2021 Frugal Living Challenge

roblou27

OLaney said:

Hi all, well we are self isolating here as hubs tested positive for COVID on Tuesday, he had recognisable symptoms on Monday but had felt generally rubbish on Sunday. 

@roblou27 hope hubs feels better soon x

Yesterday I had a bad day...
Mentally, I’m not in a good place at the moment....what with COVID and my ever ongoing debt issues...I know there are many many more people who are going through a lot worse and I feel so guilty about how I feel but I needed to get it written down in the hope it will help.
I don’t even know where to start really....I am trying so hard to get the debt off one main credit card but there is always something happens which puts us back and I can just never even get any money into an emergency fund quick enough as it is just gone straight away....and I just get so downhearted about it sometimes and yesterday was one of those days...
we have just had to get an engine rebuild done on my OH car which came in at the tune of £1,680 but was still cheaper than having to buy another car but an expense we could desperately have done without. However, we need the car to be able to go to work to pay off the debt which is now on his card....it’s just an ever vicious circle. I have £5,000 debt on 
my card which is coming in at 80 quid a month interest alone 😳. I tried to apply for a 0% credit card to shift some of it over and the only ones I got offered was about 6 months long with quite a high transfer fee so just not worth it. I am paying just over the minimum payment but this is leaving me with very little to live on. I guess what I am trying to say is something has to give but in the current situation it is just not possible. I am lucky that my job is still going through all this but it is fraught with anxiety as we have had Covid cases there too. 

I was driving to work the other day thinking I am going to have to put next weeks fuel on my cc as I don’t have any money left to pay for it.....so ironic that I am getting into more debt just to get to work. It is wrong on so many levels and I WILL do something about it just as soon as I am able. We have decided we are going to start selling stuff out the house to try to get them down a bit more....I watch Martin Lewis all the time and he keeps me motivated as do all the lovely people on here.
I’m so sorry for the rant but it is helping me to get to grips with it....maybe I should start a money journal or something like that. 

I hope everyone is ok and making this best of this truly awful situation we are in at the moment. 

Stay safe ❤️

Bless you Olaney, thank you he is coming through it. However our friend who has been staying through lockdowns is now not well so we are sending off tests for me and for him today. Bless him, he has Aspergers and mental health problems but wanted to take the risk of staying with us rather than being in a flat on his own and all the issues that can bring. We live a small  two bed terrace so currently the boys have the bedrooms and I have the run of downstairs. I am chief cook and bottle washer. 😉
I am so sorry that this COVID situation has made it worse, it is a nightmare on its own that feeling of debt. We were in a similar situation and felt absolutely powerless to get out of it. There is no better advice that the people on these boards so take heart that everyone is here for you and will walk with you while you go though it. The first breakthrough for me was to write it all down, the good the bad and the ugly. I cried a lot but sorted out from that a budget that worked for me and that we could work with. Once I had done that I felt more in control of the situation. It wasn’t easy but with all the good advice here we got through it. Stay positive and stay safe lovely.

roblou27

Popping in to update signature. My target was 20 NSD already at 21. Lockdown and isolation has helped. Also two weeks ago transferred Credit Cards for a further 12 months 0% interest sadly had to pay fees which bought it up a bit but at least we now have some more time to reduce it down. Also continuing the 1p a day challenge I do it by tidying my bank accounts and transferring into an unused savings account. The grocery budget will be over I think but will tally it all up come pay day a week on Friday. At the moment DF contribution is covering it.

fiwen30

Yesterday’s snow day has turned into a compacted ice day today. Glad I had the wherewithal to scrape off our steps and a path to the pavement this morning, or else the post person would’ve been skating.

Not a frugal start to the day - had forgotten about half a loaf of bread and some pancakes, which had gotten wedged into an unseen part of our ridiculous kitchen corner cabinets, and decided to turn green. Hate throwing food out, particularly when it’s my expensive gluten free bread products! Dropped £88 on a full body stabilising harness for the dog too. Pricey, but it’s a specialist piece of equipment which will help us to help him in and out of the car, and with steps, and so I don’t mind paying it to keep him safe. He’s got hydro tomorrow, and physio on Wednesday; hoping the ice has gone by then so I can get my car out.

As much as I’m sort-of-not-really bemoaning all the additional dog spends this month, we’ve done well in all other areas. Food has come in £8 under budget for the month, we stuck to our £50 household budget (spent of loft boards and a hacksaw, both very useful purchases), partner and I each had a much reduced personal spending allowance of £25 each (usually £100 each, but last month was indulgent, and so we tightened the purse this month). Partner spent his £22 on one Chinese takeaway for himself, and I used my money to post a letter, buy an under bed storage box for the bed linen, and a yoga mat to cover a slippy bit of the laminate floor for the dog. The latter 2 purchases could’ve come from savings, since they’re technically household purchases, but I don’t mind. I’ve still £8 leftover too. We budgeted a reduced amount of petrol money this month, but still have £25 left, which will roll over to next month.

balabooberlies

Olaney et al............

don't post much here (read to learn every day) but have/am in debt.  Working on it.  A marathon, not a sprint.

My friend (at the time working on a financial newspaper) sent me this about 20 years ago.  Will have to paraphrase as it's from memory.

.................................................................................

A man, in debt, had £20.00 left in his budget at the end of the month to pay his creditors.  But he kep getting threatening letters from them.  At the end of his tether he wrote to all of them.  (here comes the paraphrasing bit).

'Dear Sir/Madam,

As you keep writing to me I thought I would reply and explain.  At the end of the month I have £20.00 left to pay my debts.  I put everyones name in a hat and pick 4.  I then send them (you, if you're lucky) £5.00 each.  If you insist on bothering me every month I WILL NOT PUT YOUR NAME IN THE HAT !'.

It still makes me laugh...........

bala

X

Shopaholic_no_more

Evening everyone.....bit of a long one .....
@Blackcats Thankyou for your advice...yes I am currently going through my things to see what I can sell. In all honesty, I would like to be more minimalistic anyways so that will make it easier to detach myself from the things I don’t need anymore 😊. Most definitely will go in the emergency fund. Thankfully, we get two months break from the council tax in February and March so I will put this in the emergency fund also. This is the key thing isn’t it...trying to get that bit of money behind you in the first place so you don’t have to lean on the dreaded cc....

@Hughesfamily your story resonated with me also as I was also forced to sell the house I lived in ten years ago due to ex deciding he wanted to leave after 25 years marriage. This house had all the mortgaged paid up as well. So there I was, in my middle forties having to start all over again. 

I was determined I was going to stay on the housing ladder but I now have a mortgage bigger than I have ever had in my life....in the beginning I was ok with it....but 6 years down the line it is starting to feel like a very heavy weight and I am seriously contemplating selling up....the house is solely in my name at the moment....we have looked in to getting a mortgage, me and the OH, but due to our advancing years it really isn’t worth it in our eyes. I have heard of Stepchange but I am terrified of it affecting my credit score a lot and believe me it’s not great as it is at the moment anyway but they sound like a good place to start from your experience. I will look in to it more. Thankyou.

The credit card I have the biggest debt on (5k) is the one that has been on the news recently about upping their minimum payment charges so I think the best thing I could do there is close the account then I will have no credit card I can actually use so I will HAVE to get by on what I earn....even if it means walking to work (which is too far really to walk). I am definitely going to contact them about it as I pay a little bit more than the minimum on it but I think it is going to be even higher than I am paying now 😠. There should be a health warning on theses cards for people like me who see it is a help (which it can be if you use it properly ie:  pay it off every month) when really it is just dangerous... x 

@skogar Thankyou 🤗. I have just started using a calendar to do exactly this so I can see at a glance exactly what is going out where...hopefully this will help me get back on track .

@MazzieD Thankyou 🤗....I have been wanting to post it for some time but always bottled out but things got to a head at the weekend and enough was enough. Bottling it up has definitely been the worse thing to do. I am so glad to have been able to post on this forum and get advice from all you lovely people. I feel a lot lighter already

@Oldstylethriftylady wow you had some worry there....and you are right it won’t always be like this. It really does play on your mind when you are trying to sleep doesn’t it. I hope all gets better for you financially soon as well 🤗

@kazwookie thanks for this...I’ve never seen a debt board on here. I will check it out.

@CRANKY40 I think you hit the nail on the head regarding the grocery budget....I always seem to end up spending more money than I have on food and consequently there is never enough left in the account for the other DD and so I have to juggle money around or put on cc .....oh my days writing it down it sounds horrible....I have an account that my wages get paid into and then a portion of that goes to another account which has all the household bills taken from and the food....and for ages I was using the overdraft on that account too 😳 until one year they sent me an annual statement telling me how much I had paid in charges...I nearly had a heart attack....so that stopped straight away and I have never used it since. The interest rate on the card is high but I cannot get a lower rate because of my credit score. I have been pushed into a corner effectively. I think this is my lightbulb moment ....Thankyou for your input 🤗

@IzzyBee Honestly, when I was reading all the replies to my post earlier it made me cry because I realised then that I wasn’t alone and that there are so many people out there with similar stories. It broke my heart....and your story is uplifting too in the fact that you got through it and that helps me enormously. Thank goodness for this forum! Take care too ❤️

@patentgirl Thankyou 🤗

@MandM90 Thankyou 🤗 I signed up to Olio at the weekend. Well done for becoming a Food Waste Hero 🙌

@roblou27 Glad to hear hubby turning a corner...I hope you are both negative from the tests! 🤞...putting it in writing on here has helped me come to terms with what I am facing more and realising it is not going to go away on its own....it’s been going on too long...stay safe and take care x

@balabooberlies  That’s one way of dealing with the debtors isn’t it! 😂 thanks for that ...made me smile 😁

willow_loulou

@OLaney you’re doing brilliantly, stay strong, you’ve got this. 

I cancelled my RAC as after 2 years it’s gone up £4:50 in one go! Anyone have any recommendations please? I can’t warrant almost £20 a month on a 4yr old well maintained car’s unlikely breakdown. 

I’m struggling to get through each day with any positive feeling right now, I hurt and I’m not sleeping 😫 So frustrating. 

I’ve had to order a new bed topper to try and sort this out. Lucky I have an emergency fund now, this threads been the making of a sense of security. 

Money will be a little different this month, dd is now probably home until Easter so I need to look at both food and utilities. She’s applied to two more local universities for September, so we need to rethink how we use our space and money. The good news is she’s had £1000 refund so I’m putting that away for her towards next year’s travel as you get less grant living at home. 

Shopaholic_no_more

@willow_loulou Thankyou🤗

I am with AutoAid ...I have never had to use them so can’t vouch for their service (hopefully won’t ever need to!🤞) but they were the cheapest by far. So the breakdown cover covers the person not the car. Even got OH added at no extra cost! It was around £60 for the year. Also, they don’t automatically renew your policy if you do nothing. This is one of my pet hates 😣.

Sorry to hear you are not feeling great. Hope you feel better soon 🤗

cw18

willow_loulou said:

I cancelled my RAC as after 2 years it’s gone up £4:50 in one go! Anyone have any recommendations please? I can’t warrant almost £20 a month on a 4yr old well maintained car’s unlikely breakdown. 

I was with Brittania Rescue through CSMA for many years, which meant paying a membership fee to CSMA (but it was still cheapest for a loooooong time).    I realised a couple of years back it was actually provided by LV and I've had insurance with them for years.   So I've now moved my breakdown to an add-on with my insurance which means no CSMA membership fee and brings the cost down.    I used them a number of times for 6 or 7 cars in the last (must be about) 34 years, and they've always been great.    When hubby and I had a car each I had a policy which covered us regardless of which car we were in (even if we were passenger in someone else's).   I now have a policy that covers my car regardless of who's driving it.

CRANKY40

Another option is to check how much they are offering the same service to new customers for then call them and have a moan. They usually reduce the renewal fee. 

cbsexec

If you go through one of the cash back sites there is sometimes a good deal - I had £35 cash back on rac which made it a good deal (better than auto aid at the time) but have used auto aid and they have been very good.