Adventures Of The Black Dog

Patman_Post

Hello to all you MSEers.

I thought it was about time that I finally bit the bullet and venture forth into MSE DiaryLand. I have been hiding in the shadows for some time (since July 2012, according to my statistics page!), occasionally jumping in with rambling posts when I can.

In truth – I have been trying to become debt free for a lot longer than 2012, but I was not aware of this lovely site before then. My desire to become debt free started in April 2008, when I decided to tot up all of the debts on my Credit Cards & loans and came to a total figure of £53,351 *GULP*

As I said, I wasn't aware of this site, or all the options open to me at the time – So I guess you can say that I began a self-managed DMP. Everything has been going to plan, and I am still ahead of schedule. However, things have hit a bit of a plateau recently; and in truth I have actually added to my debt this year. This scares me a bit, as I try to remember back to how determined I was when I started. So, to try and remove all of the debt once and for all – I thought that it was high time I started this diary to keep me on the straight & narrow.

So how much debt do I have today? Well, I have one loan & one credit card that I count as debt. I do have 3 other CC but I use these for my monthly spends and repay the whole balance each month. I do this to get the cash-back rewards for using the cards. Last year, I earned £85 in cash-back so it is justifiable really. I never thought that the credit card companies would be paying me that amount of money each year!

So that leaves the loan (current balance - £8,244) and CC (current balance - £3,950). The CC is on 0% until January 2016, and the loan has an interest rate of 4%. I do have quite a large amount of savings, but I can’t access the bulk of this for a few years, as I will lose a large amount through charges and tax repayments. They are also linked to shares, so the value can fluctuate up & down. As of today, the value of all of my savings is a total of £12,375. So in effect – I am debt free as I type! But – like I said, I cannot access a lot of these savings for a few years and the value could go down so I don’t feel like I am debt free just yet.

So that’s the start of the diary. I am going to try to post quite regularly (every day??), just so I can look back and hopefully stay inspired to beat the debt, and then turn all of my attention to the mortgage.

Patman_Post

Okay, that’s the introduction done.

So now I thought I would explain the diary title. Well the fact of the matter is that many years ago I was diagnosed with Bi-Polar disorder. When this was first diagnosed I was at the lowest ebb in my life. I was a complete mess, and everything was falling to pieces around me. Hopefully I will run through some of that in more detail later in the diary.

However, the Black Dog referred to in the title is the crippling depression that I cycle through in my life. I also suffer from the maniacal side too and these episodes are equally harmful – but it is the Black Dog that I find hardest to control.

When I was first diagnosed, I spent nearly a year building up my coping techniques and support structure. I also tried a number of different medicines and some worked better than others; but none of them were a scratch on the support I received. My doctor was great, my friends were brilliant and my family were fantastic. For better or worse, I decided that I didn't need the medication, and after 7 years off them I don’t think I have missed them.

Don’t get me wrong - it is still a struggle some days, but I am now able to spot trigger points and deal with them in ways that I know will not hurt me or those around me. It’s not (and never will be) 100% successful – but I always know there are alternatives.

And so this diary, well this is a new coping technique I am trying. I have been in the trough of a depression lately, and I think it is building into one of the nastier attacks. I am becoming more withdrawn from society. I am flying off the handle much more easily. I am listless a lot of the time and my insomnia is sneaking back into my life. What is the trigger? Well a lot of it is my current work situation. My workload has increased considerably recently, and it feels like I am trying to juggle too many balls in order to try to keep too many people happy. What I need to do is close some of the tasks, and then I will do a better job on the remaining tasks.

There you go see – you guys are already helping. I have only had a diary for a short time and I already have something to focus on. I know exactly which task I need to close, too. As from Monday that will be the one task that I concentrate on. If I am on it 100% - then I think I can get it done by Wednesday.

I will finish now as I do tend to ramble on – so I hope to drop in with more updates tomorrow. Until then here are the things that I would like to record over time so that I can refer back and see how things change.

Current Debt - £12,194
Current Savings - £12,375 (£4,785 instant access)
Mood (0 – 10) - 3
DFW action for the day – worked overtime today (£90 extra in March pay packet)

TTFN PPx

HappyNow

Hello, I just wanted to welcome you to diary land. I was attracted to your diary because I recognise your username from a couple of other threads I have stumbled across in the past. Your contributions to those threads were really thorough and helpful and uplifting, and must have made a world of difference to those posters who were going through such a rough time.

I am very lucky in that I'm not prone to depression and my natural state seems to be up-beat and cheerful (even though my debt figures suggest that shouldn't really be the case!!!) so I can't offer any advice or suggestions. But I thought it might help to let you know that your contributions are recognised and valued.

Good luck and I have subscribed so will pop back to cheer you on

Patman_Post

HappyNow wrote: »

Hello, I just wanted to welcome you to diary land. I was attracted to your diary because I recognise your username from a couple of other threads I have stumbled across in the past. Your contributions to those threads were really thorough and helpful and uplifting, and must have made a world of difference to those posters who were going through such a rough time.

I am very lucky in that I'm not prone to depression and my natural state seems to be up-beat and cheerful (even though my debt figures suggest that shouldn't really be the case!!!) so I can't offer any advice or suggestions. But I thought it might help to let you know that your contributions are recognised and valued.

Good luck and I have subscribed so will pop back to cheer you on

Thank you so much for your support HappyNow :A. I did smile at the thought of 'thorough' posts - I do tend to ramble on.

I am so glad that you are Happy in name and in nature. Don't worry too much about the advice or suggestions, just the support you have shown is encouraging enough, thank you.

Welcome aboard - I hope the ride doesn't get too bumpy.

Patman_Post

Hello all

Once again I am up too early, and my thoughts are turning to what DFW things can I do to get rid of the debt today?

Well Sundays are not usually a good day for DFW tasks. The banks are shut, and their internet banking doesn't update until tomorrow morning. So anything I do will need to be here at home.

So one thing I can do is bag up the change in my change pot. I did count it recently and this will be over £100. I try to save any coins throughout the years and use this for emergency cash when I need it in a hurry. The trouble is that the ‘emergencies’ tend to be when I fancy a take-out! So banking this cash will add to my savings & earning interest rather than sitting in my pot, tempting me to ring up the local Chinese restaurant for duck pancakes!

I normally only bank it if it makes up a whole cash bag as I hate it when the bank cashier has to sit there counting out all the pennies. If it is in a cash bag – they can just weigh it and everything is quite quick. So that is what I am going to do today. Not very exciting, but it all goes towards the ultimate goal.

Looking at the week ahead, I have 3 standing orders sending money to different savings accounts. This will increase my total savings by £85. I will also get interest added to one of the accounts – this will be pennies, but I would much rather have pennies going in than pennies coming out.

I am also going away with work on Wednesday night, which is all paid for by expenses. This is what has helped me to get so much cash back from my credit cards. I have to pay for the expenses on my credit card and then claim the money back. So when you are paying for hotels & travel, this can add up to a lot of cash back over the year. As I said before - this was £85 last year, so I am much happier knowing that is in my pocket.

OK – I am going to get ready for the day now and I hope to come back later to post an update.

TTFN PP x

Patman_Post

Hello DiaryLand,

I hope you are all well and had a good DFW Sunday.

Mine has been very uneventful with very little happening debt-wise. I didn't manage to bag my change pot, for the very simple reason that I didn't have any money bags. Will pop along to a bank and pick some up tomorrow. So that can be tomorrow’s fun time.

So the only thing I can really say was DFW related was our Sunday Roast. Over Christmas we bought a huge joint of pork. It was reduced by over half price as we bought it about 20 minutes before the store shut on Christmas Eve. So anyway, we defrosted that overnight, and had it slow roasting all day a la Jamie Oliver. So we had 5 people to feed tonight, which we managed easily and with enough left over to feed 4 tomorrow (I am thinking oriental pork fried rice) and 4 more on Tuesday (thinking Nachos with barbecue pulled pork). So 13 meals for £4.80, that has got to be good value.

I was trying to think of future DFW tasks to keep me motoring on the DFW Express, and I remembered that I boxed all of my vinyl LPs a while back with a view to selling them. Originally, I thought I would do this individually on the Bay of E – but I cannot bring myself to do this now as I have had some unpleasant experiences on the Bay of E. So I looked up record stores in the area, and there is an independent shop in the next town on from ours. Apparently vinyl is making a bit of a revival, and the prices are creeping up. I know that I have a few collectibles in my collection, as I used to work right next to HMV, and used to spend lots of my income on new releases every Monday (I was young & carefree at some stage in my life). I used to play the album once to record it on to tape and packed the album away to gather dust. Well they are still gathering dust and mostly replaced by mp3 equivalents. So I think it is high time that these were passed on to somebody who will appreciate them, and hopefully I can get back some of the money I spent. That is next weekend’s task if I don’t end up doing more overtime.

Right – I am going to wash the roasting dishes, so TTFN PP x

Current Debt - £12,194
Current Savings - £12,375 (£4,785 instant access)
Mood (0 – 10) - 5
DFW action for the day – Making 3 lovely meals for £4.80

Patman_Post

Hi all,

Hope you all had a decent Monday. Mine was meh!

Didn't get a chance to concentrate on the main task that is troubling me. Many more dilemmas jumped to the top of the queue. (It’s always like that at my workplace *sigh*).

Managed to pick up some cash bags for my change – so going to count that shortly.

Tea was stir fry pork egg-fried rice and delicious. Will need to buy nachos for tomorrow.

All my savings transferred fine and figures updated below. Did remember that it’s my nephews birthdays next month – so will need to sort out cards & prezzies. Good thing I took that overtime on Saturday!

TTFN PP x


Current Debt - £12,192
Current Savings - £12,458 (£4,872 instant access)
Mood (0 – 10) - 4
DFW action for the day – claimed overtime payment, counted change pot - £102 for the bank tomorrow lunchtime

HappyNow

Morning PP, hope you are well today.

Wow, £102 in your change pot, it must be massive! I have an old pub-sized whiskey bottle where I store all ours but it never builds up enough to get to the bank. I tend to use it towards the month-end to buy bits and bobs at the supermarket - my record so far is £4.34 worth of shopping at the self-service checkout, all paid for in copper. It takes ages to feed it all in and makes a bit of a racket as it lands - the staff must think I've fallen on really hard times! (Which I have, of course!).

Tell me not to be nosey if you like, I won't be offended, but I was just wondering about the 'mood monitor' entries at the end of your posts. In an earlier post you mentioned that you sometimes suffer with 'maniacal' side of BP, so I just wondered whether you are aiming for around 5 in your moods (ie middle of the road) or whether the higher number, the better you're feeling?


Have a good day x

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary.
Keep posting!