The Mental Debt Struggle...

~FlowerPot~

Excellent news that you have piad off the phones and now only have one CC are your mum. Well done!

My DD had her second lesson at the home ed centre and went in on her own. And even asked a quesion at the end, this is unheard of! So we're off to a good start. I am however very aware how big a task it is for her to acheive 5 GCSEs at grade 4 to get into her college of choice. I am not bothered at all which route she takes or whether she does any GCSEs. But she is absolutetly determined to stay in line with her peers and get into college this time next year. We shall see how we go, i'm just the driver!!

Keedie

Thanks @beanielou! I'm going to concentrate on getting rid of the debt to my mum as quickly as I can given the change in my finances. Then I can just deal with the Barclaycard and not have to think about anything else. 2024 is about chipping away at my debt to my mum and 2025 is about getting rid of Barclaycard.

I quite like Chase @Makingabobor2. The cashback is not as generous as it once was, as now that I have passed the first year with the account, I have to pay in £500 a month (but you can easily transfer money in and then right back out again) to qualify for the following month and then I get 1% cashback on my spending.

I use Chase as my spending account and Monzo as my bills account. All of my income goes into Monzo and when I do the budget, I put some in the bills pot, debt pot, savings pot etc. And I also have a pot with standing orders to the relevant spending categories and accounts with Chse. That's why I like the fact that with Chase all of the 'pots' are their own separate bank accounts with their own sort code and account numbers and they're all linked to one debit card. It's handy as you can spend from any of the accounts at the tap of a button and it helps me to separate out my food shopping money from my travel money from spending money etc. It's not all in one lump sum so I can see what I am spending and from where. Having the separate account numbers also means that I can send the allocated money from my Monzo to Chase for different things and if someone owes me money, I can give them the account details of the pot that I want the money to go into.

As you only have the one card number for the debit card, you don't have multiple cards to match the various account numbers. You simply just choose where you want to spend from. So for example, if I go to Lidl, I can tap in the app on the account that I do food shopping with and it'll take the money out of that account. If I then go to the cinema, I can tap in the app and change it to spend from that family fun account and it'll deduct the money from there. It has really helped me to split everything but still have oversight of how everything is going.

You also earn 5% interest on your round ups, as it automatically saves the difference for you and locks it, so that it is 'matured' once a year. I do my petrol via Chase, as I get cashback of 1% when filling up the tank, and put that cashback money into little Debt Buster Pot. And if the petrol came up to £45.53, then I'd get 46p cash back as it is over £45.50 and I'd also have the £0.47 rounded up and put in the 5% pot. 

Basically, you can make Chase as simple or as convoluted as you want. I think you can have like 20 sub accounts including normal current accounts that gives 1% interest and savings accounts that give 4.1% interest. I don't have that many at all, but being able to separate food shopping from travel, from family fun and my son's college expenses has really helped me.

Keedie

It sounds to me @~FlowerPot~ that your daughter has finally found her motivating factor to get back on track. My son realised how important it was for him to not be left behind, but he came to that conclusion rather later in the day in Year 11 so it's good that she acknowledges what is driving her at the beginning of the academic year. I wish her the best of luck and enjoy your taxi duties 😂.

badmemory

I wonder how they would survive without the taxi of Mum.  Mine passed his test over 20 years ago but as he will not look out of the car anymore I daren't let him drive, so he is still using the taxi of Mum.  I'll have to hope I can still drive in my nineties!.

Makingabobor2

Thanks for such a detailed reply of the Chase accounts. Sounds good. I have many separate pots attached to my NW*de acc, but have to move the money to my normal account if I want to spend it, so a bit "faffy" really.  Might have to look into this idea, just for the spending pots, rather than the savings ones

Keedie

Being a parent never stops does it @badmemory? My son wanted me to take him for a drive last night as he was all in his head and a bit overwhelmed by his induction at college and stuff and I was just so so wiped out, it wasn't a safe option to consider driving. So I made us sit on the balcony instead and have a chat and he really liked it. But I was over tired this this morning 😬.

Chase is definitely good as a spending account @makingabobor2, and being able to pay from the different sub accounts and switch between them easily makes all the difference. I have got stung a couple of times in the beginning when I needed to spend from one particular account and forgot to switch and so the transaction declined as there wasn't enough money in that particular sub account. But you easily get used to it and realise that the different pots/sub accounts gives you a certain freedom whilst allowing you to control your budget.

I've been very frugal with our gas and electricity in these warmer months and kept the direct debit at £125 a month and I have now hit my target of £500 credit in the Octopus account by September 2023 as the balance is £501.65 in credit. So I have reduced my direct debit to £100 a month from October 2023. That'll give an extra £25 a month and with the prices dropping from next month, I'm hoping that the credit will get through the winter months. The £500 buffer gives me £83 a month towards the bill, and on top of the £100 I'm currently paying, that gives me £183 a month to play with. Hopefully I don't get stung by the end of the winter, but trying to trim what I can, where I can from the budget is really helping me to feel less overwhelmed about my salary being cut in half. 

Cherryfudge

That's such a good move with the energy bills, @Keedie. It will help a lot if you are warm enough and don't have to worry about it.

I hope you can catch up on your rest tonight. I never kept track of how often I've been up late with a child - whether a little one who's unwell or an older one either out late or having a crisis. Parenting is exhausting! You found a good compromise and gave him the time and attention he needed, and that makes a huge difference. After a few days hopefully the newness of college will wear off and he'll adapt.

Keedie

Yeah that was my exact thoughts @Cherryfudge with the energy bills. I can't afford to get cold in the winter as I chill to the bone and have horrible flare ups, but I'm also not in a position to be spending lots of money on monthly bills. Having the Energy Support Scheme last winter with the £400 from the government helped to take the sting out of my bills. So I'm hoping that with the reduction in unit costs for energy and the buffer I've built up over the summer months, that I'll break even or have minimal arrears by the end of March 2024. I can't compromise on having the heating on or my electric blankets etc, so I've had to build the buffer to ensure that I can prioritise my health and comfort without being too stressed about how I will keep on top of the bills.

I've already had my shower and jumped in my bed so hopefully it won't take me too long to get to sleep. My son's watching Top Boy in his room as the new season came out today, and he's promised he'll be in bed at a decent time as he's got college in the morning and it's up to an hour's commute 😬.

I've given up on my Build a Buffer for now, and so I have rolled it into the money I am accumulating throughout September 2023 for October 2023's budget. As I realised that I had less of what I needed for my son's birthday in early October than I thought I did. And I figured, the £126.33 that I had accumulated, would be better utilised in October as it's a 5 week month and it's the first month on half pay earnings. Fingers crossed it turns out to be the right move.

Humdinger1

You are doing brilliantly @Keedie; feet on the ground while still having plans.  Congratulations to you and DS on getting to this point love Humdinger xx 

~FlowerPot~

Humdinger1 said:

You are doing brilliantly @Keedie; feet on the ground while still having plans.  Congratulations to you and DS on getting to this point love Humdinger xx 

Oh goodness I need to read properly, i read that as
"You are doing brilliantly @Keedie; feet on the ground while still having pants on"
🤣🤣🤣
I mean having your underwear on is good too 😜