My journey to a debt free life

Onebrokelady

foxgloves wrote: »

Wow, Onebrokelady, I've just read your diary through & you are really making progress..Half of it is the attitude shift, isn't it? Well, it was for me.....suddenly understanding the link between my own poor money habits & never having any spare money......because what wasn't being frittered was being spent on debt repayments.
Impressed at your ability to sort out a boiler condenser pipe. I shall know what to do if we have the same problem.now!
I think savings can be made learning simple repairs/maintenance. I can remember back before the LBM, my downstairs loo blocked badly. I didn't fancy getting down & dirty with it myself so called the plumber. It wss a £45 callout charge plus hourly rate. This is what he did:
1. Came in, had quick look at loo.
2.Went out to van.
3. Came back in with huge plunger.
4. Did 2 plunges of loo, which cleared.
5. Charged me handsomely.
Next day, I went to the funny little indie hardware shop on our high street & asked if they sold very large plungers for unblocking loos. They did. I bought one for future occasions. It cost £3.
Defo a lesson learned there! I'm not sure how to subscribe to a diary, but will pop in & see how you are getting on.

Hi thanks for reading,I love my little hardware store in town,I can spend ages in there
Its definitely an attitude shift, for years ive been disengaged from my finances and not really known what was going on,money just came and it just went helped along by my little plastic friends, now Im dealing in cold hard cash Im developing all sorts of frugal habits

Onebrokelady

Cherryfudge wrote: »

Lol, to paraphrase my FiL, 'That's a pound for tightening a screw, and £99 for knowing which screw to tighten!'



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That’s a wise man
I

Onebrokelady

My first day looking after my dear GS went ok but Im knackered now
I finally managed to open a savings account tonight,I transferred some of the money left in my current account over to open it and I will pay the emergency fund into to account on Friday
I sorted out my mums mothers day pressy today but it wasnt budgeted for as I had forgotten it was next week, Ive managed to cover it but not without sacrificing some of the money that was going to the emergency fund,Ive still put most of it away so Im happy with that

Poppy1984

Onebrokelady wrote: »

To be honest it doesnt take much to make me panic buy puddings:rotfl:
I am sorry you are worrying so much its affecting your sleep,I bought some Boots own brand sleeping remedy in the end and that did help for the short term,Im not worrying as much as I was now Ive started my DMP,its really taken the pressure off,I hope you manage to get some sleep soon because it really makes you feel rubbish forgot to say Rescue Remedy spray is also very good if you are feeling panicky,I also use it at bedtime,4 sprays under the tongue,it tastes a bit alcoholic but its not too awful

Thank you lovely I will look into those, not sleeping is really taking it's toll now

System

Onebrokelady wrote: »

My first day looking after my dear GS went ok but Im knackered now
I finally managed to open a savings account tonight,I transferred some of the money left in my current account over to open it and I will pay the emergency fund into to account on Friday
I sorted out my mums mothers day pressy today but it wasnt budgeted for as I had forgotten it was next week, Ive managed to cover it but not without sacrificing some of the money that was going to the emergency fund,Ive still put most of it away so Im happy with that

You sound like me....love having GS3 on a Monday, but worn out when he goes home. Its a long day from 8.30-3...lol. Looking forward to the nicer weather so we can go to the park etc.
Since starting out DMP, I have become much more mindful of present spending and try not to spend nearly as much as I used to and when I do spend, I try and make it things that will not clutter their houses or be discarded. So consumables and things that create memories. Also as they get older they do not want anything...my mum is in a care home so it is very hard to find anything suitable..:( Birthdays I believe in, but think that Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Valentines, Christmas etc is such a waste of time and sooooooo commercialised. Especially Christmas....makes me cringe when I read about people spending hundreds of pounds on their kids....why??? I know its each to their own, and I respect that. But I am saving for Christmas and don't intend to spend more than £300 on the whole thing, including presents and food.

Good luck with the savings account. I love having our little savings pots. Makes me feel "rich" even when there is only a little bit in there.

Onebrokelady

ploppy57 wrote: »

You sound like me....love having GS3 on a Monday, but worn out when he goes home. Its a long day from 8.30-3...lol. Looking forward to the nicer weather so we can go to the park etc.
Since starting out DMP, I have become much more mindful of present spending and try not to spend nearly as much as I used to and when I do spend, I try and make it things that will not clutter their houses or be discarded. So consumables and things that create memories. Also as they get older they do not want anything...my mum is in a care home so it is very hard to find anything suitable..:( Birthdays I believe in, but think that Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Valentines, Christmas etc is such a waste of time and sooooooo commercialised. Especially Christmas....makes me cringe when I read about people spending hundreds of pounds on their kids....why??? I know its each to their own, and I respect that. But I am saving for Christmas and don't intend to spend more than £300 on the whole thing, including presents and food.

Good luck with the savings account. I love having our little savings pots. Makes me feel "rich" even when there is only a little bit in there.

I was more tired than I thought I would be but I did sleep well that night so there was a silver lining:)
I think my first year of my DMP is going to be a steep learning curve as I work out my budget and get used to not using a credit card,I had forgotten about Mothers day but to be honest even if I hadnt I still wouldnt have had the money for it,last year it went on my credit card as I had no money then either so I’m glad that i actually had money I could use this year,I know it was meant for the emergency fund but better to use that than run up credit, I’m sort of flying by the seat of my pants at the moment because Ive started my DMP while not having any savings for birthdays etc so this year Im just putting away as much as I can and dealing with each thing as it comes up,I now have DD1s birthday in June and then DGS in July so money I’m saving now will go towards that,I have set myself a budget for them both though and I’m sticking to it, I used to spend hundreds at Xmas but not anymore:)

Onebrokelady

Today was not a good day financially as I had to take the cat to the vet,he has an ulcer on his cornea probably from fighting,the bill came to £110 but luckily for me he belongs to my DD2 who lives with me so she will be paying me back, The emergency fund came to the rescue again
I spent the day cleaning the house and getting some washing done ,it was a lovely day here today
I’ve also had letters from my creditors to say they are defaulting my debts unless I make the minimum payments by certain dates ,obviously I’m not going to do that so they will be defaulted ,I going to write to them reminding them that I am doing a DMP and when they can expect a payment from SC,two of them have stopped interest but one has said they won’t stop the charges so I’m going to write to them asking them to stop the interest charges
I also want to change my signature on here to show my debt and the payments coming off as i think it will motivate me more
Tomorrow I’m going into the bank to pay my emergency fund into my new savings account:)

Cherryfudge

Good old emergency fund. I hope the cat soon recovers fully.

We have beautiful weather too, it makes life so much nicer. I too spent a chunk of yesterday cleaning!

Would SC write on your behalf? I'm not saying don't write - it's a positive move - but it would take the stress off you and is proof that you have the DMP.

Puzzcat

Cherryfudge wrote: »

Good old emergency fund. I hope the cat soon recovers fully.

We have beautiful weather too, it makes life so much nicer. I too spent a chunk of yesterday cleaning!

Would SC write on your behalf? I'm not saying don't write - it's a positive move - but it would take the stress off you and is proof that you have the DMP.

SC do write but don't push for interest to be frozen that is down to ourselves to do.

Puzz

Onebrokelady

Cherryfudge wrote: »

Good old emergency fund. I hope the cat soon recovers fully.

We have beautiful weather too, it makes life so much nicer. I too spent a chunk of yesterday cleaning!

Would SC write on your behalf? I'm not saying don't write - it's a positive move - but it would take the stress off you and is proof that you have the DMP.

The cat is looking miles better already,I think k he must have been in quite a bit of pain because he was very subdued and he’s normally quite lively,he was running round the house this morning so not subdued anymore,he isn’t impressdc by the cream we have to put in his eye though:(

I think the letters I’ve received from my creditors are just automatically generated letters that happen in this situation,they have to follow a plan so the first letters were just confirming that I’ve told them I can’t pay and warning me of them consequences,then the next letters are giving me 30 days notice of their intention to default my debts and give me a last opportunity to pay them,after this they will be defaulted and I expect I will get another letter telling me this has happened they then either keep the debt and accept my payments from SC or they sell it to a DCA at which point I will getmyet more letters explaining why,it’s such a waste of paper,I’m only writing to them because they have put some dates on these letters for when they expect payment and it doesn’t marry up with my SC payment,I just want to make sure that they know I’m with SC ( they do know really) and I want to let them know what date the money goes to SC so they know they won’t get paid until after this date and I also want to tell them that they are only to contact me via written letter and not by phone and in the case of NatWest to ask them to stop the interest. SC dont persue the stopping of interest payments the individual debtor has to do that themselves,I’m just going to throw myself on their mercy and hopefully they will agree,eventually the debt will defaulted and then interest will stop at that time,they just try everything first to get you to pay
I’m not going to get stressed out about it because I know I have a good plan and SC will back me up,I’m just going to write and quote me SC refnumber and they can see that I have a DMP in place