Small Debts, Small Income, Big Plans

cavegrrl

New to this and a debt free diary seemed like a good thing to do!

Where to start? My debt is not so large (just managed to get it to under £2k), and it is divided between two 0% credit cards, I have a third empty credit card that I use for switching the load when the 0% offers end. It is still a £75 a month burden for the next 2 years on an already tight budget though.

My income is small and variable - I mostly work from home part-time. I struggle with health issues but also where I currently live, work is limited and in demand, so I haven't had much luck finding anything suitable. I've started driving lessons, which is an extra expense, but necessary to increase chances of finding better work - it was a catch 22 for a long time and relieved I have finally managed to factor in the cost of lessons with current situation.
I rent my house from my mum for a lowlow rent - house is not in the best state, so was a good temporary solution whilst I got back on my feet and my mum saved up the funds to do it up to make it more rentable/saleable. Partner is not officially living with me yet, although stays here so much we share a lot of grocery shopping now which makes life a little easier and he does help in other ways. Mum wants to sell the house soon, which is when we will officially be moving in together, but that is going to be a giant change in the budget for both of us (he currently lives with his dad rent-free). I am lucky that Mum is quite laid back about it and happy to wait until I get a job (hopefully soon...).

So I feel a bit in limbo at the moment - debts are not unmanageable, but major financial changes are about to happen that are certainly not manageable on current income. Have been searching for jobs and doing what I can but have found I am limited by area (live in smallish town at present - will be moving to the city when we move - job needs to come before moving, so driving will make job hunting in that area muchmuch easier).

Most days I feel I am doing OK, but then there are days like today - when I wake up feeling ill, having to cancel my driving lesson and feeling incredibly guilty for letting someone else down, feeling I let myself down, and then having ebayer contact me about old phone I sold for £50 that I thought was unlocked but apparently isn't.. I think I must have been mistaken and I felt so guilty, I just refunded the whole amount anyway. It has been on my 'to sell' list for a while and I knew roughly how much I would get for it, so a bit gutted about that, although it's my own fault. And then I spent £10 on online bingo, I don't even know why - I read a silly advertisement last week and it got to me and it seemed like a good idea but was just a waste!!

Excuse the rambling misery - I am usually brighter than this!

So future changes I need to prepare for:

- Moving (increase in rent, increase in council tax - even after splitting it half with partner)
- Driving (purchasing car, insurance, tax, breakdown cover, petrol, servicing, parking etc.) [plan to get 1.0 cheap car to keep cost & insurance low to start off with]
- Family changes (marriage, kids, etc. the things we want to do that probably won't be that far off in the future now) [happy to do all on a budget, but still need to be sensible and get some sort of savings of my own]

Does this miss the point of a debt-free diary? I am terrible at savings so I worry it is all going to be future debt (already started thinking about borrowing money for car).

Ways I have saved money thus far:

- Finally sorting out the best 0% card system for my debts
- Giving up the tv license (we didn't watch live tv anyway)
- Switched off my giffgaff goodybag when I realised I wasn't using enough to make it worth it (I now get an extra month out of my credit)
- lots more (have been frugal for years now but having a partner has let it slip a little)

Plans for saving/making money:

- Less costly dates with partner - we don't need them and I always try to contribute something otherwise I feel guilty, but I still end up feeling guilty because I can never afford half and can barely afford what I do contribute. We've already talked about one monthly date-where-we-spend-money, and alternating who pays each month so that we are each only spending once every 2 months (and dates can be suited to the persons budget).

- Clear out & sell - lots ready to be listed on ebay, also started keeping carboot-worthy stuff rather than donating it, as hopefully soon I will be able to do a carboot!
I'm going to look into doing a challenge for some motivation, because recently I have been lacking and the recent ebay incident has put me off a little.

- Start a spending diary - I think I'm frugal most of the time, but I know I'm also in denial sometimes, so I'm going to track my spending and make myself accountable. Hopefully this will change how I feel when shopping.

- Make a sealed pot & start the challenge!


One thing I always struggle with is partner earns a lot more than me, so I struggle when it comes to cutting back some things because he doesn't really need to. I do accept gifts and dates and help from him but I don't like to do it too much when I can't do it in return at the moment. I feel guilty for not spending spare money on him or us, which is why I never manage to save (always plan to start savings and then pay off extra chunks of debt when it reaches a certain level). I guess this is an issue of mine I need to address.. :think:

cavegrrl

List of action for tomorrow :

1) List 1 thing on ebay
2) List 1 thing on gumtree/facebook
3) Switch barclaycard debt to 0%

mumblingtaff

Just a quickie to say good luck!
I'm in a similar position with partner that earns a lot more so I know exactly what you mean!

belleandthebudget

I have a friend whose partner earns substantially more than her and they have the best system I've heard of before. Everything, other than the mortgage which they split 50/50, is done in a proportional percentage to their incomes. So for example, he pays 70% and she pays 30% of things but it's the same percentage in relation to their own incomes. Seems to work well for them when it comes to bills, groceries, date nights, holidays, etc.

Best of luck paying off the debt!

cavegrrl

Thanks mumblingtaff! It is a tricky situation.

Oh, I've never heard of that system before and it sounds like the perfect solution, so thank you for mentioning it belleandthebudget!

cavegrrl

Today has been much much better than yesterday!

1) The ebayer said the full refund was unnecessary and would like to discuss a solution, so I may get the phone or some money back, so it won't be a complete loss on my part (I still want them to keep some as it was my fault).

2) I found a car that may be perfect for me - £395 and 1.0, so cheap on the insurance (fingers crossed).

3) I just felt better and lots of people were nice to me today, which always helps.

Things I have done:

1) Completed paid survey (missed how much but should be around £1)
2) Transferred credit card balance to 0% as current offer runs out next week
3) Replied to ebayer re: phone
4) Started vision board to give self focus & motivation

Still to do:

1) List shoes on ebay (I have at least picked out something to list!)
2) List something on Gumtree/Facebook

Still need to increase the productivity a bit, but I'm feeling positive and motivated so that's a good start.

cavegrrl

The week has completely flipped and I'm feeling incredibly lucky as a family friend has offered their old car to me! It needs some welding done, but other than that it is a much better car than I was going to get and I will be slightly better off after the welding/tax/insurance than I thought I would be.

I managed to get one thing listed on ebay, but not much else done - I think I'll set myself weekly tasks instead of daily until I get into the swing of things and just increase it.

I also did a few Onepoll surveys today - I'm up to £29.10 .. hopefully I will reach the £40 withdrawal target when I need the money the most.

Next week's tasks:

1) Create a list of all the food in the freezer
2) Base food menu on what we have, to reduce the cost of the food shopping
3) List at least 3 things on ebay
4) List at least 2 things on facebook/gumtree
5) Sort out some boxes for car boot stock

rockm87

Hi and welcome!

try to concentrate on one thing at a time, give yourself a break!

if you try to do too much, you will spread yourself to thin and end up wanting to retreat into your bed so no one can find you!!

keep going you are doing well so far.

rockm87

Hi Cavegrrl how are things going? any more progress?

cavegrrl

Hi rock, thanks for the welcome!

I probably was aiming a bit too high as I haven't reached all the targets I set myself, but I've still made progress.

I found a car insurance quote for £241, which is the lowest I've had yet. I also remembered quidco and there's a chance I will get £70 cashback on that, so that was good news! I've booked and paid for my theory test and put aside the money for my main test, so that is no longer a worry. I have the deposit for the insurance and I will pay that and the tax monthly, as it fits in better with my budgeting for now. In future, I may be better at planning and pay it annually to save a little extra.

I tidied up the freezer and wrote a list of everything in there - this resulted in one very cheap week of food shopping!

I made the effort to keep an eye out for any abandoned coins on the road and was pleased to find a penny (every little helps!), until my partner declared he found £5 in a bin earlier that day.. I have no idea how he does it but this has happened before - I found a 20p and he declared he'd found £10 in a bush the day before..

We are switching our food shopping from the local Sainsburys to Tesco.com - I find it easier to stick to a budget by seeing the running total and Tesco can tend to be a little cheaper here and there, even with the delivery cost. Bf still likes to pop to Sainsburys sometimes, so we can keep an eye out for offers (and short dated reductions!) there too.

I received an email from Plusnet today stating that they are putting up their line rental. It means I can break contract if I give them 14 days notice in the next 30 days but I'm not sure where I would move to. I need to look into that further to see if there are any cheaper providers with good service. Do I even need a home phone? I don't get very good mobile signal at home, but I can live with that.

Other things I have done:
1) I created a sealed box for coins
2) I've started to use cash instead of my debit card
3) I've been keeping a spending diary

I never got a reply from the sold phone on ebay, but I didn't really expect to get anything back from that so that's fine - just a lesson learnt.

I reduced my payments on my credit cards to minimum for now to make things a little easier - they are on 0% so it won't be costing me until it comes to transferring the balance again (neither of which are due until next year now though).
I've started putting money aside for the rent and deposit on a flat, which will be the next big expense. Once I have passed my driving test, hopefully the job (in the area we are moving to) will follow and moving will be easy, but I am trying to prepare as best I can incase it is not so straight forward.

cavegrrl

Oh and my stepdad has started to cut down the hedge that was blocking half the drive so I can park on the driveway - to be honest, I don't know if it lowered the insurance by that much but it was a nice surprise