Reeling from the Reality Check

Historybuff · 22 October 2014 at 6:55AM

Last NSD before payday. Thank goodness. Been accepted to do a craft market tomorrow eve. Fingers crossed for a good few sales.
On the financial front, reviews for the overdrafts coming up next month. Hope they keep the charges and interest off and the payments the same.

Historybuff · 23 October 2014 at 10:11AM

Craft fair was rubbish. The only people to make any money were the organisers. Well payday is here, but after paying bills etc I have £400 to last the month. How can I survive on £100 per week for everything? This is so hard

I have to sell some more stuff.

hohum · 23 October 2014 at 12:21PM

Historybuff wrote: »

Craft fair was rubbish. The only people to make any money were the organisers. Well payday is here, but after paying bills etc I have £400 to last the month. How can I survive on £100 per week for everything? This is so hard
I have to sell some more stuff.

Come on HB. You can because you will. What's 'everything'? To me £400 is a fine amount of money and I have to say from a different perspective £100 a week is not penury. However it depends what your outgoings are. Say you're spending £120 on groceries for you. £80 on travel. What else does your money need to cover? (now might be a good time to go back, do a fresh start on YNAB and figure out what your money needs to do until you next get paid). It's hard today to contemplate that money, but it's not always hard and it won't always be like this.

Puzzcat · 23 October 2014 at 3:05PM

Historybuff wrote: »

Craft fair was rubbish. The only people to make any money were the organisers. Well payday is here, but after paying bills etc I have £400 to last the month. How can I survive on £100 per week for everything? This is so hard
I have to sell some more stuff.

Hi HB,

Maybe as your now settled into your 'no credit world' its time to take a step back and actually work out how much you need to survive well.. each month. Although your debts may not reduce as quickly being able to live a normal existance is important when we are on such a long journey. Just a thought..

Puzz. x

Historybuff · 23 October 2014 at 3:44PM

Thanks hohum and puzz. The £100 a week is for food, fuel, and all the other household expenses. I will do it, but am just feeling a bit down in the dumps today. Very tired, so everything looks worse than it actually is. I'm a bit disappointed because I've been waiting for payday for so long and thought I would be a bit better off than that. Anyhow, I've got to make it work.
I do think that the high mortgage payment is the one that is crippling at the moment, so I'm going to have to do something about that to bring it down, so there's a bit more cash freed up each month. But if I do manage to reduce that payment, won't the creditors want me to up their payments?

Puzzcat · 23 October 2014 at 4:05PM

Hi,

Are you able to lower the mortgage payments? And how would the creditors know unless you tell them....

Personally I would rather lower the creditor/debt payments than the mortgage but don't know how yours is set up...

We are all behind you whether you change things or leave them as they are, but the point of a dmp is that you can live normally and pay off the debts. At the rate your going if I was your OH I would be worrying I had a price tag on my back..!:rotfl:

thriftylynny · 23 October 2014 at 9:13PM

Have to say HB that i've lived off £100 p/w for 4 yrs now & it is hard I'm a single mum of 2 older kids , one who's trying to save for a deposit to move out & a son who has severe mental health problems. How i do it i don't know as every week something crops up, this wk its a leaking shower for god sake ? On the surface i live in an expensive area but i am 56 yrs old with a totally crap pension of 5k coming if i continue working f/t till i'm 60 & i'm just trying to overpay mortgage at the mo,on a tiny house that is falling apart & i'm feeling ill,stressed & tired with it all . It is hard indeed & i have no debts apart from mortgage so i do admire you for all you're doing .

Igamogam · 23 October 2014 at 9:29PM

Historybuff wrote: »

We have no upfront costs, NOA. The company put them in completely free, give us a four kilowatt per day allowance on electricity and divert the rest to themselves. What we get out of it is reduced electricity bills for no upfront costs to us!
We looked into it really carefully and couldn't see any catches. Hope we're right!

Re the panels I think I have posted before you probably wont see much of a difference in your bills until the days start to lengthen again and when it does you will definitely notice . We paid for our panels ourselves and claim the full FIT payment regardless of what we use - your installer will also be claiming this - you can use all the electricity the panels generate and they will still claim the FIT payment...........I am sure this is how it works otherwise I cant see how they would make any money!

Dont despair about the £100 a week something will come along soon. There are some who can and do live on a lot less. Have a look on this blog for some inspiration - sometimes a bit extreme but nonetheless thought provoking!

Brogden · 24 October 2014 at 8:15AM

Historybuff wrote: »

Thanks hohum and puzz. The £100 a week is for food, fuel, and all the other household expenses. I will do it, but am just feeling a bit down in the dumps today. Very tired, so everything looks worse than it actually is. I'm a bit disappointed because I've been waiting for payday for so long and thought I would be a bit better off than that. Anyhow, I've got to make it work.
I do think that the high mortgage payment is the one that is crippling at the moment, so I'm going to have to do something about that to bring it down, so there's a bit more cash freed up each month. But if I do manage to reduce that payment, won't the creditors want me to up their payments?

Hi Historybuff,

I know exactly how you are feeling. So many times I have counted the minutes to payday to suddenly feel deflated when payday finally arrives. I think that is the reason I have started (three months in now) to plot all my next months expenses and bills on a spreadsheet....doing this I can feel gloomy in advance

Seriously though, I seem to have got over the highs and lows by doing this (I really needed to get it organised anyway!)

I know you will cope. You are obviously a 'lady of steel.' I know we are all quite honest and open on here so I hope you don't mind if I say, having read your diary right through that I feel you take on far too much yourself. It would be an absolutely crazy notion for me to just let Mrs. Brogden be responsible for everything that was money related and just 'row my own boat' so to speak.

It seems that you have been the provider and the giver for many years with the unfortunate upshot that this has brought about debts. Its time that others started looking after you a little bit. You ought to think about stamping your feet a little

Soz......hope you didn't mind

Hoping we all have a nice day

Brogden x

in_need_of_direction · 24 October 2014 at 8:25AM

Hi bh, I know what you mean about the mortgage but I think you should try for something in the emergency pot before trying to op. I know progress can seem slow but I think you're doing so well. I found that my debt increased at more than 10% a year. If that's true for you, you've really reduced by about 20% thanks to your LBM.