Flo's Debt Free Diary

Florence_J

OK, time to post about the spending that occurred in October.

Not a single penny was spent on a credit card!!!! So yays on that front.

But the bad news is because I was in a weird hybrid state where I had pay from the temporary job, had started the new job, and my OH wasn't going to charge me for my half of the rent as a result of a temporarily reduced income, it did mean I had money to play with. Money that should have gone on a debt. Or the rent!

Anyway, no use dwelling on the past.

Here was October's spending

HOLIDAY = £80.85 (Trip to Milton Keynes)
TRAVEL = £108.90
WEDDING = £32.30
NON ESSENTIAL FOOD = £164.33 (but there are reasons for this, I was staying with my in laws and couldn't take a home made lunch to work so I had to buy lunch. Every working day. For three weeks!)
WORK EXPENSE = £12.14 (I have to buy my own milk, and I also stocked up on anti bacterial hand gel, hand cream, a pen pot etc for my desk)
HOBBIES = £24.60 (buying things like magazines, books, records etc)
XMAS EXPENSE = £4.84
TOILETRIES = £3.73 (I am clean I promise, I just tend to stockpile things)
POSTAGE AND PACKAGING = £37.72 (A lot of birthdays and I had run out of stamps)
BAD TIMES = £1.50 (Lottery ticket that my in laws gave me a quid towards, didn't win )
GIFT = £2
STATIONARY = £8.97
HEALTH = £2.98
HOMEWARE = £0.99
CLOTHING MAINTENANCE = £6
SOCIAL = £19.77

TOTAL SPENDS = £511.62 :eek:

What worries me about this spending is it's easy to see how the little things add up. Also It didn't feel like I was buying myself a lot of treats, but somehow I spent over £500 on things in one month!!!!

What is also scary is I'm about to set myself the goal of really tackling my debts, and I will have £50 disposable income each month. Which is less than a tenth of what I spent last month. So how am I going to do it?

£50 divided by 16 categories = £3.125p to spend on each one.

Can it be done?

I will pretty much have to give up my social life, though my anxiety has mostly done that already.

I'm not sad or depressed, I'm more concerned, I will have to be more militant about this.

Florence_J

Have been on a high for the last two days. I feel good. I feel like I can achieve anything.

The Good News is my Aqua CC have written to me to tell me they are increasing my overdraft limit from £1250 to £2250.

Obviously I won't touch this because I haven't touched it all year.

The Bad News is Trump is President. Need I say more?

crazy_cat_lady

Yeah, this whole Trump thing has me feeling more than a bit nervous...

Florence_J

crazy_cat_lady wrote: »

Yeah, this whole Trump thing has me feeling more than a bit nervous...

I know

I did read something on the internet recently-an opinion piece-which is that Trump is going to be miserable as President. He is an egotist, all about applause and respect. He is not a man for putting the good of people before any other decision, he is not a man who likes making tough decisions and being hounded and demanded upon.

He is not going to be able to fulfil any of his promises, he will have a team that do not respect him and will be depressed to work for him, he will not have the respect of the other politicians.

In short he is going to hate every minute of it. And he will most likely (i hope) go down as the worst president in history and although we will have to put up with him for an almost guaranteed four years-there's a strong chance it will just be that.

I hope all of this comes true.

Florence_J

Ok guys, there is something I have to admit to and face up to.

Unless something amazing happens, there is an almost 100% chance that I will begin 2017 (at least in terms of January 1st date rather than when the cc payments clear) in more debt then I began 2016 with.

I'll admit this somehow hadn't occurred to me, despite all the money I charged to the card during the summer of the great unemployment.

So it is a little bit gutting, that all my hard work this year hasn't resulted in anything substantial, or anything positive.

Oh well.

This has been a big wake up call. Because I'll admit I bought things I didn't need just because I wanted them. I'll admit I am buying things now that I could do without. I have lost my way slightly.

So scores on the door.

My current CC and Overdraft debt stands at:

£5817.33 :eek:

At the start of 2016 I had debt of £5150.

The good news is I will not let this happen again. If I put something on the CC do I really want to be paying interest on it for months and maybe even years on end?

No.

Based on my current rate of debt repayment I will be clear of my debt in 3.75 years.

But this doesn't take into account the epic debt repayment plan I have in place.

So hopefully it will be a lot less than 3.75.

And maybe, just maybe, if my friends could stop getting married I might be able to do it much sooner. :rotfl:

I am determined to be debt free before my 30th Birthday. I have slightly over 2 years to do so.

It will take all my power, all my resources and yes all my money.

I will succeed one way or another.

800th Post!! :T

Florence_J

Hi everybody.

Lovely chilled weekend. Went for a 5k jog with my OH and keeping in mind I haven't (to my shame) done any serious running since my 10K in September I am astounded to report that it was a new 2016 record time!!!!

I know I shouldn't do my own applause but :T:T:T:T

Mostly caught up on the wash loads. There is technically one left but it was mostly stuff collated over the weekend-such as running gear-so isn't too pressing. The long overdue winter woolen items wash has been completed so all my Christmas jumpers are waiting to be aired. I am one of those people who starts wearing them on December 1st.

I feel I am allowed to love Christmas in my childlike quantities because to be fair I have had a lot of awful Christmas's where my Mum would be drunk, or in rehab, or we would have no money for Presents, so I feel that I know Christmas can be a terrible, stressful time for people and it is horribly overblown and there is so much pressure to give people the must have gift, but I don't care about material things. I care about the fact I spend time with my family. And I prefer giving presents to receiving (but receiving is very nice) and for me it really does seem like a magical time of year. I love it.

I am hoping for money for Christmas. So I can banish at least one credit card to the fiery pits of hell where it belongs.

Used up a lot of sorry looking vegetables by turning them into rosti's so feel very good at not being wasteful, did the same with the tired apples by making a crumble.

I'll admit I have some terrible hoarder qualities when it comes to food. I have always been a hoarder-my dad is to the point of it being a 'high functioning' mental health condition (by which I mean he isn't one of those people who has to climb over boxes and newspapers to live in his house-but that he never willingly throws anything away, will always accept anything that's offered to him, goes crazy when us kids tried to clear out stuff and has mentioned a trauma involving something of his that I thinks it all stems from)

I am generally a sentimental hoarder, so anything like a letter, or a memento, or photographs I can't bare to get rid of but am pretty ok with everything else.

Food is another kettle of fish though.

I don't want to go down the 'Flo's Childhood Trauma #110' route but in my teenage years when my dads business went bankrupt and we lived on benefits and my mum was AWOL, we had nothing. Our cupboards would contain cat food (the cats came before the bankruptcy-I know 'some' people think having pets whilst on benefits is a disgrace but they were my cats and I blooming love them and would have starved myself to let them eat) , the fridge would have milk, we would have bread, but very little else apart from freezer stuff. For a family of 5 (again the multiple children came before the bankruptcy)

Our dinners would usually contain three types of potatoes to fill us up.

I remember once when I was 16 I made my boyfriend a sandwich when he was at our house and my dad and older brother later told me off for giving our precious food away-seriously it was that bad.

So for me, because I am in debt, because I have a small amount of money, because my OH has to have a reduced food bill and limited options because of me, if I can at least keep the cupboards full and give him a good meal, then I feel like I am doing ok, that I am being a good girlfriend, that I haven't failed. That I'm surviving.

So it has got a little out of hand-in that I buy huge supplies of things we don't actually use too frequently, that the cupboards and freezer have to be full to bursting for me to think that we have 'enough'.

I stockpile 'emergency' food as if preparing for the end of the world-tinned fruit and vegetables, tinned meals, pasta, passata, grains and even 'real emergency' food like milk powder so that if we run out of regular food we can still find something to live on.

So doing the food shop is my favourite thing, and that's why I have total control of it. This is going to sound really sad but just after we've done the food shop and me and my OH are in the living room watching something I will say 'I'm just going to look at the cupboards' and then will open them, check they are still crammed, and feel comforted.

I guess I have actually become my Father. He didn't believe in something as conservative as a 'Best Before Date' and if you tried to throw out anything that had expired in the fridge 6 weeks ago he would get mad.

I guess I have a lot more anxiety problems than I first realised.

reality_check

Hey Flo! Just catching up on your diary, I always like reading your updates, you write so well and reads just like you're having a conversation..that might sound a bit odd, but I know what I mean!

About the debts and how they have (slightly) increased, just think what they could have been had you not been on the ball, I am sure they would have been much worse!! I don't think it will take you until you're 30 to get rid of it but I think it is a good target to have as we all know how easy it is for things to crop up out the blue!!

Hope the new job is still going well and it's good to read you're sounding happier. I am going to ignore the Christmas comments and pretend that Christmas isn't just around the corner...as I currently have a budget of £0!! xxx

Florence_J

reality_check wrote: »

Hey Flo! Just catching up on your diary, I always like reading your updates, you write so well and reads just like you're having a conversation..that might sound a bit odd, but I know what I mean!

About the debts and how they have (slightly) increased, just think what they could have been had you not been on the ball, I am sure they would have been much worse!! I don't think it will take you until you're 30 to get rid of it but I think it is a good target to have as we all know how easy it is for things to crop up out the blue!!

Hope the new job is still going well and it's good to read you're sounding happier. I am going to ignore the Christmas comments and pretend that Christmas isn't just around the corner...as I currently have a budget of £0!! xxx

Thank you for your lovely, lovely words

Florence_J

Hi everybody,

Sorry for not being around, had some very, very busy days. But it is the weekend, it is December and I am here.

When I logged on today I was alerted that I had a private message from MSE to say that this is my one year anniversary. I guess they took it from my first post on another diary as this diary started on the 6th of December.

So much has happened in the last year.

Last year I had to withdraw all my money from the bank account for the upcoming purchases, then put the money in marked envelopes, then give them to my boyfriend to keep 'safe' as I couldn't be trusted to not spend the money.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this on here but recently I was out with my boyfriend and his work colleagues. One of his work colleagues had come into a bit of a financial pickle, and I sent my boyfriend a link to the page on here about credit cards and the top tips to pass on to his colleague.

Me and the colleague were talking about that as he was saying thank you to me, and then my boyfriend started saying things like 'Oh Flo is great with money tips, she spends all her time learning about money and saving it and studying economics...'

And I was so happy.

Because my boyfriend was talking about me and my handling of money....with pride!

He never would have done that this time last year.

So yes an awful lot has changed for the better. I am so grateful to have finally knocked some sense into me and I no longer panic about money, have sleepless nights over it, have to ask my OH for money...and then 2 days later ask for more money. I am capable.

My OH trusts me. I did a lot to shake his trust in me, but it has been regained.

There is nothing I wanted more.

Florence_J

So I have a lot of other news to tell you.

I decided to apply for a Tesco 0% Balance Transfer card (obviously through TCB first) and was originally going to do it for my Mr Barclaycard, as that is the 0% until March, but then when I was approved and then given a much higher balance than I was expecting, I decided to transfer the balance of my big bad cc as I could just about clear it during the 24 months of the 0% deal if I was to base it on still paying the 140 odd quid each month that is the current MINIMUM payment on it.

So all in all I think I made the right decision, and in February I will apply for another 0% balance transfer card for Mr Barclay card. That way the applications-even if successful-will have been spread out so hopefully It won't impact too much on my Credit score.

Here's the thing to prove how far I've come. Maybe it was last year, maybe it was earlier this year, I can't remember, but I have actually previously applied for a Tesco BT CC and I was rejected last time.

So I'm just going to do a little victory dance here. :dance:

Also with the exception of my OH's parents and sisters presents, and the charity donation I am going to make with my Brothers xmas pressie money as he is in Vietnam teaching English and he says he doesn't want anything, all my Christmas present shopping is complete.

This is the first year I have been able to spend a decent amount on my OH. I would get him everything and anything if I could, but I think I have really outdone myself this year with his presents.

And as of today the amount of Christmas expenses put on the credit card still remains steady at 0

Also I got 80 quids worth of presents for 4.31 using all the amazon vouchers I had been saving from things like shopprize/TCB/Pinecone/Shop and Scan etc so if you are on the fence about these 'Money making scams' as my ignorant brothers would call them, then you are missing out.

This year I decided I wanted to get back to the true meaning of Christmas and find joy and festive cheer in different things. So I have done some Christmas donation box wrapping at work, and today I spent 2 hours volunteering at a big Tescos in Cardiff at a food drive for Cardiff Food Banks. I had such a lovely time, and I believe in the cause so so much.

Basically for the last few years my OH and I have had our own sort of food bank in the form of his parents, which I don't think we could have survived without. I was f=very fortunate to have that as an option, so many people don't. I want to do whatever I can to help people in that situation because I wasn't very far from needing those services myself.

During my teenage years we lived on benefits-as I have mentioned before-and literally each month from age 14 to 19 pretty much I lived with the fear that this would be our last month in the house before we lost it. We were on the breadline. It was an unbelievably stressful time.

My Dad works for a homeless charity in my home town and I think it helped give him a sense of perspective, as he can see that even though our situation was pretty dark, dire and desperate, in the end we survived. We made it. We kept the house, we weren't made homeless. We were the lucky ones. And I will never forget that no matter what happens to me in the future-either for better or worse.

I go out of my way to not let people feel sorry for me. My life may have been harder then some people's lives, but you know what it's also been a hell of a lot easier than others as well.

I think I've got a bit off topic-sorry!

I am definitely less materialistic now, in fact I haven't even sent my Dad and Stepmum as suggestions list for Christmas, because I have everything I need and I can honestly say that at this moment in time I don't want for anything.

I have much better health than I did a year ago as well. Last year I was in terrible stress induced gastrointestinal discomfort. Now I can't remember the last time I had anything untoward in that department.

Also I think I have finally found the anti depressant for me. Although I still get into a bit of a panic about things, which will probably never go away, my recovery time is so much lower.

Before if I got into a panic I could be in a state for the whole day-at least!

Now I am pretty much back to normal within half and hour. Sometimes as little as five minutes.

I face things if I make a mistake-before I would run away.

I put myself out there now. I still find it really difficult talking to people I don't know/don't trust and can freak out if a stranger so much as asks me directions, but I think I will get there eventually.

If you are reading my diary for the 1st or the 100th time then you will have seen there are ups and downs, but what I also hope you see is that there is progress. Things are moving forward, I'm on the up, there may be a few more dips, but hopefully they'll just be dips and nothing more than that.

Take care all, it's good to be back on here.