"I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it."

Slothy88

Busy_Mee wrote: »

Well done you - fantastic fresh start to the New Year : )

Debt-queen wrote: »

Loving your positivity Iv subscribed ��

Thank you both It's going to be a long hard slog, but I'm going to try my best and have a positive outlook on it all - after all, I'm on the road to being debt free!

Slothy88

12th January 2015

Friday was a VERY busy day for me! On Thursday I realised my car was making a funny rumbling noise, so it was agreed that I would drive OH to work in his car, then use his car for the day after dropping mine in at the garage, then pick him up when he finished.


He's a firefighter so he does 12 hour shifts, a 45 minute drive away.


So, 05:45 I was in the car with him. And once I got back I did not stop! Took my car into the garage to hear that they were fully booked until Wednesday, but the bloke said it sounded like a hole in the exhaust. This means a repair cost of approximately £80 which could have been SO much worse, and he also said it won't do any harm to drive it in the mean time. PHEW! I think that's always the worry when cars start making funny noises, us mere mortals assume they're going to break down or blow up in the most inconvenient of places!


The car is now booked in for Wednesday.


After that, I went for my counselling appointment. I've been suffering with depression and anxiety for approximately a year and a half now, and have been having counselling sessions since September. I think I've had 8 in total. Before I went on Friday, I knew in my heart this would be my last one. I haven't felt this positive in so long, and finally I feel like I'm able to deal with my problems rationally. I didn't even need to say it - my counsellor told me she didn't think there was any use in more sessions, as I'd come so far and done so well managing to sort myself out in such a short amount of time. (I actually thought it had taken a long time, but I suppose she's the professional in this and knows how long other people take). She gave me a hug and said how pleased she was with my progress. From comparing the questionnaire I did when I first went, and the final questionnaire I did, it's obvious how far I've come.


I know I've still got a bit of work to do on myself, and I know there will always be 'bad days', but I also have now realised how strong I can be, and how easy it is to deal with things when you think about them rationally instead of just assuming the worst in everything.




After my counselling, I went and had a free eye test done. My eyes have seemingly started to get better, as my prescription this time round is a little weaker than last time. Bonus!


Quickly home for lunch. Put my lunch in the oven (fish fingers and chips to have in a sandwich with tartar sauce), went back half an hour later - hadn't actuallyput my lunch in the oven. Whoops! Never mind, still had time to eat before I went back out again. While I was waiting for my food to cook, I filled out my provisional LGV driving licence application and affixed my new (horrible) passport photo to it. I hate that you're not allowed to smile on those things!


My medical appointment was at our County Hall at 1.30pm. Spent about half an hour there (and £50) to be told I'm healthy, and the doctor signed my form no problemo!


Called to a friend's house for a quick cuppa and catch-up for 45 minutes, then back home and some quick tidying before leaving at 6pm to go and pick OH up from work!


Didn't get the car washed and vacuumed, but that decision was based on bad weather over the weekend and this week, so it seemed sort of counter-intuitive to clean my car when it would probably get dirty as soon as I started driving it again!






The rest of my weekend was fairly quiet, spent most of it in the house tidying. OH was on nights Saturday and Sunday, so I treat myself to a take away curry on Saturday night Took some bags of rubbish to the recycling centre yesterday, and spent last night sorting paperwork into my new Step Change file - OH bought me a plain file, that he said we're going to decorate together with pretty things and photos of us, so "Even if the contents are ugly, at least the file will be pretty and happy" he's such a sweetheart!






My positive for the day: I'm calling around various LGV driving schools to find out more information, so that when my provisional licence comes back I can get myself booked in - again, courtesy of my lovely OH, without whom I would not be able to afford the £1K+ it costs to do the course. He's helping me follow my dream of becoming a paramedic.


My second positive for the day: I have cramp. I know that doesn't seem like a good thing, but the positive is that if I work half of my shift or more, I don't have to take a sick day. So I'm going to stay until about 2.30 this afternoon, then go home for cuddles and a bath.

Puzzcat

Hi Slothy,


Lovely to see you so positive and the dmp is up and running..!! I've bumped into you over on the dmp mutual support thread where I am usually lurking..!!


Good luck with your debt free journey and I shall subscribe and follow your progress..


Love Puzz. x

Slothy88

14th January 2015


Today I had a bit of a moment of realisation: my budget set out by SC is incorrect! I realised it when I checked all of my outgoings for the month against my income (it's payday tomorrow, and I like to keep on top of these things as I don't want to end up in a similar situation as last year).


When I checked I realised after I paid all of my bills I would have absolutely nothing spare!


I then realised - I get paid 4-weekly, which means I get paid 13 times a year. To work out my budget, SC multiplied my 4-weekly wage by 13 to give a yearly salary, then divided it back down by 12 to get monthly figures. So although the figures are correct, they don't work for a 4-weekly pay schedule, as I actually get paid around £100 less every four weeks than I would if I got paid monthly.


Anyway, to combat this, I worked out how much I would pay to SC on a yearly basis based on the original payment of £218 a month:


£218 x 12 = £2616




One month I will be getting paid twice, but won't have any bills to pay with the second pay as they'll have already been covered in the first. In this month I will be able to throw a £1000 lump sum at SC. So, I subtracted that £1000 from the total amount payable.


£2616 - 1000 = £1616


I then divided this new sum by 12 to give my new monthly payments.


£1616 / 12 = £135

So, my new payment schedule would look like this:


12 x 135 = £1616 + £1000 = £2616


I'll be paying off exactly the same amount as if I had paid £218 a month. This way at least I can live!


It took a little bit of explaining to the man at SC, but he was very helpful and when he understood, he agreed that my payments needed to be reduced to better reflect what was actually going into/coming out of my account every month.


So the new budget is now being fired off to my creditors. Fingers crossed that with this lower payment, Barclaycard will freeze the interest, as it should be less than !% of the balance being paid off now!




My positive for the day: I go to my dancing class on a Wednesday, so tonight I will be tapping and jazzing and pirouetting my way to financial freedom! Dancing is such a good way for me to forget about everything else in life that is bothering me

Slothy88

15th January 2015

I had a horribly emotional episode last night. Spent most of the night in floods of tears. Part of me is so relieved I'm on the SC plan, but the shock of having to reduce my payments yesterday, thus pushing back my DFD by TWO YEARS, plus the guilt from having my OH pay for things when I can't just all came on top of me like a massive thunder cloud.


Today has been better though. I don't think I'll ever get rid of the guilt, as I'm so used to being financially independent that it's hard to realise you're now relying on someone else. But part of me also remembers that he wouldn't support me if he didn't truly want to, that some day the roles might be reversed and I would never want him to feel guilty for being supported by me, and also that I moved to be with him, so there was always going to be a bit of help needed.


Today was payday. I have paid all the money into my bills account, paid my half of my mortgage for February along with the council tax and set up my dd for my car tax which is due at the end of the month. I then did some quick number crunching to make doubly sure I'd accounted for everything, and yep - I'll have £80 leftover for me That's £30 for my dancing classes, and then £50 which will go into my savings account for either a disaster or a treat. I already have £30 in my savings account which is money that my OH lent me temporarily, but then told me he didn't want it back. It would feel wrong spending it, so it's in the savings.


My car still isn't fixed It's going back into the garage tomorrow as they've ordered the part they need, and that'll arrive tomorrow. OH was going to pay for the repairs, but because I have reduced my SC payment, they refunded me the excess on the payment I had already made to keep it consistent. So I have £80 coming back my way in the next ten days. Because of that, assuming the repair is less than £100, I can afford to pay for it myself! :T :T :T


I have £15 sitting in my purse from something I sold on eBay, so I'm going to splash out on something a little extravagant that will hopefully help with my future money saving: a collage photo frame. Yup.


It's a frame that holds 8 photos. I'm going to put pretty decorated paper inside each of the photo spaces, and label them with the days of the week. Using white-board markers, myself and OH are going to use it as a meal planner for the week, because at the minute we're not so great at planning meals and always end up 'popping to the shop' to buy this and that. This way - hopefully - one weekly shop will be all we need. The eighth photo space is going to be for any perishable food, and the dates that they go off. This is so that we waste less than we have been.


I'm determined for us to be fervent money savers!

SailorSam

Slothy88 wrote: »

The title quote i
So the house went on the market November 2013. March 2013 it sold, and I moved out ready for the new people moving in.

Anyone selling a house couldn't ask for anything better than that.

Slothy88

Thanks for pointing out my mistake! I shall change that right now!

MeandO

Hi Slothy

Thanks for posting on my diary, have just read yours through and your positivity is really shining through, have subscribed to try and borrow a little of your positive vibes when mine are hiding themselves under the bed

Love the idea of the meal planner frame btw.

MeandO
X

Olivia-Louise_2

Subscribed to follow along

Slothy88

Thanks you lovely bunch


I realised I didn't post my positive for the day yesterday so here goes:


My positive for the day: Sorting out my wages on the day I got paid, and knowing exactly how much I have left over made me feel so much better about it all. This is going to be so much easier than sticking my card in a machine and hoping it doesn't get declined, as has been the case recently.


My mantra for the day: If the money isn't there, I have no choice but to not spend it.