The Mental Debt Struggle...

Makingabobor2

Sorry to hear you have had family health problems. I can relate to that at the moment. X

KajiKita

Good to see you again 😊 and yes, 100% you should be proud of yourself and how far you’ve come in the last 2 years …. ❤️ I’m glad you are giving yourself credit for it and also a bit more slack in tackling the debts. It is a marathon not a sprint and a slow, steady, continuous pace will get the job done. 

That said, what wonderful news about you paying off what you owe your mum. That must feel amazing 🤩❤️🎉🥳

KK

Keedie

I was so excited to be able to delete that standing order to my mum know that I don't have to think anymore about paying her back. It's a true weight off my mind. I called my mum to give her the good news and she said that she was proud of me, but had never expected me to rush to repay it. But I told her that it didn't feel right owing her money and now that it was out of the way, I could concentrate on my credit card debt.

I hear you @KajiKita, it's definitely a marathon and not a sprint when it comes to managing debt. Especially as you have to fix the behaviours that would prevent you from staying in or going back into debt. Slow and steady definitely wins the race when it comes to having a balance with the debt repayments, psychologically as you don't feel so pressured or deprived about clearing everything. But with my mum, it was more emotional guilt and that debt was tied to a horrendous time in my life and so I needed it to be gone to have a clean slate. I'll be plodding along at a more sedate pace with the Barclaycard though. I'm happy for that to dwindle in the background whilst I get other things in place life and finance wise. 

So I made myself a tracker for the debt being £9,000 to track paying off Barclaycard, but then I got lazy and didn't finish it. So after I repaid my mum yesterday, I got more motivated to play around with Canva. So I now have something that I can colour in with every £90 (1%) that I repay. I'm quite excited as once the direct debit for March comes out this week, I can cross off another 3 icons. As the balance is currently £8,700, I was able to cross off 3 icons from my February 2024 payment. 

I hope your family health issues get better soon @Makingabobor2. My sister is due to have surgery in a few weeks, so I've booked some time off work which will hopefully be approved, so that I can help her when she first comes out of hospital. She won't be able to drive and so I will be doing the school run etc for her. I don't want to worry about work and helping her at the same time, so I'd rather use up some of my leave as I have so much of it accrued whilst I was on sick leave. Fingers crossed I get that first post surgery week off, but if not, I'll see if I can work half days instead. 

I am feeling more organised @Cherryfudge, as I am feeling less overwhelmed by everything. I think I just made it all too complicated and put too much pressure on myself. So I'm enjoying the fact that I can do things at a more reasonable pace. And hopefully as I ease back into freelancing, I'll have more money to do more things that I enjoy, whilst incrementally increasing savings and whittling down the debt. 

I might go to the writing for wellbeing workshop at lunchtime today. We did poetry last week and it was nice, but I prefer the longer free form writing prompts. And a free lunch afterwards is not to be sniffed at 😂.

Keedie

I'm off to a funeral today to pay my respects to my friend's mother. She was such a lovely person and so it's nice to see such good weather for her today. I've not worn a dress in a hot minute but luckily realised that my black tights are in decent shape. I don't even remember buying them.

My ankles are hurting so I need to wear my black Skechers and I just thought of how weird that will look with tights and a dress, so now I need to find my son's old school trousers that I'd washed and put in a bag to give to charity. I think maybe with trousers it won't be so noticeable that I'm wearing trainers??? Oh dear, I'm cringing inside. I really need to buy some comfortable flat shoes as the ballet pumps I'd gotten in Shoe Zone years ago are hard when walking, it feels like I'm walking directly on concrete cos my feet are so sensitive.

Anyways, enough rambling, I need to get to the shops to buy some flowers for the graveside and make sure that the car is presentable as I will be driving some of the elderly people without a vehicle between the church, cemetery and wake.

But on a brighter note, I found some change in a small coin purse I had no recollection of using, so I've PADded £3.20 to my coin challenges.

beanielou

Sketchers will be fine. Wear what you are comfortable with. 

Cherryfudge

I have exactly the same issue with footwear: Skechers or slippers most of the time! I have black Skechers that look a bit like a court shoe, but they are too narrow really. I was very glad when people started to wear white trainers with skirts last summer. I've never found a pair of Hotter shoes that I liked, so that doesn't work for me. Beanie is right: wear what you are comfortable in.

I hope the funeral goes as well as these things can.

CoffeeSonata

Sketchers/trainers and dresses are definitely a thing.  It might look absolutely fine. Many people wear trainers and sketchers with dresses and tight, depends on style of dress but usually you can get away with it, especially as dresses and trousers are a whole thing. 

I'd also partly just do it if needed to and it wasn't entirely ridiculous. People don't look at your feet as much as you think! 

I hope it goes as well as it can.

LittleMissDetermined

Sorry for your loss Keedie, I hope your friend is doing OK.

I agree that the dress and trainers, despite being unconventional will be totally acceptable to wear together, I'm sure nobody will pay that much attention. 

I hope it goes as well as it can
LMD x

KajiKita

I wore (black) trainers with my black office trainers yesterday (I have hurty feet too) and if anyone noticed, no one said anything 🤷‍♀️😉

KK

Pollie

People will be only too grateful that you are there and also that you are helping by giving lifts  to notice or care about your footwear. Anything that helps with your pain is of paramount importance.