Learning to pretend, in a good way

Suziebabe

Thanks brizzled! Still keeping away, the habit side is starting to kick in now, so it doesn't seem odd that i don't head there first thing, and instead head to the office kitchen area. I'm sure it'll pay dividends in the long run - once again I ended the week with spare money in my purse, I realise how rare an event that was by how much I'm enjoying it!

Apart from that, not much to report this week - had a super thrifty budget shop of £48 for the week ... planning to use up freezer meals, but I can't quite believe we'll get through the week without buying extras, my OH is notoriously fussy about having variety in his meals, and loves to make things on the spur of the moment to suit his mood - whereas I'd have the same meal rota week in week out if I could get away with it, to avoid having to think to hard about what to cook! Since OH does most of the cooking, I can't really use that reason as a way of forcing routine on him! Luckily my son's the same as me, so we do manage to get a few regular meals into the schedule, which means I can bulk buy/cook for the couple of nights when I'm in charge of the kitchen.

Just one work trip this week, so no reason why I won't manage my 3 NSDs this week - until I check my work diary that is, fingers crossed no more trips away have gone in!

Suziebabe

Confessional time .... I screwed up. Took my eye off the ball over Aug/Sept with work trips, expenses and the holiday, and history repeats itself by my ending up with an increase in my debts :mad::mad::mad: .... I'm so annoyed at myself.

I've balance transferred the offending sum (£950) and am setting up a new system, with the credit card I'll use for future work expenses directly linked to the account that the expenses get reimbursed into, and will set the CC direct debit to take the full amount, to try and get away from this in the future.

And giving myself a good kick up the backside in the meantime.

Maryland_Cookie

Hi Suziebabe, not managed to read all of your diary yet, but didn't want to read and run after your last post.

This happens to ALL of us, the main thing is not to beat yourself up for too long, it's painful and doesnt achieve much except to make you feel more miserable.

Instead, draw a line in the sand, accept it has happened and learn from why it happened and how you can get back on track.

Good luck, I know you can do it xxxx

Suziebabe

Thank you so much Maryland - you're quite right, beating myself up IS miserable, I think I've deserved it and then get fed up and throw in the towel - but not this time!

Back on track this month now - spreadsheets up to date, expenses used to pay off the offending credit card, and back to nibbling away at the debts!

Maryland_Cookie

Hey Suziebabe, great to see you back. So glad your back on track, you sound really determined xxx

mizmir

Good for you Suziebabe. So easy to cut and run when you have a down patch and the debt goes up. I should know - I've been on MSE for 8 years and have ducked out more times than I dare admit. The thing is though - each time I did that my debt went up - and when I came back it went down. So staying here and putting the blip behind you is definitely the way forward. Well done for doing that. :T

Suziebabe

Thanks Maryland and mizmir - good advice on sticking with it - I too joined years ago, and thought I was moneysaving just because I shopped around for gas/electric and had all the credit cards on 0% deals - never mind that the total debts were going UP every year!!

It's good to be back on track, by the end of November I'll have paid back the extra from the blip and be back to where I was before - and a good lesson learned!

mizmir

Keep chipping away at it and you will get there for sure. You are right about how easy it is to deceive ourselves that we are being MSE and of things. I did it for years because we had two good salaries and could "afford" our debt. That is until we relocated and my income dropped by 80%! :eek: We pulled ourselves out but only by selling our house - never again will I assume that we can afford to live right up to the edge of our income!

Great job in recovering yourself - put that blip behind you and look ahead!

Suziebabe

You're so right mizmir - hope you're all settling in in your new home? (I've been following your diary:D)
Selling our house is something I've considered, at the moment we're able to chip away at the debt, but it's always in the back of my mind.

For years now, I've kept a record of our overall 'net' position if, for instance, i had to stop working, could I buy something outright to keep us housed without a mortgage or rent - so far I could afford a 2-bed house with tiny garden in a nice part of town, or a 3-bed with bigger garden in a rough part of town! My aim for the next 4 years is to stay put, where we are now means OH and DS can walk to work/school, and if the car dies completely I can get the bus into work. Once DS heads off to uni, if the debts are gone then we will have choices! Always assuming my job stays ok, and I can keep on working .... The spectre of redundancy is always there, and if that happens I don't want to use any payout to service debts!

This week, I've recalculated my debt-free date, basing it on the actual amount I'll have cleared this year. It's gone out by 14 months, from Aug 2017 to Oct 2018 - I should be down hearted, but actually I'm really excited, as its the first time I've been able to come up with a date based on actual 'evidence' - the first one was based on what I'd hoped to pay off each month.

Suziebabe

Phew - almost lost the previous post! Hate it when that happens ... Where was I ...? Oh yes, debt-free date ....

My challenge now is to bring the date forwards - but at least I know that if we just keep doing what we've been doing (minus the blip ) and nothing else goes wrong, we WILL get there! Before, I think there was more hope involved than fact

Right, Sunday diary done, time to wake the rest of the house up and get Sunday started!