Isla's "the final stretch" diary

isla_red

Well the ebay payments came through and I managed to stick to my budget for my trip away. :T

All sounds great but then I got stranded because of volcanic ash in London and had to pay nearly £150 to get home :eek: We were at the airport, at the gate LOOKING at the plane when they cancelled it. :mad:

I now feel as if I'm on a total losing streak this month because I had to put that on the credit card so I've really not made any dent in my debt this month at all. I'm so disheartened I'd budgeted the weekend so well and I just feel like it was all for nothing.

Little_Miss_Red_Head

I'm gutted for you I can't even think of anything else to say if it were me I would have cried

isla_red

Oh I did. I absolutely did. Such a depressing setback.

isla_red

Still feeling really down. I looked at the emergency expenses from the weekend and it's added an additional £250 to my debt. I'm so upset. I'd budgeted so well and stayed under budget until the flight cancellation. Worse than that ours was the ONLY flight that was cancelled. Ash cloud my foot! The airline just used it as an excuse. I don't think I'll get any money back from the airline so I think my new debt free date will be October unless I pick up some extra cash.

I'm currently re-jigging my May budget and have cancelled all my plans to meet people for lunch etc as I just can't afford it now. I feel so terrible because I haven't seen one of my friends for 6 months but I just can't stretch my money any further.

I hate this. It's bad enough having debt but when you have no choice but to put yourself in debt to get home? What can you do?

Little_Miss_Red_Head

Try not to feel too down (I know its easier said than done) you've done so well. I hate having to cancel meeting friends as well, could you invite them round for lunch or something? Make a cheap meal and ask them to bring a dessert? Hope things pick up for you x

isla_red

Just to add insult to injury we just heard back from the mortgage company. We don't qualify for the new product so we won't be making that saving either. ARGH!

isla_red

Okay, so I've taken a few deep breaths and I'm trying not to be so hard on myself. I think I can scrape together an extra £100 to put towards the additional debt this month, I'll just need to be very frugal until pay day. Even more so than usual.

I feel dreadful about letting my friends down but we live so far away from each other that meeting somewhere for lunch is the only option and I just don't want to plunge myself into more debt at this point.

I logged into my CC account yesterday and I about wept. All the good work of this month was undone with a simple flight cancellation. It makes me really nervous about going on holiday further afield later in the year.

Still, chin up. I need to remember that this is only a blip and with any luck I might get some form of refund from the airline. Fingers crossed!

Little_Miss_Red_Head

I hope you do get a refund of some kind.

Sorry about the mortgage application hopefully everything will start picking up for you soon x

isla_red

I'm sure it will These things are sent to try us but I'm determined just to budget around it and not panic like I would have previously.

Kayleighpea

Oh that's such a shame after all your hard work Never mind though, at least you're keeping track of everything and know what you need to do to pull it back. I think the thing to do is hope for the refund, but plan for the worst