I’m taking control of my life, now.

EssexHebridean

 Fun (possible) fact: I vaguely recall that the good old eye rolling emoji was always purposely excluded from the emoji's on the old forum because the temptation is to use it cruelly - ie to suggest that someone is missing something which should be blatantly obvious to them, in the emoji-users opinion, when in fact the principle of DFW in particular has always erred towards there is no such thing as a stupid question. I may be misremembering that, though! 

I too love 🙄 though - it is invariably in the most frequently used ones on my phone! 

Suffolk_lass

My personal favourite emoji is 🎉 because there is always something to celebrate - micro-wins - I go to emojipedia.org for mine as this old i-mac pre-dates things like that (ten years old now)

savingholmes

I wish I had that 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄  available more often. I often use the phrase...

On the electric bike - it's still effort.

boxofpaws

Good morning

i heard the same thing about rolleyes! 😩 -this is my favourite emoji. It depicts how I’m mostly feeling.

Good things

• Car was ‘only’ £1200. Still loads but I really was worried it would be more. It’s lovely to have her home.
• Balance transfer gone through on new cc, clearing old one, even with the garage payment
• And I have taken back some of the earnings from the forbidden thing, had some expenses paid back so my current account now has £900 squirrelled away in there to build back up the emergency fund.
• Overdraft is static, but when our wages go in, it will be cleared and because there is no hefty cc payment going out, it will stay clear.
• Spends are well in control.  I am doing the January grocery challenge and I am well on track to come under the £320 target I set myself.
• I have downloaded the nutracheck app (£20 for the year) to track my eating because this is got completely out of control and so far I’m doing pretty well. I’ve had quite a bit of success with nc in the past, and the app has come on leaps and bounds, it’s brilliant 
• I’m using my friends Les Mills account to do some body pump. I’ve done three classes some so far classes so far it’s really good fun. I’ve had a couple of days where I can’t walk though. My friend doesn’t really use it, she prefers going to the gym (she got it when they were shut). I have a sneaking suspicion she is only paying for the subscription for me.
• Had annual appraisal, went very well I should get a decent bonus and pay rise this year.
• I have applied for a new job, and have an interview. The woman who it’s working for has been messaging me with interview tips! I’m hoping this is a good sign.

Bad things - can’t think of any!

Spends
£22 Amazon bits for my home gym. Groceries on track

Saintliness 10/10

savingholmes

Great news on bonus and interview. Sounds promising.

May check out the app.

My balance class is based on LM too

EssexHebridean

Well that is all sounding really positive - well done you, and fingers crossed for the job! 

boxofpaws

Hello all, thank you @savingholmes and @EssexHebridean for the words of encouragement.

Had a nice day with my Mum and Mr Paws yesterday. She 'took us out for lunch'. Meaning we took her for lunch and she paid. We are starting to get into a good routine with my mum. She is trying not to be a burden, and she isnt. The biggest burden is feeling guilty about her loneliness, so these little trips out help us all. And if the worst part of my life right now is that I have to have lunch out bought for me, I probably have no grounds for complaint! 

Last night we had some friends round. Those sorts of friends that breathe life back into your soul. They are really excellent. We last saw them last summer, we probably need to see them more often.

Grocery spends musings - I am doing the grocery challenge. I am not doing anything vastly different, or at least I think I'm not, yet we have spent a bit less. Only one takeaway so far this year, will try to keep that up. I wonder if its because I have started on the freezer and larder stocks. Anyway, the musings are that perhaps that's not such a good idea if food prices are about to rocket because of the energy crisis etc. Considering changing my monthly budget for an annual one instead so I can still keep stocks and bulk buy. 

I have also been musing over the consolidation of the debt on the mortgage. Has it been successful or not? I was reading a thread on the debt free wannabe part of the forum, someone asking about the option of consolidation. Has ours been successful? We increased the payment and shortened the term but then I got all overambitious and added a £350 overpayment for 11 months. This £3850 extra payment is almost exactly the amount I have now had to put on an interest free credit card. I was right when I calculated how much we could afford to pay back, we should never have tried to overpay on top of that. Another credit card is just the last thing I wanted, it was exactly this that I couldn't manage anymore. Have we truly addressed our financial mismanagement? No. So, do I regret the consolidation? No. Has it been a success? Also, no.

I need to keep posting in this diary, maintain the focus, and just crack it!

Paws

savingholmes

I think you are being too hard on yourselves. Stop the OPs clear the CC. You will get there. 

Definitely plan in seeing those friends more often - perhaps book them in now for a few months time so you have something to look forward to.

On the grocery challenge - it's still worth using up your older food. By all means have a stores budget on top. However, if like me you already have too much stuff in your house - it may be kinder to yourself to not overbuy food on top and take the inflation hit when it comes.

Suffolk_lass

I have an annual budget. You do need to be (more than I am) disciplined about stores and plan meals to build in ingredients you have bought or it becomes you paying the supermarket to store their stuff for them.

I am shopping for the first time this year today - because I am running out of eggs (no delivery this year as they are sulking about being netted) cheese (and the fridge apparently breaks if there is none!), yogurt and fresh bowl fruit but I know I will top up with one or two packs of digestive biscuits, crackers and YS meat and fish. I am also doing one or two things on regular subscription via the big river company, saving 50p a jar on my (don't want to live without it) brands of coffee, tea, flake salt and medicated shampoo. I added kitchen paper and toilet rolls this weekend to try and get the discounts aligned (didn't work) but also because I often miss the offers because I shop so infrequently.

I try to regularly compare prices so it isn't just habit-buying and more conscious, but I am prone to smugness with budgets. Our running costs account is down to £85 after a little Tilly Tidy this morning, with DH's credit card hitting the account this morning (with Christmas spending on it) - so £450 on Friday, £85 this morning

EssexHebridean

I think it's great that you can analyse that the consolidation hasn't been an unqualified success - but also that you don't regret the fact that you did it. Your analysis also sums up why generally we encourage people to NOT convert unsecured debt to secured. You have sufficient MSE-type knowledge and experience behind you to not be at too high a risk of it all going to carp and your home being at risk - the vast majority who arrive on here with that as a plan are NOT in that position though. 

We run a storecupboard but regularly eat down the freezer/storecupboard then re-stock from the regular budget which works for us. Right now we are tuned in for even the slightest hint of prices rocketing/panic buying kicking in again and will be re-stocking pronto if needed. Right now I'd say that the majority of grocery prices seem to be holding steadier than many would have you think - prices DID increase during the first lockdown in particular, and again to a degree through the one at this time last year, but not dramatically since,  IMO.