Not far off.....

[Deleted User]

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Four_Seasons

Well come back I have wondered how you were getting on x

AntoMac

Welcome back Emma. Sorry to hear you lost your dog. Hopefully you won’t forget how far you have come and how well you have done.
With your hard work ethic and your resilience you will do just fine 

boxofpaws

Hello Emma, I read through your last diary, it was the first one I read through when I rejoined the forums recently.  It was uplifting to see how far you’ve come.

Sorry to hear about your dog, what a shock that must have been. 

savingholmes

Sounds like you have a lot on.  Only you know what's right for you - from your first post there appears to be a pattern in terms of the type of people you are attracted to.

I got divorced last year and made a conscious decision to stay single for now and get therapy. I want to learn what I love and how to make myself happy before I bring anyone else into the mix.

The dog sounds lovely. You are making great inroads into your debt and working really hard to achieve it. Well done.

savingholmes

It sounds like you know what you want. 

Would be good to put aside money for tax and ni as you go along so no nasty shocks later.

enthusiasticsaver

I wondered how you were getting on and it sounds like you have a good income now at least so presumably providing you budget this gives you a fantastic chance to get your finances on track.  I agree with @savingholmes that making sure the tax and NI is taken care of it would be sensible. 

As for your new partner I am not sure how long you have been going out together but taking care of his daughter while he goes off on holiday seems like a step too far.  Doesn't she have a mum? It is too much responsibility when your mental health is fragile anyway.  

AntoMac

Well Emma I think you did the right think by losing your temper. Far more important to protect your partner’s daughter by clamping down on her meeting a random stranger she’s been speaking to online than doing the ‘popular’ thing and giving In To her. I wonder if she would have tried it on if her dad was the one at home? Not sure how old she is but we both know that teenagers like to push buttons and test boundaries sometimes. Hopefully you can have a good heart to heart with your partner when he’s back, and see how supportive he is of what you did. Good luck and hopefully you will get the best outcome, be it staying together or going it alone.

Great news on your extra income. Perhaps you can save it/put it to one side as if you never had it. That will help with saving/reducing debt and of course help towards your tax bill. Assume it’s reasonably easy to work out what tax/Ni you will need to pay? Do you already save towards a pension? 

savingholmes

On your teacher's pension - do you know how much you had accrued?

Whether you should pay into a pension now or not depends partly on how long you think it will take you to clear the debt and how much you'd like to retire on. I paid into my very good pension (similar to a teacher's one) throughout my debt journey. If you can get a free matching contribution from an employer you are leaving money on the table by not putting into your pension - but it depends how close to the wire your finances are to whether it's even an option for you.

AntoMac

You mentioned a DMP Emma - Does that mean you have a fixed amount to pay over a specific amount of months? Or was the DMP in the past and you now have the full amount to repay? 

As savingholmes says whether you should pay into a pension would largely depend how much you have left over after comfortably serving/reducing your debt. With the added tax benefits I’ve always prioritised my pension personally. 

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the replies. I am in a DMP for the next what seems like 100 years. I'm going to ring every debt up today to see what my F&Fs are, so I can see how much money I would need to clear this. I currently pay £181 per month which isn't going to clear it anytime soon. 
I'll look at a pension this week. When I first became self employed I signed up for UC and there was a saving scheme you could apply for. I was only on UC for about a month but because I applied I qualified for it and it just carries on now.  It's £50 a month over 4 years and they give you 50% extra back. I think that will give me £3600. I might just put that into a pension at the end of the term and I'll look at setting up a pension in September when I know what my income will be. I won't be earning as much in August and so may need all the money I can get. 

I was thinking back to the £45,000 debt. I don't know how I coped when it was this high. I've done well to get it below £27000 on my own. I'm feeling for the first time that I can indeed do this. 

Also, I'm getting £10,000 inheritance I think over the next few weeks. What should I do with it? My friend suggested buying a house together to rent out but the problem I have is that I can't get a mortgage and don't want to tell her that. I also won't qualify yet due to being self employed. Do I sit on it until my debts are cleared?  Help on this would be welcomed. 

Income this week is going to be an additional £1000 because of some extra work I did recently that hasn't been paid yet. I've promised my children a shopping trip. My son is walking around in the same jumper and trousers that he always has on. He has moved to his Dad's to make it cheaper for his Dad (as he pays me less CSA), but the downside of this is that he doesn't get anything bought for him. 

I should take my bat and ball home and leave them to it but I just can't and so I'm going to buy him some new clothes.