Here I am in debt again. 2nd time lucky

[Deleted User]

StressedSteph wrote: »

but if its something that is draining the battery then it won't last for long.

Could be the alternator not charging.

Put a multimeter across the battery, note the reading, start the engine and take another reading.

Should go up, to a reading in the 13v+ range.

If it doesn't, the alternator isn't charging.

I take it the fan belt isn't slipping?

StressedSteph

Hi Fae & Bob,

Fae - I have gone through my budget again and decided I am allowed £30 to get wrapping paper, xmas cards, ingredients for DD birthday cake and a few pass the parcel presents. That makes me feel abit more in control. I can afford to spend that, and I think its a do-able amount of money but not excessive.

I was tring to think of how I was going to make DD's birthday cake, as I am not very skilled at cake decorating, when I remembered that back in my Miss Spend-alot days I bought a Giant Cupcake mould from Lakeland. I have found it and it has NEVER been used :mad:. So, I will have a practise over the next few days and that should be fairly easy to pipe butter cream icing on it and decorate .:T

Bob - Thanks so much for the suggestions, Hubby is quite nifty at electrics and he claims the alternator is still charging. That would explain why, If I go out every day the car is fine, but if I stay home one day then the battery is dead. So either the battery is weak with these cold mornings, or something unknown is draining it. Hubby reckons that as we have an alarm & non factory stereo attached to the battery, it is hard to tell if anything else is draining it??. Who knows. Time will tell.

P.s I checked my Littlewoods account and found that the present ordered for my Ds from MIL hasn't been delivered yet. Phew...This means that all the presents I have in the attic are from us.

lurvlyloz

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Ladies :huh:

There are persons of the male gender, on this thread too. :mad:

oh gosh! im so sorry. i didnt mean to be sexist...i'm on a wedding forum so used to saying ladies. i really do apologise

[Deleted User]

Don't weddings usually involve men too :huh:

lurvlyloz

the group im on is all women. but yes you are correct. weddings include men to.

i again apologise.

System

hi stressedsteph - i'm loving reading your posts. I don't have any kids and am stressed enough with christmas cut-backs this year, so i feel for you. I remember when i was younger i got £100 spent on me, and everyone else always got more, and it was always so embarrassing...but you know what, you get over it quick enough, and it hasn't affected me as an adult!! My memories of christmas as a kid was the dinners, the family time, and the playing trivial pursuit after dinner with everyone, and dancing to all the christmas songs. I don't remember all the presents i got. Make christmas a family time, and it won't be a big deal. I do hear people at work talking about how much they spend on their kids these days, and it is just getting soo out of hand...i hope that if i am lucky enough to have kids one day, i am able to teach them from a young age that having all the latest things isn't the bee all and end all.

It's been really interesting reading some of the posts on here too - i'm going to give the 2 bank accounts thing a try - my hubbie and i both have single accounts but don't use them, we get our wages paid in them, so our credit rating is still intact, but transfer all our money to our joint account and we both use that. I'm gonna give it a go next month were i only transfer the money for bills to the joint account, and split our extra money (what is that!?) to our single accounts. Tbh we don't really have extra money, but always manage to overspend, mainly on food because we are lazy. But it's worth a try!

Good luck with your challenges - i too am a debt free wannabe, and getting really close to achieving it, but it has taken me 2 attempts, and is really hard going. I got a bonus in work this year - first time ever and it will never happen again, and i had to throw it all to debt - that was really hard because we could have got a (much needed) holiday out of it, or treated us to some new (probably not needed) gadgets. But you get used to it after a while, and when you see your debt going down, it's really motivating.

I'll keep checking in on your thread, see how your doing

StressedSteph

Morning,

Did'nt manage to get on here yesterday as had a busy day. An old friend called round in the morning and then I had to go to the Childrens Christingle Church Service in the afternoon.

Have decided not to post on here too much in the evenings as hubby started feeling abit abandoned .

Yesterday was thankfully a NSD and today should be the same hopefully.

I managed to pay the first of 5 quite large bills today that I have spaced out through the month. It gets abit tight at the end of next week, so I have to hope, hope, hope that no unknown bills or expenses come out before then otherwise I might default on a DD :mad:.

The one thing I haven't calculated on going out is bank charges :mad:, I know there definately will be around £75.00 worth, but I just hope its nearer the end of the month when it looks abit better in the account.

I am finding it so great using my spreadsheet. I can't count the amount of times I have looked at my account and thought "Oh, theres £300 left of my overdraft, that means I can go out and buy something", but of course you have to work it out through the month to check you can afford to spend that. I know its basic, but too many times I would spend money that I thought was spare cash when it was'nt .

Had a sheet of raffle tickets from the school yesterday - 25 tickets @ £1 each :eek::eek::eek::eek:

We have virtually no family and I refuse to ask friends to buy them as it will cost me a fortune when they start asking me to buy raffle tickets and there is no way I can afford to buy them myself.

I can remember having them last year and just making a cheque out for £25. I must have been insane .

I will scratch around for maybe £2 and just send that in. Feel abit rubbish about it, but I just can't afford it.

Still got to find money for some stocking fillers for kids. Later in December when I hopefully have some cash I am going to head into places like Wilkinsons and see if I can pick up some cheap bits.

It feels rubbish right now, but I am sure it will feel good in January when I am climbing out of the debt rather than the Christmas hangover, feeling guilty from spending too much on credit.

Hope you all have a great day.

Steph xx

StressedSteph

Thought I would list my five big bills so I can cross them off on my diary and feel good about it.

So here goes:-

[STRIKE]

Edmundsons £284.88
[/STRIKE]
Littlewooods £370.00
Next £242.00
Darch Oil £338.55
Council Tax £378.00 (2 months / trying to catch up)

Once these bills have been paid then I can start January blasting my Overdraft. :T

lurvlyloz

YAY well done on the first biggie

dont feel obliged to sell the raffle tickets.

and i agree..tink how good January is going to feel when you're starting the year in a better place than you finish this year.

keep going lovely x

Fae

Hi Steph,

Well done on the NSD's and on paying that first bill. Great that you have a spreadsheet so you can really see what you have to pay each month, that'll probaly help you to avoid back charges too.:)

I know how you feel about the raffle tickets, we have lots of charity things going round at work, all year. I now just donate to the things I really want to at an amount I feel comfortable with, easier said than done I know, but try not to feel the pressure, you can only afford so much.

Fae