Washing Away My Debts By 2024

Squirrelz92

Oooh my DD for CC1 came out just now so that’s another £30.81 paid off Have updated my signature already of course!

Keedie

That's great news about the occupational health and your managers being accommodating, as it makes all the difference when you have a supportive workplace. I hope you manage to get registered soon at the doctors and you can things in place for your referrals for specialist support.

Try not to despair about the subscription, as it's something for yourself that you enjoy and we often don't do enough for ourselves as parents, but will always find the energy and money for things that concern the children or everyone else. So although it was unexpected, and has impacted your PADs made so far, the fact that you have the Prolific surveys and you do PAD where you can, means that you'll get back to where you were as you're developing the habits to manage it all.

How are your accountancy courses going? x

Squirrelz92

Morning folks,

I feel as though I have almost hit a brick wall with writing on here. I found it incredibly beneficial for a good while but recently I have lost my mojo and the motivation to continue to pay off my debt as quickly as possible. My ability to pay off has diminished and the overwhelming feeling of slowly drowning is creeping up on me. I don't know if this is life in general becoming too much with everything going on or whether it is specifically related to finances. I suppose everything is related to finances!

I have been very stressed the last week or so as it has been known for some time that the stables I am currently on have just had planning permission granted to build houses. Although a few horses are allowed to stay in temporary stables, the rest of the yard was given notice to vacate by the end of August. Nobody believed this as the owner or the managers who run the individual blocks could give us a straight answer. My mare is needing evasive kissing spines surgery and will be on box rest for at least 3 months so I need the security of being on a yard with a stable. After asking multiple times as to whether I am guaranteed one of the few temporary stables whilst the demolition and rebuild of the new yard takes place, the yard manager still cannot give me a definite answer which is heartbreaking So gutted. I have been running round like a nutter trying to find another stable in the area that can accommodate us, but livery yards are few and far between where we live so it's been so difficult I have finally managed to secure her a stable at a yard we have previously been on (lovely yard but left due to a certain character) so the pressure is off. The intention is to move her this Sunday so all is done and dusted before I return to work on the Monday. This yar is only a 6 minute drive away and has both an indoor and outdoor school, plus a horse-walker. The only downside is that the hacking available around the yard is all road, no bridleways which makes me sad as the intention is to use her mainly for hacking out and about If I had my own horse transport this worry would go away as I could go anywhere whenever! I think I shall be making this my new goal once debt free! To save enough money to purchase my own transportation Apologies to 99% of you readers who have limited knowledge of horses and had to read the above ... I just had to vent!

My household bills came out on the 1st of which included £62.75 of my regular DD debt payments. £31.94 to DWP and £30.81 to CC1 I currently have £34.63 saved up from rounding up on spends which I am saving for tomorrow evening to throw at CC2 as a small bulk overpayment I don't think it would be sensible of me to throw whatever I have left in the current account to be able to make a standalone bulk overpayment on Thursday. My EF is currently at £430 and with bills going up and a livery yard move which will cost me £65 more per month, I feel it would be sensible to perhaps but whatever money is leftover into my emergency fund just in case. I do also have £123.47 left in my energy pot but I don't want to transfer this to CC2 or the EF as it would be nice to keep it there for a winter buffer! 

My ACCA exam preparation isn't going so well with everything that has been going on. I have barely studied and the syllabus is huggggeeeeeee! I logged on to cancel my exam for September and reschedule for December but I missed the deadline to amend by 1 day So now I feel extra awful pressure to attempt to cram as much in as possible which is ruddy hard considering I have next to no motivation.

I had a joiner come round to provide me a quote for ordering and fitting two doors for my study downstairs and my living room now they are completely renovated. I've been meaning to do it for ages but I never have any money to do so. I still don't but I have my EF. I know it's not for this sort of thing but work on the house has ground to a halt for months now and I don't want to accept and become used to living in a half renovated house. Two new doors is something that I can tick off my list and then I can try to save up for the last small room of the house being the downstairs cloakroom/toilet. 

My son has his birthday on Monday and he had a great time all round which I am really pleased about We never received a response from the friend who he invited to his birthday party a few weeks ago (so damn rude) so we decided to go rogue and look for another experience. We ended up at Clip N Climb which turned out to be great fun! Watched both of them race up these funky climbing walls for an hour with smiles on their faces. Half tempted to have a go myself next time! 

Right, I had better move my !!!!!! and update my signature and then try and start doing some form of studying! 2 days until payday!!!! xx

vampirotoothus

Hi, gosh you have a lot going on. Don't let it de-rail you, you are definitely going in the right direction. Be very proud that you are now not only living within your means, but paying the debt off. Don't stress about getting that cleared it will now happen anyway, as you want it gone. Take a deep breath and just keep going, Good luck V x

LittleMissDetermined

Wow you really do have a whirlwind of a life at the moment! I agree with @vampirotoothus that you shouldn't let it knock you off your stride, especially as you have been doing so well! 

We can't always throw big chunks of money at our debts, we have good runs and then not so good. Even if you save 20p a day, it's a saving or money that can be added to a PAD now and then. Even when there are days where there is zero available, as long as you're not adding to your debt then that is a definite positive in my book! 

I hope you do keep up your diary as I enjoy reading it and cheering you on! 
LMD x

Squirrelz92

vampirotoothus said:

Hi, gosh you have a lot going on. Don't let it de-rail you, you are definitely going in the right direction. Be very proud that you are now not only living within your means, but paying the debt off. Don't stress about getting that cleared it will now happen anyway, as you want it gone. Take a deep breath and just keep going, Good luck V x

Thank you for your kind words @vampirotoothus! You are right, I know the debt is getting paid off so I should be focusing on the little wins rather than feeling deflated because I am not able to pay off in as bigger chunks as I would have hoped for. 

LittleMissDetermined said:

Wow you really do have a whirlwind of a life at the moment! I agree with @vampirotoothus that you shouldn't let it knock you off your stride, especially as you have been doing so well! 

We can't always throw big chunks of money at our debts, we have good runs and then not so good. Even if you save 20p a day, it's a saving or money that can be added to a PAD now and then. Even when there are days where there is zero available, as long as you're not adding to your debt then that is a definite positive in my book! 

I hope you do keep up your diary as I enjoy reading it and cheering you on! 
LMD x

Thanks so much @Litt@LittleMissDetermined It's nice to know that you enjoy reading the journey! Yes I am definitely not adding to my debt and it's nice to see the percentages of debt paid slowly creep up (albeit slowly). Shall continue to do my thing and chip away slowly so long as all my bills are paid and my children arent without. 

Just spent £60 on ruddy school supplies! 2 pairs of school shoes, two sets of p.e pumps, two sets of school socks and a pair of trainers for my DD as her old ones have kicked the bucket. The £90 in my current account is now almost non existent!

Squirrelz92

Morning,

Well its payday eve once again and this means another period summary so here goes ...

Period 8th July to 4th August

Halifax CC1
- Opening Balance £2931.45
- Paid £30.81 via DD.
- Closing Balance £2900.64
Not attempting to overpay this card yet as my 0% interest finishes in March 2023.

Virgin CC2
- Opening Balance £1851.01
- Paid £82.68 £25 of this is via DD.
- Closing Balance £1768.33
This is the card I am focusing on overpaying as the 0% interest finishes Jan 2023. Had the unfortunate incident this month where an annual language app subscription I had completely forgotten about came out which added back £36.99 to my owed balance (gutted). If this hadn’t of occurred, I would have paid off a total of £119.67. The subscription has now been cancelled so it won’t happen again!

DWP
- Opening Balance £702.68
- Paid £31.94 via DD.
- Closing Balance £670.74
No pressure with this one either as it will run for 2 years paying the same amount.

Mum
- Opening Balance £1300
- Paid £0
- Closing Balance £1300
Mum has said I can take as long as I need to pay this back as and when. Aim is to remove the rest and then pay back. 

The total amount of money thrown at my debt this period is £145.43. This equates to a total percentage of 1.96% of my starting debt balance. Wont lie, I am a bit gutted that this isn’t more. Was really hoping to hit at least £250 but life happens. I have to try to remember that I am still paying my debt off no matter how small and my mindset is firm in the fact that I WILL get there. All we can do is continue on the quest to becoming a DFW no matter how far away it is! POSITIVITY!

Goals for next period:
In an ideal world I would like to hit that £250 total as this works out to be 3.37% of my total debt figure but I won’t put the pressure on myself. If it happens it happens. Fingers crossed it’s doable! 

In other news, I received fines for both my children from the joy that is our government after taking them out of school for a week during school time to go abroad. Naturally I am peed off with this as the trip to Turkey was after having to rebook 3 times because of COVID and I had little choice with what slots to choose from that would fit the refund received! Not a happy bunny but I am going to have to cough up. I suppose it is better than having to pay another £800 for an additional place to go during the school holidays! Absolute rip off! If I pay before the 23rd August its £60 each, otherwise £120 each. Absolute pain  

My old yard has now said that I am fine to stay if I want to which is annoying as before they couldn't give a straight answer. Now I have gone and secured myself a spot on another yard and have got all hyped up over how the move will be better for us all, they go and do that! Neither fair or professional which confirms my decision to move. The vet came to assess her and discuss her surgery with me yesterday and they were beyond shocking So upset to see how bad her spine is. The vets have said that she will require the most aggressive form of kissing spines surgery as a good few of her vertebrae are overlapping. My poor girly. I am scheduling her in for her operation at the end of September so she can make the most of the grass before they are all brought in for winter at the new yard. This way, she won't be alone whilst on box rest as all the others will be in too. 

Halfway through my week off and I am starting to struggle with things to do with the kids that don't cost a lot of money My son wants to go to an animal farm but they are £35+ for the three of us We visited the park yesterday and the beach is a 50 minute drive away. There are dog walks of course which I enjoy but I feel guilty for taking them on the longer ones with me even though they are more than capable! I feel like I am wasting a week off with my minions but don't have the funds to do loads of cool stuff with them

SusieT

Uh, kissing spine is a ****** nightmare at least they have made so much progress with the surgery now that can get them pretty much back to normal most of the time. Hope it goes well for her and she makes a full recovery. 
Just a tip, it may be worth rounding up the payment on the card you are overpaying by £1 so it is more than the minimum, that way IF you have not managed to repay both by the time the 0% runs out it looks better on the credit report and you have a higher chance of getting another 0% or a better rate on another card. 
Re the kids, making a mess cooking and decorating cakes is good (for them anyway), otherwise it may be worth closing your eyes and seeing if you have the £35 in a pot somewhere so you can go to te animal farm. 

Squirrelz92

Thanks for dropping by @SusieT Aaaah you also have experience with kissing spines!? It really is a pain in the backside. Luckily she will be in the best possible condition to have surgery as I have spent months walking her in hand over poles, up hills and doing stretches. She looks pretty good to say she hasn't been ridden since April! Fingers crossed they can get her to a state where she can finally be comfortable. 

Ooooh didn't think of that with the paying slightly extra onto CC1 for better rates. Shall set this up now as I will definitely need another 0% interest card!

[Deleted User]

Hi Squirrelz92, sorry you've been having a hard time of it. Sending you and your horsie lots of love! Things won't always be like this and re debts you are moving forwards. 

I'd say you're definitely not wasting your week off. We have to work within our means. You are pedaling fast under the surface to give your family a more stable life without debts. Adding to debts with expensive days out might benefit them in the short term but definitely not long term. Keep going, you are doing so well even if you anticipated a fastr pace. 

Xxx