Oh No Not Again! Right. This Time......

Nagme

Once again, the credit cards cannot be paid off in full.

How did it happen? Ooh a bit here, a bit there, more optimism than we could afford.

It was our three birthdays in a row that did it. Well, that and a £700 garage bill. Oh, and a £112 trip to the vet (not that the cat appreciated it).

Anyhoo, got paid last week and remaining on our credit cards there is £1,700 on amex and £2,400 on Cap1. This will take ages, especially as it's THAT time of the year.

Hence this diary.

Regular posting will keep me focussed. And motivated. And stops me reaching for the chocolate.

Well, here goes the spending diary whilst we get back on the straight and narrow.

PS: I'm a SAHM, I have Endogenous Depression, a DH, DS and DC (Dear Cat) a part time job and do a couple of hours working from home a week. DH has a good job, but we're still recovering from moving house and too many car changes recently (he had to have back operations, so he went from commuting by motorbike to commuting by small economical hatchback to commuting by large automatic economical MPV. please don't mention vehicle depreciation)

Nagme

So today is Sunday.

This Sunday, there is no paper (£2.50 saved).

Ran out of bread and no lemon juice for the breadmaker! Substituted 1tsp lemon juice with 1tsp white vinegar. Await the results with interest...

Last night I transferred the £50 from selling my old phone to the Cap1 card, and also the £50 we received back from Autoaid after my break down recovery last month which I used the card to pay for.

We now have a 140 mile round trip for DS to go to a 5th birthday party we'd already committed to. DH is staying home with his bad back, and DS and I shall take a packed lunch to eat on the way. I shall be driving economically to preserve diesel by changing up a gear when the revs hit 2,000, and still aim to not refuel till the end of November.

I should probably do a SOA but feeling a bit scared (can open, worms everywhere)

Nagme

The listing for the dining table ends later, funds to go in the pot for pocket money.

Cash Pot currently has £110 so we should be able to get through the month without withdrawing any money from the current account.

DH has £20 and I have £10 per week. It covers work coffees (DH is a senior manager and will often meet clients, but he can usually claim on expenses). I tend not to spend all of mine, and I put any £2 coins in a piggy bank, currently saved up £22.

in_need_of_direction

Well done on having the LBM pre Christmas. It'll make you more aware of unnecessary spends. You seem to have a good attitude, best of luck. Can't wait to see your progress.

Bobarella

Good luck Nagme. I think it is so easy to backslide. So many of us on here seem to have had the same problem. Life has a way of doing you over. If it makes you feel any better on the vehicle front we have had a crappy year too. Our excellent old car which was a Mazda 626 over 10 years old bought outright for £1400 in 2008 suddenly had clutch failure whilst me and our 5 yr old were out in Essex on a day trip. Ended up costing us £200 to get the A A to tow us back to London. Plus car was a write off. We managed without a car for a month or so but it was very hard at the time. Then we borrowed £2k to buy a new car. Found a bargain on a gorgeous older Audi A6 but within a month it was malfunctioning. The dealer fixed it but tried to hit us for half the repair bill. We declined. 2 weeks later it failed again. A garage told us it had a £900 oil leak & possible transmission failure. We managed until August when it became totally undrivable. As it ran out of tax on the 1st we put it on ebay for parts and spares & someone has just bid £350 for it which is brilliant as scrap would have only given us £150. As we live in zone 2 of London we are just going to try to manage without for now. Although we do miss day trips.

Sorry for long reply but just to say life can be a total pain sometimes & debt can pile on even with the best intentions. I am going to subscribe to your journey now. Good luck.
Bob

Nikky2003

Good Luck Nagme, now subscribed and looking forward to following your progress really need to start my diary again !!

WhiteRose2014

Wishing you loads of luck - now subscribed x

dimestorediamond

Good luck!

Nagme

Thanks for all the well wishes INOD, Nikki, White Rose and CRT, it means a lot.

Bob it sounds like you've had a terrible run of bad luck with your vehicles, they're just a money pit whatever you buy _pale_

Well yesterday's party was nice, DS really enjoyed it. Apart from being stuck on the M25 hard shoulder feeling sick from eating too much junk. In the end he came in the front with me and a carrier bag, safer than sitting on the side of a busy motorway. Slow traffic is good for the mpg as I discovered on the M1!

It was a NSD yesterday, plus sold two items on ebay, so a trip to the Post Office this morning, and hopefully a smooth sale of the dining table.

Vinegar infused loaf turned out okay , and I've taken a pot of HM pasta sauce out of the freezer for tea later.

Dilemma to be concluded today - do I cancel my acupuncture appt this Thursday? It's £40, I have it for helping the depression. Speaking of which the depression decided this morning that the pins and needles in my hand is MS. A quick google suggested it could also be B12 defficiency/anxiety/stress/cold/ any temporary thing. (Stopped myself reading the more serious bits). It's very tiring arguing with the depression, it puts worse case scenario onto everything, and I'm naturally an optimistic person.

CC summary:
amex: £1,821.25
cap1: £2,318.76
total: £4,140.01

Well that's awful, sounds even worse added together.. Especially as it doesn't include the two cards we're paying off on 0%. Or the loan to the inlaws for the small economical hatchback, Okay the Megane.I will summarise the whole lot later. But for now, I'm focussing on the above cards which are not on 0%. I think the trip to visit family in Wales will need to wait.

Washing DH's dry clean work trousers on delicates, I await with baited breath...

Off to post the ebay parcel and not buy a can of coke.

Nagme

T'was an okay day today.

Ebay sale of £10 so after fees and postage I sent £5.30 to Cap1. It's only a small amount but it keeps me focussed.

I also cancelled the acupuncture appointment which was £40, I didn't use the tumble dryer, (used airers in the spare room), and set up a £40ish grocery delivery from Mr T for this week's shop. We live 11 miles away from the nearest supemarket.

Crossed fingers my 10 year old Fabia gets through his MOT tomorrow without a problem!

Spends today:
Tank of diesel for DH £55ish
DH coffee and toast at work £2.00
posted parcel £2.80
Bread: £1.35

And no coke

Nagme

Feeling very flat.
Popped into work today, it's currently being sold and the sale is taking very long. The current owners are in dire straits, and I need to prepare myself in case I don't get my pay this month. We're all expecting a visit from administrators. I work one day a week there, plus the odd hour here and there, so it earns me roughly £200 per month, term time. A couple of employees didn't get paid last month (they got their money in the end though).

Then whilst the car passed it's MOT today, it has an advisory, so that'll be another couple of hundred pounds to sort in the next few months.The mechanic suggested taking it to the woods and lighting a match to it :eek: Feel like we have had so much bad luck recently with vehicles, and then come home to a brown dvla envelope meaning another tax is due (motorbike this time, £80)

Proceeds from sale of table after fees £18.65 (he paid via pp ), so I am paying that amount today to amex.

Trip to see family in Wales is cancelled. .

I'm consoling myself with a fried egg and tomato ketchup sandwich and a cup of tea.

Sun's out though, and it's a beautiful autumn day.