Changing for good...a new start!

Baldybear

Good afternoon

So my order has arrived today, will check sizes tonight then can send back the unwanted item, £25 refund to CC. My expenses have landed and with the refund that will be due means by Sains CC is back to 0

£6.60 made at cash4clothes, not a huge amount considering had 5 massive bag for life shopping bags full, but it was unwanted items, most old stuff I had worn to death, better a few pennies than just going to the bin.

Was naughty and spent £1.08 of the above cash on a bread roll and sneaky chocolate bar for work but still have £5 cash. Will put towards next farrier or hoss trainer, it will not be wasted on carp!

Saddler due down tomorrow, keeping all fingers and hooves crossed the saddle I have found fits, otherwise means a new search which is a pain Then just to pay the lady for the saddle. I still need to sell my old one which should bring the new one cash neutral, must do at the weekend. Its taking up space on my sofa!

My gas and electric bills have landed, have used slightly more electric than normal, think due to lodger, still 9p in credit so should be ok, will continue to monitor and try and be more frugal with my electric use. Gas am £8 odd in credit, dont want to refund me just now as would change DD, will see next month, hopefully should be ok as weather got a wee bit warmer. Will have to be freeezing for me to use the heating, will make full use of open fire before heating goes on, so hopefully can get a refund next month.

One bad thing, a filling has just come out, bah Means a trip to the dentist so unwanted spending, will try and see if I can organise, fingers crossed wont cost too much!

AspiringButAnxious

What a gorgeous horse! Having a horse is one of my long-term goals — but I need to learn how to ride one properly first

Baldybear

Good morning

Saddler came down, it fits , just needs the stuffing slightly changed, she has taken it away and will pick it up Saturday. So need to find approx £100 for the saddler and the saddle is £250 (I think, need to check).

Saturday went food shopping with lodger, lots of fresh bits and freezer topped back up. £60 spent but had £10 gift voucher so £50 on my CC. Spent the afternoon with nephew baking cakes for bro in laws birthday, then went to theres for a chinese, sister paid

Sunday didnt spend a penny, my door handle for my oven arrived (only taken 6 weeks!), should have been simple :cool: took hour and half, but it works now Organised all my old hamster stuff, would love to get a new hamster so set up cage etc, have shed loads of food and bedding so no expense. Maybe get one next week. Then spent the rest of the afternoon ebaying and re-listing some items. No bids yet but a few watchers.

So today went to the dentist, thought just needed a filling, no such luck, some antibiotics, £50 for a few x-rays today and a new crown, appointments booked in for few weeks £525 to pay :eek:

So good and bad news:-

Good news:-
Oven door handle fitted, checking Sains CC it appears they havent charged me yet, will keep an eye on £62 less to find at the moment
£5 survey money and £3.58 from quidco landed

Bad news:-
Sains CC now stands at £100, £50 from food shopping and £50 from dentist visit today
Need to find £350 for saddle costs
Need to find £525 for crown for dentist

Total to find £975.

Also I have booked my chimney sweep to come this weekend, ready for winter £50.

So plan of action...chimney sweep have budgeted for next month but will try and use this months money. I still have £5 in my purse from cash4clothes so only £45 to find.

I have left in my budget this month £78.17 so if I take the £45 out still have £33 spare, well not spare as this is up to my overdraft limit but will try not to use this at all.

The Sains CC, £50 will come from next months budgeted money for chimney sweep to cover the dentist and the other £50 will come from next months grocery budget.

I do have loads of food in freezer and store cupboards, I am good in eating from stores every day just need to stretch it out as long as I can, I think this is an area I can really cut down on so really need to focus on this one.

I have £1k in emergency fund so could take the dentist money out of this, think probably a good idea, still leaves me with £500 so not great but still a few pennies just in case.

So need to find my saddle costs, have put aside the £8 odd from quidco etc in a separate savings and will use this for the saddle. I still have my old saddle, I must try and sell that asap as should get £200 odd so that will cover the majority of the costs.

So at the moment plans to pay of the barclaycard are on hold, bar minimum payment. It is very frustrating trying to juggle 100 balls all at once, but need to keep going somehow. If I look on the positives at least I have the emergency fund to pay for the dentist and still have a few pounds savings left so not a complete disaster. At least no more in debt. I was tempted to get a 0% cash transfer from my Bcard to pay of my overdraft but it will just get me into more debt so am going to not do.

All the signs are going in the right direction, yes using half my emergency fund for dentist but thats what it is there for, can build up the £500 again another time. My debt is decreasing, although stupidly slow it is going down. Small steps and a very long journey but one day will reach the end

Baldybear

So checked my dentist invoice, the £525 was the total including the £50 paid today so only need to take £475 from emergency fund, small pennies saving but helps

Baldybear

Good morning

Spoke to the lady selling the saddle, going to give her £250, agreed to pay her this week, obviously dont have the money so have transferred out of my ISA. Worked out my ISA after putting back the hoss food budget spend and then take out the money for the dentist will have £314 left in there. If I sell my old saddle for £200 that will take me up to the £500, so half of my target but at least its something just in case.

I am thinking at the moment will continue to save as much as I can but I think come february next year will need the money I have saved to pay for my annual bills, car & home insurance, mot, tax etc, let alone a lump sum to pay of my credit card.

I dont want to get into more debt so think it is a good idea to use the money for this, rather than pay a lump sum of my debt. The debt will go eventually, its just going to take a lot longer than planned. Seeing the above it looks like I will need to look at 0% transfers come february.

Argh its very frustrating, suppose the good thing is that I am not getting into more debt but dont really seem to be making headway into getting rid of the debt either.

Just need to keep trying, will get there somehow, its just a long haul, didnt realise it would be this rough, real life sucks sometimes, especially when you are on your own and no partner to fall back on financially. Guess I am lucky my parents help me out so much but its still such a struggle every day.

Know people would say get rid of your horse, but she is my life, dont really do much else so spending on her is all I really do, need to live as well at the same time. My saddle is expensive but it will be a one off cost and should last me for the rest of my horses life its just a big expense all at once, especially with the dentist landing at the same time, great timing NOT

Well that was a bit of a ramble, but type as I think and one day will be good to look back to see yes its a struggle but I did make it, just need to focus on getting to that day

clearmydebts

Baldybear wrote: »

Good morning

Spoke to the lady selling the saddle, going to give her £250, agreed to pay her this week, obviously dont have the money so have transferred out of my ISA. Worked out my ISA after putting back the hoss food budget spend and then take out the money for the dentist will have £314 left in there. If I sell my old saddle for £200 that will take me up to the £500, so half of my target but at least its something just in case.

I am thinking at the moment will continue to save as much as I can but I think come february next year will need the money I have saved to pay for my annual bills, car & home insurance, mot, tax etc, let alone a lump sum to pay of my credit card.

I dont want to get into more debt so think it is a good idea to use the money for this, rather than pay a lump sum of my debt. The debt will go eventually, its just going to take a lot longer than planned. Seeing the above it looks like I will need to look at 0% transfers come february.

Argh its very frustrating, suppose the good thing is that I am not getting into more debt but dont really seem to be making headway into getting rid of the debt either.

Just need to keep trying, will get there somehow, its just a long haul, didnt realise it would be this rough, real life sucks sometimes, especially when you are on your own and no partner to fall back on financially. Guess I am lucky my parents help me out so much but its still such a struggle every day.

Know people would say get rid of your horse, but she is my life, dont really do much else so spending on her is all I really do, need to live as well at the same time. My saddle is expensive but it will be a one off cost and should last me for the rest of my horses life its just a big expense all at once, especially with the dentist landing at the same time, great timing NOT

Well that was a bit of a ramble, but type as I think and one day will be good to look back to see yes its a struggle but I did make it, just need to focus on getting to that day

You are doing very well BB and have made some big adjustments to try and pay off the debt. I think it's just pure bad luck that the saddle and the dentist all came at the same time. I would try and sell the other saddle asap to bump up your savings again.

Is there any way you can pay the dentist in installments? I would look into that. Don't forget your sofa payments are coming to an end soon so you will have that £30 to redirect to the debts.

Keep going

cazmanian_minx

Baldybear wrote: »

Good morning
My saddle is expensive but it will be a one off cost and should last me for the rest of my horses life its just a big expense all at once, especially with the dentist landing at the same time, great timing NOT

Er, hate to rain on your parade a bit, but my friend bought her 5-y-o gelding a £2,000 custom-made saddle because she thought he wasn't going to change shape any more - he's now 7 and has gone through three more in two years as he's widened out. He changed shape so dramatically as he matured and muscled up that the saddles couldn't be refitted; he needed an entirely different tree shape. He seems to have finally stopped, thankfully!

Baldybear

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Er, hate to rain on your parade a bit, but my friend bought her 5-y-o gelding a £2,000 custom-made saddle because she thought he wasn't going to change shape any more - he's now 7 and has gone through three more in two years as he's widened out. He changed shape so dramatically as he matured and muscled up that the saddles couldn't be refitted; he needed an entirely different tree shape. He seems to have finally stopped, thankfully!

Saddler has said this one should be ok for her even when she does muscle up a bit, it is an extra wide saddle, but who knows what will happen! Keeping everything crossed she doesnt change shape too much At least its only £250, ouch for a £2k saddle :eek:

Baldybear

Good morning

Money transferred from ISA for saddle, have given the money to trainer to pay the seller. Mortgage out today so another wee bit knocked of the debt.

ClearmyDebts thanks for dropping by, cant pay dentist in instalments, will use the ISA, in theory thats what is was there for, for emergencies, am just very grateful that I have this so at least no extras to spend and no debt added to. Will try and push the emergency fund back up soon.

So after yesterday and feeling a bit bah with it all, went back and had a read of all my old diaries on here, working out how got to debt situation now, interesting read, very up and down, more downs with ex due to his excessive spending ways. Since I have split the debt has gone down, been lots of extra spending but have done a downward turn overall. Made a few rough spreadsheets to see overall figures, will post below, going to keep updated so show progress. These are just approx figures but show a rough picture.

sugarcube84

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Er, hate to rain on your parade a bit, but my friend bought her 5-y-o gelding a £2,000 custom-made saddle because she thought he wasn't going to change shape any more - he's now 7 and has gone through three more in two years as he's widened out. He changed shape so dramatically as he matured and muscled up that the saddles couldn't be refitted; he needed an entirely different tree shape. He seems to have finally stopped, thankfully!

My fell changed massively from 5 to 8 he matured loads and went much deeper and broader, luckily I waited to buy his 'proper' saddle as I new this was going to happen.