The Secret Dreamworld of a (Scottish) Shopaholic

MrsSmith2013

Morning scottishspendaholic!

Just read your updates, you've had an eventful few months! It must feel so much better not having to hide the debt from your hubby, and its great that he is onboard and wants to help get it sorted.

I know having my husband on board has really helped me, it makes all the difference having their support, and you feel its more like a team effort.

You sound like you're in a much better place in yourself, which is always good - you need to be in the right frame of mind for debt busting!

Keep up the good work and the motivation and you'll get there in no time.

Looking forward to your journey....
Mrs S x

OrangeFairy

Hi Scottish,

Welcome back! I have been thinking about how you were getting on.

Definite ups and downs! So pleased your hubby knows and can help you tackle this. Debt busting is hard enough without the added pressure of keeping it a secret!

xx

scottishspendaholic

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much, as always, for your kind words. I'm so grateful to come on here and have somewhere to get all my thoughts out there.

So first things first - I did a car boot sale this morning and made £35 after cost of table - I also resisted going round any other stalls and buying a bacon roll too! Very pleased with the amount as my goal was £30 profit so anything over that was really good news. In the spirit of honesty, I have to be truthful here and say that I actually made £39 but gave the children and OH £4 for the ice cream shop when I got home, so have £35 left. So I still need to make another £86 of my £200 overpayment goal this month to meet my goal - hoping to get another £15 or so profit from eBay and maybe £30 or so from selling children's clothes elsewhere - not sure where the rest is going to come from, but I've always got plans and schemes going on, so hopefully I'll be able to pull something out of the bag!

I'm feeling very frustrated with eBay - the fees are crucifying me and people don't seem to be bidding very high. I sold a worn once, like new M&S pashmina for 99p (bought the previous month for £19.50 and like new) - I was so upset. And I've had some difficult buyers too who seem to all be illiterate and chancing their arm, so that's been really annoying and stressful, particularly when its for so little money.

The summer holidays are proving expensive. I'm on annual leave for the next fortnight and there's loads we want to do, but its just so costly. Even beach picnics seem to be expensive.

OH and I were having a money chat tonight, so I (phew!) managed to bring it up about the £300 I owe to my neighbour for cosmetic damage to his car earlier this year. OH wasn't delighted, but he didn't hit the roof, so I am happy about that and now he is going to help me with the money. I got an email today to say that a claim I'd raised via Quidco had been authorised and that £45 should be winging its way to me quite soon - so that £45 will go towards this £300, but together we'll make/save/pay the other £255 within the next month or so. And if we can't he'll know if I have to phone the kind garage lady and ask to pay it in installments. I am happy with this and very happy that OH and I are tackling this together and I'm not hiding things.

A few statements have been produced and I have updated figures in my signature. I'll do a full update and new snowball on this after 5th August as annoyingly my MBNA statement is produced weeks later than the rest and not until the 5th of every month.

I don't think I've much more to report. DD's birthday party this week, and that's looking like its going to come in under budget - which doesn't affect my debt busting as the money for children's birthdays/Christmas/clothes/activities is kept separately, but still good news. She is having a joint birthday party with a friend, which really helps - 16 of them are going to a local farm which has animals and activities, not as bad as it sounds cost wise as some are members and we are only paying half.

I'm going to (finally) try to catch up with some diaries now, thanks again for being here for me.

Xxx

beanielou

All sounding so much better

scottishspendaholic

Hi everyone,

We've had a good start to my holidays so far, albeit expensive. Annoyingly it's mostly on food/drink, which - strictly speaking - should come from the joint account budget, but that's empty until payday! We went strawberry picking yesterday, only to find they'd all been picked, so we bramble picked instead. Not many left there either - grand total of 35p spent when brambles were weighed! So we went to the cafe where coincidentally good friends were, and had juice and a cookie and a play/gossip. Today we went for a long walk to a local ruined castle. It was great quality family time - no-one on phones, lots of questions and learning and great fun had. I'm going to gloss over the "I've got no energy left", "I'm so tired of walking", "why didn't we take the car" moans from the kids! Mostly spends so far have been on water (I know, should've taken own), ice cream, snacks etc. We're going to meet friends and have a picnic on the beach tomorrow - we've got all the picnic stuff, so hopefully I won't spend much.

I had an interesting email from someone who I think I mentioned previously in this diary, who was setting up a website and looking for someone to run it, but by the time I asked, she already had someone. That person now wants to step down, so there's a potential income stream there of (from memory) - £200 per month minus s/e tax. This offer clearly couldn't have come at a better time and although it's not in the bag yet, I'm quietly hopeful. I'm hopefully meeting the people involved later this week, so should know more then. My free time would therefore be utilised to work on this project, and I'd use this money rather than eBay/mystery shopping income etc (which I'd have less time to do anyway), for my £200 personal monthly target for debt repayments. Any extra eBay etc income, would be a bonus, and bring my DFD closer.

Can't remember if I mentioned that I have smashed (by dropping it) my new-to-me-only-had-it-a-month Samsung S4 screen. My Dad is going to repair it for free using the screen from Samsung, but I know from experience (he replaced my ipad screen recently), that it'll not be the same - this may have put paid to my plans to uograde then sell on brand new phone early next year - we'll see, but I may now need to use the phone instead, and I'm not sure if Envirofone etc accept phones without the original screen & with a replacement screen instead?

Things really shaky with DH and I. It's our wedding anniversary today and sadly, neither of us really felt like marking the day. We're both unhappy - me because I'm so guilty & cross with myself and DH is angry with me and with himself for not realising the situation. We both know we need to put things behind us, draw a line and move forward, but it's so tricky to actually do.

I'm no further forward with money making for July's planned overpayment deficit - but will get onto this by the end of the week - my brain is firmly in foot-off-the-gas holiday mode!

Xxx

MrsSmith2013

Hi Scottishspendaholic,

Hows it going? Can you believe its August already? I don't know where this year has gone, but if it continues at this rate, we'll be hurtling towards debt freedom in no time!!

Have you had any more correspondance from your email about the opportunity? I hope you're on to something good and it helps you towards your totals each month - fingers crossed!

Thats a shame things are a bit shaky with you and OH on your anniversary Everyone has ups and downs, and hopefully this is just a "down" for you guys and you're on the way to an "up". These are the things that make us stronger, so if you can get through it as a couple, I bet you'll come out the other end closer and stronger.

Hope you have a great weekend, and hopefully catch up soon,
Mrs S x

scottishspendaholic

Dear Diary,

Oh my, just wrote a very long post, really detailed, then lost it! Oh man! Here goes again...!

So I am slinking in here to admit to being a bit (really) crap with debt busting, money management and reconciliations over the last couple of weeks. I've done pretty well with budgeting my holiday spends and have pretty much managed to eeek the money I had allocated out, but all has gone to pot in other areas. Chaos reigns in the house and household areas - stuff lying in piles EVERYWHERE to be sorted out and found places for, weeks old birthday cards written and stamped and NOT POSTED, washing baskets both dirty and clean-to-be-put-away overflowing, I'm behind with emails and messages, I've not sorted out school uniform and they go back in a fortnight, my house could very much do with a clean and, worst of all, we've run out of toilet roll! However my kids are happy and we've had a lovely time 'holidaying' at home - we've been swimming, been to the local farm park, been to the beach, gone on picnics, been to see shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and lots lots more!

So my foot has firmly been taken off the gas, and I now need to get myself organised again. I go back to work this week (Wednesday), however I don't think normality will reign until my kids go back to school in a fortnight - I really don't want to wish the time away as my lovely wee boy is starting school and I'm feeling really wobbly about it, but it will be nice to get my house back!

I haven't managed to make any overpayments in July, however I am hoping to make a £475 overpayment in August (plus the minimum payments of around £225) - might be bit ambitious, but watch this space! If I can stick to this plan (more on this in a second), then I should be debt free (debt free of 'my' debt, not DH's separate debt management plan - 'our' debt) by end January 2016.

I am feeling a bit stressed about our joint account budgeting at the moment. It is really clear to me that our joint account is now being significantly hit by me not plugging the gaps and doing extra shops on the c/c for toiletries/clothes/food etc. I need to talk to DH about it as maybe we need to allocate another £50-£80 to this per month and lower the debt repayments slightly (which obviously has a knock on effect on my DFD) or maybe we need to budget better for food etc? I will have a think about this. Part of the problem is keeping up appearances - on paper with our income (which with DH being a teacher people could make an educated guess at) we should be doing well and have significant disposable income - however we really don't - our house is very shabby and clearly needs money spent on it, we are always scrimping and saving and I am always making excuses to do cheaper things than people originally suggest! We should have another £700+ per month so no wonder people wonder!

I'm not any further forward with the website opportunity (c.£200 pcm minus tax/NI) - but the lady was on holiday last week, she's just back today I think and she said it would be top of her list of things to sort out, so definitely don't want to hassle her yet. I am trying really hard not to pin all my hopes on this, but its hard - its come at the right time, would fit in perfectly and be such a lifesaver - I'm champing at the bit!

I think I previously mentioned a couple of pages back, that a close friend has breast cancer and I am trying to support her. The village are holding a strawberry cream tea next month for her and others to raise money for Breast Cancer Care - I can't go unfortunately, but they are looking for things to raffle off. I am hoping to make a strawberry themed baby (cot sized) quilt or some strawberry fabric bunting - which I think would be lovely. I just can't spend a fortune on the materials - as much as I love fabric buying. I need to have a look at what I've got and try to use some of this plus buy some strawberry fabric (avoiding the lovely Cath Kidston strawberry fabric!).

DD (age 7) had her birthday party during the last fortnight while I've been off - which came in at budget of £90 - it was a shared birthday party too (with a friend), very glad we shared it and split costs - however I also know we wouldn't have invited so many people if we hadn't been sharing.

I haven't heard anything about the car bill from my neighbour yet - torn between wanting to get it sorted and hoping he's decided not to pursue the repair! So don't want to mention it!

I've had really good fun and found some really strong inspiration by reading my old favourite diary threads on here over the past couple of weeks - am nearly caught up with all the news and its so lovely to hear how people are getting on and feel less alone with the constant juggling!

Lastly to mention how much I enjoyed the Commonwealth Games - go Team Scotland! I really really loved them and wish I'd been organised enough to get tickets! Although I'm not from the west of Scotland, I was very proud of Glasgow, of how well organised it was and what a good light they showed Scotland in (apart from the weather in the later few days!). Am quite sad they are over and am missing the coverage!

I'll probably do a more detailed post breaking down my money for August over the next few days - its not fun reading! And I am still awaiting my MBNA balance being updated - tomorrow hopefully, then I can update my signature!

Mrs S - thanks so much for checking in! I was around but far too busy having fun to post haha! Good sound advice too, thanks!

Xxx

beanielou

Who gives a stuff what random people may think.
It is not about them.
Keep plodding

nannytomany

Just a thought, someone introduced me to Dave Ramsey on You Tube, worth having a look at what he has to say about money and getting out of debt. Sounds like you are doing well, holidays are always expensive but there are also lots of free things to do, are there any woods near you or do you have a "play in the park" run by the council?

scottishspendaholic

Hello!

It's all go here ready for school starting next week. I think I've just about got the uniforms sorted, just plimsolls to buy now. Sorted DD out today with school shoes in T K Maxx - £9.99 & a perfect fit, yahoo!

I have £40 left for miscellaneous spends (kids & me) for the next 14 days. On Saturday we have swimming lessons (paid for) then I'm meeting some friends for birthday drinks - I'm driving though so just a couple of cokes for me and a cocktail for the birthday girl (£10). On Sunday, I am taking my Mum & Dad for lunch (paid for already) to thank them for childcare - meanwhile DH & kids have free BBC tickets to see something at the festival. Then we have 3 days just the 3 of us next week - DH is back to work & there's in service days (teacher). On Monday we are heading to the book festival - tickets are bought & I'll take a packed lunch but spend on bus/train needed (£7) . The crafts there are free so we'll make use if that too. On Tuesday we might hike up a local hill so no spends there and on Wednesday I'm meeting up with my friend going through chemo & her kids for coffee at one of our houses then trip to local big park - maybe will buy some lollies or an ice cream each (£4) to mark end of summer holidays.

So in theory my ££ will stretch 'til well after the kids go back to school and in run up to payday (28th), I just need to avoid wasting money on bottles of water, chocolate, crap for kids etc.

Very proud of myself for taking £135 worth of goods back to Next this week. Most had been ordered months ago, but I recently realised you can take back Directory items ordered over 4 weeks ago as long as you ask nicely and they are still current stock & have tags on - they go back as credit on your Next account. So from this month's bill of £1,173 my balance including next month's estimated interest is now around £905 - the reduction of around £268 includes the clothes I've returned & my monthly payment. I also took back a top DD got for her birthday which is too small - £11 on a gift card which I'll use towards next month's Next bill - maybe I should feel guilty using what is effectively DD's money in this way, but I don't - she is overwhelmed with gifts and she'll get it back in another way from me over the next few weeks I'm sure.

I'm not doing well with my money making for this month, too much else in my head, but will knuckle down this weekend. My website lady & I have pencilled in 25th or 26th to discuss me taking over this website work - I wish it was sooner, but I just have to be patient & wait until everyone's available.

That's all folks!

Xxx