 Forumite
    Yesterday (Friday) I went for a shopping walk to get bread. I checked my cashback apps and mysupermarket.co.uk but there weren't any offers that beat or were equal to an own brand loaf. (So far this story is boring. )

    Then I wandered into my local Tesco eexpress and found loads of clearence items! This made me have a happy.
    I bought Alpro custard -it's egg and dairy free so totally safe for vegans (SFV for future reference). It's usually 90p-£1 but it was clearing at 48p per carton. There were 7 left so I took them all to the till and asked the server if I could get a discount for taking them all off my hands. It worked! I got an additional 5p off each one which made me feel super-thrifty. I added it to my stock pile along with a pack of 60p lentils (usually £ 1.15-£1.20). Don't you just love unexpected discounts on items you use all the time? :)

    As I walked back I popped into the green grocer's to buy some fruit to make smoothies (the heatwave has made me thirsty and not really hungry so smoothies are a good compromise) and as usual they were selling off bags of 7 black speckled bananas for 39p. That's 5.5p each. Bargain. Which helped me justify splashing out on a punnet of blueberries at £1.20. So that was a small but incredibly successful shop if I say so myself.

    I checked my bank account on the way home to see if I had enough left to draw anything out and discovered that the money from my election counting work had gone in a week early which meant I could finally afford to join my friends at the pub for an after work drink (it's been over 6 weeks as I've been prioritising paying off debt over having a social life) which felt great. I immediately put £50 of that money onto my TSB CC just in time to reduce the balance enough to reduce interest for next month.
    All in all a good day for penny pinching.
    Ev Kizzy Make £10 A Day August Challenge: £364.54/£310
    Loan: remaining balance £771/ £3,500 CCs: paid £194.76/£4436.75
    NST No.17 for August.
    SPC9 - #554
  • evkizzy
    evkizzy Posts: 128 Forumite
    edited 23 July 2016 at 4:16AM
    Also my SO and I have decided to start a date jar (I found the idea on pinterest). We're in the process of writing down as many ideas for fun dates/ days out/rainy day activities. We'll write the planned "date ideas" onto coloured paper:

    *White for free activities like teaching each other to cook something, going for a walk around the park or a pamper night etc.
    *Pale blue for cheap (under £10) plans like £3.50 entry to the RSPB nature walks, ice skating or cinema (we just discovered that tickets at Odeon are £4.25 on a Wednesday. We stacked it with the Meerkat Movies 2for1 to get £2.13 tickets).
    *Green for more costly things like a meal out (maybe just a dessert and glass of wine somewhere fancy) or a trip to a theme park/music/comedy gig etc.

    Then, fold them and pop them in a mason jar and, depending on our budget for the month, we pick out 1 treat day a week so we always have something to look forward to. Setting up a plan like this is a great way to acknowledge that you won't be bored as you know there is fun to be had even if we're totally skint.

    I'd really love some ideas of free/cheap date ideas to add to the jar. Any help would be greatly appreciated. TIA.
    -Evkizzy.
    Ev Kizzy Make £10 A Day August Challenge: £364.54/£310
    Loan: remaining balance £771/ £3,500 CCs: paid £194.76/£4436.75
    NST No.17 for August.
    SPC9 - #554
  • ani*fan
    ani*fan Posts: 1,554
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    Hi there Evy :wave:

    Welcome to the boards! It looks like you're off to a flying start, I'm very impressed with your money saving efforts so far. You're doing it!

    About your cards, is it possible to get them moved to 0%? 18.9% seems like an awful lot of interest to be paying and it would all go much quicker if you can reduce the interest. There are links on this site to credit card offers.

    How great that your vegan. The animals love you for it. :heart: I'm vegetarian with occasional times of being vegan for a couple of weeks, then I go and eat cheese. :mad: I have so much respect for you being able to stay with it.

    I've enjoyed your diary and have subscribed.

    Best of luck.

    AFx
    If you know you have enough, you're rich. ;)
  • evkizzy
    evkizzy Posts: 128 Forumite
    edited 23 July 2016 at 5:39AM
    Hello Ani.
    Thanks for being my first reply on here. Whoohoo for vegheads and plant power! (I'm such a nerd.)

    Unfortunately I'm not entitled to open another CC as my income is very low and I used the MSE CC eligibility calculator and found that I'd be rejected for all CCs currently. I'm hoping to put every spare penny into paying them off in the hope that I'll be eligible in a few months then I can transfer my TSB balance at 0% then use the balance tranfer available to put my Lloyds balance onto my TSB CC so I'm not paying any interest. It seems far off but I've heard that if you pay off large amount quickly that it can improve your credit score and then be more eligible.
    Who knows?

    As getting more regular income can be tricky for me I plan to go the other way and spend considerably less on food shopping.

    I've even created some rules such as: I must cook 5 evening meals p/w from items from my fridge/freezer/stockpile before I can buy more food.
    Trying to have as many no-spend days as possible. I'm up to 8 so far this month. I'm aiming for 10 but hope to do more.
    One way to use up items and make a bit of money is by running a supper club (which I've been doing since April last year). I've got one booked for 5th August which should be fun abd frugal as it's a mexican night and the main ingredients are cheap as I bulk buy rice, beans and soy mince and canned tomatoes.

    Any ideas for cheap/free activities for the jar?
    Evkizzy x
    Ev Kizzy Make £10 A Day August Challenge: £364.54/£310
    Loan: remaining balance £771/ £3,500 CCs: paid £194.76/£4436.75
    NST No.17 for August.
    SPC9 - #554
  • Hi envy well done on starting all your money saving ideas. I am a little concerned that you say you get working tax credits - is this a joint claim with your partner? If you live together I think it should be with his income taken into account. Worth a check.
  • jfdi
    jfdi Posts: 1,031
    First Post First Anniversary
    Forumite
    evkizzy wrote: »
    I ended up foolishly using my credit card and spend £159 on god knows what.
    I asked my friends and family on FB if they would offer to buy me early birthday gifts/ put towards and I got a few responses.
    So I effectively got much needed clothes for free. You can never underestimate the kindness of others.

    How wonderful you rescued the situation!

    I trust the refund from Next was made to your credit card, but have you also added the Bonusbond money equivalent and any other cash you received onto the credit card?

    Reabsorbing those funds into your 'spending' pile just makes the credit card debt bigger!
    :mad: :j:D:beer::eek::A:p:rotfl::cool::):(:T
  • parsniphead
    parsniphead Posts: 2,897
    First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    Hi Evy

    Welcome to the diaries. It's good to get everything down here and helps tracking your progress.

    Good luck with your journey.

    Oh an it will be my birthday on 26th October but I'm much older.:eek:
    1 debt v's 100 days chapter 34: T3sco bank CC £250/£525.24 47.59%

    [STRIKE]MBNA - [/STRIKE]GONE, [STRIKE]CAP ONE[/STRIKE] GONE, [STRIKE]YORKS BANK [/STRIKE]GONE, [STRIKE]VANQUIS[/STRIKE] GONE [STRIKE] TESCO - [/STRIKE], GONE
    TSB CARD, TSB LOAN, LLOYDS. FIVE DOWN, THREE TO GO.
  • evkizzy
    evkizzy Posts: 128 Forumite
    So we're twins then Parsnip! :)
    WTGGT we have a joint WTC claim, thanks.
    Jfdi I put the cash straight onto my credit don't worry. I'm trying my best to be good.
    Ev Kizzy Make £10 A Day August Challenge: £364.54/£310
    Loan: remaining balance £771/ £3,500 CCs: paid £194.76/£4436.75
    NST No.17 for August.
    SPC9 - #554
  • evkizzy
    evkizzy Posts: 128 Forumite
    edited 24 July 2016 at 3:06PM
    So Saturday wasn't a no-spend day. Our iron, which we were given for free 3 years ago, broke so we had to be grown ups and buy a new one. After lots of researching for decent brands within our budget we discovered one for £19.99 in Argos (around £45 elsewhere). I was really pleased as I realised they accepted Bonus Bond vouchers (free via Eon Loyalty points) so it didn't cost us anything. I also discoved that a bargain toiletries shop was selling allergy tablets for 99p a box usually around £3 in pharmacies and supermarkets. So I stocked up as my SO suffers with hay fever. I also got a chance to go to Iceland for the first time and discovered Linda McCartney sausages (an sfv favourite of mine) in there for £1.25 (usually retail around £2) AND they also accept Bonus Bond vouchers so we got four boxes for free. :)
    Hooray for freebies!
    Unplanned spending £4.96 but saved around £8 on future purchases of antihistamines.

    We had planned to go to a meet up (lazer quest and a few drinks). We'd budgeted for LQ and £10 each for drinks and a taxi home. It was great fun but we drank our taxi budget (because we were enjoying staying out with our new friends). Luckily we were given a lift home so we managed to get away with staying under budget (just).
    Ev Kizzy Make £10 A Day August Challenge: £364.54/£310
    Loan: remaining balance £771/ £3,500 CCs: paid £194.76/£4436.75
    NST No.17 for August.
    SPC9 - #554
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