No more being "FinanciallyUnsavvy" in 2014!

skyblueshez

Well done for clearing your overdraft, that's fantastic!!


It's nice to read positive stuff on here, makes it worthwhile :-)

FinanciallyUnsavvy

supersaver1000 wrote: »

Anyway my plan is to get rid of it altogether, so I think you've done right. If it's not there you can't use it.

Good luck in your money saving. Seems like you're in a great spot. Well done !

Hi supersaver, thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind encouragement.

mylastpound wrote: »

Hi Hun

I've just subscribed after reading the first 4 pages of your diary, I was hooked and could relate to some of your daily trials and questions!!

so thought id put my 2 pence worth in ........hope you don't mind

I too kept my boyfriend in the dark with my debts to begin with.
7 years down the line to be exact!!, he still isn't aware of the true figure as I didn't know myself, until I sat down and went through my CC bills ect. we are at a stage were we had our own houses but we want to get one together, but I don't until I clear my debt off
I want to move into the future with a clear bank balance and I want to pay this debt off myself, I got myself in this mess and I want to take the hard option and deal with it myself.
I want to learn the hard way. the worst thing is. I've had this debt for 10 years nearly and always paid min payment, so ive paid probably thousand going nowhere. so its time I sort it out and to also learn to budget at the same time for emergency

regarding the OD. ive been a lurker on here for ages and when I finally get my OD paid off, I will get rid and I will have money in the bank as my own buffer and do without my OD completely even if its just £200 buffer

I am too interested in this YNBA, it sounds really good from reading a few people diary's ive recently seen.........so I will have to look into this

also regarding stretching yourself and paying your debt off by xmas you can look at it in 2 ways

1 year / 6 month is only a small time out of your life to clear this black cloud, how good will it feel if you accomplish this and be debt free by December.......I know its a slog

or

pay the £300 as normal each month and the money you make on surveys ect spend on yourself, treat it as a side job for entertainment spends..........just an option

Don't forget your not on your own, I think your doing the right thing by clearing your debt while you can. wish I hadn't buried my head in the sand for soo long. I regret that I spent my 20s with £300 min payment each month on CCs, where if I had cleared it sooner I could have had it as savings each month........oh well we live and learn xx

Hi MLP - thank you so much for taking the time to read through my past ramblings and subscribe! Much appreciated

I'm not exactly purposefully keeping my boyfriend in the dark. If he asked, I'd tell. But he doesn't, so I don't. I mean he knows I have some debt and he knows I'm paying it off but I don't think he knows quite how much I'm slogging my @ss off to get rid of it at the moment. I did tell him I'd paid my overdraft off the other day, but he didn't really say much. We just don't really talk about money. I'd be happy to if he showed an interest, in fact I'd very much like to be able to talk through everything with him, it'd be a massive help sometimes, but I dunno, maybe he finds it awkward because he's always been good with money and has managed to save up a lot and I'm deeply in minus numbers. Oh well.

You're right regarding the OD. I think I will just get rid of it altogether. I mean, it makes sense to have a small agreed overdraft in place to save any charges just in case. But I know I won't ever go into it again out of choice, and I have enough money in my account to cover any "surprise" bills I get, and I have other means of emergency funds if necessary should anything arise. So I may as well just get rid of it altogether.

Definitely look into You Need A Budget. Honestly, no way could I have got this far without it!

xx

misstara wrote: »

Woohoo!!:T It must be such an amazing feeling to have cleared the overdraft. Did you do anything to celebrate? :beer:

Your last post sounded really positive, you are doing fantastically well

Thank you hun Nah, didn't really celebrate. It doesn't matter though. It's a nice feeling, and it's still weird looking at my bank balance and not seeing the "D" of doom next to whatever figure is there! xx

FinanciallyUnsavvy

skyblueshez wrote: »

Well done for clearing your overdraft, that's fantastic!!


It's nice to read positive stuff on here, makes it worthwhile :-)

Thank you for the lovely words, and thanks for stopping by!

So many lovely new visitors this weekend - thanks all xx

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Had some fairly nice news over the weekend. I rent a house, it's managed through a letting agency but the Landlord lives in the same row of houses so he just deals with anything directly. He mentioned to me a couple months ago they're thinking of moving away from the letting agency and just renting privately. I said I didn't mind, because it doesn't change anything for me. Makes sense for them really, because the letting agency don't do anything except presumably take a fairly sizable chunk out of their rental income every month.

Anyway- he came round on Saturday to tell me they've started the process of leaving the letting agency, and told me they are just going to give me my original deposit back!

So I'm going to get £375 at some point soon, which shall be nice. Some of it I need to give to my nan - since she helped me pay the deposit in the first place. The rest of it, I'm not sure what to do with. I'll probably just put it in my savings pot. To be honest, as much as it would help me get to my DFD target before Xmas, it seems kind of a waste chucking all that extra money at the credit card since it's interest free.

Other than that, not much else to report. Usual sucky weekday blah! xx

sassychick2014

Hi hon

That's good news. I assume you're allowed to still live there though!

I totally agree that not throwing the money at your credit card is the best way forward so I'd stick with that.

Hope you're well xx

FinanciallyUnsavvy

sassychick2014 wrote: »

Hi hon

That's good news. I assume you're allowed to still live there though!

I totally agree that not throwing the money at your credit card is the best way forward so I'd stick with that.

Hope you're well xx

Haha, yes, I'm not going to get evicted! The Landlord/Landlady are very nice, and since they live on the same row of houses we see each other a lot, so they obviously trust me not to wreck the house/know I'm reliable as I've lived there 2.5 years now. Just signed the new tenancy agreement with them yesterday.

I think I have decided to change my attitude a bit. I'm not going to aim for debt free before Christmas anymore. I'll do what I can, but I'm not going to slog myself silly for no real reason.

I'll do 63336 when I can, and I'll still aim for around £150 a month but I'm going to stop feeling like I *have* to do it.

Not sure yet whether to keep paying the absolute maximum possible out of my wages every month (£300) or reduce that a bit to give myself a bit more wiggle room in my budget.

I've reduced my direct debit with British Gas back to £15 a month over summer (cheeky so-and-sos upped it to £30 in the Winter without telling me), so that's going to be an extra £15 a month freed up.

Oh, and I got my blood results back from the doctor on Friday. I have a vitamin D deficiency, and something else is higher than it should be (the receptionist who relayed the message was useless, just said "your levels are high", so when I asked "levels of what?" she had no idea what I meant). I have an appointment to go back to the doc in 3 weeks to have another blood test anyway to see if they've changed. So I've got some vitamin D supplements that should help, and I already feel a bit better just knowing it's not in my head. Generally telling people "I'm so tired all the time" warrants a response such as "you need a holiday", and the doctor himself told me he didn't expect anything to show up on the results, it was probably just mood-related, but I KNOW myself and I know I've never felt so drained all the time!

I googled vitamin D deficiency and the best description it could give me was "constant tiredness, muscle/joint aching and a general complaint of 'feeling unwell'" which describes me to a tee lately - but it's the sort of complaint that people don't take seriously/disregarded as just CBA-ness.

So fingers crossed after a week or two on the supplements I should have a new lease of life!

sassychick2014

Hey sweetie

So glad you've found out what's going on with you. It's frustrating when you know there's something wrong but the quack doesn't take you seriously isn't it. I've been to the doctors a few times in the last year with probs and been told it's due to me "getting on a bit". If 37 is getting on a bit I dread to think what my parents are being told! Saw the locum doc for second opinion and immediately got referred to hospital for tests & xrays. Just shows if you know your body you've got to keep pushing for a result.

With regards to your debt. Yes, I can understand wanting to get rid of it asap but if you're feeling cr*ppy cuz you're pushing yourself so hard why force it? If it only takes a little longer and less stress I'm all for that. You say you feel like you have to do 63336 and that's a shame as you were so excited about it when you first got the work. I'm sure if you ease the pressure off yourself you'll enjoy it again. (btw, if there's any positions going it sounds cool.... )

So, my prescription from Dr Sassy is to take your supplements, ease your pressure, pay a reasonable amount each month and review your DFD and see how you go from there. Make an appointment with the receptionist on your way out (who won't know what you mean) and come back and see me in 3 months time!

Have a good evening hon xx

FinanciallyUnsavvy

sassychick2014 wrote: »

Hey sweetie

So glad you've found out what's going on with you. It's frustrating when you know there's something wrong but the quack doesn't take you seriously isn't it. I've been to the doctors a few times in the last year with probs and been told it's due to me "getting on a bit". If 37 is getting on a bit I dread to think what my parents are being told! Saw the locum doc for second opinion and immediately got referred to hospital for tests & xrays. Just shows if you know your body you've got to keep pushing for a result.

With regards to your debt. Yes, I can understand wanting to get rid of it asap but if you're feeling cr*ppy cuz you're pushing yourself so hard why force it? If it only takes a little longer and less stress I'm all for that. You say you feel like you have to do 63336 and that's a shame as you were so excited about it when you first got the work. I'm sure if you ease the pressure off yourself you'll enjoy it again. (btw, if there's any positions going it sounds cool.... )

So, my prescription from Dr Sassy is to take your supplements, ease your pressure, pay a reasonable amount each month and review your DFD and see how you go from there. Make an appointment with the receptionist on your way out (who won't know what you mean) and come back and see me in 3 months time!

Have a good evening hon xx

Thank you hun

Actually, I did think about you for 63336 the other day when I was reading your diary. I checked, but they're not hiring. They do seem to have recruitment drives pretty regularly though, so I will certainly let you know next time I know they're recruiting.

I don't mind doing questions still really, but it's still "work", and after a crap and boring day at the 9-5, a crap bus journey home, the last thing I want to do is more work! Most evenings I don't get home until 6.30, by the time I've had a bath, made my tea, tidied up (which happens occasionally...) it's 8/9pm and if I'm doing 63336 I get literally no time to just unwind.

I'm not worrying about a DFD for now. I know that whatever happens, the CC will be gone before the interest kicks in, so really I don't have to worry. I'm still budgeting, I'm still using YNAB constantly, but I've just allowed myself a few treats this month. I'll take a few weeks "off" without worrying, and maybe I'll get back in full gear soon. I just think it's kind of a waste to slog away and throw so much money at the CC when it's not really benefitting me, only apparently easing my peace of mind by being debt free sooner - which it really isn't doing!!

sassychick2014

FinanciallyUnsavvy wrote: »

Thank you hun

Actually, I did think about you for 63336 the other day when I was reading your diary. I checked, but they're not hiring. They do seem to have recruitment drives pretty regularly though, so I will certainly let you know next time I know they're recruiting.

I don't mind doing questions still really, but it's still "work", and after a crap and boring day at the 9-5, a crap bus journey home, the last thing I want to do is more work! Most evenings I don't get home until 6.30, by the time I've had a bath, made my tea, tidied up (which happens occasionally...) it's 8/9pm and if I'm doing 63336 I get literally no time to just unwind.

I'm not worrying about a DFD for now. I know that whatever happens, the CC will be gone before the interest kicks in, so really I don't have to worry. I'm still budgeting, I'm still using YNAB constantly, but I've just allowed myself a few treats this month. I'll take a few weeks "off" without worrying, and maybe I'll get back in full gear soon. I just think it's kind of a waste to slog away and throw so much money at the CC when it's not really benefitting me, only apparently easing my peace of mind by being debt free sooner - which it really isn't doing!!

Aaw thanks! I actually had a look on their site the other day and one minute it said they were recruiting, refreshed and it said they weren't, refreshed and it said they were!! So I sent an email anyway and see if I hear anything (as yet no!).

I can understand the reluctance to do more work when you're wanting to relax and unwind so agree with the few weeks off everything and see how you go.

Have a great evening xx

misstara

Hi Kim, you must be so relieved to find out whats wrong and that it can be easily fixed by taking some vitamin supplements. OH was told that he had the same deficiency fairly recently and it was amazing how quickly he felt better after starting to take supplements. Hopefully you'll be feeling much better soon