The Mental Debt Struggle...

PennysIntoPounds

Good for you hun x

~FlowerPot~

i love your focus. Your plan is very well thought through. Im sure this time next year you will be celebrating being debt free!

P.S. im doing to 52 week envelope challenge too. I did it this year but only started in May, so next year im hoping to complete it! I love having these challenges, it really does help you focus xx

Keedie

Challenges and small wins are definitely the way to go @~FlowerPot~. Between that way of snowballing larger purchases, savings or paying off debt, and this forum for accountability, it’s a game changer. I wouldn’t have paid off as much as I did in 2022 or 2023 without this forum. And so I’m hoping that with savings challenges added in, and being able to colour in my progress and cross things off, I’ll be able to meet my debt free target next year. 

~FlowerPot~

talking of colouring in, I have been hunting for a print out for saving £1 a day totaling £365 ~ but I cant find any, I think I will have to make one!!

Keedie

Canva is great for making those things @~FlowerPot~ and it's free to use. Just don't pick icons with the crown as they're premium/pro features and that's a paid membership. But you can definitely put something nice together that you can track and colour in without it costing you anything to purchase.

Cherryfudge

You're awesome! I can feel the fire from here! My only tip would be to find an ally - even if it's us here, but better still an employment support person. My Union rep was great and ensure I didn't miss anything, but (in my union at least) they won't deal with issues preceding membership.

That said - once Christmas is over, I've got to chase up the detail of the backpay for holidays. It was more than I thought, so I'm sort of wondering if they gave in and admitted I should have it, but I want to see it itemised - and of course it's possible I'd just miscalculated and they're not paid me all the arrears after all!

I think you need to detail that you dealt with xyz despite bipolar and it was only when they increased your duties (which they've acknowledged by increasing their staffing levels) that things began to be too much. Anything they then try to refer back to bipolar could also be itemised as discrimination if you dealt with it before the pressures changed.

Keedie

You're so good for ego @Cherryfudge I swear it! 🤗😂 But in all seriousness, you raise very good points that I will then incorporate into my response to them. I hadn't thought of making those comparisons in terms of what I've done/achieved at work, that is now being overlooked in favour of painting me as unfit due to mental illness. When in reality they've benefited from my hypomanic ways when I've been overworking due to an episode and producing outputs that were way above my job role.

My union also doesn't deal with previous cases so I've not bothered to join them at this moment in time. But I will have dedicated 9 months of support from Access to Work's Maximus programme that is specifically for mental health support. I've been given a Vocational Rehabilitation Coach (VRC) and they'll give me tailored one to one support for managing the demands of work and protecting my mental health. I need help with planning my time and being able to "say no" to things that are too high of a demand or not practical. I won't be overworking again, so I need to work through a strategy with my VRC.

I need to finally learn a work/life balance, and being in a toxic work environment is the perfect place to do this. That way, when I move onto another job I'll have healthier boundaries and habits in place for 2025 onward.

~FlowerPot~

Keedie said:

Canva is great for making those things @~FlowerPot~ and it's free to use. Just don't pick icons with the crown as they're premium/pro features and that's a paid membership. But you can definitely put something nice together that you can track and colour in without it costing you anything to purchase.

well ive had a look keedie, but i think its beyond me!!! BUT DS2 has said he will make me something!!

Keedie

That's great @~FlowerPot~, I'm sure he'll go down a rabbit hole and have fun with it. I'm on Canva all the time. Some of it is for the Digital Marketing course that I've been doing since October (which I'm stupidly behind on 🤦🏾‍♀️) and some of it is just me playing around and making my savings challenges. 

LittleMissDetermined

Keedie you must be so proud of your son, he has come such a long way from when you first started your diary and you were nearing wit's-end with his schooling. We are probably all quite proud of him to be honest! 

Your plan looks great for 2024 and I really hope you can achieve your debt freedom by Christmas next year.  You're so tenacious with your re-payments despite some of the challenges, from which many of us would have given up!

I'm so sorry you're health isn't getting better and that your employer is giving you the run around (shame on them!) which just adds to the stresses. It certainly seems like you know what to do about it though, I wouldn't have had a clue where to start.

I hope you and your son have a truly wonderful Christmas x
LMD