Oops I Did It Again

CRANKY40

After being debt free once you'd think I would have learned...but no, I've done it again. The light bulb moment arrived in 2020 but it's taken me a little whle to get organised as I want to sort out my house as well a my finances. The lightbulb moment was early 2020 when I realised that if anything went seriously wrong with my car or house there was no money available for repairs. I'm not sure what my debt totals were back then but I know what they were from January this year onwards. I've also managed to build up an emergency fund and some other savings. I know that people say it doesn't make sense to have savings and debt but while I run a car and own a house (outright) I feel more comfortable with this in case anything goes wrong. 

My son and I moved from a 5 bedroom, 5 storey house into a 3 bedroom mid terrace and it was a bit of a struggle fitting things in here even though we downsized our furniture etc before we moved (nearly 8 years ago). I've finally decided that we don't need a spare room/spare bed so that's going and with a bit of furniture juggling from around the rest of the house the extra room will become a study. This will be in tme for my son going to college so he'll have somewhere comfortable to do homework.

I'd like to record my no spend days here and also any extra payments that I manage to make. It all helps....

Debts and payments so far this year
Sister's wedding rings paid £200/£232 final payment of £32 next month (wedding present because I like this husband, the last one was a stinker)
My bed paid £46.66/£70.09 (not total cost, just what was left to pay this year)
Lloyds loan £153.99/£2158.54
TSB CC £175/£3478.25
Tesco CC £188.40/£3338.44

enthusiasticsaver

Welcome. I think an EF is a must if you have a car/house. Great that you have no mortgage. If you have had debt problems in the past closing credit cards as you clear them (and not applying for new ones) may be the way to go. Was the debt related to the move or is it overspending? 

CRANKY40

The debt was related to not going to work. I was widowed when my son was 4 and holiday childcare here was impossible to find. After the first 6 months begging friends and friends parents to have him a day each during half term week I gave up work before the 6 weeks holidays and decided to live off the rest of the insurance money (that was left after the mortgage was paid off) and my widow's pension/payments. I said that I would go back to work when my son was 14 as I thought he would be old enough to be left on his own during the 6 weeks holidays then. The shortfall from the insurance money is what you see in my debt statement. I probably didn't plan very well but the first couple of years at least I think I was still in some sort of shock. My husband was 50 when he died and I wasn't expecting to be solo parenting with a young child. There was also a lot of work that needed to be done on the big house and I did pay for some of that before I decided that house was too big and that we should move.

The big house was a wreck when we bought it and our furniture had lived through a lot of rebuilding so I used most of the profit from selling the house (after paying for the new one) to buy decent furniture that will last us a good while. I don't regret that. The only speed purchase was a bed for me because my sister was coming to stay and she needed to sleep in the spare bed which I'd been sleeping in. The only one that could deliver was a cheap one from Argos which I suffered for years before buying a decent one which is almost paid off now. 

I've been back in work since just after my son's 14th birthday. I was working in a cafe and then I was furloughed due to Covid. In August I offered to look after an adult relative of my boss for free while they opened the cafe again (not enough work for me at that point). They were keen for me to do that as paid employment as the previous carer had just retired so that is my job now and will be for the forseeable future as we're all happy with the new arrangement. 

Sorry, but you asked

enthusiasticsaver

Goodness that must have been tough to be widowed with a 4 year old.  It seems like the debt is circumstantial then rather than overspending. 

Are the credit cards at 0% or are you paying interest?

Is that your only income now?  Widows pension and pay for the carers' position? Are you entitled to any other benefits now the insurance money is gone or is the income enough to cover your expenses?

Good luck on sorting out the study/3rd bedroom.  Does your son start college in September? 

CRANKY40

The TSB card is 0%, only recently obtained. I'm going to wait a couple of months then apply for another 0% and transfer the balance from the Tesco card hopefully. My wages together with my widow's pension and widowed parents allowance are enough as I do get some working tax credits as well. I'm paid more than minmum wage and work all day Saturday which pays more than weekdays.  We don't do much outside our house as my son has hypermobile joints which have been very painful during his growing years. My car is paid for and I have a Help to Save account which will give me a decent contribution towards a second hand car in 18 months time if I keep putting the maximum £50 a month in. 

Probably one of our biggest expenses each year was travelling to London to see my dad. I used to pay for the hotel room, all meals and most other things. My sister came too (she lives in another country) and never had any money for contributions once she'd paid her air fare. I'm the oldest so I suppose I felt like it was my job to pay. Dad has vascular dementia now, is being looked after very well in a home and visitors aren't allowed anyway so we won't be doing that for the forseeable future. 

My son asks for very little. His hobby is gaming and he has a very good computer built by a friend of my best friend. Friend went halves with me for my son's Christmas present the year before last (I had the money saved up). It's come in very useful with having to do "school at home". Yes, he should have been doing GCSE's this year and he will go to college in September. 

I'd say the debt was 50/50 circumstantial and overspending. I'm fairly sure that a fair bit of it could have been avoided if I'd tried a bit harder. I've stopped clothes buying apart from practical things like new jeans and only when old items wear out. My son also has plenty of clothes and mostly wears pyjamas these days

CRANKY40

I'm not sure how many NSD's I've had so far this month but yesterday was another one. I was working so I was with my looked after person for most of the day. We go for a walk in the morning and again in the afternoon - it was -1.5 degrees here but we stll went out. I give him his lunch and yesterday  gave him his dinner too because his parents are having their kitchen altered. I'm paid with cash for his meals though as that's a straightforward replacement for the cost of feeding him. 

CRANKY40

Yesterday was another NSD. I had to go for food shopping this morning though. There was very little in the way of bread left in the house and I also needed pizza and oven chips. The pizza was for my looked after person's dinner this evenng and the low fat oven chips are one of the few foods that I can tolerate since the gallstone of doom decided to make it's presence known again. I spent £31.15 (bought eggs, ham, fruit, another pizza for my son and his partner for their dinner at the weekend and a few other things) so I'll adjust the online shopping to take into account the items that I no longer need. The online stuff is heavy things like cat litter, cat food and things that generally have a decent amount of time left on the use by date. 

I made payments to my two credit cards today - I usually pay them just after the statement date then at the end of the month if there's anything left from the food and petrol budget I pay extra. I've read a few diaries and decided to list the balance outstanding when I've made a payment and the amount outstanding at the start of this year. The totals so far are
                  Now/End Dec 2020
TSB CC   £3153.25/£3478.25
Tesco CC  £3042.30/£3338.44
Lloyds loan £2004.55/£2158.54
Bed             £46.76/£70.09
Rings           £32/£132.00
Total O/S £8278.86/£9177.32

Blackcats

Well done on the progress on your cards.  Achieving NSD's is very rewarding.  I've arrived at debt busting and money saving very late but I now find it quite exciting not spending money after many years of spending other people's money by using and abusing my credit cards.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary 

CRANKY40

Thanks for the comments @beanielou and @Blackcats. Much appreciated. 

Yesterday was another NSD. I may start counting them next month but it's too far through this month to try and backtrack. Today is a spendy day. I have an online shop coming - £48.45 and will be putting petrol in the car (gets all of the spending over in one day). Together wth the shopping done earlier this week, my total will be £99.60 out of a budget of £120. This sounds a bit high but I have £15 of that repaid to me in cash on Saturday by my boss for my looked after person's dinner and snacks. Last week  was given £20 and told just to keep the change. This money sits in a tin on a shelf and used to be saved for spends on days out. We don't have many days out any more so this week I paid £40 out of it for the ex spare bed and a broken chest of drawers to be taken to the tip. 

The good news from yesterday is that my boss is paying me in full for a week that I'm not working at the end of the month. My LAP will be going for respite care and boss says I've earned being paid holiday pay even though I don't have enough holidays left (only started looking after person in September). The money will be welcome as it wasn't expected but you can't put a price on the happy feeling of knowing that you're well thought of by the people that you work for. Well it's pleased me anyway. 

The other (not money related) good news is that my scarily high liver enzymes have reduced by a third. Doctor is still referrng me for gallstone surgery but says to keep doing what I'm doing and he'll test again in a month to check again.  

beanielou

Good news on the pay  & the enzymes