Washing Away My Debts By 2024

SusieT

Squirrelz92 said:

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. 

I had fun helping a friend! Since I had the time available I had the task of hand walking a 650kg exploding kite on legs    

Squirrelz92

Morning folks,

Well today it's payday. Bills and other related expenses have been sucked out overnight and whacked into their relevant pots leaving me with £344.18 for the next four weeks. Unfortunately, I am already £150 down as I normally receive three lots of £150 bill contribution from my partner but because of how I get paid, I received the first instalment the day before payday and that went towards paying off my stupid school fine! So I expect to receive additional income of just £300 from my partner, £145 child benefit and £228 from CSA (doesn't really count for extra income as it goes straight back out for childcare). Also receive the usual £80 from the lady who part loans my broken horse 😂 So a total of £869 for four weeks. £200 automatically heads to fuel, £200 legs it to L!dl which gives me a rough disposal income left of £469. £40 is then sucked out each week for the dog groomers, farrier and birthday pot which then leaves me with £309. I haven't yet included dog/horse food/shavings, clothes, activities, treats, random spends OR OVERPAYMENTS!!! What makes it worse is that come the 1st October, my mortgage goes up by £85 which will in the future leave me with only £200 for four weeks. So damn scared! Had a good cry last night when I worked it all out as I genuinely haven't been this worried about making ends meet in god only knows how long. Yes I do hear a lot of people think in the back of their minds "get rid of the horse, too expensive, if you are struggling get rid of the luxury". Yes those people have a point. However, she is currently unsellable due to her current medical conditions and will not be sellable for at least a year providing she comes out the other end a much better horse for having the surgery and correct rehab. Nobody would probably touch her with a bargepole anyway because of what she has been treated for so in a nutshell she is stuck with me. The only way she will be leaving me is if I choose to put her down out of kindness instead of her being potentially drugged, passed around and living a painful miserable life. All that plus she is my hobby. She makes me smile and she is the only thing that gets me out of the house and exercising. So yes, she is a large expense but nothing can be done about it. 

I think the whole debt repayment thing is going to slow down dramatically to be honest now finances have been once again reevaluated. Makes me sad but nothing can be done. At least I still have a small amount of money spare so it could be worse? I am sure there are a few other ways to help pinch the pennies such as making cheaper meals that don't include meat. Also trying to find other ways to make a bit of extra cash but apart from making the odd £1 here and there on things such as Prolific, nothing seems to be available. 

My EF has gone up today as I made the decision to move £40 from my pay each period into that pot just to help a little bit. I also managed to move £41.35 from my pet insurance pot and £15.22 home insurance pot as due to the way that I get paid vs when my bills come out, I have overlapped on these this month so have ended up with double when I only need one months worth. my EF is now at £538.57. The joiner should be coming to fit the doors soon (now a luxury I can't afford but what's done is done now), so £150 will go to him from this and then all renovations are on hold for the foreseeable future. 

The only silver lining is getting paid twice in September, on the 2nd and the 30th. If my brain serves me correctly, all my bill money currently in my pots will vanish on the 1st (main bill paying day). My bill pots will be refilled again on the 2nd. My bill pots will then be refilled AGAIN on the 30th before emptying the following day. So I'm right in thinking that I may potentially have a wod of bill money that actually doesnt need to stay in there. I could put into my EF fund OR pay off one of my smaller debts.... the thought of throwing my spare bill money at a debt hurts but its possible... food for thought. 

Humdinger1

@Squirrelz92 well done for facing up to the situation.   It is very easy to bury your head in the sand but you are avoiding that.  Will your end of September salary need to cover October's bills?  Understand your horse calculations; we have a dog that has recently cost us £11k...that's including a £4k payout from the insurance and another £4k discount from the animal hospital.   I would never ever have imagined spending anything like that amount before having him...he's a miracle pup and the hospital is writing up his case.  I have subscribed and look forward to cheering you on.  You will get there.  Any news on the poss new job? Love Humdinger xx 

Squirrelz92

Had to write these ideas down so I don't forget any of it for my own benefit in 8 weeks time...

Ok, so me being me I am fretting about to deal with this big change in disposable income and what I can do about it. Naturally, nothing! BUT, with me being paid every four weeks I am in luck that as mentioned above I get paid twice in the month of September. Give or take a few quid I have worked out that on the 30th Sept, I should have about £800 in duplicated bill money that can be taken back out of my pots and used for whatever I choose. Initially I had planned on treating myself a little with some and using the rest to put straight into my EF. However, given the dynamics of the inflation of everything and the drastic reduction in leftover disposal income, I have done some working and decided to do the following: 

I have a holiday booked to Egypt for next June which I am currently having to save £116 every four weeks for to pay off. The total amount that I owe for me and the minions is £1416. I paid the deposit of £300 when booking which left me with a balance of £1116. In my holiday pot so far I have £232 but will have £348 by the time I have this spare bill money. Using this to pay off some of the balance I would have a remaining figure of £768 left to pay. If I use my spare bill money (£800) to pay off my part of the holiday I won't have to continue to pay anything further resulting in me having an extra £116 every four weeks to add to my disposable income. I would have around £40 left to throw at whatever which I will probably throw at my EF.

I did consider paying off the balance of my DWP but I wouldn't have much of a gain in terms of extra disposable income if I did this. There is no interest on this amount owed so it makes sense to keep it going. The same goes for throwing the large amount at CC2. I wouldn't gain anything back from it other than a small reduction in the minimum payments which wouldn't benefit my cash flow.

I have also worked out that since I have started using the tax free childcare system, I only have to contribute 80% of the total amount needed as they top up the remaining 20% needed. Instead of throwing the whole of the £228 into the pot, I only need to put in £167 to make £200.40 which equates to 4 weeks worth of wraparound care for my youngest so I can work. This leaves me with a spare £61 which I can use to go against the increase in my mortgage payments. This will save me £60 in disposable income too as the full £80 extra needed from October wont need to come out of my salary. I will only need to place an extra £20 into it. 

Spoke to the kids regarding trying to save money on meals and they asked if Eggy Bread is cheap... HELL YES IT IS!!!! We love this meal and would happily eat it twice a week! Yay kiddies!!!! That plus baked potatoes, pasta bakes and some frozen meals, we might be able to save a little bit. Of course I shall have to include a decent meat dish in there somewhere or my partner will most certainly leave me!!!

Squirrelz92

Just cashed out £8.43 from Prolific which has gone straight to CC2  

Squirrelz92

Humdinger1 said:

@Squirrelz92 well done for facing up to the situation.   It is very easy to bury your head in the sand but you are avoiding that.  Will your end of September salary need to cover October's bills?  Understand your horse calculations; we have a dog that has recently cost us £11k...that's including a £4k payout from the insurance and another £4k discount from the animal hospital.   I would never ever have imagined spending anything like that amount before having him...he's a miracle pup and the hospital is writing up his case.  I have subscribed and look forward to cheering you on.  You will get there.  Any news on the poss new job? Love Humdinger xx 

Thanks for dropping in @Humdinger1 I have written the workings down to make sure my brain is correct in its assumptions! I get paid on the 2nd September, then again on the 30th so for a lot of my 'pay once a month' bills, I will have double the funds needed. On the 1st October my bills come out using the money stored from the 2nd Sept salary. On Oct 28th I am paid again with bill money going back into pots ready for them to be taken back out on Nov 1st. 🤯😂 I am 99.9% certain that I will have duplicated bill money! It's nice to know that you can understand my predicament regarding the horse. So sorry to hear about your dog! Are they ok now after all the treatment?! She is my forever horse even though we didn't click straight away and she had a god awful start to life. I have for the last 18 months and will continue to do everything I can to give her the best chance at life as she is still only a baby really. Bless you for subscribing at that means a lot to me I have had two interviews offered but the job spec is rather different to what I do now and I don't think that I have much chance against those who already work as finance business partners with experience of contractual work. x

Humdinger1

Sounds fab @Squirrelz92! Yes thanks the dog is now almost 100% though needs front legs strengthening...hydrotherapy is looming.  The extra bill money is a boost.  I agree that if you pay down debt and it makes hardly any difference to cash flow it can be very bad for morale so think you are doing the right thing.  I paid back £140k of personal and business debt (long story and I don'twant to highjack your diary); it is a long and emotional journey but you will get there.  Onwards and upwards love Humdinger x 

SusieT

If you need a meat dish for your partner, toad in the hole is cheap, easy, filling and will count as 1 day meat, then you could use a neck cut which is cheap and do braised steak in a slow cooker, it will come out very tender and the word steak makes it sound more expensive than it is!!

[Deleted User]

Hi Squirrelz92, another thing to consider is the 78% price increase in energy bills from October? I'm actually thinking of building up a reserve and pressing a pause on big debt overpayments over the winter. We will all get £66 bill credit from the government but my guess is this won't even touch the surface. 

I'm also considering saving my PADS into an online account then assessing what I can afford to sent to debts at the end of each month.

I don't have a magic money wand but I'm sending you a big hug as I know how horrible it is to be so concerned by funds that all you can do is cry. 

I love that your children have voted for eggs bread. No meat meals really do reduce the food budget.

Xx

Squirrelz92

Deleted_User said:

Hi Squirrelz92, another thing to consider is the 78% price increase in energy bills from October? I'm actually thinking of building up a reserve and pressing a pause on big debt overpayments over the winter. We will all get £66 bill credit from the government but my guess is this won't even touch the surface. 

I'm also considering saving my PADS into an online account then assessing what I can afford to sent to debts at the end of each month.

I don't have a magic money wand but I'm sending you a big hug as I know how horrible it is to be so concerned by funds that all you can do is cry. 

I love that your children have voted for eggs bread. No meat meals really do reduce the food budget.

Xx

Thank you for your kind words @Deleted_User I have considered the price cap increase come October. I am with Bulb and had a scrap with them earlier on last month regarding them hoarding my £220 of credit whilst I continued to pay their 'recommended monthly usage' of £123.47. Told them to refund me everything other than one months worth of credit (wouldn't give me all of it back) and to cancel my estimated usage payments. They have now set me up on a DD to pay for what I use, not what they think I will. I paid last months bill with my remaining credit and still have £40 left there to help with August's bill come early September. I have also kept a £200 buffer in my 'energy' pot for when the charges rocket again I have already turned off all the radiators downstairs in prep for winter (I choose to only use the heating from Nov to Feb) as I know I will not be able to afford to heat the whole house this year. Upstairs in the bedrooms is more important. I restrict usage times too so I have my thermostat and times set to come on only for 45 mins early morning and 45 mins late evening. Apart from that I have already told the household to wear multiple layers and to use their thick blankets or bedding if cold around the house. 

I don't think I can continue to send daily PAD's to CC2 just because my funds are so tight now I shall be doing what you intend to do and assess what I have collated on payday eve. Anything I make from Prolific will go straight to CC2 but the rest shall stay in my reserve PAD pot. x