Out of the mares into the dreams.

welshkaren45

Light bulb moment ?? Nah.
Tried a million times before?? Yes of course.
Scared to answer the phone,open mail?? Not so much scared but embarrassed O yes massively.
Feel like life is out of control ?? Not life but my spending and debt piles are as is my health.

So it is that time of year where everything usually gets thrown on the cards or catalogues but my three credit cards are now maxed one is £1050 other two are £200, my one catalogue is maxed to credit limit which is £1000 or so but they keep upping and upping it. We are up to date with rent, council tax all amenities apart from water rates which we owe loads on and don't owe personal friends money etc nor do we have an overdraft , but we do have a backlog of old debts so are not sitting pretty and we can't hide from things no more.

We are both working full time have finished off clearing a credit union loan this year and are paying a few debt collectors old debts, Christmas presents are bought and wrapped and I am truely honestly sick to death of yoyoing spending and scrimping, and also sick of losing weight and gaining weight. I think I am going to use the next six weeks to plan and sort finances plus sell all we don't need as clutter is stressing us all out here. I love the old-style boards here and have no big holidays to save for next year so have half a chance I guess. I will def be keeping tally of everything money wise but in all fairness hubby doesn't spend unnecessarily it is all me.

I am going to use this diary in a general money saving and sanity saving way and maybe join some challenges to join like minded people, my freezer is bulging, food cupboards and wardrobes through buying when stressed and depressed. This is something I won't admit to hubby but I have deliberately maxed the cards and catalogue with things we needed for our home as I know I am cutting them up tomorrow last thing is about to be ordered and then I am cancelling the card so I can not use it one it is at zero again. I am so good at saving when I am paying off debts but take my eye off the ball and six months later I have a house ful off STUFF and a massive credit card I have no self control. So it's back to saving, building an emergency fund and joining back to slimming world and hopefully gaining some self confidence and control. :sad: I haven't a clue how much I owe to anyone so next few months will be fun huh. Eww I feel ill. I have a 9 year old who lives with us and a 29 year old who pays no rent yet works full time this also needs addressing as of pay day too. Enough for now.

Huskyrunner

Good luck with your journey Welsh Karen

priority get rent off the 29year old!

welshkaren45

After a weekend of spending very very little, just bowling club cons for DS and selling £75 of unused toys on a local selling site, I am back in work earning not spending can only be a good thing. I sat and made a to do list for this week, we have so much going on with work for myself, DH and my DS school Christmas concerts, trips, etc, grabbed a bit of overtime too over the next few weeks just need to keep on top of housework and budget this side of new year. I can't get to grips with everything I owe until then, I won't add to the bills for the next 6 weeks though I have promised myself this.

Tonight, after work I am going to take pics of other things to sell hopefully make another £100 this will help finish off my Christmas list of presents. Anything to do snuggled up at home tonight will be a winner as winter has certainly hit Wales it is absolutely chucking it down here with rain and blowing a gale too. Also need to do a small shop using a £10 off voucher Asd@ has sent me so will choose a £1 delivery slot to make the most of the voucher and pick a few goodies up for Christmas and put them away so Christmas shop won't be such a huge drain of funds. Just managed to get DH a docs apt which on a Monday is no mean feat he has recently been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and came home from work in agony yesterday so time to see the doctor for some pain meds and some general advice as the leaflet he was sent away with was no help really, we have found more out online than been given by the doctors.

Lots of garble here but thinking aloud.

EssexHebridean

welcome to Diary-land Karen!

First things first - are those cards cut up yet?

On the catalogue, suggestion - put in writing to them that you do not wish them to increase your credit limit again until YOU contact THEM IN WRITING to request this. There should be a tick box on their system that they can activate which will stop this happening automatically.

It sounds as though you would benefit from putting together your SOA (Statemement of Affairs) - you can find the link in the "Sticky" post at the top of the main DFW board. This will let you check your budgeting and see what surplus you *should* have at the end of each month. Presuming that you don't have this, then a spending diary is also a good idea as that lets you see where your money is actually heading off to! Remember when you do the SOA to be as accurate with it as you can - and where you fill in that you set x-amount aside each month for a particular expense (for example, car expenses - £50) you actually need to put that money away into a separate account, otherwise all the budgeting in the world is useless.

One thing that absolutely jumped out at me - you said you have consciously maxed out the CC & catalogue to buy things you "needed" for your home - but were these things really "needed" or just wanted? Suggestion - as and when they arrive, look at each one and decide whether truly, the world will stop if you don't have that thing in your life, or whether in fact you have one already, have something else that will do the same job, or in actual fact, whether it's not something you actually need, at all. If the answer is "I don't really need that" then there is a returns service - use it!

The SOA will also enable you to get all your debt figures in one place, something it sounds as though you need to do. Once you have, and your amount available for paying down debt that you can work out priorities for getting stuff cleared.

welshkaren45

Thanks both for commenting. Lodge from my son has been addressed over the weekend. A SOA I will definitely benefit from and I have started a spending diary over the weekend and this really helped keep my purse in my bag... With the credit card maxxing the only thing I bought was a cooker it was a basic one and was needed as my oven is temperamental, temp doesn't hold which scared me every time I used it as it is a gas cooker, plus only 2 of the 4 rings work and has been like it for a while, I should maybe have noted they were necessary spends not frivolous spends.

EssexHebridean

Ah yes - that's a wee bit different! Your wording gave a rather different impression!

Spending diaries can work BRILLIANTLY as they mean you have to be accountable to yourself. If you cheat and don't write things down, at the end of the day you're cheating yourself, and letting yourself down, and if that's not a motivator...

Good work on getting the rent money sorted from your son too - letting someone of that age live rent-free really isn't helping them, for the future, so that's a good thing to have sorted. It might even be that once you have your SOA and budget sorted you can pay that straight across against the debt, too.

welshkaren45

After a long cold working week I now have a few days off. I have spent less than £5 all week apart from our delivered grocery shop but this is budgeted for so just topped up bread and milk, A lot to do with how cold it is to be honest wandering in this weather is a no no.

Have got a deep clean planned for the house over the next 2 days all meals will be from home and hopefully putting our tree up, painting skirtings in the hall and painting the walls all paint already here so just need some oomph. DS has a local church Christmas fund raiser so that will cost a few pound, but will only be an hour after school, nothing planned for Saturday outside of the house and we have a lovely shopping trip to Bath with the local slimming world gang we have our Christmas savings set aside for the shopping trip but don't need an awful lot to be honest. It will be lovely to actually not use our November pays panic buying loads for family and friends as we are massively cutting down spends this year as most aren't appreciated anyway.

Puppy sitting my sons cocker puppy tomorrow she is the sweetest lil thing ever and it's so nice to see our cocker finally tolerating her, it's a joy to walk them. Just hope it's a little warmer tomorrow. These black Friday sales are driving me insane now email after email text after text I am so glad I always shop around and get good prices often with vouchers or it would be devastating seeing the price differences on everything to do with Christmas and more.

Bobarella

Aww hope you have fun dog sitting

Huskyrunner

Cockerspaniels one of the only dogs more loopey than mine lol

welshkaren45

Evening Diary I am sorry to have left you in the lurch, but I have been busy plotting and planning my attack I am back with said plans and ideas.

I have sat down with hubby after celebrating 12 years of being together, apart from a beautiful son and a nice home filled with 'stuff' we have little to show for the 12 years,but we have come up with a plan. At present we have a secured tenancy with our local council, we both work full time we owe a few debts and I have a problem squandering on stuff. When I am depressed I spend, when I spend I feel guilty and there the loop begins.

First part of plan is to clear the credit cards we have, and then we are on a huge save for a home mission, I have left it far to late to be getting on the rungs so we have a 10 year plan houses local to us go from £45,000 for a shell to around £80,000 move in able so even allowing for interest at the very least we should be able to buy a shell or always fancied living by the coast in a caravan lol.. We are both hands on kind of people he can build and plumb I can tile and decorate and love hunting for bargains and both love a challenge.

Funding this we have worked out we need to save approx £750 a month give or take, we are aiming for £600 for first year to see how it goes. I have picked up an extra shift a week starting after Christmas and we are cancelling our BT tv package just these two alone will put £250 extra a month in the pot and going to jump into the challenges on the board and stop damn spending to claw in the rest..I am more focused than hubby but I hope by the end of a few months he can see how serious I am about this..He doesn't squander and works hard for his family so will do all he can to move forward with this I know...

welshkaren45

Happy new year diary..

I have finally made a start, sat in work on an overtime shift so just as well make use of the time on MSE. No more sale shopping for me apart from living room cushions I don't need anything but I am waiting for a 25% voucher from m&talan to buy these as they are £10 each. No rush really.

I have decorated under my stairs out of left over wallpaper, painted and de-cluttered the whole area which is now my MSE / Debt busting area. Had lovely stationery off my son for Christmas and I love it.

Checked my credit cards, and rounded down one yesterday to £1000-CC1, £200-CC2, £200-CC3.
Plan for January is to chip away at CC1 as much as we can and just pay minimum on 2+3. We should manage to clear it by the end of January as DH has a few overtime shifts in already this month. Then 2+3 in February.

Going to start limiting my social media to only using in working hours (I work alone so no real problem when quiet). So I can have an hour guilt free on MSE each evening to read diaries etc.