Old Hag Seeks Less Stress

Sancti

Hi All :T

Long time lurker, made an actual account here a few weeks ago, and after a few weeks of crazy spreadsheets I've decided to start a journal. Figured it would be fun to keep track, and hold myself accountable! I've been envious of some of the long running journals I follow on here and want to give it a try. My Mum is on here too, no doubt she will snoop sometimes (Hi Mum! :rotfl:)

I've started up a few savings challenges, but as all the threads are in full swing (and mostly ending at this time of year) I'm keeping them personal until I can jump on the threads at a more convenient time.

So, first up, have to confess I'm not an "Old Hag" particularly (imho), but was called one the other day and have decided to turn my secret shame into a tagline. I'm 29, and currently 19 weeks pregnant. At my 16 week midwife appointment, she referred to me several times as a teen and young Mum (I look very young). After a few comments, I piped up with "I'm not actually a teenager you know?". She looked at my notes again and had mistaken my birth year of 1990 with 1999! She instantly cut back with "Oh 29, you're almost geriatric for pregnancy, you're in the old hags club". Queue me staring at her in horror :eek:

But I guess Old Hag isn't the worst nickname of all time.

As mentioned, I'm pregnant. My ex-partner did a runner when I was 6 weeks. Apparently the stress and pressure of things like bills, savings and debts were too much for him (who would have known, life is stressful), and at age 30 he has quit the rat race and is living with his Mother 400 miles away, rent and bill free whilst he studies bats. I wish that was a joke. Obviously, he cannot be relied on financially, so the responsibility of paying for baby falls on my shoulders. However, instead of being referred to as ratbag, he will now be referred to as batbag forevermore.

As part of this responsibility, I have been ploughing my way through my mountain of debts. I started this journey in June, with just over £5,500 of debt. This has been reduced to £1657.25 as of today. My savings were at £0, and are now at er... £44. BUT HEY THAT'S BETTER THAN ZERO. The main goal of this was to reduce my monthly repayments, which have fallen from ~£380 per month to less than £100, thanks to strategic repayments. This is a big relief, as this reduces the pressure on me once baby arrives.

I have a few savings goals, my main ones are centred around an IKEA trip on the 2nd Oct for baby/household furniture, and Black Friday on the 29th Nov. I'm hoping to pick up any remaining baby bits during Black Friday, as quite a few baby bits can't be bought second hand (mattresses, car seats etc). Thankfully my wonderful Dad has paid for my buggy, so that's a large item off the list, but by and large the rest is down to me.

Due to my debt repayment dedication, I have thus far bought very little in the way of baby items, but I'm now switching my money strategy towards saving for baby rather than repayments. Once I am fully prepared for baby, I can switch back, but now I am 5 months pregnant I really do need to change up my priorities!

Unfortunately due to health issues, both mental and physical, I have been forced to stop working for the time being. This is annoying, and slows all my progress down, but can't be helped. I am still working on a part time, ad hoc basis, but this is infrequent. I do however have the most amazing amount of crap in my house, so I am determined to raise some more cash by being an Ebay Super Queen (this is much easier in my imagination than it probably is in reality).

Part of my long term plan moving forward is to get back into education (with the help of the brilliant teams behind me) which will be a goal for 2020/2021, so I will most likely be on the debt repayment grind for a while.

I shall start posting all the juicy numbers below for you to nose at, but for now, thanks for reading and have a fab week.

S xx

Sancti

Okay, so, the gruesome part.

DEBTS :eek:

Had to get some essentials for work from Littlewoods a while back, but I stupidly used "Buy Now, Pay Later". Didn't think it through, left it until earlier this year, then realised my £600 of purchases were going to accrue £1100 of interest if I didn't clear them by their Sept/Oct pay dates Yikes. This is why these debts are a priority, I realise that it otherwise looks a little odd (and yes, I realise I am a big dumb dumb).

Littlewoods #1: £80 remaining (pay date - 16/09/2019)
Littlewoods #2: £120 remaining (14/10/2019)
Credit Card: £464.05 remaining (monthly interest payment, £20)
Overdraft: £750 remaining (monthly interest payment, £20)
Water Company: £243.21 (monthly repayment pending renegotiation!)

TOTAL DEBT REMAINING: £1657.25

SAVINGS :money:

Goals:

IKEA: £0/£200
Black Friday: £20/£500
Christmas: £0/£520
Buffer: £0/£200

TOTAL SAVINGS: £20/£1420

Big Dates:

IKEA: Oct 2nd
Black Friday: 29th Nov
Christmas: 1st Dec

Yes I realise listing Christmas as 1st Dec looks weird, but as I will be 9 months pregnant in Dec I am aiming to go Christmas shopping during Black Friday, and clear up the remainder on Sunday 1st! Hard pass on the Christmas rush, thank you :rudolf: £520 is my absolute maximum, my immediate family is massive so I've put maximum amounts, but I'm hoping to get really thrifty and find some cheap but nice ideas. My immediate family have been absolute angels through my pregnancy and always spoil me, and so I don't want to get them nothing, but definitely keeping my eyes peeled for cheap ideas!

I will be adding trackers to my signature, I am currently doing the 1p challenge (started today) with the aim of having a little fund for baby's first Christmas next year. I've decided to add weekly though instead of daily as I'm doing it with online banking, so that will transfer on Sundays. I will also need to move next year and will start Virtual Sealed Pot for that, but currently the thought of all this cash makes me want to pass out, so I'll add that at a later date

Thanks for reading!

S xx

Dottles1

Morning Sancti
Welcome on board. I'm sorry that life has thrown you such a curved ball but you know what? Often this is what makes us realise what we are made of. You sound as though you are doing amazingly well so far and are planning ahead and you will pick up lots of tips and ideas on here. Congratulations on your pregnancy.
I'll be lurking and posting occasionally.
Good luck on this journey

beanielou

Welcome.
Wishing you well on your journey.
FB local buying/selling pages are fab.
You can pick up bits & bobs for next to nothing.
Keep plodding

Sancti

Thank you for your kind replies :heartpuls

Had a reasonably productive day. Had to have my whooping cough jabs this morning but so far feel fine, if a bit tired (but that's nothing new haha).

I called the water company earlier on. I had a really crap experience before (Feb '19), I said I didn't have much spare cash but was pressured into agreeing to a £25/week direct debit. They took the first two payments, then stopped but hadn't informed me until I started getting warning letters a couple of months ago. I have applied 3 times online for a lower water rate (they offer this to low income families) and 3 times for a new payment agreement but never received a response. I was really anxious about calling up again, but I knew if I left it much longer, the December bill would be in and I'd start really getting into trouble.

Anyway, the woman I spoke to was LOVELY. I was really embarrassed explaining over the phone I'm not working at the moment, and that I needed a lower payment plan, but she was so nice and so understanding. I was almost in tears by the end of the call! My direct debit is now £28 per month, which is so much more manageable, and she's sending me the low income forms via post so this may drop a little further. This gave me so much more confidence! I really suffer with anxiety but a good experience changed my day, absolutely chuffed.

I also signed up to prolific. I figured I could try some little side earnings in order to slide a little bit extra onto my debt repayments. So far today I have made er, 90p, but I'm hopeful! Also found my topcashback account again, it had £4.43 on it from before and I feel so stupid for forgetting about it! It pays in Amazon vouchers which will be so handy for Black Friday baby stuff.

Overall, not the worst day! I am shattered so tomorrow will be a low impact day for me, but Saturday I'm having a big house sort with my Mum, we are tackling my shoe collection (over 60 pairs :eek:) so hoping to get a lovely big chunk to put on eBay and start earning a few more pennies!

Drawingaline

Good luck with everything. As a mum of four, I will say get the basics for the baby, but you may need to save some purchases until after it's born. Even ask for Xmas if you are due in December. For example, my first three were fine with just a bouncy chair type thing. Number 4 would never be put down and had, a chair, a swing, a jumperoo and I had to invest in a decent cloth sling (but I got addicted and bought a lot, do not join any of the sling groups on fbook ever :rotfl: :eek:) local sling library's hire different types to try which are great.

Basically every baby is different and sometimes you need to use trial and error to see what works which doesn't help keeping the cost down :rotfl:

Look for free baby groups (often £1/2 on the door) to meet people if you don't have the money for all the fancy stuff like baby massage etc, often people pay for these thi:T

Drawingaline

Whoops!

Things just to get out of the house and mingle with other adults! Have a look on library and church hall notice boards, they are often advertised there.

Anyway will shut up now!

Sancti

Drawingaline wrote: »

Whoops!

Things just to get out of the house and mingle with other adults! Have a look on library and church hall notice boards, they are often advertised there.

Anyway will shut up now!

No, thank you, these are fab tips

I live quite rurally so the sling/nappy bank type places don't exist really around here, I haven't even been able to find a breastfeeding group, the nearest one is an hour away by public transport! (I don't drive). I did however get NCT courses at an amazing discount, if you're on a low income they reduce the costs by up to 90%! I got the antenatal course for about £30 (7 sessions) and the early days course for £10! (5 sessions) They were so helpful, trying to get on their baby first aid course too.

Our local swimming centre does a baby morning though, and our local cinema does a Thursday morning movie called "the big scream" which is for people with babies under 12months, I think it's only £5 entry so will probably do that too just to see other human beings :rotfl: I hadn't thought of the library, I haven't ever been in there but probably worth checking out!

I definitely have the first baby "oh my God I need everything" stress, although I asked on a pregnancy Facebook page for "essentials" recommendations and people were saying things like £60 nappy bins and wipe warmers (yes, wipe warmers are exactly what they sound like) which I will definitely not be splashing out on (sorry baby!!) I've made my own list instead, I have 1 or 2 luxuries but everything on there is pretty much the baby can't live/sleep/eat without these, so think it's pretty decent for an essentials list! Having a baby shower too so hoping some kind aunties might buy a few bits and bobs.

Sancti

Okay so I have no idea which good karma I'm deserving of, but I woke up to my reconsideration for PIP being approved, and a nice little £600 in the bank! :T £20/week backdated from February. It doesn't solve all life's problems but holy cow does it make a big chunk.

Now I have to figure out how best to distribute everything. I wasn't expecting anything and definitely not a big chunk so just trying to decide how best to split it! Definitely covers the IKEA run though so I'm chuffed!! :T

beanielou

Good news on the PIP.
You could pay off the two Littlewoods & still have money left for Ikea & bits & bobs

Charliegirl93

Great news on PIP, I've just applied myself! You'll be able to pay off a good chunk with that!!