Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

GeorgianaCavendish

Fortune_Smiles wrote: »

Hello Georgiana

just wanted to pop in and say congratulations on your progress. Well done - exciting times indeed

Fortune x

Thank you Fortune, I really appreciate it!

GeorgianaCavendish

Hmm. No call back from Aviva yesterday, so it goes on my list of tasks to sort out this week.

GeorgianaCavendish

Ugh! I hate this time of year. I got paid early in December so I'm now in week 4 of 6 of the Dec-Jan pay cycle (instead of the usual 4 weeks).

I'm on track budget-wise but I'm finding it a bit of a grind at the moment. I realise that making small debt repayments has replaced making small purchases when I'm feeling a bit down or fed-up, but at the moment I'm trying to stick to my snowball plan and not just 'round down' non-priority debts. I think I might have some money left at the end of this month to make another small overpayment but I'm not going to sweep this money over to my debt repayment account until I get paid because I don't want to have to take it out again.

So I'm following some advice from Brene Brown and embracing the suck. My situation is not ideal, but it is what it is, so I'm going to say "yes this sucks" and stick with it. Hopefully it will not suck forever!

EssexHebridean

GeorgianaCavendish wrote: »

Ugh! I hate this time of year. I got paid early in December so I'm now in week 4 of 6 of the Dec-Jan pay cycle (instead of the usual 4 weeks).

I'm unsure from your post whether this is just as a result of having already done your "money wrangling" for the month so you don't feel that there is any progress being made this month?

That sounds like a great goal on the pension payments, and yay to getting rid of accounts too! Brilliant progress!

GeorgianaCavendish

EssexHebridean wrote: »

I'm unsure from your post whether this is just as a result of having already done your "money wrangling" for the month so you don't feel that there is any progress being made this month?

That sounds like a great goal on the pension payments, and yay to getting rid of accounts too! Brilliant progress!

No worries, it was a confusing post!
I have done my monthly money wrangling (love that term!) and I'm starting to feel restless because there is nothing more to be done at the moment.
I keep thinking that I could do a couple of sneaky over payments as well. I'm being really strict with this because I want to wait until the day before payday to do any sweeps of "extra" money into my Debt Busting Bank Account, rather than optimistically decide now that I can cut a bit from the food budget for debt repayments.

I guess my point is that I'm trying to accept the daily 'discomfort' of our financial situation (if that makes sense??). We're doing as much as we can to tackle the debt and we are fully aware of the reality of our situation, but focusing on it too much can be counter productive because it makes me want to do anything to feel like we are making progress, and some of the things I choose to do are counter-productive (like under-budgeting in one area and needing to backtrack to get through the month). It feels like a slog at the moment with the extra long pay cycle!

GeorgianaCavendish

Thought I'd post this here after chatting to a friend. She was amazed that I haven't bought a new phone for "years" (3.5 years, not a big achievement) and that my phone has no damage to the screen.

I bought a really good case that makes it practically indestructible. The case was expensive (I think RRP is £70 although it was on sale when I bought it and I used some of my survey-reward Amazon vouchers as well) but so worth it - my phone doesn't have a scratch on it. Even after the time I dropped it in the airport and it skidded about 10m along the hall.

I also made sure that our phones are covered on our contents insurance policy (we've got an 'items away from home' add in that covers mobiles) but that is another story.

EssexHebridean

My phone is now also over 3 years old and again thanks to a nice rubberised outer case and ALWAYS having a screen protector on it it certainly doesn't look that age. It amuses me when I see friends routinely upgrading to the new phone each two years "because it's upgrade time" when their existing phones are absolutely fine! Thankfully I like my current one and won't be able to get a replacement with the same dimensions (it's an iPhone SE) so I'll be very happy to keep it as long as I can!

As for your slump where nothing much can be done - might the odd pennies in your bank accounts be your friend here? Each time I log in to our online banking I "round down" our joint account and my personal one at least to the nearest pound, and often to the nearest £5, and then pop that money that I have "skimmed off" into savings. You could pay across to debt instead, or even start a savings account which you stash money into then pay to debt when you reach a certain level?

OnlyPariah

I used to be that person. I would change my phone every year or two years. Whenever my contract was up. It's so much cheaper to hang on to your phone.

GeorgianaCavendish

I used to change at upgrade time too and I always used to buy the handset from my network provider. So expensive! :eek: I'm on a SIM only deal now and I love it!

Good idea about the rounding down balance, I'm also curious about the "rounding up transactions savings" thing that various banks are doing now (is there a proper word for it?). I'm going to ride out the rest of this pay cycle - 12 days and counting! - before making any changes, but I'll do some more research.

EssexHebridean

Oh the "save the change" thing you mean? It does seem like a good idea in theory - if you make a lot of transactions though and always do that it could certainly risk throwing a budget off kilter.