The Mental Debt Struggle...

Keedie

THE SUNDAY SUMMARY

(Week 10 ~ 10 March 2024)

Debt Regrets

Goal 1 - 100% repayment to Bank of Mum 3 (school fees) - due 1 April 2024
Progress Checker = £3,600/£3,800 (94.74% repaid)
Still got £200 to go with this one, but I have received some of the money owed by my siblings and I have set that aside and once it adds up to £200, I should be able to clear my remaining debt to my mum if things are in place as I need it to be. I've got £149/£200 so far.

Goal 2 - Clear Barclaycard Plan 1 (£6,330) - due by 31 December 2024
Progress checker = £-178.43/£6,330 (0% repaid)
This is still on pause until April 2024, as once March 2024's direct is paid at the end of the month, it will leave me with this starting balance. 

Goal 3 - Pay £6,750 off my overall debt balance in 2024 - due by 31 December 2024

Progress Checker = £1,180/£6,750 (17.48% repaid)

Once I accumulate the remaining £51 needed to clear my debt to my mum, this will increase accordingly. But I have to wait to accumulate the money to cover my fixed expenses and food money etc for April before I send the £200 over to my mum.

Saving Grace

Goal 1 - Save £750 for my son's 18th birthday - due by 30 September 2024
Progress Checker = £100/£750 (13.34% saved)
Nothing has been set aside for this so far this week. But I've been designing a birthday savings tracker, so from April, I'll pay into this weekly at £10 at a time and cross off the progress.

Goal 2 - Build a Buffer of £500 (homemade overdraft) - due by 31 October 2024
Progress Checker = £50/£500 (10% saved)
This one also hasn't had any money this week, as I put all the money aside at the beginning of the month, but I will track this weekly from April 2024.

Goal 3 - Save £2,000 emergency fund - due by 31 December 2024
Progress Checker = £200.32/£2,000 (10.02% saved)
I've realised that I need to keep tracking this one regularly to build momentum and motivation. So from April 2024, this will set at £40 a week (which will be £60 above my initial budget but I realised I'll have the remainder of the money from my siblings to cover it) and from 1 April 2024 until 30 December 2024, there are 40 weeks. So that will be £1,600 saved by the end of the year, plus the £200 I currently have will be £1,800/£2,000 target. The remaining £200 will come from round ups from my Chase account and money earned from surveys. The round ups is £128.22/£150 target and surveys are £0/£50 target.

Goal 4 - Complete 50 Envelope Challenge (£1,275) - due by 31 December 2024
Progress Checker = 5/50 Envelopes ~ £170/£1,275 (13.33% saved)
I now have £20/£50 towards the next set of envelopes which are 3 and 47. So far I have £170/£1,275 saved/set aside.

dawnybabes

We used hello fresh in lockdown and the recipes came with really easy to follow instructions and pictures - we got my son to make them with me following the cards.  I know you used to be able to look at the recipes online without ordering ….. 

Keedie

Thanks @dawnybabes, I had a look at Hello Fresh, and although you can't download the recipes as PDF but they are there on the screen to view. So that is very helpful thank you. He'd probably prefer to scroll through it on my iPad so that could work. 

We went out for a Mother's Day meal to Harvester and it was so crowded I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of people and underwhelmed by the service. I felt bad for the staff who were running between tables that were booked to capacity and were very frazzled. There didn't seem to be enough staff for the number of guests. But the food as usual was nice 🤗. They had a 3 course meal deal for £22.99 each and I'd worked it into this month's budget, so I was rather impressed with myself for keeping on top of it all 😂.

I was also thinking of going to the cinema soon as there's that new horror/thriller called Imaginary that looks like it will be good. Turns out, that if you have Amazon Prime, once a month with Odeon, you can get two tickets for £10! I'd be lucky at times to get one ticket for that price in London, so it's rather exciting that we can go out and still enjoy the cinema and it fits neatly into my £25 a month Family Funsies budget. Very impressed.

peb

Days may not work but meerkat an option?  I got a one day travel insurance policy for 99p to get a year's benefits.  However a lot of our cinemas are now £5.99 unless Friday/Saturday night.  Not London prices!

Keedie

1 day travel insurance for 99p with a year's benefits @peb! That is a good deal. As is £5.99 for films. There is one cinema in South London believe it or not that has films for £5.99 (it's an independent cinema and was £4.99 a film for years plus a 50p booking fee). I used to take the kids there to watch all the Marvels and Avengers films and anything else that was the hot ticket film to see.

But the seats are rock hard (for me) in that cinema so my back is on fire whenever I go there. The little kids still love it but the teenagers use my Perks at Work cinema codes to go to Vue or Cineworld. But every now and then in the school holidays, we go to the independent cinema as we've got 10 kids between us and so we go for the cheaper cinema option. So for me, the Odeon seating is a luxury! 😂

Sun_Addict

There are a couple of decent free cooking apps that might be of interest for your DS - Plate Up and Lollipop. Lots of good recipes on them. 

Keedie

Thanks @Sun_Addict, I'll check them out. I've not heard of either, but it would be interesting to see what Plate Up and Lollipop have. I've been browsing slow cooker recipes on BBC Good Food as well. 

I definitely need to change my fridge freezer and cooker though. Both are struggling and the freezer is too small and the cooling in the fridge won't survive another summer. My oven doesn't heat properly, and that's been the case for a while but I've noticed the hob is having more issues as well. Oh the joys of adulting...

But I do need to radically change our diet and having good food storage and ability to cook food will make all the difference. So I'm back on the hunt for appliances as put that on the back burner late last year and focussed on paying down my debts. I don't regret it as I'm so close to paying off my mum. But it's pinching me in the backside now as I used the money for debts and so now I have no appliance savings 😬.

So I might have to give the Argos Card or Currys account a 0% interest buy now, pay later deal thingy for 6 to 12 months. So I can get what we need but see the repayments as a bill and work overpayments into my budget. Le sigh. If it isn't the consequences of my actions... 🤦🏾‍♀️.

beanielou

Have you thought of a Ninja or similar?

PennysIntoPounds

People occasionally put kitchen things like fridge-freezers etc on Olio or FBM etc for free and you just have to be able to collect somehow, might be worth checking those sorts of sites out first in case a man and van for an hour or so is cheaper? They often look in decent condition and it's just available cos someone's moving

KajiKita

When we moved here I put an under counter fridge and freezer units on FBMP for £20 each or £30 the pair - they went within 12 hours which I was delighted by as I really needed the space! (We were amalgamating homes and there were built in units in the kitchen here so we were awash with refrigeration options at that point!) 

The other thing I’d look out for is anywhere that refurbs fridges / freezers etc. When I ran away from psycho ex and lived on my own for the first time as an adult, that’s where I picked up a fridge freezer that moved three times with me (and then us) and lasted 10 years! 😊

KK