A Ditherer's Diary (again)

jokono

Naomim said:

I'm so angry with myself that I was going great guns and knocked £10k off then completely stalled and basically knocked nothing off and paid interest in the last year. 

If anyone can recommend a free app where you can see your accounts and credit card balances, let me know please. 

At least you're not worse off, that's still progress!

You can connect almost all account in Money Dashboard. Doesn't track Chase which is my main account, so I stopped using it.

For debt repayment I loved Debt Payoff Planner. You can add all your debts with details including promotional rate end dates, and it will tell you when you will be debt free. You can play with payment order to see how much interest you can save doing snowball/ avalanche / custom, you can change the monthly overpayment and see how that changes the DFD. Fun! 😆

I know nothing about (peri)menopause, only that I'm not looking forward to it. I feel very low the days before my period, I hope I don't have that to look for every day for months at a time. I hope your symptoms improve soon and/or you find a way to feel better. 🤗

Naomim

Thanks @jokono some days it feels like I've had a personality transplant but then sometimes I think maybe I'm just being more true to myself and not putting up and shutting up to keep the peace. I'm not sure MrM is liking it much at the moment as I'm a bit Jekyll & Hyde but hey ho. The hot flushes are no fun and my cardi collection is building as they are on and off! I have lost a stone and a half but think that's more due to the medication and the long dog walks.

You're right about the debt and I should be pleased it's not increased. I'm usually optimistic but this has just p***ed me off that I've done this. 

Hopefully if I get back on track with the money, other things might start getting on track too. 

GeorgianaCavendish

Do you have a Barclays or Barclaycard account? On both of their apps you can add other accounts from different banks under the Open Banking rules. However I find the Barclaycard app so confusing and counterintuitive so MoneyDashboard might be a better bet! 

Don’t feel too frustrated about the debt, at least it hasn’t increased and I think you’ll get it under control again. Also it seems that you’re the one person really driving the project to get the debt down and you’ve had more than enough on your plate to deal with over the past year. 

Naomim

@GeorgianaCavendish you're right about me driving to get the debt down but only because MrM doesn't have access to the banks accounts online or the credit cards. He doesn't even have the banking app.

I do have a Barclays account and the app.  Do you know if you can add credit cards too? 

I need to have a sort through my paperwork as one credit card is in MrM's name but I can't remember the log in details. Also got a huge pile to sort out that I've been meaning to do for a long time. MrM is out tonight so I might do it with a g&t for company. 

I forgot to mention its my 50th this year. I'm planning a party at home with a few friends so I've started buying a few bottles when the supermarkets have offers on. Problem is making sure 17yo doesn't nick any of it!

Which brings me to his birthday which is in a month!  Can't believe my teeny tiny premature baby is turning 18. He's on about driving lessons but we can't afford that. No idea what we are getting him though. 

WinterWarrior

I don’t know about linking cards to single accounts either 😕 It’s good that you’ve not increased them, it really is. Could you do a snowball and concentrate on one at a time to get rid of them? I found throwing all my efforts to one was much easier than a scatter gun approach. 

Could you pay for a set amount of driving lessons, rather than all of them? Like the first 5 to start him off? Then he can carry on with them himself. I’m a couple of years older than you and I often wonder when it became ‘a thing’ that kids seem to get lessons and cars bought for them. It doesn’t teach them anything and leaves parents struggling 😖

Naomim

I haven't done my paperwork or had a G&T as remembered I have to drive later to collect MrM 😠 but I have been reading @WinterWarrior diary. Only 300 more posts to catch up! 

I have however managed to log into MrM's credit card which I discovered had a zero balance and a nice 18m 0% balance transfer option. Would have been rude not to.  So the really good news is that the figures are actually better than I thought. £21052 owing, not £23k and £14.5k is currently on 0% interest.  Next week I am going to sort out the payments so all over the minimums even if just by £5 then hopefully I'll start to see more BT offers. I think last time back in 2019 when cc debt was at its highest, it took about 6 -9 months to get it all on 0%.

I'm much happier with that balance even if it is a long way to go. 

Naomim

@WinterWarrior the driving lessons thing also befuddles me. I had to pay for all my own when I turned 17. Now all his friends seem to get them paid for and then gifted a car! To be honest, he likes a special cigarette so I've told him there's no chance of him being behind the wheel of a vehicle until that stops! Until then we're replacing his trainers at a rate of knots due to the amount of walking he does 😬

Today has been very spendy as 13yo and I went to Westfield's to do holiday clothes shopping 🛍  She's gone from a tomboy wearing only tracksuits and football tops to a made-up teenage girl overnight.  Thanks be for Primani. I need to transfer the money from my pots to cover this. At least I have it!

Also put £30 petrol in the car. Only £9 left in the petrol pot so hopefully MrM won't need any more before payday.

Now we're home, I'm shattered. I've had a lovely bubble bath and now going to watch some Sunday night TV.

WinterWarrior

It’s so hard, but providing everything on a plate doesn’t always help, so I wouldn’t unless I could afford it without any struggle. Dave Ramsey says the right car for you is the one you can afford to buy outright…it took me 30 years to learn that 😬 It sounds like you had a lovely shopping day. 

Naomim

I replaced my car in Feb 22 but did have to borrow from the bank of Mum & Dad. I pay it back by standing order every month. I wouldn't have been able to replace it otherwise and I really did try for a few months without a car but it really wasn't practical for us. But I agree on trying to make him save up for it and find it himself. 

His government CTF fund matures on his 18th and currently has about £2.5k in it and a savings account I opened for him has about £4.7k but I'm going to try and keep them away from him for a long as possible. He'll just sp*nk it on crap otherwise! He's not planning on going to uni as he is studying to be a chef but I think he'll probably just drift in and out of jobs. There's no oomph in him. 

We did have a lovely day shopping but 13yo can't see why I'm so tired! I feel like my arms are going to drop off, my back aches and my poor arthritic toe is throbbing. 

EssexHebridean

On the feeling of wanting to OP the mortgage can you either round the monthly payment up to the next £10 or just pay an extra £10 on top each month? It's little enough that you'll not really notice it from the budget, but it will definitely have an impact on the longer term of the mortgage, and more importantly it will make you feel that you are "doing something" on that side of things. the other thing we did when we started Op'ing was to make a conscious decision not to spend on something (a takeaway, a treat when shopping etc) and then that money got transferred to the mortgage OP pot - it makes a better incentive to cut back and make savings when you can really see the effect those sacrifices make.