In the words of Yazz...

please-let-me-be-lucky

I enjoyed the Lego Movie too

Well done on getting Bcard down to just £70 :T Xx

beanielou

Great news on BC :j

Fudgefund

Dear Diary,

There's good news, and there is bad news. On the positive front I am finally credit card free. :j I have seen the magical £0 balance and the interest on my last statement was £3.84. I've just been paid and I'm hoping to end the month £1800 over drawn, setting myself up for the final furlong.

This is going to be a long month, but I don't have Council Tax to pay and DB still owes me Council Tax for this month. I've just had an expensive weekend entertaining my in laws, but the next two are completely free so I should be able to save some money in preparation for me and DB's romantic weekend away. As of mid-April:

• I've renegotiated my mobile contract from £50 per month to £18 per month.
• I will get a payrise (not sure how much yet).
• I've decided to grow my hair so my hair cut will be £35 cheaper every other time.
• My Council Tax will go down to £45 a month from £63.
• The interest on my current account should steadily dimminish as the balance comes down.

I won't know what this will mean in real terms until the time draws near, but things should be easier. I still hope to learn to drive, so I'll have to work out how I can commit to that. I've counted up my change jar - £29.93, so I'm on track for my £100 by Christmas, achieved mostly by nicking all of DB's good change.

All sounds good, right? Unfortunately I've been feeling so bad I've been struggling to see the bright side. I've been falling into extremely bad old ways, including sticking random purchases on my credit card and then eating them whilst at home surrounded by empty sweet wrappers. I should be paying more off my overdraft this month, but I had to clear £200 when it should have been £75. It was exactly this kind of mindless spending which half got me in this mess in the first place. I've been quite down for about a month, and I've been finding work a real struggle. There has been a mortifying drunk incident, terrible anxiety attacks and weird worry that I'm losing my memory. I really don't want to fall too far down the rabbit hole, so I've developed a plan to stick to:

I am going to get up no later than 8am on weekdays and then walk to work. I have put my credit card into a drawer, and I'm not taking my debit card anywhere either so I can't buy rubbish. I am steadily gaining weight and I can't afford a new wardrobe, so the comfort eating needs to end here. I've stopped drinking and I'm going to start updating my diary regularly to keep me on track and try and see the positives every day. April should be a good month, I just need to see off March. I have heard it comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, so where could this all go wrong?

please-let-me-be-lucky

Well done on being credit card and bank of mum free :j.

Sounds like you have a good plan. Sorry to hear you have been down though. Keep posting and we will help you through it Xx

beanielou

please-let-me-be-lucky wrote: »

Well done on being credit card and bank of mum free :j.

Sounds like you have a good plan. Sorry to hear you have been down though. Keep posting and we will help you through it Xx

Echoed by me

Fudgefund

Thanks you two. And massive congrats on being Debt Free Beanie - that's amazing!


I've been a bit better the past two days, much less worried that I'm losing my memory. I had a NSD yesterday but had to buy some bread and onions today. I bought myself a Belgian bun for 80p, but that's extent of my cheating.


I have been struggling out of bed at 9.30, which is a bit of a disappointment, and I haven't walked to work, so I need to redouble my efforts tomorrow. I did manage to put in 7 hours today and do a few things which is an improvement on the open mouthed staring I was doing last week. I'm getting through the week on the promise of a weekend without having to see anyone, can't wait.

Fudgefund

End of weekend update, had quite a cheap weekend to pull back a slightly-more-expensive-than-planned-for weekend last week. I stayed in Friday and Saturday night and stayed out of trouble, so my spending was very low, extending only to a bit of comfort food (I'm sure people must get fatter in recessions - it's the cheapest pick me up going). I was invited to a party on Saturday night but I didn't go, I couldn't face all the people. I've been hiding out really for a few weeks and I need to get back into the real world.


I've got a busy week coming up, I'm taking my Mum for something to eat on Tuesday for a belated Mother's Day and then I'm going away for a romantic weekend in the Lake District. Hopefully me and DB won't run out of things to say to each other and I won't spend too much money. We're in a B&B so I'll be filling up on the carbs at breakfast. I've only got a two day week, which I'm very excited about, it's been a while since I've had a few days off.


I've been growing my hair which means having it cut less, so it only(!) cost me £60 for a fringe trim and colour this week which was a bit of a result. It's just over two weeks until payday and two weekends and I still have £150 so I'm on track at the moment. I had another £10 voucher for Morrisons so I managed to only spend £15 on food this week and I've got enough meat to mean my next shop will be cheap too. Just need to stay off the Belgian Buns this week and get up at a reasonable hour on Monday and Tuesday and things will be going okay.


Mental health wise, it's all anxiety at the moment. Social anxiety is making me a bit of an embarrassment, I keep running off, and I'm bidden to DB's parents for Easter and I'm panicking my pants off. I keep being overwhelmed by a deep sense something is wrong but I can't put my finger on exactly what that is. I think my Mum coming to visit will be a bit of a trial because she tenses up when she can tell I'm not 100% so that's a hurdle to get through. I have to say though, things are a bit better in general, so every cloud and all that.

Fudgefund

Annnd another end of weekend update. It's been a busy week, and quite an expensive one unfortunately. My Mum came to see me and I took her for dinner for Mother's day, which cost me £25, not too bad, and then the following day we went for lunch which cost me another £15. I waved her off and had a nice cheap Thursday off work and then was off to the Lake District on the Friday which was quite an expensive weekend due to the somwhat inclement weather conditions. It absolutely poured all day on the Saturday so rather than going for cheap hearty walks we spent most of our time dashing between cafes just to keep the rain off. The only good thing about this was that by the time Saturday evening rolled round we were so wet-through and fed up we couldn't face the thought of going out for dinner so just went back to the hotel with a packet of biscuits (89p ). Today our train was booked for 2pm and we had to check out for 10.30am, so we were once again thrown back out into the rain. We ended up walking slowly around Lakeland for an hour and eating there which was very nice, but cost another £26. Ouch. The only plus side is that I managed to tear my self away from the novelty fried egg moulds without actually purchasing any of them.

I came home to more rain, and a lovely letter from Barclays telling me they are changing the overdraft fees on my account. I'm sure there's been plenty of discussion about this on the boards but in effect, if my account was to stay at £1950 OD for a 31 day cycle I would be charged £46.50, rather than my current £26 odd. Obviously this was a bit of a nasty shock, but at least it's come just as I've paid off my Barclaycard so I can devote my whole energies to getting rid of the blooming thing. Obviously I know that overdrafts were not conceived so people would never get out of them at any point in the month, but I feel really sorry for people who are about to be hit by this daily charge in much worse ways than I am. DB has offered to lend me £500 to keep my balance down, so I just need to be really careful for the next few months to get myself consistently below £1000 where the interest is 75p per day. This is still a stitch - I thought I'd be watching my interest come down every month and instead I'm stuck with this, but I'm choosing to see it as the kick up the behind I need. I may have to postpone learning to drive a few months but that is okay. The new rules don't come into force until 16/06/14 so I have three pay days to get rid of the £950, which should be easily doable.

Phew. All that out of the way, I'm hoping for a cheap week as I have zero plans and I'm perfectly happy about that. I'm seeing a friend on Saturday but she's as cheap as me so she'll probably just come round for tea. Dreading going back to work tomorrow (time off makes the prospect of a return seem even worse) but I'm hoping to hear about my promotion this week. I've got to sit an interview, but I don't think I have any competition (I really hope not).

please-let-me-be-lucky

Sorry to hear you've had a soggy weekend, but well done for resisting the egg moulds .

Good luck with the promotion Xx

please-let-me-be-lucky

Just popping by to wish you a Happy Easter. Hope all is well Xx