Facing reality

Sarahwithlove

mrsmoneypenny90 said:

hi @Sarahwithlove glad you treated your self to a few bits, it’s important to do that every now and again whilst still on the debt busting journey otherwise you will go mad. 

I agree with you about the alert on your credit report, that is worrying, but I would wait until your report is ready and you will know more about the account then. It’s not a change in an overdraft or anything like that is it?

keep on enjoying this lovely weather, certainly makes it easier for have spend free days doesn’t it ! 

Nope I don't have anything with TSB and I don't recognise the 4 digits it gives for the account number. It suggests it's a bank account rather than a card or anything. I haven't opened any new accounts for over 6 months. Have to wait and see what info i can find out and contact their fraud team. 

Sarahwithlove

Update to my debts today, paid £200 off my RBS card and £44 off tesco card and adjusted the direct debit to a set £50 per month ongoing rather then minimum. Once my RBS card is paid off I will increase it again. I have another £100 put aside to come off the RBS later this month but don't like to pay it until nearer the end of the month in case there is an unexpected expense. Cashed in my £6 on prolific today and got some money back from a friend which I have moved to my beauty expenses category in YNAB as hoping it won't be too much longer before can have a hair cut and either massage or chiropractic appointment. Not much planned for June for me, no birthdays etc so hoping I can have a few non spend days. 

Sarahwithlove

Paid off some more of the credit card today so it's now below the £1k mark. I'm hoping that by end of the summer it will be cleared and only have the one credit card left to work on.
Hairdresser contacted me to book on for my cut mid July so that's exciting can't actually wait. Could do with a massage more.

My energy is due for renewal so did comparison and checked out cash back options and arranged the switch. So could end up with a month of paying my energy bill twice next month. Luckily I got a notification from my bank to say now that I've been with them for a year I get my £50 bonus so that will cover that. I'm only £4 in credit with my current energy so don't think will get anything back after they take bet DD and do finalised bill. But I save £8 per month so better than nothing. 
Im also happy to report that I got to the bottom of the new account it was because I transferred some money I didn't want to use into an old account that had been empty for a while so that's a relief. 

Work have also confirmed that they will pay me for my desk I brought so that will be another £35 back next month and I just got past the cash in on my prolific and zipzero. Though for that I need to sort out which utility bill as I am changing energy companies. But it will all help. 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Just caught up on your diary, you've been doing great, loads cleared!  Being sub £10k is a lovely milestone
Your housemate sounds a pain in the bum and like she's taking major advantage.  If you eat together every night, could you alternate cooking each night (and buying ingredients), whoever doesn't cook, clears up.  That way, she's automatically buying and cooking half the meals and doing half the tidying up.  If she refuses, you could just separate meals completely.  Otherwise, she's getting the best of both worlds and you're getting screwed over.

Sarahwithlove

ohshithowdidthathappen said:

Just caught up on your diary, you've been doing great, loads cleared!  Being sub £10k is a lovely milestone
Your housemate sounds a pain in the bum and like she's taking major advantage.  If you eat together every night, could you alternate cooking each night (and buying ingredients), whoever doesn't cook, clears up.  That way, she's automatically buying and cooking half the meals and doing half the tidying up.  If she refuses, you could just separate meals completely.  Otherwise, she's getting the best of both worlds and you're getting screwed over.

Thanks I was really pleased to get below the 10k mark. On housemate front things have got better. I've been a lot stricter about food and tidying up and we're doing OK at the moment. 

Sarahwithlove

So not sure if I have done the right thing or not but I moved around some funds including my emergency fund and cleared my RBS credit card. I now have just the Tesco card left to pay off now. I did this because I wanted it gone and the feeling of knowing I only have one card to work my way through is great. I also have £1400 saved to cover my car insurance, repairs etc and my football season ticket when it eventually becomes a reality. If in an emergency I needed to use it I could or I have my virgin credit card which has 18 months interest free left on it with nothing on it. Ideally I am hoping nothing goes wrong and I can build my emergency fund back up really quickly by postponing my repayment of tesco other than the standard £50 a month I have been paying by DD ongoing for a few months to get the EF back up to £1k. I usually pay somewhere between £350-400 a month off the RBS during lockdown so my hope is I can do that for next 3 months plus any extra I make or save from other pots. My car is full (1st time I refuelled last week since lockdown) and I have £50 in my petrol fund at the moment for if needed. I'm also due back £35 this month and £35 next month in mileage from work so both can go back into that fund. Now I have rambled on a bit I feel much happier about my decision to clear it. Just need the payment to process on my credit card so that when I log into the banking it shows as £0 again. I have my haircut booked in for middle of this month, money already put aside for this so let's hope it can go ahead and we're not back in lockdown by then as it needs it so badly. I forgot about my contents insurance so had to pay that this month but luckily only about £65 so that was OK and my nephews birthday is next month so ordered his present which was another £25 I had forgot about. This month is also my energy switchover so that means two looks of DD coming out this month but again I used the £50 bonus from RBS to fund the 2nd DD. So all in all feel OK about funds and just plodding along with it all. 

Sarahwithlove

Mid month update. Still going ok, money is a bit tight but only in the sense that I have had a lot of unplanned extras and clearing of my CC means a much stricter budget for me. 
Energy move is now complete just waiting for first DD to come out so that I can then go into my account and change my DD date to the 1st to make life easier. Think I could end up having to make a double payment in August as well which is ok as I can plan for it.I also had to throw out several pairs of my leggings due to holes in them and replace them. Hair has been cut and massage booked for today thank bod as my back needs it so bad. 
My brother and his wife have split up so I really need to work on paying him back the 1k I owe him, I know he said before not to worry but now money is going to be tight due to his own housing costs and child maintenance the extra money will help. 
I do need to stop the takeaways though as my spending money for the month is basically gone. 
Just going to keep plodding and hopefully make it through. 

ryanm8655

You're doing great and shifting around the funds to clear a credit card sounds sensible to me.

Glad the housemate situation has got better, nothing worse than feeling uncomfortable in your own home.

Sorry to hear about your brother, maybe paying that back quickly can be the motivator for eating less takeaways! Though I've started to get worse on that front (had 4/5 in the last couple of weeks) so also need to knock them on the head.

Sarahwithlove

ryanm8655 said:

You're doing great and shifting around the funds to clear a credit card sounds sensible to me.

Glad the housemate situation has got better, nothing worse than feeling uncomfortable in your own home.

Sorry to hear about your brother, maybe paying that back quickly can be the motivator for eating less takeaways! Though I've started to get worse on that front (had 4/5 in the last couple of weeks) so also need to knock them on the head.

Thanks for stopping by. My brother has actually told me not to worry about paying him back. Not sure how I feel about it. Thinking I will probably just put it to bottom of list and see how things are for him this time next year. 

So last month ended up being an expensive month with some unexpected expenses. I forgot my home insurance was due, luckily its just contents and did comparison site. But was £65 I wasnt expecting.
Also been told that going to be working from home for at least the rest of this year. So moved my room around to make space for a desk (£55) as getting our own monitors (23 inch) and discovered some damp. So spent £50 on damp/mould remover and paint. Then as it's white paint (more like a paste) and left my walls patchy I have painted my room. First coat was done over weekend and second coat going to do on Wednesday. Which was another £50 spent on all bits needed for that. Expensive but be worth it as already looks so much better.
So this month I think will be only making basic card repayment but that's still £250 so it's not all bad. I have an extra £25 assigned at the moment to that category. Also have my nephew and future sis in law birthday next week, presents were brought last month too. I was good and stuck to my budget of £25 for him and £5 on hers which hopefully she will like. I had a photobook made for her hen night we had in March before it all locked down. There wedding has been postponed now to April next year which is a shame. I also restarted my massages and had my haircut which I had budgeted for as knew was needed but I ended up having a 2nd massage as my muscles were sooooo tight. I'm booked in for every 2 weeks going forward and have budgeted for them along with hair cut every 8 weeks so half in each month. 
All these unexpected expenses has got me thinking and I have added some more categories and goals on YNAB to make sure I have a fund for home improvements, presents, beauty treatments, holiday fund (visits to brother in Germany and his family) and one off expenses such as insurance, ynab and prime.

Luckily my car still has 3/4 a tank so another month without petrol being needed. My mileage at work is going to go down significantly so hopefully in November my car insurance renewal will be alot less. Football isn't likely to be back for full capacity until at least January so won't need the fill amount for that. Also have credit from this year's on account as well. So it's all looking more positive over the next few months but it just isn't happening as quickly as I would like. 😭🙈
Right off to update my signature. 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Sounds like you're doing great.  Definitely worth decorating your room; if it's your bedroom AND work space, you must spend a lot of time in there, has to be a nice environment