A Ditherer's Diary (again)

Naomim

Thanks all,

KK I think you have really hit the point there too about the older kids and also whilst much of their social life is conducted via screens and apps, they are still hugely social animals and that was completely withdrawn.  There's also the whole thing of just finding your feet, where you fit in and parents worrying is an age old thing that will never change.  TBH I think he has given himself quite a scare. I've downloaded the Life360 app. I've told him I don't want to be checking on him but it's just as a back-up.

@EssexHebridean and @KajiKita as usual you are right. I have definitely still got some of the old "good habits" beavering away in the background and I guess this is why we don't notice them anymore.  I still use my pots every month so things like petrol, train commuting, insurances, passports, car maintenance, haircuts and are steadily added to and built up.  Christmas and birthdays are no longer a surprise that I scrabble for money for.  I still Tilly Tidy but use the automatic version on my Natwest & Monzo accounts. At the end of the month the tillies are put into my savings account.  So there are good things to be grateful for.

Other great news, after my PB win I went to check my bonds as I directly re-invest any wins and I had far more in there than I thought! I have £3,775 which is about £1,700 more than I thought I had!  I had been thinking of taking them out and transferring to savings but I think this goes to show out of sight, out of mind so will leave them for now. 

Other good news, I should also be getting a referral bonus in my September pay for my friend that started working here in January. It's taxable but ultimately free money.

MrM and I have arranged for our front room and kitchen to be painted and decorated in the middle of October prior to my birthday party.  We had some water damage in the kitchen so want to get it sorted. We are paying our nephew to do it for us as he has been in this field for a couple of years now and is about to go back to college to study carpentry.  I have booked us four days in Ilfracombe, Devon. Me, MrM and doggo.  I went via Topcashback and Expedia so have paid £400 and should get £40 back in cashback.  Another good habit I've mainly kept!

Finally, I transferred the awful £6k interest bearing from my MBNA card to Virgin. It's only 11 months and came with a fee but it's still better than the £100+ interest I was paying out! I think I'm under £20k owing now. Slow progress but I don't care. it's heading in the right direction.

EssexHebridean

Ilfracombe is lovely! It's where the Lundy ferry goes from much of the time so we've been there a few times now. 

Slow progress is good progress. Keep on with the baby steps. 

dawnybabes

Slow and steady wins the race 😀

KajiKita

Well done for getting the £6K transferred 👏😊

Does the scare mean he is changing what he is doing, has more to aim for now?

KK

Naomim

We've never been to Ilfracombe, some of the reviews say it's a bit tired and run down but we're just looking forward to some time away and long dog walks.

18yo says he is giving up the weed. Tbh I've not really seen him for more than 5 mins as he's been working and I've been in the office three days this week so no real idea what his plans are. We'll see. 

KajiKita

Fingers crossed for 18! (At least he’s been working.)

Enjoy Ilfracombe 😊 

Naomim

dawnybabes said:

Slow and steady wins the race 😀

Tbh, I'm taking the biscuit with slow and steady! 🤣 I'm sure if we'd been aggressive with cutting stuff out like they promote on the dfw boards, all the cc's would be gone by now. Four years on and I still have £20k to pay off. At least we're not adding to it. We managed our first abroad holiday in six years this year and have a decent EF built up. It's heading in the right direction. We're also maintaining a good life balance which is important. 

It's a bit like being on a diet, if you restrict yourself too much, you give up completely and end up in a worse position than you started. 

EssexHebridean

The “cut everything to the bone” approach doesn’t tend to be suggested so much these days other than in situations where priority bills are all that can be afforded on the income. In fact we often find ourselves telling people now that they must budget something for entertainment - simply because as you say, if everything is cut back so there is no money at all for enjoyment - even if just a coffee weekly - it can quickly step over the border from a challenge to a slog. 

If people are proactive with ensuring that stuff remains on zero % interest as you are, the only real risk with longer timescales is the possibility of simply getting ground down by the feeling of having been paying debts off “forever”.

Spendless

Hi, just started reading your diary. Don't worry about how long it's taking you to pay off debt. You're still on the journey rather than you've got off the bus.

Totally agree with the comments made about how covid affected some of the kids in particular age brackets. I know several people with kids in the  (roughly) 17-23 age bracket that are saying this. My youngest was 17 the week after LD1 by the time we were emerging from LD3 she wasn't far off 18.5  and on the verge of moving away for studies having missed out on  most of the stepping stones along the way. It's only now at 20 that we're starting to see the beginning of being a 'grown up'  This week she fixed her blocked up toilet and told us she felt like an adult for the first time ever - the following day though she went grocery shopping in Waitrose, having believed her privileged friend's story of the 'deals being good'  - think she'll be spending the next week eating a couple of biscuits for meals! I've often used the phrase 'The law says they're an adult, a competence test wouldn't give the same result'

You'll get there though all of you - Good luck.   

Naomim

Hi @EssexHebridean & @Spendless

I know if I'd have been aggressive we'd be in a better position now. I spent most of yesterday reading back on my own diary and was amazed at the amount of small overpayments I was making from prolific and my round ups. I stopped doing prolific so yesterday I updated my about you section and an going to try and do more. I do round up but have been putting it in my EF. As that's currently sitting at £4.5k I think I'll start putting them back to OP's.

In big news....drumroll.....I am sub £20k on the credit cards. £19950.

I realised I had another 0% deal expire end of Aug but had spare bt offer elsewhere so did the money shuffle. I am only being offered 0% deals for a year at the moment though. So everything is now 0% 🎉.  Today I have to fiddle about changing payments so I'm throwing the most at the first 0% to expire.

Thinking about YNAB again. Got to get on top of the leaky spends.