living the 'high' life: £100 per week

fieldend

@reality_check: Thanks. I don't know if I have a Lidl close by... I don't have a car and to be honest I don't have time for grocery shopping, other than top ups when I forget something... so I do one weekly shopping at ASDA and they deliver everything to my door.


PS. I have to admit that I read your diary but choose not to respond... I hope you don't mind me saying that, but I don't think you've had your LBM yet... the £800 mirror is definitely not in the 'need' category and the amount is so high, adding to your already existing debt. I'm not trying to be judgemental or anything, but please think hard about these expenses... they all add up. That's how I got to such high level of debt... a coffee table that I fancied, theatre tickets for £150, holidays that I couldn't afford and paid using CCs.. kept treating myself to these and went deeper and deeper in debt. Please don't take it the wrong way, I'm just trying to help. I would totally return that mirror if I were you.

reality_check

Yeah bit of a hassle if you don't have a car or one close by!

You're right, I don't think I have truley had it, but the old me just balance transfers onto new 0% deals, so at least I am now focused on actually paying them down.

The mirror is a bit of a pricey purchase, and it would be a month of debt repayments/money for emergencies, but I've decided to keep it and only have myself to blame when I regret it!

Golightly72

Good luck fieldend, I've subscribed! Your budget looks good, hopefully you will have that debt gone in no time.

The only thing I thought that maybe you haven't allowed for is an emergency fund, so important if you don't want to fall back on credit? You've already said you worry about what if something happens, it does make more sense to have an emergency fund for emergencies rather than a credit card.

There seems to be £50 a month spare from your £450 money if you take £100 a week, maybe try putting that away somewhere in a 'not to be touched unless an emergency' savings account?

fieldend

Golightly72 wrote: »

Good luck fieldend, I've subscribed! Your budget looks good, hopefully you will have that debt gone in no time.

The only thing I thought that maybe you haven't allowed for is an emergency fund, so important if you don't want to fall back on credit? You've already said you worry about what if something happens, it does make more sense to have an emergency fund for emergencies rather than a credit card.

There seems to be £50 a month spare from your £450 money if you take £100 a week, maybe try putting that away somewhere in a 'not to be touched unless an emergency' savings account?

Thank you! I do have some limited savings, less than £300 as of right now, and will be contributing monthly (it's included the £1900). I hope I don't have to use it at all though, as it's in a savings account I'm not supposed to touch until August, if I want my full 6% interest on it

The £50 is not really £50 spare. There are 52 weeks in a year but I'm paid monthly. So 100*52/12 is £433... and the spare is the difference between £433 and £450. I will see how I'm getting on, I'm not a robot, I might go under or slightly over, but I think £100 is a good target. If I will consistently underspend, I will probably move it to a savings rather than credit to the next month, we shall see...

Golightly72

Oh great, sounds like you have it all covered, fingers crossed for no emergencies as that's a great interest rate!

fieldend

Thanks - yes, it's a Regular Saver account with HSBC. I also opened a kids savings account last year, the same rate of 6% with Halifax. These rates are temporary though, 12-month period... and I'm only contributing small amounts each month, I wish I could throw hundreds at it.

fieldend

Ha, so it looks like Barclays is helping me in my journey to become debt free. They have just changed my account type from "Current Account Plus" to regular "Bank Account", and in the process of doing this, they reduced my fee-free overdraft from £300 to £200 (my total OD limit is £1000, but only the first £300 are free).

The Current Account plus account was great, I was paying £6.50 account fee plus £3 blue reward fee, but they gave me back £10 every month, as a reward. So in effect I had mobile phone insurance, tablet insurance, and extended warranty for appliances, and got 50p each month from Barclays, for the privilege

Now, with these changes, they are offering me the option of the regular bank account with no account fee, but I only get the £200 reduced overdraft if I add their Tech Pack that costs £9.50, and only includes mobile and tablet insurance. And I have to pay £3 for the blue reward account, in order to get back the £10 reward.

So I'm £3 worse than I was before... now instead of getting 50p from Barclays for all those perks, I have to pay Barclays £2.50 to access the £200 overdraft and have mobile and tablet insurance.

Still not a bad option... and I don't want to leave Barclays, not until I switch my mortgage deal. ...

Summary for today:

• Money:
  - £50.15 spent on ASDA online.
  - paid £259 to my credit cards, leaving me with a total of £9000 in credit card debt.
• Food:
  B: latte with biscuits
  L: a huge omelette with mushrooms, black coffee
  huge chicory salad with salmon; a pear
• Exercise: 45-min walk
• Dating: zero. Rien. Nada. Nothing. This is pathetic.

fieldend

Good evening from me. Had a really tiring day today. Managed to avert ordering Thai food delivery last minute... instead I cooked pasta very quickly for my DD and ate a salad myself. I'm tired and feeling depressed again, I think it's the effect of Friday evenings alone at home. Made myself some chamomile tea and will look for something on Netflix...

Very quick summary:

• Money: no spend
• Food:
  - B: coffee and a pear mid-morning
  - L: chicken and stir fry, home-made as I worked from home; coffee
  - Cesar salad; 2 apples
• Exercise: v low... 15-min walk, school drop off/pickup. It was so cold at lunchtime, I didn't feel like going for a run.
• Dating: what's the point? I cannot even get out of the house...

Right. Let me Netflix now... I could so use a glass of wine but I don't have any.

fieldend

And good morning! Yesterday was a spend day, £15 on a haircut, £25 duty and VAT on a present I got from abroad (this is a funny one, my ex sent me a gift and I had to pay to get it). Other than that just groceries top up of less than £5, but we also indulged in coffee & croissants. Today is a no spend day, we're staying at home, homework in the morning then off to the local park.

Yesterday I got on the scale, I've lost less than 1kg... I need to up my exercise level and go very low carb, with no bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, and sugar. This has always worked for me.

I found a way to go back to yoga (I've got almost £200 worth of yoga sessions that I didn't use last year because I didn't have a babysitter). One of my friends agreed to exchange an evening every week - she'll look after my DD while I do yoga, and I'll be looking after her kids while she's off to Zumba. Hopefully this'll work. And I can hopefully slowly start running at lunchtime on Tues and Fridays when I work from home... I'm next door to a huge park and it's completely free. No excuses!!!

fieldend

Logging back in to say the miracle happened today: I went for my first run in years... a lousy 2.5km in 18 mins. My DD - who ran with me - was like 'come on mum, you're not even running, you're walking'. She can run 2km in 10 mins, which is great for someone her age.

I'm downloading the 'couch to 5k' podcasts, the plan is to run at least 2x week. That plus yoga weekly and occasional cycling and swimming should help me get healthier and happier.

Slowly but surely...



PS. It really helps me keeping this diary, it helps staying focused. That, and reading others diaries...