Minniepoos versus The Black Hole

minniepoos_2

Had a wee ebay set-back. The photo uploader thingy seems not to be working, At all. Just crashes IE. Oh well, I've got the photos taken now, so can have another go while OH is out tomorrow.

minniepoos_2

So, it's only the 1st of the month, and OH doesn't get paid until the 26th, and I've started to worry. I think that might be a record

I misunderstood the payment terms at the after school club. For term time we pay after the 21st, so I can wait for payday, but apparently I have to pay for the holiday clubs during the holiday. I shouldn't have assumed. So I have to pay £77.25 this week. The money's there, but it'll be tight later in the month.

And...Got a request for payment for last years' tax that I accidently underpaid. Just over £150 and they want it NOW. It was by accident too - I thought I'd phoned the tax office about my second job (I must have really, because it went from not paying tax at all, to paying a bit), but I only paid the BR tax so it looks like I had a bit of my tax-free allowance twice. I'm going to ring them tomorrow and see if they will take payment in 4 installments. Or maybe I should ask for 5 then if they refuse I can go back to 4. They messed up too, as they didn't send me my tax return until I phoned up to ask where it was in the middle of Jan.

Got my tax credits pack today, so will have to sort that out soon too.

I'm not doing too good at the moment. I seem to have lost whatever it was that kept my chin up. Spend a whole lot of time being a big blubbery mess, and am quite disgusted with myself... which just makes me blubber more. I know I should give myself a mental slap round the face and get on with it, and even though I'm telling myself that we've still got it better than millions of people - I just can't perk up. We're barely breaking even at the minute even with the things we've been selling - and the snowball says we should be paying another £50 off the MBNA each month but we just don't seem able. We have to though, or we'll never be free of this.

I was so full of gusto at the beginning. Now I desperately need some ooomph it's nowhere to be found.

rupe34

Hi minniepoos - just saw your diary - have skimmed it just now - but having read your last post didn't want to read and run.

You are doing BRILLIANTLY so take a deep breath and get your OH to give you a big hug! Life has a way of throwing us really tough months - and unexpected spends that we can't do anything about. Also - how about ignoring the snowball thingy for a while? Just keep on paying off the debt however you can, and however much you can - but try not to put yourself under the pressure of 'keeping up' with a particular amount.

You WILL be free of the debt - and for every month you don't pay 'enough' towards the debt, there will be other months when you are able to pay more.

Final bit of unasked for advice:o write down (if you haven't already) a nice neat list of all the things you need to do tomorrow (tax credits/ringing IR or whoever it is) - put the list of the fridge - and then take the night off from worrying - put a film on or your favourite CD. You deserve a break!:)

minniepoos_2

rupe34 wrote: »

Hi minniepoos - just saw your diary - have skimmed it just now - but having read your last post didn't want to read and run.

You are doing BRILLIANTLY so take a deep breath and get your OH to give you a big hug! Life has a way of throwing us really tough months - and unexpected spends that we can't do anything about. Also - how about ignoring the snowball thingy for a while? Just keep on paying off the debt however you can, and however much you can - but try not to put yourself under the pressure of 'keeping up' with a particular amount.

You WILL be free of the debt - and for every month you don't pay 'enough' towards the debt, there will be other months when you are able to pay more.

Final bit of unasked for advice:o write down (if you haven't already) a nice neat list of all the things you need to do tomorrow (tax credits/ringing IR or whoever it is) - put the list of the fridge - and then take the night off from worrying - put a film on or your favourite CD. You deserve a break!:)

Thank you so much rupe, I would have replied last night but I was taking your excellent advice. OH & I had a glass (or two) of wine and watched 17 Again, and I think I came as close to being 'unwound' as I've been for weeks. We both slept better than we had in ages too.

And I think you're right about ignoring the snowball for a bit. As long as we always meet the minimum repayment, that's enough for now. I can't believe how much I'd let this all get to me - thanks for restoring a bit of sanity.

And I'm happy to take advice from wherever it appears from, so I will be working through my list tomorrow.

Thanks again x

Sun_Addict

Hi Minniepoos

Just caught up with your diary and I want to say the way I paid off my debt was by just paying as much as I could each month until it was gone. Some months it was just a few pounds over the minimum payment and others it was a bigger chunk. Like you I worked out how much I should be paying off each month to clear it but I couldn't always afford to hit my "target". I tend to set myself targets and then get disappointed when I don't make them. Sometimes we are just too hard on ourselves aren't we. Just look at how much you've achieved so far and be proud of yourself.

minniepoos_2

Sun_Addict wrote: »

Hi Minniepoos

Sometimes we are just too hard on ourselves aren't we. Just look at how much you've achieved so far and be proud of yourself.

Thanks Sun Addict. I always moan at my OH that he gives himself too much pressure to get an unreasonable amount of things done, and here I am doing it too. I think it's because I'm a fast tempo person - I always have to do things NOW and very quickly, so a looooong term plan like this just doesn't sit right with me. But I need to stop focusing on the future and get on with today.

I finally managed to get to speak to someone at the IR yesterday, and they agreed a 5 month payment plan, so I've paid £30 straight away, and have a direct debit set up for the 4 more payments.

I realised I can't sort out the tax credits yet as OH hasn't been given his P60 from his main job yet. (and I seem to have temporarily mislaid his P60 from his 2nd job - but am hoping it'll reappear before he notices ). So at least that means I don't have to call them now.

I had a bit of an arguement with Tesco CC this week. They sent me a letter saying the interest rate was going up so I could either repay in full now (£4500 approx) or keep my interest rate the same, don't use the cards and close the account when it's paid off. Obviously, I chose option 2, but when I phoned to tell them the rude woman on the other end of the phone refused to believe that option 2 even existed, as all the letters went out with only option 1. I read the whole paragraph out to her but she was having none of it. (Apparently she reads EVERY letter before it leaves there :wall:). Eventually, after a LOT of argueing she put me on hold to speak to a supervisor, who I'm very glad to say, put her right, and she came back all meek and said "Yes Mrs Minniepoos, I;ll do that for you now".

But then....I got a letter yesterday telling me that my account had been closed and I have to repay in full immediately :mad:

So, I get back on the phone and luckily managed to get hold of someone who's IQ actually registered on the scale, who informed me that yes my account had been closed but it was in error and had been reinstated immediately, they were very sorry, and of course they would send me out a letter to confirm everything he'd said.

Can't wait until that letter arrives - wonder what else they can do wrong :rotfl:

Free listing on ebay tomorrow, so will list some of out bigger things, including the car. Fingers crossed.

Have updated my spreadsheet and at the moment we have about £297 (including clubcard+) to get us to the end of the month. Can is running on empty at the moment, so that'll be about £65 gone already. I've had some MS money in, but am hoping for a lot more very soon. Two of them are new companies I've not been paid from before, so I don't know how long they take.

Only 21 days until OH's payday

minniepoos_2

£297 isn't so bad though really. It's for groceries & diesel, and tbh if we didn't do anything else for the rest of the month it would be plenty. We've got that trip to the midlands, but that won't be too much money. I need to give DD her pocket money which is £10 (for the month just gone). Really want to do that soon, because we nearly always leave it for a bit then can't afford it until payday. She doesn't nag or anything, but I still feel guilty.

Should be ok though I think, as long as nothing else unexpected happens.....:)

minniepoos_2

£297 is now £155 but the car is full to the brim with diesel and we had a lovely night with our friends. Still got a lot of food in the cupboards too, so all good so far.

OH has managed to sell our trailer for £100, which is great. Our new car hasn't got a tow bar, so we can't use it at the mo anyway. Plus, he's sold it to his boss, so we can borrow it whenever we need it
We hopefully should get that tomorrow, although his boss is an absolute nightmare when it comes to getting money out of him. We fell for it badly once before - OH was due a decent bonus so we went and bought a new TV (back in the days when we used to spend what we didn't have). We did a 'Buy now, pay in a six months' deal which was with Open & Direct, and sure enough the bonus didn't arrive on time. In fact it was another year until he got it, so we ended up paying more than the telly was worth in interest _pale_

The stupid thing was, the old telly had worked just fine. We just wanted a flatscreen one to put on the wall, as we'd just moved into a our present house which is quite a bit smaller than our last.

The even stupider (?!) thing is, we downsized in an attempt to reduce our debts, but to make the move to a small place easier we turned to spending. I think that's why I put soooo much pressure on myself now, because I know that if we mess it up again then bankruptcy is the only option. But that's ok, because we're not going to mess up

God, we have made some enormous stupid mistakes in the past, BUT...they are all in the past. So anyway, until we get the cash we've got £155 until the end of the month.

Still do-able

minniepoos_2

OH came home with the £100 today - didn't expect it so soon.

On the negative side though, one of our cats looks like he needs a trip to the vets. He's limping a little and his stomach looks a little lop-sided. He's off his food too, which is not like him at all. OH is out with the car so I can't do anything tonight. I'll see how he looks tomorrow. Hope he's alright

minniepoos_2

The cat has just had a little bit of food, so I've relaxed a little. He doesn't look right though. DD got upset at bedtime because she can see he's poorly, and he laid on her bedroom floor all evening without moving. She's very aware that he's quite old. Not sure how to get the balance right between reassuring her and giving her false hopes.

I'd planned to spend the evening baking for packed lunches etc, but my electronic kitchen scales have died on me. They were over 12 years old. I still haven't got around to buying that blind for our bedroom, so I think the scales will come first, and I can use the 500 Nectar points I have saved up to help out. I think I'd better get tham after work tomorrow, but don't know what OH & DD will have in their lunches now!