My journey to a debt free life

Onebrokelady

Omg,it's such a lovely sunny day today,I've just been out for a lovely walk with the dog and it's sooooo hot out there. I have two days off now so had a lie in this morning then got up and had a leisurely breakfast,I've been busy since though as I've washed all my cushion covers and I've been out in the garden and scrubbed the table and chairs so we can sit outside to eat if we want I've got two loads of washing on the line as well

My post just arrived and it included a new debit card from my old NatWest account,they made me send my old one back when I started my DMP so god knows why they have sent me another,it did cross my mind that I might now be able to draw out the £184 that my daughter accidental paid into my old account,but I'm not sure if they would let me and I then immediately thought I prefer the fact that it's paid off some of the debt,it would have been nice to add it to my emergency fund though,I suppose now I've got a card I could pay extra payments off that OD if I wanted to and had the money spare,it's highly unlikely I will have the money spare but I would love to pay it off quicker than I am
How times have changed though,last year I would have gone straight into town to the bank to try and get that money back but I'm liking the fact that I've paid it off and I'm not in desperate need of it so it's best if I leave it alone

I'm just sitting here having a late lunch break then I getting back to cleaning my house up,I haven't done anything for days and it really needs hoovering so that's my next job followed by cleaning the chickens out,they are currently sunbathing outside the back door,the sun shines on my patio all day and the ground gets really warm,they will lie there all day with their wings spread out basking in the sun,they get really grumpy if I disturb them and lots of disgruntled clucking ensues if I make them move,not that they are in charge or anything you understand :rotfl:
The only fly in the ointment of today is that yesterday at work my headache and facial neuralgia came back,it was gone when I left work but has come back today,so I'm in a bit of pain today,I ran hot water over my face in the shower this morning as that seems to help but it's come back now,I'm just going to ignore it though and carry on with my day
I hope everyone else is having the same lovely weather we are,it makes my bones feel so much better

Onebrokelady

A very productive day here today,I've cleaned the house and had a massive clear up in the garden,I've been out there all afternoon and it's was sooooo warm,I really enjoyed getting out and doing something physical for a change and the garden looks really nice now,I will be able to sit out in the back garden now if the weather is good
The next job in the garden is to move the chicken coop back up to the middle section of the garden. I had to move them onto the patio in an emergency last year because it was on soil and we had an invasion of rats,they dug into the run and we couldn't get rid of them so I moved them down to the patio which is concrete,it's not practical for them to stay there though as they do smell even if you keep on top of cleaning them out and I like to sit out in the garden in the summer so they need to be moved back up the garden, I need to prepare the ground first though so lots of digging will be going on over the summer,I have paving slabs to move and lay down so we won't get a rat problem again,this is a project I can do over the summer and it won't cost me anything as I have all the bits for it already and it will keep me busy so I don't go out spending money

Onebrokelady

Oh dear,the poop hasn't hit the fan this week,my daughters cat has been having ongoing treatment for a corneal ulcer and today I took him for a check up and it's got worse because he has managed to scratch it and has punctured his eye luckily there is a blood clot in the hole so his eye hasn't ruptured yet,he had to have another operation and they have made plasma eyedrops from his blood,I now have to apply these drops every hour for the next 24 hours,the problem is the cost , so far it's cost £800 and £500 has been covered by insurance but the insurance has a £500 limit per condition so it at its limit now, my daughter now has to pay the bills herself and she is really stressed out about it because she is at uni and only has her uni finances to live on,she has sold one of her games consoles and is selling another soon to go towards the bill but this will only go so far,Im thinking I might have to use my emergency fund if she can't find the money,the cat might need further surgery and there is a big risk that he will lose his eye so it's very serious,I just hope it doesn't rupture in the meantime:eek:

Cherryfudge

Oh no, the poor cat! And the rest of you. Vets' bills can be high... speak from experience there. I wonder whether the vet has any scheme where payments can be made by instalments?

Do hope all works out well, and soon. And I hope you don't suffer too much from being up all that time to do the drops.

Onebrokelady

Cherryfudge wrote: »

Oh no, the poor cat! And the rest of you. Vets' bills can be high... speak from experience there. I wonder whether the vet has any scheme where payments can be made by instalments?

Do hope all works out well, and soon. And I hope you don't suffer too much from being up all that time to do the drops.

Its still ongoing, I took home for his post op check and the vet today says they want the ophthalmologist to see him (£200) she spoke to the ophthalmologist and she suggested new oral antibiotics and will see him tomorrow,I asked if I should carry on with the plasma drops and the vet said no the ophthalmologist says they probably didn't help much, then she said I could carry on with them if I wanted to as it wouldn't hurt,I have carried on giving them to him seeing as we paid over £50 for them:eek:his eye looked a bit better yesterday but not as good today,I'm so angry about this now because they don't seem to know what they are doing,I'm going to tell them tomorrow that there is no more money and see what they say then,if we had seen the opthalmologist in the first place it would have been covered by the insurance and the problem would have probably been solved by now, I'm going to tell them that if they can't garantee that what they are doing is going to,work I want them to take his eye out because he could get another one and we will end up in this position again

Onebrokelady

I seem to have lost a bit of momentum over the last couple of weeks,I didn't post for a week mainly because I have been busy running round with the cat and working etc etc etc but also because my mood has taken a nosedive and I just wanted to stay under my duvet all day......I hate feeling like this...I become paralysed with indecision and can only function enough to do the bare minimum and go to work
Lots has happened in the last week that I will write about but I'm off to bed shortly because I'm shattered, I don't have DGS tomorrow because they have gone away for the week so I can have a lie in and apart from taking the cat to the vet I don't have to go anywhere so will be doing houses things for most of the day

I also became aware today that I'm in danger of spending money on things I don't need,I saw a jacket the other day and went to try it n this morning intending to buy it but luckily i didn't like it once i tried it on so walked away,I would have bought it though if it had looked nice and while I could do with a jacket to wear I don't desperately need one as I have a light weight coat that is still perfectly fine,it's getting a bit old but summer is coming and I won't need a jacket over the summer hopefully
Last week I also bought some new converse type shoes from New Look,now I did need these because I only have boots at the moment so I justified buying them and at £17.99 I thought they were a bargain,anyway I wore them on Saturday and noticed they were starting to split down the sides so I took them back today and got a refund,I then went to Primark and got a pair that look exactly like Converse shoes but they were only £6 so I'm glad I took those other ones back
I think my lack of focus has come about because of my mood and the fact that I didn't post on my diary for a week,I'm stressed out about the cat so went into my shop to cheer myself up mode,well I've noticed it now and it's not happening,It was pay day on Friday and I got paid a nice healthy amount ( which is another reason I was going to spend,I got extra money so why not was my reasoning, well you are on a budget is the reason so there) so tomorrow I'm going to do my budget for the month so I know exactly where I am financially before I completely blow it

Onebrokelady

Right I've done my banking and I am super pleased to report that I have enough money to put some saving away this month after all and all the bills are paid,Stepchange have taken their payment so I've been able to update my signature and I'm now in the 16,000s bracket,this has put a big smile on my face this morning and I'm excited to see it's gone down,the state of play now is
£100 to emergency fund so that's now back up to £400
£50 to Xmas fund so that's now £200
Debt down from £17,630 to £16,994
I've done this this month because I was owed money from work and I worked two bank holidays and a Saturday and Sunday last month,it meant last month was really tight because they took a double payment for my bus pass but it was a valuable lesson because I found out I can survive quite easily on my basic wage if I have to at any point,I didn't go riding all month because I couldn't afford it but it coincided with my low mood so I didn't have the motivation to go anyway,I've budgeted for it this month so hopefully I will go back if I can regain my mojo
I also still have the money I get from DD2s boyfriend which we can use to pay for the cat, my lovely mum has given us the money to pay the ophalmolgist today and my DD is going to pay her back as soon as she can,my mum has said she doesn't want paying back but my DD won't accept the money so she will get it back one way or another.
I also have £65 left in the bank after everything is paid so Ive got that for anything I haven't accounted for,I put the savings away this month thinking
that if I need it for the cat I can just draw it out the savings,rather than leave
it in my current account where it would be likely to get frittered away,I feel I'm a much better place now this morning just from checking my bank account
The lesson has been learned,stay focused and keep your eye on the ball,use your diary and keep plugging away

In other news today is the day the cat has to go to see the ophalmplogist and I'm hoping for good news,I can't tell by looking at his eye if it's improved or not,sometimes it looks like it has but then other times it looks like it hasn't,he is so fed up of wearing a cone on his head and I feel so sorry for him because he keeps bumping into things and can't wash properly,he is a very fastidious cat so it must be driving him mad not being able to wash,I left the cone off for 5 minutes this morning so he could wash himself and he looked like he was in ecstasy licking away,he is currently snuggled up on the back of the settee by the radiator because despite it being May the 1st it's bloomin cold here today so I have the heating on,Ive also rebelliously pegged some washing out even though it was spitting with rain,the sun is shining too and it's windy so hopefully it will dry anyway
I'm doing house things today so when I get back from the vets I'm sorting out my bedroom,I have lots of wool I don't want so I'm taking it to the charity shop at work in the morning,I'm fed up of having bags of wool everywhere that I'm not going to use so it's going tomorrow

Onebrokelady

The cats appointment went much better than I thought it would,the opthalmologist said his eye has a sequestrum on it which is basically dead tissue on the cornea and the cloudy area we can see is the eye trying to heal itself,she said she wants to scale back the intensive treatment we have been told to do,so now we only have to do eyedrops twice a day and no mor invasive procedures by the vets,we don't have to take him back for a month now and she wants to let nature do the healing along with the anti biotics we are currently using
I'm a bit annoyed with the vets because they have been making us go weekly and each time we go they scrape all the stuff off the surface of his eye because they say it needs to come off to heal,this is the opposite of what should have been happening,they should have left well alone,so we have basically wasted £800 on treatments that were wrong,she explained the condition as being like a scab on a wound,it heals from the inside out and if you keep picking the scab it takes longer to heal so each week it has healed a bit they then picked it off,when we go back in a month I have made the appointment with her not the vets because I want her to assess the healing that's gone on this month,It cost £192 but I think it's worth it if the problem is solved,I have £108 left to add to the bill next month so we only have to put another £100 towards it,hopefully that will sort it out,she said it can take month to heal but I feel a lot more confident now,we have been keeping him in but she says we can let him out if we want,he likes to fight though so I'm not sure yet what to do,being indoors is driving him mad though and he doesn't have to wear his collar all the time now just if he is likely to scratch it which is usually after applying the eye drops,he looks so happy tonight and so am I

Onebrokelady

Phew another busy few days, I've been at work which has been manic but I'm glad to say I have two days off now,it's well timed because I have hurt my neck today and I can't move my head very well,I'm still gently tryi g to love it from side to side and up and down so it doesn't seize up but it painful,I have a heatpad on it at the moment to see if that will help
The cat is looking good today and he seems happier in himself now apart from I haven't let him out yet,I really want to because he is driving me mad meowing at the door but I'm too scared he will get into a fight with the neighbours cat,I might give him another week indoors and then let him out1,he managed to get out last night and I had to chase him round the garden in the dark in my slippers and pjs:eek::rotfl:,I managed to catch him though
Money wise everything is ok at the moment and is just ticking along,I had a letter from a company called Westcot to say they are now managing my NatWest account but no mention of whether they will default it or stop charges and interest,Im going to write to them again to ask them to stop any charges etc
My diet has gone totally out the window over the last week,I think it's because I'm back on my antidepressants and I've now had to go back on the other ones I was taking for nerve pain because I have Trigeminal Neuralgia and it's flared up really badly,I have had a headache everyday since March the 29th so I went to my gp and she put me back on amytriptiline which I hate but if it works on this pain then I'm taking it,both my meds cause weight gain though simply because they make you feel hungry all the time so I'm going to have to keep and eye on my diet,I'm giving myself tomorrow to have a last big treat then it's back on plan from Sunday,I don't want to undo all my hard work,I've been walking a lot more recently too,I walked to work last Sunday instead of getting a taxi,it took me an hour but I felt so energetic when I got there so I think I'm going to try and keep that up if the weather is good and it saved me £10:j

Cherryfudge

You are making great progress - money and exercise both going in the right direction! And I'm so pleased the cat seems to be on the mend. Nice of your Mum to help out there.

Good to see your debt down under £17,000 - well done! Just take care of yourself especially as you've got health issues. Walking to work is impressive... I walk to work but it takes less than five minutes which is why I'm impressed with your much more substantial walk. All those £10s will soon mount up and hopefully you'll get a break from the weight-increasing meds too.

I shouldn't try to post in the middle of the night: I can't string ideas together properly! I hope you get the gist. Meanwhile I'm off back to bed and sleep.