A fresh start on the long and bumpy road.

charlies_tribe

I've had a couple of diaries but I haven't updated properly for a while. After some big changes I have decided to make a fresh start.

I struggle with mental health issues, anxiety, depression, agoraphobia... and I am again off work sick, been off just over a week. I was off for 9 months last year, I went back on very reduced hours but the sleepless nights, the panic attacks, feeling sick and constant crying got the better of me and I broke down in tears in front of my colleagues again. I have a habit of spending while stuck at home so with my health and lockdown I have well and truly fell off the wagon.

Due to only working 12 hours I wont be eligible for sick pay. I could stay off 'sick' or I could take up to 9 months lifestyle break. I'm still trying to figure that out. This means I HAVE to make cut backs. I need to start reducing the outgoings. Food will be the obvious one. More home cooking, cheap and healthy meals and snacks.

I also want to work on my mental and physical health. I want to lose weight and exercise. Other than work I haven't left the house. I NEED to remember to take my medication and have started taking vitamins too. Not just me but the whole family needs to work on this, we have all been putting on to much weight.

Now to the reason I am actually here, The DEBT! On my first diary I started off with just under 35k of debt. This is slowly going down. As much as I would like it gone quicker its going to be a long journey. 
These are estimates at the minute as DS has the laptop and I have managed to lock myself out of one account, will update it as soon as I can. 
L credit card £9300
B credit card £8492
M credit card £2080
C finance      £983
BNPL             £1300
Council tax  £260 (I have been waiting for a reminder as can't find the letter).
Storage unit  £1000 (this is saved, usually paid In cash but due to situation it hasn't been paid and wanted to add everything on).
Total of £23415
Well lunch break is over, better try and get some children motivated for more school work.

charlies_tribe

Its been a busy day. Lots of washing done. Lots of school work done, dd2 is really falling behind so was good to get some done. DH has filled the bin with weeds and bramble. The children went in the pool and all showered and this evening we have been for a walk! First time the children have left the house in 10 weeks. Managed just over 4500 steps, not much but its a start.

Spending today has been shopping DH fetched on his way home this morning (not sure how much he spent) and £18 on a years subscription for DS2, been waiting for it to be discounted for a while.

enthusiasticsaver

Sorry you have not been well but good that the debt is coming down. Nice to see you again. 

charlies_tribe

Thank you Enthusiasticsaver.
Not been as busy as I should have been today. Was waiting for a consultant call this morning for ds2 and knew they'd ring the minute I moved from the phone. Spent the afternoon cutting out a life-size skeleton. 
Lovely evening walk with the youngest 3 children and the pup. Not as far as last night, i was way to shaky being out without DH but we managed 2.5km.

DH spends from Monday were £12.16 on food and on his way to work tonight he has fetched some things for DS1 birthday on Thursday.
Tomorrow will be a planned expensive day, £600 for the electrician. We really need to do a big shop too, looking like mother Hubbard here.

charlies_tribe

An early start this morning. Spent an hour scrubbing the kitchen until it looked 'ok' before the electrician arrived as that's the only room they needed access too. They got here and decided it would be easier to go up and through the loft rather than round the outside 😱 Mad panic rush round knowing they had to go all the way through the house and then through my teen boys room. I was horrified and ashamed! I must get on top of the cleaning and clutter!

He did mention we could really do with a whole new switch board as its very old and does trip. Will look in to saving for it in the next couple of years.

Other than the electrician and a phone call with DS incontinence nurse there wasn't much else done here.

Total spending today of £600 for the electrician (this came from the holiday money as we won't be going away this year).

charlies_tribe

Feeling a bit rubbish at the moment. Sent DH shopping yesterday and he managed to spend a while weeks food money on probably 2 days shopping, he seemed to forget there was only 6 of us for the bbq for DS birthday. I managed to keep some back to make another meal but he would have cooked the whole lot. He also bought CANS of named pop! I buy shops own bottles at 50p a bottle on the rare occasions we buy pop.

Then the electrician had been on Wednesday as we had used the holiday money to buy a heater for the huge pool the children had between them a few years ago and can't use because its too cold. DH plumbed the heater in yesterday and it doesn't work! The company aren't answering phones and according to recent reviews they aren't replying to emails either. This was a very expensive buy and now I'm wishing I had been able to use the credit card to buy it.

Today should be a quiet day with no spending.
Yesterday's spends was £129 on groceries and dog food (by DH).

charlies_tribe

On a good note. At Christmas we changed our Internet provider and was supposed to get an £80 gift card. I kept checking and it wasn't available. When it did eventually become available it said the offer had expired. Because of the type of offer I didn't chase it up thinking I must have missed the dates. Just received an email from the company saying sorry we had had problems claiming and the gift card was on its way to us. That'll at least cover some of DH's shopping 🤣

charlies_tribe

Its been a no spend day!

We've been busy all day in the utility room. 3 9ft long shelves have been sorted. All DH tools are together,  camping stuff together,  decorating things are together and then I have a whole shelf for lunchboxes/containers and things like the mixer, sandwich toaster etc.
There is one shelf left to do and so much has gone in the bin or in a pile for a skip.

This evening while eating dinner my front veneer has fell off my tooth. They were never on properly (my newer dentist said this) and the tooth underneath has rotted away. I just have a tiny, sharp, black stub! It looks awful. Will ring the dentist Monday but think i'll have to wait a while.

I have had a letter from work today confirming i'm not entitled to SSP and that I might want to look at claiming ESA or other help.

Off to bed soon. DH is off for the weekend as DD should have had a competition so going to get up early and set him on the rest of the utility room.

charlies_tribe

Just a quick post as off to bed.
Today has been a NSD. 
Not much got done today other than a few short naps. Felt so tired.
Yesterday's dinner was soup for me and the girls, DH and the boys had the burgers that didn't go on the bbq the day before. Today was a chicken dinner with the chicken DH had bought to make kebabs for the bbq. So glad that i managed to get him to see sense (at least a little), he would have put the whole lot on the bbq.
We need to move the big freezer back to the utility room so I have written a list of what is in there to try and use up this week, its almost empty so shouldn't take long.

charlies_tribe

Another quiet day. DH did fetch a few bits from the shop but was only bread and bolognese sauce so shouldn't have cost too much.
Spoke to DD1 this afternoon. Its good to know she's OK.
Hoping to get some more cleaning/clearing done tomorrow, there may be something hiding we could sell but DH is struggling to walk today so will see how he feels tomorrow. 

charlies_tribe

Good evening. We seem to have had a spendy few days. I've got 2 different lots of shopping coming tomorrow. I've ordered some cake pans as I'm going to attempt to make a cheesecake tomorrow! Never done it before. Worked it out to cost about £2 so not sure its much cheaper than us buying one but will see how it comes out.

DD1 came for a while yesterday. It was fantastic to see her after 12 weeks, even if we did have to sit under blankets in the garden. They are still looking to move in together at the end of the year so lockdown together for a few months hasn't put them off.

Need to go get some kids in bed and then try and sleep myself as shopping coming from 9.