5,000 miles and even more pounds

magicgal

Please take the holiday. I know it feels counterproductive but if your mental health deteriorates, it will make your main goal harder. Take some space and go back with renewed energy. It will fee less ‘heavy’. 

You are doing so well. Giving yourself something good won’t change that. 

One-step-at-a-time

That credit score update at just the wrong time happened to me once too-  not only was it 3000 or so behind from the normal lag, but they'd double-counted an £8k transfer. Until I twigged what had happened I had a massive panic about being defrauded! 
I'm with Ryan on the holiday - taking care of your mental health is essential. 

Smashingitnow

So much has happened! I am back in the UK and on the verge of paying off 10k of debts...
SOrry not to have updated...I will later today and you will I hope understand that this has been a massiv, scary emotional rollercoaster and there has been a LOT going on!!!
I feel good, if a bit shell shocked.
Right this morning I just casually paid £850 to my Barclaycard (DD for the minimum came out on Monday and new bill not issued yet)!
I have £10k in my bank account. My debts I have lost track of but are 14k max so although I am now UNEMPLOYED I should be able to pay off the bulk MONTHS earlier than thought and get my minimum payments down to something mangable on benefits (since I am staying with family who are housing and feeding me).
Thank you so much - thinking of everyone on here has helped me keep going.
I am off volunteering this morning and need to leave the house but will write out the full story later and ask for some advice as I feel a bit weird paying off the debts and not sure which £4k to leave!!
K

ryanm8655

Wow! Sounds like big things have happened and hopefully for the better for your happiness!

Smashingitnow

ryanm8655 said:

Wow! Sounds like big things have happened and hopefully for the better for your happiness!

Yes!!! So good to hear from you. I have been reading posts but just everything felt like such a mess I didn't know where to begin. I've been volunteering this morning so going to have a late lunch and then I will spill the beans! 

Smashingitnow

So...
I quit my job on September 22nd after another private video call with the new pyscho weirdo creepy boss from hell. Won't go into details. Very disturbed. I managed (although international flights are technically banned still) to get a flight out on the 25th.
So I didn't work my notice. Was unsure what I would be paid etc.
Got back without a PENNY. My aunt gave me £200 as a gift and my little brother paid for the train from heathrow to a town near home.
Minimum debt payments had just got down in September to thw sub £500 area
But my flight, my extra luggage, a few other bits (NOT extrvanagances) had to go on credit card.
I had to give all my money reminaing in India to my landlord as I was basically leaveing early! He's been very good.
So with no job and minimum monthly payments £100 in excess of benefits, it was a bit worrying. I was thinking I might need to default on one card but hoping I could scrape together some cash by working....it's hard as I've been a director or senior manager for a while and have no experience of the sort of seasonal work that is picking up now.
ANyway yesterday my old work emailed - a v junior person - to say they had put £10800 in my account.
No reason for this. No payslip. I was owed between £2k and £3k max.
Was it a mistake?
I had a nervous few hours not touching the money(after checking yes indeed it was in my account)
I then emailed thank you copying in someone senior
24 hours later and no issues raised. It was not a mistake. It is just the sort of bloody weird thing that happens in the ocuntry I was living!!!!! But this time for the first time it was good news for me!!!!!
So I have £9700 (as I owe family £300 and made an extra payment to Barclaycard today of £850 but daren't touch the rest...it's all so surreal) and debts as follows...
Barclaycard: £7700 (19.9%)
Paypal: £1885 (19%)
Loan: £1100 (12% and payments of 143 monthly)
Marbles: £3125 on zero per cent til February, by which time I would hope to have a job of some sort
So I can't pay everything off, but I can get pretty close!!!!!
Still can't believe it and as I didn't tell any friends or family about the debt, I can't tell them about the windfall (as they will think I am loaded when actually I am just out of the pickle!!!)

Smashingitnow

Can I just one really stupid thing...not sure if anyone understands it
I want to enjoy spending this money! I mean - I only will spend it on paying off the debt
But rather than say make one payment to the Barclaycard of £5k I want to make 20 payments over a fortnight of random amounts
I feel this would make me very happy!!!!! Becuase I got a bit addicted to the feeling of paying off a debt and thought I was a good year away from being debt free and want to BLOODY ENJOY IT!!!!
Is there a reason not to do this? 

Thanks my loves. I know I am so, so, so, so lucky. Not one penny of this is going on shopping. I truly have changed. Not one pound is going towards a coat from a charity shop or anything else...it is 100% going to the debt and I am so lucky.

ryanm8655

Wow...what a journey!

The £10k does sound random...I had assumed it was a redundancy payment...was it a tax rebate or something?

Terrible bosses can make or break a role. Especially if you’re in a smallish organisation and it’s someone near the top messing you around. 

Any reason not to pay in small increments? The time wasted ha. I’d just want it gone but I can see where you are coming from ha. Personally I’d channel that energy into other things.

Whats the plan on the job front? I guess it’s a less than ideal time to be searching for another job...plus you probably just want some time to breathe ha.

It must be tough not being able to tell anyone but I sort of know what you mean. I felt I couldn’t tell family about my windfall from being owed a month of holiday pay as they’d ask me for more rent It’s hard holding in that excitement!

Smashingitnow

ryanm8655 said:

Wow...what a journey!

The £10k does sound random...I had assumed it was a redundancy payment...was it a tax rebate or something?

Terrible bosses can make or break a role. Especially if you’re in a smallish organisation and it’s someone near the top messing you around. 

Any reason not to pay in small increments? The time wasted ha. I’d just want it gone but I can see where you are coming from ha. Personally I’d channel that energy into other things.

Whats the plan on the job front? I guess it’s a less than ideal time to be searching for another job...plus you probably just want some time to breathe ha.

It must be tough not being able to tell anyone but I sort of know what you mean. I felt I couldn’t tell family about my windfall from being owed a month of holiday pay as they’d ask me for more rent It’s hard holding in that excitement!

Oh exactly!
I honestly don't know what the 10 (nearer 11!) K is for. It could be a tax rebate and that is most likely. Or they could have paid me three months' notice to keep me quiet or they might have been under paying me (as my salary in my bank account was always miles under my pay slip!)
I am applying for jobs and had two interviews. I'm also setting up a marketing consultancy business which I am loving but have no actual customers 😂😂😂😂
Just getting used to the UK again. I keep taking photos of everything and saying weird things in shops! I was only gone 10 months but I seem to stand out in some way...the Covid rules are different here.
Right. I'm off now to pay £718 off my Barclaycard!!!
I am genuinely a bit worried that once I've paid everything off that I can I need to get in a new mindset...will be minimum payments after that til I get a job and will have to work out when new debt free date will be!!! Will have a snoop of your diary too 😁😁😁

ryanm8655

Smashingitnow said:

ryanm8655 said:

Wow...what a journey!

The £10k does sound random...I had assumed it was a redundancy payment...was it a tax rebate or something?

Terrible bosses can make or break a role. Especially if you’re in a smallish organisation and it’s someone near the top messing you around. 

Any reason not to pay in small increments? The time wasted ha. I’d just want it gone but I can see where you are coming from ha. Personally I’d channel that energy into other things.

Whats the plan on the job front? I guess it’s a less than ideal time to be searching for another job...plus you probably just want some time to breathe ha.

It must be tough not being able to tell anyone but I sort of know what you mean. I felt I couldn’t tell family about my windfall from being owed a month of holiday pay as they’d ask me for more rent It’s hard holding in that excitement!

Oh exactly!
I honestly don't know what the 10 (nearer 11!) K is for. It could be a tax rebate and that is most likely. Or they could have paid me three months' notice to keep me quiet or they might have been under paying me (as my salary in my bank account was always miles under my pay slip!)
I am applying for jobs and had two interviews. I'm also setting up a marketing consultancy business which I am loving but have no actual customers 😂😂😂😂
Just getting used to the UK again. I keep taking photos of everything and saying weird things in shops! I was only gone 10 months but I seem to stand out in some way...the Covid rules are different here.
Right. I'm off now to pay £718 off my Barclaycard!!!
I am genuinely a bit worried that once I've paid everything off that I can I need to get in a new mindset...will be minimum payments after that til I get a job and will have to work out when new debt free date will be!!! Will have a snoop of your diary too 😁😁😁

All of your debt is on 0% right?

If that’s the case and you can trust yourself not to dip into the money for other spends then why not clear it more gradually and keep the money in savings? Only other issue is if having that much would impact a claim for benefits? Not sure what the threshold is...