The Mental Debt Struggle...

AntoMac

Very well done Keedie.
In spite of so many challenges you keep bringing the debt down and down. 

Keedie

Thank you @Sun_Addict, @beanielou and @AntoMac. I'm starting to gain more confidence in how I am managing everything.

Although I have 3 separate savings goals for 2023, the only one that I am properly focusing on is the Freely Debt Savings Pot. The emergency fund has a standing order that will keep it ticking along and the Build A Buffer will consist mainly of rounding my Monzo account down or any round-ups and half of any survey money that comes through. I can only really concentrate on building one thing, and so others are automated or next to no effort. I made a spreadsheet so that I can track what is added to the Freely Debt Savings Pot and it tells me based on how much I have saved, what is split into each category for freedom fun money, debt and savings. That will motivate me to keep going, as I am going to try really hard to reach as close to my target as I can. 

I'm definitely looking forward to no longer driving. My son convinced me to go for a drive as his mood was all over the place, and so like an idiot I headed out into rush hour traffic and took a wrong lane turn into central London. I'm exempt from the congestion charge so it didn't cost me financially, but boy was it a physical cost. We got stuck in horrendous traffic and my left ankle was so sore from changing gears and creeping along in traffic with my biting point. I told my son that I can see why he's not interested in a manual licence. I apparently put him off with all my physical woes and whinging 😂.

He's also gotten over his delusional obsession with having an Audi as his first car, and told me that he just wants something cheap to run and a normal first car. I think once he heard other people say that the first car tends to get a bit abused, he seemed to think more realistic about vehicles. That and the fact that I am not paying for his insurance.

Keedie

I forgot to say that my fit note has been extended to 31 July 2023, so that's a relief. I don't have to think about work just yet and I am waiting to see if the referral to IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) will be granted. I'm trying really hard to work on my recovery, but some days, it's like blowing a boulder uphill with a straw riddled with holes 😩.

But everything always changes, so it will pick up at some point....

Chrystal

Sending healing thoughts in your direction, and wishing DS well for his exams.  (((hugs)))

Keedie

Morning all. I actually managed about 6 hours of sleep last night! 🎉

Some of the standing orders have come through, so £100 was sent to the emergency fund, my sister paid £25 into the Freely Debt Saving pot and she also put £26 into the Great British Summer pot.

Some interest was paid on the accounts and savings accounts so those few pennies helped to increase the balances ever so slightly as well. The emergency fund is coming along and now has £290.40 which I'm excited about because, things seems to definitely be on track for reaching the £1,000 target by December 2023.

I think I'm going to abandon the penny challenge and do smaller coin based challenges instead. I'm starting to get bored and I keep crossing things off, but it always seems like there's so much left to do. I'm going to bank what I have so far in the Metro coin machine today. Then I've nearly finished designing four different savings challenges and trackers (in my head), for coins under 50p, a 50p challenge, a £1 challenge and a £2 challenge.

Carrying on from the less is more theme, I'm going to have smaller targets, so that I can complete them quicker, and be able to do them more than once so that I can still aim for the same value as the penny challenge, of £670 but make it easier to manage. The coins from the challenge for less than 50p coins will be money that I can spend on whatever me and my son needs once it's completed, and the 50p, £1 and £2 challenge will go towards the Freely Debt Saving pot and I'll bank them each time the challenge is completed. That way I get to enjoy some it, and I know the rest is going towards my overall main savings goal for the year.

Keedie

Thanks @Chrystal for your kind words and I hope your daughter's revision and exams are going well. There's been a bit of a hiatus on revision over here... Hopefully, he picks it back up properly from today as he has English language on Monday.
 

Sun_Addict

I love the names you give your pots 😆

Keedie

Thanks @Sun_Addict, I do tend to easily amuse myself 😂...

A few of my standing orders and direct debits for debt repayments and savings came out today. So £25 went to my son's savings, £32.87 to Sky Mobile, £72.67 to Creation, £50 to Help to Save and £2.13 to Mobile Madness.

My mini drumroll to myself... my debt is officially under £13,000! 🎉  My current balance is £12,978.59 across 4 creditors and I am so excited, as by the end of September 2023, I'll be down to 3 creditors and I'll be approaching the £11,000 barrier by then. When I went to update my signature this morning after my direct debits came out, I had a look at the summary page of my spreadsheet and realised that I'm under £13k. I did a little happy dance 🤗.

I've given notice for the bike shed on our estate, as my son's bike was stolen month's ago (just shows it's not that secure), and I was intending to get him a new (to him as it would be second hand) bike, but he said he's not that fussed and he wouldn't be happy if he put another bike in that shed and it got stolen again. So I've reallocated the £3.50 a month to the Mobile Madness standing order, so that's now £5.63 a month from July 2023 and will help me to build up that pot even quicker.

That small change of redirecting my budget without increasing it, means that Phone A will be cleared in July 2024. Phone B will be cleared in November 2024. But if I continue to round down my account and put the 1% Chase cash back in there, and pick up a survey or two, then Phone A will be gone by June 2024 and Phone B by October 2024, all for not much effort, which would be great.

I got kiss off for my therapy referral 😩 so I was kinda salty about that yesterday. The lady called me up to let me know that because I have a bipolar diagnosis, my needs are "too great, and there's a risk of bipolar relapse if I am not experiencing bipolar symptoms at the time that of any intervention". That clearly shows that they definitely don't know what they're on about, as depression is a 'bipolar symptom', and what 'trauma' and 'regression' they think I am going to be at risk of exposure to, I don't know. I wasn't very impressed with all her floundering on the phone as she tried to tell me that my mental illness was just too complex and they can't help me even though they specialise in anxiety and depression and I am experiencing both at the moment. She said she'll refer me onto another service that can do their own assessment and "see if they are willing to engage with your needs and take you on". I felt a bit like a mental leper, so I wasn't best pleased by that. She said she'd send me an email and considering it came through within 2 minutes of hanging up the phone, she had that all locked and loaded before she even phoned me. Arrrgh! 

But on a strangely uplifting note, I accidentally washed my son's Apple headphones (I didn't check the pockets properly when I put his clothes in the machine). I was panicking, thinking we were gonna have a similar scowly strop like I received when we had Coat Gate the other week when I messed up his Uniqlo coat. But I was pleasantly surprised, that not only do they still work for some random reason, the sounds is more or less very clear. Think any ear wax might have got washed out 😂. I was so excited to share that Apple's overpriced products have some benefit, and I burst into his room to tell him (interrupting some FIFA tournament), and in my giddy state I didn't even realise that I was confessing to nearly damaging another one of his prized possessions. Oops! 

badmemory

Perhaps it will give him a lesson on how to put stuff in the wash.

beanielou

Dire response from MH service.