Frugal, thrifty, make do, mend! Let this debt come to an end!

Elisheba

Oh, Shell won't let me reduce my DD payments - they are recommending I increase them to over £100 (they cut it by £15 only last month without consulting me ) . I suppose they will be considering my energy usage from last year before I cut everything back. 
Oh well. I'm obviously not going increase it. I'll just let it play out and claim it back if and when I build up some super credit. 

SuzeQStan

Elisheba said:

Oh, Shell won't let me reduce my DD payments - they are recommending I increase them to over £100 (they cut it by £15 only last month without consulting me ) . I suppose they will be considering my energy usage from last year before I cut everything back. 
Oh well. I'm obviously not going increase it. I'll just let it play out and claim it back if and when I build up some super credit. 

We are with Shell too - and when the energy crisis emerged I was kicking myself for being with them as they weren’t offering any fixed deals 🤦🏼‍♀️. The 6 month EGP reprieve gave a bit of breathing space (2 years felt better but it was a pipe dream) Feeling the need to get a shift on to move to another supplier before the end of that term for the option to fix if the rates go mad come April. We’ve built up what feels like a huge amount of credit with Shell over the summer - circa £700 and they just doubled our gas & leccy dd to above £200 after making us reduce it much like yourself only a couple months ago. 🤷🏼‍♀️

SuzeQStan

Just had a thought re Shell - do you think they are taking into account the EGP ending in April and basing the dd increases on that?? 

Jellytotts

Request your credit back and leave the DD alone for now, you'll have built it back up before you know it and that £300 can go off debt?

Elisheba

SuzeQStan said:

Just had a thought re Shell - do you think they are taking into account the EGP ending in April and basing the dd increases on that?? 

Quite probably. What they are suggesting I increase it to looks similar to what I would have increased it to without the price cap and EGP. Loathe as I am to think well of a multinational I suppose it does them no favours if people get in masses of energy debt and can't pay them. However, I'm very conscious of my energy costs and don't personally need them to play mother for me 🙄. 

Elisheba

Jellytotts said:

Request your credit back and leave the DD alone for now, you'll have built it back up before you know it and that £300 can go off debt?

Yes, I think that's what I'll end up doing @Jellytotts. 

Elisheba

Evening all, 

A no spend day again today so that's good. And it's so mild! I had to take my raincoat off on my dog walk this evening, and was feeling a bit too warm in my jumper. I haven't had to use my heated hoodie in the house for at least a week either. Long may it last. The cold, dark winter days will last long enough as it is.

I did a bit of budget forecasting today. I think I mentioned before I was going to slow down some of my debt repayment to try and get as much as possible in my LISA before the new financial year, so I can get as much of the £1k government bonus as possible. Despite having gone a bit off track last month and some of this, I've popped some figures into my spreadsheet and it's still manageable.

So once Xmas and New Year are over I'm going to plough all my over payments into the LISA instead, and all my back dated payrise. My sums suggest I should reach the £4k I need to get the fill £1k bonus. After that I'll go back to paying into Annuals pots, and overpaying debt. I should get rid of all the credit cards next year easily, and just be left with about £1k I owe to my ex and who has said don't worry about paying it back soon, save for a deposit first. And £2k on my OD, but which I won't be getting charged much for as I will by using my Amex and paying that off monthly just before I'm paid again.

So although those 2 debts do need to go obviously, they are very low priority in the grand scheme of things and I'm not too worried about them.

What I am more worried about is me sticking to budget and actually following the plan. I've gone over on my personal spending almost every month recently. I budget £100 a month for 'pocket money' to cover nights out, takeaway, alcohol and cigarettes/vape if I'm smoking that month (bit hit or miss right now), books, coffees, etc. Obviously that's not going to be enough if I'm having a day out in London, so I don't mind budgeting extra for that. I'm really loathe to budget more than that normally though as I can put the money to better use, but I'm also reluctant to cancel any social engagements as living on my own I need them for my sanity.

The solution of course is not to drink alcohol (or smoke obviously, which often follows from alcohol 🙄) but I find that difficult as well if I'm on a night out *sigh*. Hence I'm worried about sticking to a fairly tight budget as something is going to have to give 😂.

I was also thinking about holidays today. Ideally I would like to go on a coach tour in Europe next year, as that's quite a nice thing to do on your own and doesn't involve flying. However, I've given myself a stern talking to. That's a one off holiday that costs a fair bit, and which I'd struggle to pay, with all the debt I want to pay off. So I've almost decided to buy a driveway tent awning for my car and do car camping holidays in the UK next year instead.

I can get an awning for between £200 and £400 and it will be used for lots of holidays so that's good value. Campsites can be up to £25 a night these days iirc, but that's still cheaper than abroad or Air Bnb and I'd need to add petrol and spending money to that. Being on a campsite I'll have access to showers, loos, and freezers for the cool box blocks. Having the car will mean a warm, reasonably comfortable place to sleep, and somewhere to attach my dog to, and the tent awning will give me room to cook and chill out. I've got all the camping gear I'll need so no expense there. And with my heated hoodie I won't even be cold sitting outside!

Ideally if it all works out that would mean I could go on 4 weeks of camping holiday throughout the year - could possibly push that to 5 weeks with a bit of judicious use of flexi leave and bank holidays. And that would leave a week for Xmas and a week's leave for emergencies or when you just need a day off. I'll have to think about places I want to go! Anglesey definitely, and I'd love to revisit some of the Scottish islands but might be a bit pricey with the ferry. Same for Orkney, although that's definitely on my list at some point as I've never been.

Lots of things to mull over anyway, and there is nothing nicer than planning holidays on dreich winter days.

Have lovely evenings everyone. I had egg on toast for dinner, and am just going to make myself some cocoa I think. 

SuzeQStan

Your budget planning is truly inspirational - honestly the way you prioritise what you are going to pay off versus the adventures that you need to have to make life fun. 

The only advice I can give as an ex smoker myself is that I didn’t truly ‘quit’ till I took myself out of situations that enabled my smoking.  this is going to sound extreme but I changed my social group to friends who didn’t smoke. That way I didn’t feel isolated by a social group that went on smoke breaks during a night out without me. And I couldn’t nick cigarettes off them when I was tiddly either.  I changed activities and also experimented with things like not drinking on nights out.  It’s amazing how much fun I had and everybody loved me cos I drove them home end of night 😉. And I realised the horrible decisions I often made when drinking (less said the better😳).  Don’t get me wrong I still love a tipple - but not drinking as much at that time helped me to definitely knock smoking out my life. I’m not preaching - but ciggies are so durn expensive - just think of the fabulous pitches with beautiful views you could have for your awesome road trip with the money you save….sounds idyllic!

Jellytotts

We have a fairly basic large tent that cost £149, it’s got a bedroom section and you can stand up in it.  Add a lovely thick air bed and sleeping bag and it’s nice and comfy cosy. Aldi had the deep air beds for £50 last year, can buy a converter for your incar cigarette lighter to plug them into to inflate. (We always book a pitch with an electric hook up as DH needs to use a CPap machine overnight, and we charge phones/lanterns via it too).  

I’ve not heard of car awnings before, I shall have to investigate.

Elisheba

Thanks, @SuzeQStan.  These days I don't have many people I know who still smoke so that does make it easier.  I agree though, I think I'll just have to put a stopper on the old vino until I've been over the smoking for a while.  The problem is I've done it before, and as soon as I have a drink again I want a cigarette!

I did have a good tent left over from my marriage, @jellytotts, but it was a bit hard to get up myself, and then when I got my dog even more issues arose around camping so I gave it to my brother.  My dog is a big dog and seems determined to jump on strangers so I do need to have him safely tied up, so I need the car for that.  Also air beds are no good with him around as he'll try to walk/lie on them and burst them, so being able to make a bed up in the back of my car is ideal.  As my car isn't that big I need the outdoor space to cook and wash up and sit out, but its better under a tent in case it rains.  There are quite a selection of tents you can attach to your car now, but which are free standing so you can come and go in the car which will work well for me.