2019; The year of the downward spiral.

nat21luv

The year has been awful for me; my car died, my son moved out, work dried up and my rent/utilities increased.

I wouldn't normally mind and I had an emergency fund in place and 3 months expenses. This soon got swallowed up and I find myself here in June wondering what on earth happened this year! My son moved out and took the Child Tax Credits/Child Benefit/Maintenance payments with him (and now I have to pay maintenance to his father.) I'm self employed and work dried up to be almost non-existent, I've adjusted and starting to see results but it'll take a while to get to to a level I'm comfortable with. Meanwhile, my pots are empty and I find myself in debt via a credit card, overdraft and unpaid fees. 16 months ago I also paid for private surgery (£12k) and took out a loan, it was absolutely necessary and it currently stands at £7900 with no added interest. I was fine with this debt, it was my only ever debt and I could comfortably afford it, its now a pain in my finances and along with my other debts, I'd like it paid off.

My issue right now is having the money to pay it off. I'm working furiously to get my income back, I know I will so I wanted to set up this diary for motivation.

Current debt:

CC £4473
Overdraft £500
Paypal working capital £618
Loan £7900
Energy company £711

Total: £14202

Ouch.

Anyway, onwards and upwards and I'll document my journey here


Debt payoff

July £1459
August £829

jwil

Good luck x

doingitanyway

Wishing you well. You sound motivated.

Sugarplum634

oh Nat! What a horrible time, you've been having. I've been wondering how you were. I'm so sorry life has kicked you in the goolies. Onward and upward.

Message me, if you want to chat. I've got myself out of OD and it can be done. xx

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

charlotte1988

You sound determined, Best of luck!

joeyjimbles

You sound so determined, good for you. And I'm sure you will get this all under control really quickly

nat21luv

Right, slightly late with an update but here it is:

July
CC £4473
Overdraft £0
Paypal Working Capital £358
Loan £7593
Energy Company £319

£12743

£1459 debt payments for July!

And I managed to fill up my £1k emergency fund. This has mainly been done through being really strict with my budget and selling everything. I did a car boot sale, sold on ebay, FB marketplace, and didnt buy anything that I didnt need. Im a minimalist but lost my way a little so its been really nice to come back to it and reevaluate the items in my home; why Im holding on to them and do they add value to my life. Ive really scaled back and simplified- and it feels good!

Hopefully more overpayments to come this month, aiming to get the energy company below £200 so I can switch asap, then quickly pay it off. Then make a start on my CC and try and switch, the interest is creeping in so I hope I haven't messed up my credit score too much that I still have options available.

Things are looking up and I've been ploughing my all into the business so thats starting to pay off. Need to keep up the momentum!

Hope you are all well and enjoying the glorious British summer?

nat21luv

Another month has passed already!

August
CC £4144
Overdraft £0
Paypal Working Capital £358
Loan £7412
Energy Company £0

£11914

£829 debt payments for July!

Its crazy how much money I can pay off when I put my mind to it, makes me question why I'm in debt in the first place. A lot of this overpayment comes from selling everything I dont need, ebay has been really good for me lately- long may it continue!

Business is going well, Im really getting into the swing of it again and now the kids are back at school, I'm buckling down for Q4 and getting the prep work in for a few busy months ahead.

My darling boyfriend has bought and paid for a holiday to Greece in the October half term for us and my DD, a complete surprise and for no reason at all, its an absolutely lovely gesture and Im really grateful. Now I need to add spending money to my goals list, Im thinking £300 for 5 days for 3 of us. We do it cheap, our first day we suss out a supermarket and buy groceries for lunches/snacks/drinks. Saves so much money, especially when holidaying with kids on a budget!

Anyway, eagle eyes will notice that I paid off the energy company debt, that was a priority for me so that I could switch before the cold weather kicked in and heating goes on (November 1st for me!) So I've managed to switch, saving me £300 per year and £25 cashback. Happy with that.

I'll try and post throughout the month and keep you updated with selling amounts, in truth it'll keep me motivated.

Speak soon x

nat21luv

Things are going well so far this month, I've got lots listed on ebay with a huge pile more to sort through, a big pile is forming for a car boot sale on Sunday the boyf and I will do (taking 2 cars and really filling them up!) and I'm within budget for everything.

Groceries came to £48/£50 budgeted for the week, I had to get toiletries in that too and cat food so I think I did good. It helped that I had a £5 off Sainsburys Smartshop 1st time user coupon, so I spent the qualifying £20, got £5 off and then continued my grocery shop in Asda.

Car insurance is due next month but the cheapest day for me to buy is on Thursday so money is budgeted and my boyf has suggested that I add him to my policy. Even with 9+ years no claims as a named driver, my insurance is still £300 odd a year. I've got a 1.6 petrol mini and I'm 33 *rolls eyes* I hate to think how much insurance will be for my son next year when he starts learning!

Hope you are all keeping well? I need to get back to listing

nat21luv

Update on the car boot:

It all went really well, I did a 50p stall of mainly clothes and bric-a-brac and the boyf did a stall of the more expensive things. This was probably my 4th attempt at car booting this year and I just wanted the huge pile of regurgitated clothes to go so i was more than happy with 50p each. I made a nice sum of £81, my DD made £9.50 and the boyf made £126! We've decided that this will be spending money for the holiday next month and it may teach my daughter to save her money...not counting on it though! Boyf has decided he'd like to do another so my clothes pile will be saved from charity for one more week *rolls eyes*

Car insurance was bought for £281 this year, not too bad and I'm really happy I had the money in place to be able to buy it on the cheapest day and a month in advance. £40 cahback and a £20 fuel reward voucher on its way.

Grocery shop came to £28/£30 for the week. Meal plan completed and using up everything I have to keep costs down. I split my shopping between Sains and Asda again as Sains offered me 500 nectar points on a £10 spend with Smartshop (mainly cat food and cheap tinned food that barely differs in price to asda) and the rest was spent in Asda. Thats a win in my book! Sains are offering me 1000 points for the next shop over £10 next week so I'll do the same then. That works out to be 1500 nectar points, doubled to 3000 at Xmas- equivalent to £30 in double up vouchers!

I had a lovely surprise late last week of some happy mail, I'd won a £155 M&S giftcard through a competition on FB, how lovely! Thats gone into my Xmas savings fund.

Ebay sales have been a little slow but I have roughly 50 pairs of jeans and trousers to list so I need to pluck up the motivation to get those photographed. The cold weather is looming, the mornings are chilly and I've decluttered the coat cupboard in preparation- another 3 coats found to list.

This morning was spent in the kitchen. The sun was gushing in through the open door and a small breeze brought a hint of smokey wood scent, perfect autumnal conditions for making chilli jam and a small batch of blackberry and rosemary jam. We picked the blackberries fresh last night, the last of the season I suspect, and I spent a cosy 30 mins in bed researching an easy recipe before drifting off. The chilli jam is used religiously everyday on nearly everything I cook and the blackberry jam will no doubt be devoured by my jam sandwich loving son when he visits!

Talking of which, things are in the pipeline and my DS has expressed a desire to come home- its been a long 4 months without him and I cant wait for him to be home! I had to let him go for him to come to this decision by himself, its the hardest thing I've had to do as a parent so far but he needed to learn a life lesson at the age of 15 that the grass isnt always greener...

Hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the last of the summer sun, ciao x