Learning to pretend, in a good way

brizzledfw

Ugh... work expenses. Yes I am in this camp and dont know what the answer is except to try and monitor everything you spend so that at least you know day to day what your cash flow is..even if its masked by your expenses. So, for example, I know, in my head, that my debt total 'hides' the fact that I am owed over £400..so in my head I just feel £400 better! Some of that £400 is in the system waiting to pay me and some is in receipts in my purse! Its the knowing that helps me anyway..feel much more in control then.

Having said all that you shouldnt have to carry your company like that. If you can only submit forms once a month and they only pay once a month they need to pick up the cashflow issue. Maybe booking some of your hotels or travel direct?

I have also switched to a credit card with loyalty points which I will use ONLY for work. That way I can also keep things separate. But hey, I have been on here for years and only just sorted that out this mornng:rotfl:

Keep on plodding on. You're doing great:D

Suziebabe

Agh! Got part way through a big long post this morning and then it crashed and I lost it! So you were all spared a looooong whingefest feeling-sorry-for-myself post, and can go straight to the highlights instead!

This debt free work is HARD! Reckon my lightbulb moment's more like a string of Christmas tree lights, with one coming on at a time, and only after I've tried all the other ones to find the loose one!

It's all very well being smug about having all the credit cards on 0% deals and concentrating on paying off one of the overdrafts, but that pesky 4% fee on transferring to another 0% completely b****rs up your spreadsheet for a month.

If I don't get my act together I'll be claiming my pension before all the debts have gone - 1% a month is NOT acceptable! No more lattes, not EVER (unless someone else is buying )

My big plan of spending today doing massive amounts of ebaying has been an epic fail since I realised I needed to clear up the garden & patio of loose pots and other debris just in case tonight's storm lives up to its reputation, followed by finishing off the household chores & washing that I didn't do yesterday (sigh) - luckily most of the stuff I need to sell is likely to go for 99p in the children's sections so I'm not losing out.

At least I have managed to set up that second purse for expenses - glad to hear it's not just me that finds it hard to track them! To be fair, the company I work for don't restrict how often we can claim them, but the systems not the most intuitive, so I avoid it until there's a bunch of them. However, getting all the receipts together into one place has firmed up my resolve to get a claim in this week, and keep on top of it in future!

Off to see what else I can cutdown on ...

Suziebabe

Quick mid-week update to publicly pat myself on the back for managing 3 no spending days in a row - and today including an office day! I took in a huge salad for lunch & fruit to snack on, and managed on water & a couple of free hot chocolates from the machine (since the coffee's just too horrid to contemplate) - that plus being in a constant stream of meetings meant that before I knew it, the coffee shop had closed and I was home-free!!!

:j:j:j

brizzledfw

Well done Suzie :j:j

Suziebabe

Is it just me, or is life getting busier these days? It's like a permanent struggle to keep all the plates spinning. When I started on this journey to being debt-free, I had a good read of the debt free roll of honour, and one of the things that came up a few times was from people who had thrown all their efforts into their jobs, to get promotions & bonuses. It struck me then, that a pay rise or bonus from work would pay off a good chunk of our debts, so I've been throwing myself into work, I won't know if it makes a difference until next year but fingers crossed. The downside is that I'm shattered! And focusing on not spending, and keeping track of spending while working my wot sits off is quite hard ....! Plus I do still want to do the ebaying and surveys so I can clear it faster.

This months been harder, since I've had to do a credit card shuffle, so I can't see much reduction this month. And next month will be Christmas shopping, and while we've got some money saved up, the car also needs money spending on it.

I guess that's the nature of the journey though? Keeping on chipping away even when it gets tough ... I'm full of even more admiration now for all those folk on the debt free roll - this is a marathon!!!!

brizzledfw

Permanent struggle..marathon..yep all of those. I call it my extra FT job...exhausting and stressful and I often feel quite overwhelmed by it all.

But keep on going..you've gone too far not to buckle down and get on with it. Ebay everything you can. I currently have 27 items listed and bids are on £45 so it is worth it I think. We are also using up our food stores...freezer and larder and it's funny how much is there!! :rotfl:

Suziebabe

Thanks brizzled, I need the encouragement! Just had another book sell on Amazon tonight, from the pile I listed back in August - which in theory inspired me to list the 2nd pile gathering dust by the stairs .... But instead, I got lost in this thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/235198
(Not sure if the link will work - if not it's under the Old Style forum, Squeaky's Old Style Indexed Collections)

What a find! There are threads on there that answer questions I didn't even know I wanted to ask! I can see many evenings being lost in the near future ... But tomorrow night, I list the books on Amazon first

Suziebabe

Back again for what seems to have become my regular Sunday morning update - there's one good habit that's sticking! Have had a useful few days on the debt-free journey ...

- with great trepidation, have managed to get in touch with most of extended family and agreed a present moratorium for this year, reckon I've shaved around £100 off the projected Xmas spend (given that we're about £200 short in the savings pot, that's one increase of debts avoided - see I am trying to change my underlying attitude, honest!) The other £100 will be saved by grocery cutbacks (am managing to pick up a few bits each week & downshifting)
- have listed another batch of books on Amazon, it seems OH is a treasure trove of books worth £5+ who knew? And have another box ready to list next week.
- managed to get online access to my M£S CC account, so between that and my separate purse, am hoping to keep the expenses under control.

I went back through the spreadsheet yesterday, and taking into account the 3 CC shuffles and the £350 car service/new tyres the overall debts have gone up by £160 While it's deeply frustrating, I'm trying to see the lessons I've learnt from it.
- I did have £200 saved up in a car piggybank, but assuming the same costs for the next 12 months I need to increase the amount I'm putting aside each month to make sure it's covered, so I need to cut something back to cover the increase
- I'm starting to think I need to increase the amount paying off the CCs, especially the next one that'll come out of its 0% deal. I've been focusing all my efforts on clearing the biggest overdraft, as that charges interest. Over the last few months I've managed to halve it from £1900 to £800, projecting forwards it'll be paid back by around April. I'm torn between ploughing on with that, and increasing the amount on the next CC? More pondering required ...

That's about all for this week - off to continue conquering the washing/ironing mountain, ready for another hectic week!

brizzledfw

How's it going? Looking forward to the weekend update:)

Suziebabe

Hello brizzled!:wave::wave: I slept through the early quiet lull time of the morning, so after getting everyone fed & settled/off to work, I get another lull to do my weekly update!

I'm almost at the part of the month where I get to update all my spreadsheets (funny how payday has changed in the last few months ) but it's looking like the total debt figure will have gone up almost £400, thanks to the fees on the credit card shuffles, and the car :(:(
While that's been a tough one to accept, I'm taking some comfort that (a) I'm not throwing the towel in & saying stuff it, like I have in the past, (b) It's increased my focus on keeping Xmas under control - I'm aiming for a debt-neutral festive season, for the first time ever!

I had one of my insomnia nights again last week, and sat and did some workings out on debt-free dates. I'm not sure it worked for the mortgage, but on the CC debts I did a rough & ready calculation of the total amount owed, divided by the amount I pay every month, to give a total number of months to debt free. It came up with 50 months, or Dec 2017 (I based it on October's figures) if we carry on with the current level of repayments. I then added an extra £100 a month to the repayments, which brought it back to 43 months, then an extra £250 a month, which brought it down to 35 months. It really helped me focus on what little things we can do each week to make a difference - just £25 a week could give us a debt free summer in 2017, £65 a week can bring that in to 2016 .... Much food for thought! I'm not convinced we can manage £65 a week, but we can definitely do £25 a week, just in cutting back a bit on groceries, doing a bit on eBay, a bit of overtime ... And once we're used to that, stepping it up to £40 a week might be ok, and so on.

What really spurred me on, was that I then realised that I have a load of shares I could sell to pay off debts. At the current price they're worth about £4500 - which would bring the debt free date down to less than 30 months (with the £250 a month extra.) Much excitement, but then I decided on reflection to hang on to the shares for now - they're supposedly on the way up in terms of price (although I'm going to be keeping a close eye on the price from now on!) Plus there's every chance that while we're on our debt free journey our car will need replacing (its reaching the age where it's starting to need large repairs every year), and if necessary I could cash in the shares to get a trade-in, without getting into more debt. But if the price levels out then I'll take a gamble on the car lasting and sell to pay off more debt! Hope that makes sense?

Right, off to do some ebaying & get this weeks £25! Hope everyone's surviving the Xmas prep roller coaster!