Changing habits, wanting freedom

jvr

Thanks Speky, alot better today sunshine def helps!
Have one week left till OH's pay day and doing pretty well Need to get to Nationwide which is quite a trek from my work as when i closed the current account and transferred it left 100 in a savings account which i can't transfer out of but need it to pay for the dog being spayed next week. About 200 quid which amazingly i have actually budgeted for!! Just leaves kitchen floor and OH's passport as expensive things to sort but feeling hopefull

jvr

Well slipped last night and had fish and chips.... so worth it though! Think OH is having a tough time at work but its so hard as he comes back in foul mood and i end up so tense and wishing he was still at work! Sounds horrible but its draining, he can then suddenly flip out of his mood and be all chirpy and never understands why other people don't suddenly flip with him..... ah well i should probably try be more sympathetic.
Going to have to be a quiet bank holiday as OH not paid till wendesday will get back to park run in the morning, hopefully some fence paininting and then going to a friends for dinner and to plan our speech for our other friends wedding, only issue is that although she doesnt live too far it would be minimum two buses if OH not back from work yet Sunday i think OH is off so will try plan something nice in for then. Otherwise just plodding on, bit stressed that remortgage still not completed but hopefully final papers will be sent today and we won't have too much longer on a high rate.

jvr

Had a great bank holiday - just gutted they are over till August now!
Did park run on Saturday and then went for a picnic with friends, got caught in the down pour but then the sun came out, a sheep ate half the picnic.... never seen one so brazen! Then had very chilled Sunday and Monday with an 8km run on Monday which is the furthest I have gone ... only 6 weeks to my 10k so getting prepared!
Finances not perfect but okay should just about get through the month paying for floor to be redone in the kitchen and the dog being spayed tomorrow.


Made the decision to start looking for other jobs, feels scary as we still want to try for kids but I need more of a challenge and more money! It's not like the maternity package at my work is so incredible or anything so gonna start applying for other jobs

JWPopps

Hi JVR!

I've just caught up with you, I am so sorry about the job but delighted you had a fab bank holiday. I too had a wedding to deal with, in Holland, so that was somewhat pricier than had bargained for (largely because my partner hadn't factored in nearly enough euros for himself so guess who ended up picking up the tab...) but it was lovely anyway.

Good luck finding amazing jobs to apply for!!

jvr

Hi Popps - why are these things always pricier than we imagine!
Budget for the month is very tight - basically no debt repayment due to dog being spayed and kitchen floor being done.


She was spayed yesterday and was so out of it all evening I felt so sorry for her - much brighter today and struggling to get her no to jump at all! OH slept downstairs to keep an eye on her last night and I am working from home today
Having bit of an issue with a colleague.... its so subtly I have constantly thought it was in my head but this morning something happened again and I felt undermined. Its only when our line manager is away and always so little that if I brought it up feel ridiculous but it is constant. She acts like my manager when our manager is away when she isn't and often makes little digs. Today felt really angry so emailed to ask why she hadn't spoken to me and had instead told another team to basically ignore what I had told them. I'm getting paranoid now that maybe she is also undermining me to our manager maybe I don't like my job as much as I thought!
Applied yesterday for another role which would be awesome, its more money but not loads in a less corporate environment... only downside is that its only a 6 month initial contract

Honey_Bear

Good luck with the job application JVR. Sorry I'm not contributing at the moment - life is very, very busy and I'm struggling to keep up.

jvr

Thanks Honey, when you get a moment to breathe let me know how you’re getting on!
So in a way today I have increased our cc debt…. In what I hope is not a bad way. We have paid off a chunk over last 8 months but been really bad at acknowledging costs and a real budget… so car insurance comes around and we didn’t have it so paid in full on my overdraft and then had to pay out some money to remortgage and then as already in overdraft little bit more money slipped out… felt really stressed trying to use an account for petrol and food that was always in –
So, first thing I did was set up a joint nationwide account with OH.. never had joint account before. This account costs £10 a month but is breakdown cover and travel insurance and phone insurance for us both. So this account with no overdraft will be food and petrol funds separate to everything else.
One of my credit cards had a good offer on for money transfer so have paid off the overdraft – will get a small amount back from remortgage still but not figured that in yet till its in my hands! This card will be relegated to the house as emergency what if something happened to OH family and needed expensive plane tickets. Before putting the car insurance on we had done well and not touched the overdraft so im not too worried about adding things on…
I have also calculated £250 to cc every month… this would take nearer two years to pay off but is better than my adhoc delusional plans I have been working towards…
I have also allocated money to next years car insurance
And the SA fund for holiday
And savings… my plan is that I will have the money should anything go wrong and if not build up a chunk to go towards debt freedom…..
I feel really positive and think I can shift this… so although debt on cc has gone up I haven’t actually borrowed more money and I now realise that psychologically I am better paying off less debt each month and having savings to work towards than throwing whatever is there and then needing to borrow when things come up?

SpekySquarehead

JVR - Glad you're feeling positive about it all. Everyone is different in their approach to getting rid of debt. Personally I wanted rid of it as soon as, so I didn't have any savings and every spare penny I had went towards that. But as you point out, the moment an expected spend arises, you're back to square one.

You seem confident in your plan and you've clearly thought your decisions through which is a sign you've learned from mistakes in the past and you should take great pride in that.

jvr

Thanks Speky
Feeling way more in control will update properly totals at the end of the month as have also incorporated OH's card with argos of £300. I nearly did add it on to a 0% card last year but was wisely told here that he needs to learn about finances and get involved... he has been paying some off each month out of his allowance but with such high interest rates is struggling. Now he is way more onboard with everything I have combined our debts on to 0% and we had a good chat about our new plan which is all carefully entered onto a spreadsheet.
I am not going crazy and attempting to live on next to nothing, hopefully doing this can build up some savings to do the work on the house which is a much better use of money while also saving to go to South Africa and paying 250 off the debt each month.

Honey_Bear

Got to bed at 6.00 am this morning, so once I've caught up on sleep, housework and clearing the backlog of normal life which has been on hold for seven weeks - I'll be back, at last.

Good to see you're still seriously thinking about how to tackle the debt issue, JVR, even if I haven't got the spare brainspace to put anything in words yet. Hang on in there.