A Ditherer's Diary (again)

bigsteve85

Suzanne54321B said:

Thanks @bigsteve85 and @Naomim and Homegrown0 for all the advice. 

I haven’t seen anything from my union (and it’s a big one), but I will investigate!
and yes, definitely a few months of hard cut backs make sense. I am having a big birthday soon (sob) and need to change my ways! 

Naomim you are my Monzo hero 😊

I’m with unite, and we use the Transport Credit Union, and there is nothing scary about the the big 30

WinterWarrior

@bigsteve.....there wasn’t, or the big 40.....not too keen in the next one though! 😂

Naomim

Suzanne54321B said:

Thanks @bigsteve85 and @Naomim and Homegrown0 for all the advice. 

I haven’t seen anything from my union (and it’s a big one), but I will investigate!
and yes, definitely a few months of hard cut backs make sense. I am having a big birthday soon (sob) and need to change my ways! 

Naomim you are my Monzo hero 😊

I wouldn't have known about Monzo if it hadn't been for this website but it has categorically changed my behaviour and I am a Monzo cheerleeder.🎉
Thanks also to @bigsteve85 and @Homegrown0 for taking the time to reply with some great suggestions.

Onto today's money business. I think we should look into remortgaging.  We have 4 mortgages, our original which is currently about £88k @ 2.75% then 3 further ones we took out for a conservatory that was built and has now been removed for the extension that we also borrowed for.  The total is about £145k total and the last two are on fixed rates until June 2021 & July (? not sure) 2022.  @ 2.44% and 1.99% - I don't have the information right in front of me so going from memory here.

I'm going to have a look at remortgaging with our current provider as I think with our amount of credit card debt we'd not be offered anything with anyone else.  Our current payments are £844 total but this will increase for now as we have taken the payment holiday to clear the overdraft.

I shall report back on my findings

Naomim

bigsteve85

Naomim said:

Suzanne54321B said:

Thanks @bigsteve85 and @Naomim and Homegrown0 for all the advice. 

I haven’t seen anything from my union (and it’s a big one), but I will investigate!
and yes, definitely a few months of hard cut backs make sense. I am having a big birthday soon (sob) and need to change my ways! 

Naomim you are my Monzo hero 😊

I wouldn't have known about Monzo if it hadn't been for this website but it has categorically changed my behaviour and I am a Monzo cheerleeder.🎉
Thanks also to @bigsteve85 and @Homegrown0 for taking the time to reply with some great suggestions.

Onto today's money business. I think we should look into remortgaging.  We have 4 mortgages, our original which is currently about £88k @ 2.75% then 3 further ones we took out for a conservatory that was built and has now been removed for the extension that we also borrowed for.  The total is about £145k total and the last two are on fixed rates until June 2021 & July (? not sure) 2022.  @ 2.44% and 1.99% - I don't have the information right in front of me so going from memory here.

I'm going to have a look at remortgaging with our current provider as I think with our amount of credit card debt we'd not be offered anything with anyone else.  Our current payments are £844 total but this will increase for now as we have taken the payment holiday to clear the overdraft.

I shall report back on my findings

Naomim

I’ve just started an application to borrow some more money on my mortgage, I was told that they won’t look at lending more If I was on a mortgage holiday (not taken one) so you may need to cancel it if you haven’t already to be able to remortgage 

Naomim

Thanks, I did think about this after I'd posted 🤦‍♀️ we're not looking to borrow more, just get better interest rates but I'm happy to pop this on the back burner for now and look in a few months. My overdraft & credit card debt are the priorities. 👍

Naomim

Thanks to Twitter, I've had a brainwave.  It's MrM's birthday and our wedding anniversary at the start of August. Obviously almost everywhere is shut but someone mentioned West Wittering beach.  It's only about an hour from us and has dog friendly sections, is sandy and a lovely place.  You have to pre-book at the moment so I'm going to book it for us and the kids to have a seaside day.  We'll pack the tent for the dog and a bring a big picnic with us.  How exciting!

I was also reading a gardening blog, (who am I turning into?) and it mentioned in hot weather to water your plants in the morning rather than the evening, so I was out there this morning with my watering can.  We've had two strawberries, yes, two whole ones which were really sweet and lovely.  My climbing rose which just looked like I'd stuck a couple of branches in a pot has also got buds so I am happy with the progress so far.  I would just like 10yo's sunflowers to grow more, they're about 20cm at the moment.

No money updates, it's payday at the end of this week for both MrM and I.   I just sold some of 10yo's old mega-bloks lego on FB £5.00 in the piggy bank    which reminds me, with the current situation, my £2 tin is not being fed at all.  Not using cash anywhere.  

I've decided I need to lose some weight too. I know it's been creeping up during lockdown. I'm at home sitting at the table working and not exercising. I didn't really do any before but at least I had the walk to and from the train station.  I do have a dog but he has many health problems with arthritis being one so a long walk with him isn't feasible.   I'm just going to try and cut out the snacks. Biscuits are my downfall.   

Hope everyone else is jogging along and still trying to stay safe,

Naomim

bigsteve85

Hmmmmmmm biscuits 

Naomim

I was reading the diary of @ryanm8655 and he commented on how his debt built up - he's doing fantastic job clearing it if you haven't read his diary.  Anyway, I posted, I like what I wrote and wanted to expand a little so have repeated it here - with directors cut included. 😉

Sometimes I think it does us good to reflect on how far we've come. I don't mean how much debt we've paid but what brought us to the debt and that we are now in a position to recognise it and deal with it.   

Most of mine came from keeping up with the Jones's.  We have a two kids and an affordable mortgage but when the kids came I wanted to only work part time, I wanted us to go abroad every year for a two week holiday like we used to be able to.  My husband got made redundant, had a great redundancy package and thought he'd walk into another job but he didn't for another 9 months. So I stuck my head in the sand and ignored building debt.  I had no idea how to actually budget. We'd always just had enough money to pay for things.

I was an active member of this site, I have been for 10+ years and put into place lots of little things, NSD's, meal planning, tarting my credit cards for 0% deals which is great when you're actively doing these things, but then I would stop after a couple of months, I'd stop looking at the bank account, smug because I "thought" I was saving for Christmas and had a handle on things but actually had absolutely none.  Satisfied that my credit card debt was on 0% interest when in reality some of it had finished and I was paying interest.  I had never had my true LBM moment until last year by which time our debt had doubled.

It's taken me the last few months to realise that I have enough, my family have enough, the kids have enough.  We are living a comfortable life, I'm taking the scenic route to clear the debt but I am clearing the debt. I'm running a proper budget and we are actually paying more towards the credit cards and saving for EF and future purchases than we have ever done.  And it's good.

Naomim

WinterWarrior

Great post Naomim. I can’t even say what led to mine. I have enough, I can pay my bills, but somehow I end up with more month than money and nothing to show for it. I took out a small loan to pay off my credit card, then ran it up with a few unexpected disasters and had to do the same again. I have a habit of spending on presents, etc. What I think I should spend, instead of what I actually have left to spend. I don’t have much to show for anything apart from the house and a lovely car (3 years in to a 5 yr loan), which I intend to keep running for a while after it’s paid off to get a head start on the next one. My main downfall is having no savings, so every repair or disaster needs to be covered ‘the next month’. I hope to start that EF In July and pull myself together! 

ryanm8655

Naomim said:

I was reading the diary of @ryanm8655 and he commented on how his debt built up - he's doing fantastic job clearing it if you haven't read his diary.  Anyway, I posted, I like what I wrote and wanted to expand a little so have repeated it here - with directors cut included. 😉

Sometimes I think it does us good to reflect on how far we've come. I don't mean how much debt we've paid but what brought us to the debt and that we are now in a position to recognise it and deal with it.   

Most of mine came from keeping up with the Jones's.  We have a two kids and an affordable mortgage but when the kids came I wanted to only work part time, I wanted us to go abroad every year for a two week holiday like we used to be able to.  My husband got made redundant, had a great redundancy package and thought he'd walk into another job but he didn't for another 9 months. So I stuck my head in the sand and ignored building debt.  I had no idea how to actually budget. We'd always just had enough money to pay for things.

I was an active member of this site, I have been for 10+ years and put into place lots of little things, NSD's, meal planning, tarting my credit cards for 0% deals which is great when you're actively doing these things, but then I would stop after a couple of months, I'd stop looking at the bank account, smug because I "thought" I was saving for Christmas and had a handle on things but actually had absolutely none.  Satisfied that my credit card debt was on 0% interest when in reality some of it had finished and I was paying interest.  I had never had my true LBM moment until last year by which time our debt had doubled.

It's taken me the last few months to realise that I have enough, my family have enough, the kids have enough.  We are living a comfortable life, I'm taking the scenic route to clear the debt but I am clearing the debt. I'm running a proper budget and we are actually paying more towards the credit cards and saving for EF and future purchases than we have ever done.  And it's good.

Naomim

The mentality change is really interesting. A lot of us have certain commonalities despite being in very different situations and from very different backgrounds.