A sorry state of affairs....

MrsNotAPenny

Today it happened. My LBM. I've been waiting for a few months on it. I knew it was coming but my compulsion to spend was preventing it.

This is how I knew it had arrived....

On my way to an ante-natal appointment this afternoon, on my own, ds at home with dh, a thought popped into my head

'I'll stop at the shop and get a bottle of juice' I drove past the shop.

'I'll get one at the hospital' I walked past the canteen.

'I'll stop at the shop on the way home' I drove past the shop

I got home, still with my £1 in my purse, feeling a bit happy with myself that I had resisted, but in my head I was going round to get that bottle of juice later on today.

Picked up the post at the front door. MY Tesco credit card statement (minimum repayment £76 or which £33 is interest now the 0% has expired), MY Barclay card statement, our gas bill (a bit of 'rob Peter to pay Paul' went on last month, resulting in me cancelling the energy DD's in order to pay something with higher priority) our electricity bill, the Reid Furniture statement, a letter from the bank charging me £12 for a returned DD and my P45.

The day before, we had the car loan statement through, another bank statement showing we were overdrawn pretty much every day last month and a Dominos Pizza menu.

The months leading up to todays event consisted on:

Being fined £80.90 for not paying our Council Tax ontime, we paid 23rd rather than 1st for a few months

I had my redundancy 'sprung' on me

We found our we are expecting our second child early 2011 (yes we've no savings, but we both had jobs)

Tax credits overpaid us last year, so we're on reduced payments now.

Our landlord is selling up, so we have to move our of our large flat (with very cheap rent)

I don't know how we're going to manage. Something needs to be done. I have spend the past few month cutting back little by little, grocery budget is minimal, days out have stopped, credit card's have been snipped - although this doesn't stop me shopping online with them I'm not making unnecessary journey's in the car, I've got a few things on eBay and I'm making dh a lunch for work every evening.

Coming up in the next few months.

TV Licence

Car insurance, 28/8

Numerous birthdays/birthday parties and Christmas

We have to find a deposit for another place to rent, probably looking at £550 + and then on top of that removals (we will definately have to have a window taken out to get our ridiculously huge, eyewateringly expensive sofa out of the flat)

and of course our much wanted and planned for (pre-redundancy) second and last child.

My State of Affairs is a sorry one indeed and I can't post it right now, it's too much today. We're already short for bills of £70, that's before either of my cc are paid. Jsa are dragging their heels, even though I applied July 30th.

I've snowballed and at least got a DFD

Sessie

Welcome to the board.

The first big step is recognising the problem and deciding to make the changes, you've done that one so well done!

I've had a really nice welcome since joining the board recently and knowing that others are there for me and that they're "watching" me (in the nicest way!) is spurring me on. I'm sure they'll do just the same for you, as will I.

Your growing little one doesn't need any more stress; by facing up to this and sorting things out you will feel SO much more at ease (I know I do already) and this can only be good for you and for him/her.

YOU CAN DO THIS!!

x

MrsNotAPenny

Thanks for the welcome!

I'm feeling better just having made a start and properly recognising that it's going to be a tough few years.

I'm hopeful that we'll have most of the debt cleared before ds (15months) and baby are at school. Husband's onboard, so that helps.

I'm going to total up our debts and if I'm feeling brave enough, post it soon!

x

oh and I got to hear little one's heartbeat for the first time today, maybe that subconciously spurred me on?

saorsie

Hi MrsNotAPenny and welcome - wow you've had quite a day one way and another

You've done the hardest thing by acknowledging there's
a problem and yes the next few years probably will be difficult at times but you will survive.

So stick around and if you feel up to posting that SOA then lots of lovely people will be able to offer you advice based on your circumstances.

Will stroll by from time to time to see how you're getting on if that's ok

Take care of you and yours

-s-

MrsNotAPenny

Approximate total debt:

£17,550

Last night I used the CCCS website. I'm a bit reluctant to enter a DMP, for a few reasons. Firstly, I don't know much about them (I'm learning though!) Secondly, I'm managing the payments for all my creditors (at the moment) and finally, I'd really really really love to have my own home in the next, say 6 years, with a mortgage, and I don't know what kind of effect the DMP would have on us achieving this in the furture. Anyway, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself!

The CCCS debt remedy advised me to call them and I'm thinking about it. It's just difficult to get time to call them at their opening times when I have a little one keeping me on my toes all day. I think I'll have to arrange for him to visit a Granny one day!

Had another duff day, we've been flooded by our upstairs neighbours AGAIN. Third time in less than a year. I'm starting to resent this flat now, as much as I love the area, our first home as a married couple and the memories of out son's first year, but it also reminds me of our irresponsible spending and how wasteful we have been in the past, not just with money, but also with time, food and energy.

On the plus side! I managed to do a little food shopping for this week for under £20 I also 'Doubled Up' my clubcard points and got 4 new bottles for babypenny, some nice snacks for toddlerpenny (ones that I won't normally buy, he deserves them) I put £10 in the car - mortified, at the little amount, but I really need to stop caring about what people think and get rid of my snobbish attitude, this is what has got us into this mess in the first place)

I have £5 for me until Friday - tax credit day, to take toddlerpenny to babygroup, we'll walk the 1/2 mile, so that will leave me £3.10 (woop woop!) I'll try to keep a hold of that and add it to my 'emergency fund' (which has the grand total of £5 in it, hidden in the car from myself) MrPenny has money to cover the few days he'll have to bus it to work.

I don't need to spend anything until Friday, I have nappies, milk, fruit, toothpaste, toilet rolls, a cupboard full of toiletries (I haven't bought any for months either!) and enough on the fridge/freezer to last us until at least Saturday! In fact, that will be my first challenge, keep hold of the £3.10 until Friday!

Also, I'm getting into this, I got some money bags from the post office to sort out my copper/silver jars, I was going to take them to the supermarket cointhingy for convienience, but they take a fee, so i'll be taking them to post office. I might do that tomorrow actually, another mini challenge - exchange coins.

Ok, I've got a bit carried away this evening but I have enjoyed not buying stuff online, which is probably what I would have been doing!

P.S. Thanks for the welcom saorsie!x

MrsNotAPenny

Hello

Well, I changed my coins, but only managed to get £13 worth of full bags, even though there's around £20 still left over. That got banked

I 'Cashed MY Gold' also, making £52.04, which got absorbed by food shopping and fuel, which ment I didn't have to use my credit card to get us though until Friday. I even chucked the odds into the penny jars.

I've also sold a few things on eBay - for the first time. Thinking I was smart, I avoided the listing fees, but ended up selling a new lamp worth £25 for 99p! On this ocassion, I think I'm just breaking even! Doh! Lesson learnt though and I have LOADS to list over the next few weeks, so I'll be doing a bit of research this time :rotfl:

I didn't manage to keep my £3.10, hubby needed it for the syndicate at work - you gotta be in it to win it- but i kinda recooped my 'loss' by taking advantage of free parking in town, you know the 'max 2 hour; stay. This also ment I didn't spend time mooching around the shops and buying tat.

I'm still considering DMP, but I need to get a little more information on it. I've never defaulted on anything and that scares me!! I don't even return library books late!

Anyway, I think that's probably all I have to say tonight.

MNP,x

Primrose2004

HI mrsnotapenny, been reading your diary, I had my LBM around the same time as you. I've subscribed to your thread to keep up with your journey. Doesn't it feel good to finally be trying to sort it out rather than trying not to think about it and hope it just goes away?

Best of luck to you x

beanielou

Happy shiney new diary

Different_Corner

Hi MrsNAP ! Welcome.

Your story of your £1 in the purse and the bottle of juice - I'm exactly like that. 'Think' I need something and you know what I really don't, it could be anything, but it's usually trivial.

So have you signed up for quidco?
Done your snowball ?

Look forward to reading your adventures.

MrsNotAPenny

Thanks for the 'Welcomes'!

DC, I have snowballed - I think anyway. I have signed up to Quidco, but I was a bit confused (it happens alot) when it was talikng about deleting cookies and techno-talk. I'm not sure how it works, I'm a complete novice to moneysaving I've heard it's worth while for bigger purchases, so I am definatley going to find the time to read-up.

Not much money saving happened today. Toddlerpenny and I went visiting family and were fed, I did buy some juice (i swear that and the 9 years of smoking is what got me into this debt!) BUT I bought own brand and it wasn't too bad, babypenny made me crave tooti fruities, so I had to buy those to I did have to get bread and milk, I have to buy these as we go because our freezer is titchy, but I did resist Hovis and all the yummy things I normally would think twice about buying in the past.

It does all seem to be 'swings and round-a-bouts' at the moment, I'm cutting back in places, and spending more in others!

I did phone Sky a few weeks ago and got a really good half price for 12 months deal off them, reducing our bill from £62 :eek: - who needs that much TV?? To £31. AND the HD subscription (daylight robbery, I don't know what on earth posessed us to sign up to that. I always forget about it and never use it) is up in October so that will free up £10 a month. I am still messing around with SOA at the moment and will def post it up soon.

Hope everyone has had a nice weekend.x

MrsNotAPenny

Evening!

Just a quick update. Been choked with the cold, we all have so there's not been much spending happening on anything except cheap tissues and nappies!

eBay total sales, not inc p&p: £17.99! I'm feeling good about that.

I'm also shopped around for car insurance and was pleasantly surprised! £243 full comp for the year, it was actually £223, but I had to pay £20 extra for paying over 12 months :mad:. It works out at around £20 per month (I've never paid monthly before!) I even managed to pay the council tax 4 days early! I was feeling very smug about it as I didn't think we'd have the ££ to pay it until 5th.

However, we do only have around £30 to last us til Friday. I don't suppose it'll be too much of a hardship. We have nappies and wipes (thanks child benefit!) lots of potatoes I can make some dinners with, lots of frozen veg, 12 bananas, few apples, eggs, couple frozen sausages, packet of mince, pasta, tinned toms, few pepper and milk to last us a few days. All I really need to get is cheese, bread and probably more milk later on in the week. I'll walk the few places I need to go and days out will be at the park or visting friends/family.

I am feeling a little bad that a family member will have to wait a few days after their birthday for their present, but I could just play the 'been so busy/poorly' card and If I let them know well enough in advance it's going to be late, I don't suppose they'll be too upset.

MrPenny had done some overtime that I had earmarked for debt/saving for new house deposit. Then our quarterly phone bill came in, £80 (including broadband, anyone know if this is cheap?) Toddlerpenny has 2 birthday parties we'll have to buy something for and I'll need to catch up with the leccy DD that I had to cancel last month Oh well! At least if he hadn't done it, we'd be struggling (is that the right was to look at it?!) I sold my £100 premium bond I had been given as a graduation gift, felt bad about it, but I know I'll be on top of the world when I use it to pay towards the remaining £167 of my Barclay Card.

I still haven't done an official SOA, still looking for the courage to post it

So much for my quick updat huh?

Happy Saturday Night!xx