Debt busting into 2015, but not beyond!

DebtFree2012

PiggyBankShaker wrote: »

Hi DF2012 I don't have a plan to give up work at all really. When I am enjoying work, I love it. When I am not enjoying it, I hate it.

Yesterday was a case in point. Felt miserable from the second my alarm went off until I left the house. Thinking ' I don't want to go to work. My job is pointless. My boss is useless. There are far more important things I could be doing... etc'

Got there, and yes it was boring, but I was fine. It was fine. Would I have rather have been doing something else? Yes, but it wasn't that bad.

They pay is decent enough and I feel like I should be grateful, but it just doesn't make me happy. So motivating myself is hard.

I know exactly what you mean. I earn a good wage and feel I should be grateful for that when I'm feeling sorry for myself that work is frustrating me or I don't want to be here!

PiggyBankShaker

I'm coming to realise, slowly, that I am not very good at 'balancing' things.

Money-wise, this looks like: "I'm going to throw ALL my money at a single project to the exclusion of anything else"

Health-wise, this looks like: "I'm going to fully record all my nutritional intake and calories and follow a complete exercise schedule"

It's present in other aspects of my life, the house, work etc. The opposite of the laser-beam focus is - nothing. No focus. If I'm not doing BOTH exercise AND monitoring my diet, then I'll do neither. AND I find that I can't focus on more than one area at any time.

How do I find a balance between all the things that are important and that I want to do with my other responsibilities? How to I manage multiple goals?

Answers on a post card...

PiggyBankShaker

Just received my pay slip for tomorrow, and Payroll had altered my pension :mad: So instead of £140, I only paid in £35. They *should* be able to correct it and take the extra next month to cover this month too, but it is annoying and I won't really have a grasp on what my normal take home pay is until June. Also that STILL haven't processed my expenses :mad:

PiggyBankShaker

Kind of a big update today. Virgin FINALLY got back to DH about why he had paid a late fee and interest on his CC. Turns out that the 0% offer expired on 9th February not on the 9th Sept, as we thought :eek::eek::eek:

So, they have refunded the late fee and one month interest, and DH took money out of his tax savings and paid off the balance of £1795.

!!!!!!! Gone! Hooray! :beer::j:T

Of course, he has to put that money back into his savings before January next year, but that is do-able, no problem.

So since January we have paid off two creditors, and paid off 74% of our total debt. We still owe HMRC for the Child Tax Credits overpayments (£1230) and BarclayCard (£1975) HMRC will be paid back by the end of November and BarclayCard is still on 0% until August, at which point we will clear that too.

Oh, almost forgot. I got paid today :T YAY! I transferred £1143 to the mortgage and have kept back enough for £150 to go to HMRC tomorrow. STILL no expenses though.

PiggyBankShaker

Lovely quiet weekend. Did mostly decluttering, tidying and cleaning yesterday. It is starting to feel like we are actually winning! At last. Which is lovely. Today we went to a local country park, mainly for the cool playground - that was closed for refurb (despite not saying on the website when I checked... :mad:) Still the kids enjoyed themselves.

Not a lot to report on the finances front. Just a bit of 'tinkering'.

I have been thinking about it and it really isn't great that we have got precisely £0 in savings. So, I've decided to pull back slightly on the mortgage overpayment mission for 6 months and divert some of the cash into savings.

Six month mini-SOA
Outgoings
£700 into savings
£460 mortgage overpayment
£150 to HMRC
£57 phonebill
£10 postcode lottery
£7 charity
Total = £1384

Income
Approx £1557

Surplus = £173 (will need money for train, but this is MAX £80 a month)

I have also decided that, seeing as interest rates are so pants, we'd be better of getting a Santander 123 account instead of our joint account. We'll earn 2.4% (post tax) on our savings (currently earning 1.25%) as well as cashback on our household bills, which obviously we have to pay anyway. So DH opened that today and was accepted immediately and we can start transferring all the Direct Debits as soon as he has the relevant paperwork.

Like I said, its only really tinkering, but I feel really positive that it is a proactive step in the right direction.

PiggyBankShaker

Bit of a worrying development today. A further 3 people have been let go at DH's company. :eek: DH is worried. I'm worried. We've decided to go into complete 'shut down' mode, stop all unnecessary spending, pay down all our outstanding debts asap and divert as much to savings as possible, in case the worst happens.

At this point in time we are running liabilities to the tune of £5,369. :eek: However, DH should be getting paid on Thursday and I am finally getting my expenses on Friday. We can do an assessment then of exactly what money needs to go where.

In checking over all our statements etc, DH discovered that his BarclayCard 0% ends on 9th June, not 1st Aug. I have NO idea how we managed to get both of the 0% CC end dates wrong. But at least he spotted this one in time.

This means of course that the mortgage overpayment mission will be on hold for the time being.

In other 'news', I did a £5 mystery shop today and withdrew £2.35 from TCB! :rotfl:

PiggyBankShaker

A few quick updates before I get onto the 'big' news.

• Did a £4 mystery shop, which meant I could withdraw £22.30 from Roamler. The profit from this (£13) has been transferred to savings.
• DH had listed our untunable piano on eBay last week, it sold today for the princely sum of 0.01p :rotfl: The real advantage of course is that someone will take it away at their expense, not ours.
• Got my work expenses. Most of them gone already now though Still, I have another claim to put in next week for about £40
• New joint account / savings account with Santander is up and running. DH has transferred his tax savings and we have started to move our DDs

Now the 'big' news...

DH and I have decided to move to France for 7 or 8 months! :T:eek::T:eek::T

I applied in January for a position as an English assistant via the British Council, and I got accepted! It is literally a 'now or never' scenario, as next year I'll be ineligible to apply due to my age. So, despite things not being 'perfect' finance-wise, we've weighed it up that the experience is simply too good miss. IF DH stays in his job (as in, they don't make him redundant) then we will 100% be ok for money. And if they don't make him redundant until September we can scrap by for money, as we will have built up enough savings by then to 'weather the storm'. However, if they make him redundant anytime before September, then we probably won't be able to afford to go, it will be too risky.

We haven't told anyone yet, not even the kids. I did check with the school that it was ok to take them out for two terms and the headteacher said yes. So, other than money that is the biggest hurdle out of the way.

We just have to save every penny between now and September to make sure be have a big enough buffer to cover all our UK bills.

I'm nervous, but super excited too.

lcc86

Wow how exciting, if you can afford to go I fully agree it's an opportunity too good to pass up. I wish you all the best in making it happen.

OrangeFairy

Hi Piggybank

Just found your diary and think you should be very proud if weathering the ups and downs you gave had

Fingers tightly crossed that your hubby isn't nade redundant but great news about moving to France for a few months- what an absolutely amazing opportunity which can't be missed! Good luck

OF x

Dobbibill

Wow - that is 'big' news

Firstly congrats on being accepted for this opportunity, definitely too good to miss so really really wish you well in preparation. Finger's crossed for OH employment to last past September.

Onwards and upwards with the savings :T

Understandable for you to be nervous but hopefully as plans become reality, the excitement will be the emotion that feeds the motivation to go for it.

Well done :T

DB