Fighting debt alone- the sword is out 24 December 2019 at 10:37AM in Debt free diaries 68 replies 4.1K views

MidsHollie

Hi Blackberrycurved,
I'm just popping in to wish you luck on your journey. You seem very concientious, I'm sure you will get there.
I am a nightmare for having too much clutter. I have found both the Marie Kondo approach and the Flylady approach helpful. Marie Kondo suggests having a single tiding "event" but this can be soul destroying. Flylady is the tortoise in this comparison. She advocates building up sustainable habits and decluttering for only 15 minutes a day.
I think little and often will work for both your tidying and your fitness

Blackberrycurved

Thanks MidsHollie not sure I’m conscientious more panicked into action. When my fellah died I just carried on then 3 years later I went into melt down didn’t open bills or work or anything so this is me getting my life back in more ways than one. I have a distant dream of at some point actually being able to afford a social life again before die. ���� I’ve downloaded the statement how do I upload it onto here so people can read it.

Blackberrycurved

Decluttering for 15 mins won’t work it takes me that long to declutter my decluttering brain. I’m going to aim for 2 hour chunks if I can there’s possibly stuff I can. Anyone got a thread about how to organise admin house things I have folders all of the place bank statements/ insurance/ all sorts and a pike the size of a small country that says To be filed - on it. Feeling overwhelmed again.

Buffythedebtslayer

Hello Blackberrycurved XXX

Good work on managing Christmas XX Tough time of year really.

Just a thought about the working in education without a contract, I used to do it as a supply teacher and ran my month from the first to the 31st (or whatever) instead of the intermittent pay from what ever agency I was getting paid from. I still run things the same now, even tho I get paid regularly earlier in the month.

I get paid to one account(which bills went from), send my spending money to another account, it took a bit of sorting (ie I couldn't really spend anything for the first month to build up a little reserve) but I never take the bills account card out and it sort of runs itself.

Also this year I am aiming to stop frivolous spending (!) I am not shopping for anything other than food and pet supplies in January.Oh and I am banned from Amazon. I will still go out (experiences not things) but I am going to be selective.

The lodger is a very good idea, good way to make extra cash. I also agree with Hollie, Marie Kondo is soul destroying, I am still living with the mess. Have you anything you can sell?

I know you might read my sig and think I haven't a clue but I have been in debt three times (25,000, 5000, 7000) so I know what it is like to suddenly go !!!! ! What the hell am I doing!! It is quite a fear of mine to go back to that feeling. You can get out of it though, you can and you will

Big hugs XXXX Buffy

Buffythedebtslayer

Oh and you aren't alone, you have us no, this place has saved my life in so many ways XXX

Blackberrycurved

It's 10 days since I posted, too long so I'm going to aim to post every Sunday on the previous week to keep myself accountable. A lot has happened this week, I was offered a job 3 days a week for 10 weeks. Not great casual tutor, i see to always be casual something these days but I'm going to try to save a bit of an emergency fund and maybe clear one debt by end of March. I'm going to cancel my council gym membership which is £30 a month and the pools are always cold but then I'm thinking now I have a bit of money should I join another gym with a pool for £33 but it's a year membership.
And I always do this, it's awful I try to clear debts to make it less awful and then I get a bit of luck feel better off and start planning things that I used to do when my partner was alive.
Already I'm looking at my battered bathroom and leaky house and thinking I can use the extra money to do this and this and this why am I so stupid, i have decent money for 10 weeks only - get a grip.

Step 1 cancel Gym membership tomorrow
Step 2 try to get a fund together to pay off overdraft as my bank is charging 40% from March.
Step 3 to take my lunch each day. so far I have done this for the last 6 days.
keeping on
Am I stupid?

beanielou

Good idea to try & reduce the OD as much as you can.

Blackberrycurved

I didn't know about the 40% rise until the Martin Lewis show pushes my OD up to £56 a month from £23 it's quite a lot.

beanielou

It is a lot.
Nearly double.

doingitanyway

Goodluck with tackling your OD. Seems like a sensible step to take given the increases.