Tales from a country cottage

ani*fan

Such a simple idea...why is it outwith my reach right now?!?! Maybe I need to write reminders to myself in foot-high lettering on the wall by my pc.

wot-a-mess

Personally i don't do microsoft spreadsheets, etc....much prefer writing things down... perhaps I'm a dinosaur :D but if writing things down gets me outta this horrible debt hole eventually then i won't complain :cool:

*Twizzle*

wot-a-mess wrote: »

Personally i don't do microsoft spreadsheets, etc....much prefer writing things down... perhaps I'm a dinosaur :D but if writing things down gets me outta this horrible debt hole eventually then i won't complain :cool:

wot -a-mess...i too am a dinosaur i have a diary in my kitchen with income, outgoings appointments etc even when i'm bleary eyed i can manage to focus on what the day is bringing, i simply haven't time on a morning to switch lappy on

ani*fan dont beat yourself up...i am sure i have said i' going to do loads on my diar and have completely forgotten what i've written....infact i may reread tomorrow and see what i've said i will do and haven't :cool:

Twiz x

ani*fan

I haven't had time to review my diary but will definitely get round to it this week, Twiz. Glad I'm not the only one with big ideas that don't always get carried through.

I did a stupid thing this weekend. I went online and bought OH's birthday present, which is not until well into December. I used the new 0% credit card to protect an online purchase. I don't, however, have any money to pay for it. :mad: There will be no money until a week tomorrow. I was sat there doing it and thinking 'this is EXACTLY the kind of thing that got me into this mess. Exactly. Buying things when I have no money.' It will get paid for a week tomorrow but that means I'm spending next month's money this month, when next month there will be other things I need to spend on. I'm so annoyed with myself. On the plus side, OH wanted £60 worth if stuff and I said we just can't afford it so it got knocked down to £43. OH was fine about it, not much bothered at all. The rest of the stuff can be for christmas and ordered later.

I had a flylady challenge to have all my christmas prep done by 1st December. Which means after pay day I'll have roughly a week to get it all together. Which should be fine cos there's no more money coming in then til after christmas. The bother is, some of my family buy each other 2 week holidays for christmas. :eek: Honestly, we are SO the poor relatives. It's quite depressing. But at the same time I know they all have unmanageable debt so maybe I'm the clever one. My current thinking, after taking a leaf out of OH's book, is to make small token gestures of boxes of chocs all round. They're half price in our local shop right now and I snapped them up for OH's many aunties. Is this too carp for words? I personally do enjoy a box of chocs. It's not 2 weeks in Greece though.

So, I have 5 weeks left of being madly busy then my course ends for a 3 week christmas break. It can't come quick enough. I'm loving the course but it's so much work on top of everything else. OH is frantically making things to sell to people but gets tired very easily and frustrated that it's not happening faster. £75 total in extra cash has been made this month so I'm ecstatic and trying to be encouraging. I even helped a bit yesterday.

Have a great Monday everyone.

Igamogam

ani*fan wrote: »

I haven't had time to review my diary but will definitely get round to it this week, Twiz. Glad I'm not the only one with big ideas that don't always get carried through.

Me too - need to re visit a few things

I did a stupid thing this weekend. I went online and bought OH's birthday present, which is not until well into December. I used the new 0% credit card to protect an online purchase. I don't, however, have any money to pay for it. :mad: There will be no money until a week tomorrow. I was sat there doing it and thinking 'this is EXACTLY the kind of thing that got me into this mess. Exactly. Buying things when I have no money.'

Careful Ani*fan..... dont let it take over:o

I had a flylady challenge to have all my christmas prep done by 1st December. Which means after pay day I'll have roughly a week to get it all together. Which should be fine cos there's no more money coming in then til after christmas. The bother is, some of my family buy each other 2 week holidays for christmas. :eek: Honestly, we are SO the poor relatives.
We use to think the same but when we looked at it turned out the relatives envy us.................think I have already posted about how we do Christmas.Once we took control and were honest about why we were not buying stuff - and lets be honest most of it is 'stuff'- for the maiden aunt's hairdresser's dog walker,we felt much better!



It's quite depressing. But at the same time I know they all have unmanageable debt so maybe I'm the clever one.
You are!

My current thinking, after taking a leaf out of OH's book, is to make small token gestures of boxes of chocs all round. They're half price in our local shop right now and I snapped them up for OH's many aunties. Is this too carp for words?
Brilliant - not carp at all - any backlash from it then just rise above it.

I personally do enjoy a box of chocs. It's not 2 weeks in Greece though.

Who wants to be in Greece at the moment !;)

So, I have 5 weeks left of being madly busy then my course ends for a 3 week christmas break. It can't come quick enough. I'm loving the course but it's so much work on top of everything else. OH is frantically making things to sell to people but gets tired very easily and frustrated that it's not happening faster. £75 total in extra cash has been made this month so I'm ecstatic and trying to be encouraging. I even helped a bit yesterday.

Have a great Monday everyone.

Keep it up Ani*fan. I am not on the top of my game at mo - ill,feeling grim and I am not a good patient.............planning on getting back into the swing of things over the next few days

Knitting_Nora

Hey Ani

I think Igamogam has this sorted...but since everyone's entitled to my opinion....;)

First up, the credit card spend - ok, it's not what you wanted to do. But take a step back from beating yourself up (yes, I know it's free - but not everything that's free is overly useful...take dog poo for example....) and think for a moment. I'll bet that just a month or two ago, you'd have spent that money without even thinking about it - let alone appreciating that it's not the way you want to use your credit cards anymore.

The thing about habits is that the first stage in changing them is to become aware of them - and you're doing that right now, which is brilliant. Try patting yourself on the back rather than beating yourself up, and it'll be a little easier to think before your clicky finger gets the better of you next time!

Oh, and I say this as someone who has a clicky finger with a life of it's own - but the 'not bashing oneself over the head' thing is working for me, so I thought I'd pass the tip on. Otherwise, sellotape the little burger to the rest of your hand and that'll help it to stop spending!

What next - ahhh, the family....two weeks in Greece? Well, hmmm, not sure I'd fancy someone else telling me where I was going on holiday! On the other hand, a box of choccies to enjoy when and where I fancied....*dribbles*...and no, it really doesn't matter if they are half price.

Stop worrying about what they're all doing - they aren't you, and as you've already said, they aren't doing themselves any favours by being so extravagent with each other.

If you're really worried about what they're going to think (and I understand why that might be), and are pretty sure you aren't going to 'win' with them no matter what you do for Christmas presents (I have a stepmother like that), then next year why not get them charity work as gifts - like the Oxfam goat etc? Or donate to their favourite (or an appropriate) charity on their behalf?

That way, no matter how funny they get about your gift, you get the nice snuggly feeling of giving to a good cause, you get to snigger over their confusion about the fact that someone's in Africa - it just isn't them, and it's not obvious how much money you have or haven't spent.

In the meantime, I'd be happy to adopt you into my family - choccies for Christmas are always very, very welcome around here.

Take care.

Nora.x

ani*fan

Thanks Igamogam and Nora. I really needed to hear those things today. :A You are so right about Greece, it's in a right old mess. I'm not sure how much of the present-giving dilemma is in my head and how much is real. We're not such a close family and I do like having some contact with them at christmas. Sometimes we are all prone to forgetting to send presents. It just doesn't happen, then we feel guilty, and what's the point in all that carry on? I'm thinking consistancy in sending a wee token gesture would be lovely in itself. And if they all want to decide where to send each other on holiday then they can do it.

And yes, I'm making a conscious effort to stop beating myself up.

I've fallen out with online banking. It just doesn't update fast enough or give you accurate totals. This time, it worked in my favour as direct debits had gone out, weren't showing up but had been taken from my total cash available amount. The upshot of all this is that I have money to pay for half of OH's birthday present so I paid it towards a card. So only really £20-ish spent that I can't afford. It could have been worse and next time I will be ready.

Next month I have a few big outgoings. These are:

• road tax
• garage bill
• rest of christmas shopping
• umm...can't think what else but I'm sure there's more

How much would I love a month where all that needed to be paid was the regular monthly bills and nothing else. My debt would get a real clobbering then.

Onwards to another debt busting day. Have a good one everyone.

ani*fan

Another day and another chance to change my carp money-management ways.

I need to sit down this weekend and work out a budget for next month. I haven't done it yet and keep feeling there's something I'm forgetting. It turns out we're getting our end-of-December wage on the 23rd which is not all that helpful cos I don't want to be totally skint for January. But then, maybe it is helpful cos if debt payments can be made early it helps to reduce interest. Hmmm.

The transfer of money to the new 0% card is going ok and I'm managing to keep on top of it. I'm paying down both cap 1 cards at the same time. I don't know why, it probably confuses the issue, but I really need to see them both go down. It's such a long slow process though.

I need some money-making ideas but I'm all out of time, energy and motivation. I still haven't checked over my diary either for good ideas. Will get onto it this weekend.

Does anyone know if paying off a credit card then closing the account is good for your credit rating? I'm considering closing my cap 1 when it's cleared.

It's still pitch dark here but I need to get ready for work. Have a wonderful day everyone.

wot-a-mess

Ani, I don't think closing cleared card accounts has a detrimental effect on credit rating. altho im defo no expert. My long-term plan is certainly to cut up cards & close accounts 1 by 1, but that's a long way off.

ani*fan

Thanks WAM. I'm a bit scared to close any CC accounts. I still have the 'just in case' mentality. Because I don't have an emergency pot yet I would still need to use a card but definitely not the cap 1. I have £500 credit left on another one with a much lower interest rate (that I didn;t think I could use but I just found out I can...thought they had cancelled it) so maybe that will have to be my emergency pot for now.

I've not kept my spreadsheet up to date and am a bit annoyed with myself. I'll definitely try harder with it next month. I just got too busy and forgot to hang on to all my receipts. :mad:

I so need to get busy with christmas stuff this weekend too. I have a parcel needs posting to the states and a card to make to go with it. Also I can save postage by getting my family in Ireland's pressies ready 'cos my mum is going to visit soon and will take them with her on the plane. If I get all of these things done, that'll be 5 pressies out of the way.

OH is still grafting away making things and selling them. The cash is trickling in slowly and really saving the day. I'm very pleased with that progress (though I just paid the last £20 of OH's birthday present with OH's cash...something not right there ). We may end the month in credit for the first time ever with a small surplus we can pay towards debt as an extra payment. That would definitely be a first, but need to wait and see. No doubt something else will crop up before then. Doesn't it always?

Have a lovely day everyone.