Diary of a reformed shopaholic (I hope)

shoppingobsessed2020

thanks, id get rid of them tomorrow but hubby isnt so keen on me getting rid as he designed and choose the stones so i understand his sentimentally, but if it came to a roof over monkey boys head or rings on my finger, they would be gone in a heartbeat.

holidays we dont tend to bother as neither of us are fussed on going abroad and monkey boy goes away with my parents in the holidays so we are happy plodding along as we are, but rest assured if it was an issue with rings on my fingers or a roof over our head they would be gone no ifs or buts or coconuts they would be gone.   i did want to get rid earlier in the diary when i realised how much value was actually on my finger as you dont actually think of how much your wedding rings etc are worth on a day to day basis but hubby said no, we are managing ok at the moment, hopefully in a better position in a few months and will keep plodding along, but i think of them as my rainy day fund

Drawingaline

So good to see you back! Sorry to hear about your health problems, hope you are over it all now.

shoppingobsessed2020

thanks DAL, its good to be back even if i have increased the debt, honestly havent looked to confirm but im not worried about that for now.

i suppose i should elaborate more on my health issues, i dont have an eating disorder anymore, i used to be super morbidly obese, and had a gastic sleeve, had a revision to gastric bypass due to complications with acid reflux, and i lost weight and got to target.  i then started drastically loosing and being unable to tolerate food, turns out there was a rare complication when my 2nd op was done which i needed another surgery to fix after some investigative tests and op.  im as ok healthwise as i will get, i need to gain weight as im underweight but with my stomach issues fixed my consultant is happy for me to maintain slowly gain 3/5 stone to get to a healthy weight for my height and frame.  im not exactly a petite little thing, i look healthy at a size 12/14 so gettign to a 6 isnt great for my frame.  

im never going to be able to eat adult food volumes but im back eating toddler sized portions which is a huge achievement as my stomach wasnt tolerating food or fluids for a long time last year hence ending up in hospital until they got to the bottom of my issues.  the downside is i am on a very strict eating schedule to try bulk the calories out, i cant tolerate sugar so that rules out high calorie food, i also cant tolerate carbs, so bread, rice and pasta are out so im all about the protein, cheese, nuts and veg.  the only good thing is im a really cheap date when it comes to eating out.

enthusiasticsaver

Sorry about your health issues and hope things improve soon.

I remember your DH used to like borrowing to pay for expensive courses. Do they translate to extra income?

Good you managed to get a 0% deal to transfer the interest charging debt to. There are some hefty loan repayments but at least you have the income there. managing your budget must be super stressful. Do you have an emergency fund?

 I would be tempted to pay off some with the jewellery too. Is your DH on board with getting rid of the debt? 

shoppingobsessed2020

he is and he isnt thats the problem and will always be the problem i think.  he leaves me to juggle it all and as long as he pays for his courses then thats all he is concerned about.  his lordships courses havent yet translated to extra money, he is super highly qualified but it isnt enough.  this time round he is doing distance learning to top up his hnd to a degree and is also doing some nebosh courses alongside that.  if its what he wants to do then thats fine, but id have liked another years breathing room to get things on track.

ill be honest the budget isnt super stressful, it looks it on paper i suppose but ive a healthy food and fuel budget, yes the emergency fund and the car maintenance pot has dwindled to 0 due to robbing peter to pay paul, but i cant explain how not stressful it is.  company sick pay and the odd sainsburys gift card from a friend from helping with her business has helped tide things over.

i think id have been alot more stressed if i hadnt had the mbna 0% offer as my Barclays was £80ish a month in interest so now at least all the cards are interest free, im back to work next month and ive got my positive head on.  

i did work out how to pay my Barclays in full, so that is now clear and when tidying up this morning ive found a paid of trousers i was supposed to return to next last week for monkey boy so thats £11 off that balance, leaving £29 to pay next month instead of £40.

the plan is clear the cards, work out how to pay his car loan off.  if i cant then im just going to throw the extra leftover money at my mbna card to get that clear a bit sooner, its interest free is due to end november this year and his car is due to be paid off july i think, so it isnt going to make a huge deal to my spreadsheet which way round i pay them.

enthusiasticsaver

Good that you  are not stressed about it.  It seems a bit unfair he is the one adding to the debt but you are the one juggling deals and budgets. I hope your plan works out and you get the cards cleared before the 0% interest period runs out. 

shoppingobsessed2020

thanks, ive just been playing with my spreadsheet and i think all being well, by december pay day this year i can have lloyds loan 1 cleared, my mbna cleared and his car loan cleared.  thats the goal as that would free up £700 a month to throw at something else, if i manage it great, if not well at least the car loan and my mbna will be cleared this year and his lloyds loan will have had a huge dent taken out of it.  baby steps, i cant wave a magic wand and wish we were in december, 

the housework is calling my name so id best get moving.

shoppingobsessed2020

thats his barclaycard paid off in full just next months interest to pay.

phoned online banking and there was £288.01 to pay by mid march, so ive paid it now.  woohoo that means there is literally pennies in interest to pay next month.  feels productive!!!!

shoppingobsessed2020

so this was the start of the debt at the begining of my diary

Tsb............................970.......30........30

Very...........................300.......0.........0

Next...........................2000......120.......30

Loan 2.........................15100.....362.......13

Loan 1.........................16250.....450.......17

Barclays his ..................5345......120.......0

Barclays ......................6200......150.......30

Debenhams .....................2200......150.......30

Capital one....................775.......25........35

Mbna...........................10000.....150.......25[b]

we have added another loan and my mbna to this, but its now looking more like this

Next...........................40.....40.......0

Loan 2.........................6873.....362.......13

Loan 1.........................8443.....450.......17

halifax                          300         300     0
lloan 3                         14167         332

Mbna...........................18720.....500......0

my mbna                     4500      120     0

so in total thats 10 credit cards, 3 loans and 2 car loans.

we are down to interst free on all cards, we now have 2 credit cards with a balance thats all interest free, 2 that are almost paid off (will be from pay in feb), 3 loans  and 2 car loans.  im counting that as half a win, weve reduced the amount of cards that carry a balance but thats only because one card has a stupid limit.

enthusiasticsaver

Certainly your finances look less complicated now and your debt has reduced from £59140 to £52703 (not included Halifax or Next as it looks like you pay that off in full).  The big win is that the cards are interest free now.