pickle me's diary

pickle_me

I have major debt-busting fatigue. The combination of waiting to hear about the job, nervousness about an event at work tomorrow and weariness with penny-pinching is making me crabby and unsettled.

Anyone else have days like this when they just feel utterly fed up with the debt-busting thing?

in_need_of_direction

We all do. Just randomly pick a diary and you'll see. If this was an easy path, we'd all have taken it years ago. Best thing is an early night and a positive outlook for tomorrow

pickle_me

I've got a new job :j :j :j :j

I've been in limbo waiting to find out for two weeks, longest two weeks of my life! But it's all confirmed and I handed in my notice at my current job yesterday. I'm so happy More money, no travel costs (so more money saved, I hate forever topping the car up with petrol), much nicer boss, excellent career prospects, and more interesting work. I'll be working from home, which will be a bit weird and I'll miss having colleagues (even if some of my current colleagues are odd and some are downright unpleasant :rotfl: ). But it will be worth it. The hours will even give me a bit of time off every day before I have to pick the girls up. It's brilliant.

I've lost track of debt-busting a bit due to distraction over the job, but apart from going a bit overdrawn last month things are ok. I realised I had £200 child benefit put aside for emergencies, rather than £100, so I have more of a cushion than I thought. I haven't yet updated my signature with the latest debt totals but card no.1 is now £750 lighter, taking it into the 3000's for the first time One more month to go and we'll be under £10k!

in_need_of_direction

Congratulations. It'll be full steam ahead with the debt clearing now.

dawnybabes

Congratulations x

Magsnoodle

Can I also offer my congratulations.... Well Done xxxx

pickle_me

Thank you INOD, Dawnybabes and Magsnoodle I've just picked up an email from my new boss - I won't start the job until September but she's already planning how I'll fit into the company, what projects I can work on, which clients I can manage. It's so exciting. My current boss is hands-off to the point of disinterest and certainly couldn't give two hoots about my career development so it is wonderful to feel so valued already :j

In other news, I bought my mum's birthday present today. Yes, birthday presents again I nearly had a tantrum at the shops today as I just couldn't find anything really special and inspired to give her - she is impossible to buy for and it only gets harder as she gets older. I'm still trying to accept the premise that a good present is good enough and you can't give something 'perfect' every time. I've bought her a sweet pea wigwam and a nice travel bag for our holiday in August, and I'm at peace with my choice (just about ) Also quietly pleased that it didn't cost as much as I'd expected.

in_need_of_direction

My mum is in her 80s. Last pressie was lime marmalade, thorntons toffee and home made fudge. Sometimes I feel a bit mean but I know she will get use from these whereas clothes, jewellery, tickets etc may not suit and be wasted.

pickle_me

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

My mum is in her 80s. Last pressie was lime marmalade, thorntons toffee and home made fudge. Sometimes I feel a bit mean but I know she will get use from these whereas clothes, jewellery, tickets etc may not suit and be wasted.

Exactly - I'd rather buy something that I know the recipient will actually want/use. I hate buying a present just for the sake of it.

The sweet peas and bag went down very well My husband's birthday is this weekend, then apart from my niece in July that's all the family birthdays done for another year. Phew. Well, not including mine in September and I will most likely be too skint to get myself anything (I like buying myself something for my birthday - no agonising over whether or not I'll like it :rotfl: ) but I can live with that. I keep thinking that my best birthday present will be the statement for CC1 arriving a few weeks later with a balance of zero

I've been furiously doing sums working out how I can cover my bit of the household expenses in September when I won't have been paid at the end of August. I've been worried about it but I think it's going to be ok. My penny-pinching over the last few months is paying off and having managed to increase my emergency funds from £100 to £200 is a big boost. I've even budgeted for days out over the summer holidays; I didn't do this last year (it was pre-LBM ) and we just spent mindlessly. Not this year!

pickle_me

Just updated my signature with the totals for May. So nearly under £10k! I considered trying to find £75 from somewhere to get us down to 4 figures but we don't really having much leeway in our budget and we're on track to pay it all off when we need to, so I'm going to be patient. Debt-busting has taught me a lot about patience ...

My husband is buying himself some sort of Gameboy accessory for his birthday; he's budgeted for it and commented to me yesterday that previously he would have put it on a credit card without a second thought. His attitude to money has really changed I think he's even more excited than I am about the prospect of CC1 being paid off.

My attitude to money has changed too - I lived within my means before (when I was the main wage-earner) but didn't pay much attention to how I spent my cash otherwise. Now I don't spend any money without thinking hard about whether I can afford it, even £1 on a packet of biscuits.

More and more of our conversations start with 'when the debt is paid off ...' In fact we have just over a year to go as the last credit card should be paid off in June 2015. A whole year away - but somehow it doesn't feel that long. £10k is still an horrific amount of debt but we've made it this far and our budget is working *touch wood* so I feel as though I can see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel