The Mental Debt Struggle...

Makingabobor2

Wow, that's a huge fridge. Very smart. You'll get a LOT of stuff in that. 

Keedie

Thanks for sharing my fridge excitement everyone! The freezer was getting super cold to the point of cold burn at times whilst the fridge got progressively warmer. My son is so happy bless him. He keeps saying, "wow there's so much space..." as the last one couldn't hold a pizza in the freezer as it was so shallow and the fridge part was easily crammed once we'd been shopping.

I'm a bit confused about the dimensions of this fridge compared to the last one, as it's only about 3cm or 4cm taller and 5cm wider and deeper, and yet there's a good 40% more space... 🤔. I'm not complaining though, it will make a big difference. 

We'll definitely be putting the slow cooker to use soon and making use of the glass food containers that I've brought, so that I can put portions in the freezer. I'm mostly looking forward to trying a Waitrose food shop to see how that goes with delivery and the stairs, to see if it will make a difference routine wise. 

I'm in Manchester at the moment as I've gone away for the weekend, and the drive was so tediously long I was really questioning my life choices. It took over 1.5 hours to get out of London 🥺. Some parts of the motorway had road works so it was slow going, but I was a bit put out as I paid £9.70 to go through the M6 Toll (which I had no clue was going to happen as I didn't look at the route properly 😬) and it was so congested and kept making us go 40 mph or 50mph. I thought the toll road would have been an express lane of sorts, as you have to pay 🤷🏾‍♀️. No one seemed to be bothered by it, so I get the feeling that was rather normal for a Friday late afternoon.

Actually I'm lying. There was one impatient idiot 😤 in a bright green car that nearly crashed into me by trying to overtake me coming from the left into the middle lane 🤬. I was doing just under the 40 mph required limit, and they indicated as they were already crossing my path! Then I saw them lane hopping whenever another lane was going remotely faster. They nearly clipped the back of a lorry as well. It was rather disturbing. At one point, they jumped out of my lane, to the left lane, then my lane moved on and I passed them. Less than 5 minutes later I saw them on the far right speeding past me. How they pulled off that manoeuvre I'll never know.

Anyways, I'm going to work out what to eat for dinner as I'm starting to get hungry.

Cherryfudge

We were in Manchester a week ago! It treated us to classic Manchester weather... hope you get something nicer. And that driver sounds horrendous. Traffic round Manchester always seems heavy: I suppose people just get used to it.

I wonder if the insulation on your freezer is better, so the walls aren't as thick, hence more space?

badmemory

I can't believe I used to commute by car through the centre of Manchester & back.  I really do not like the place now as it is a nightmare to drive in.  But on the outskirts today it has not been typical M/c weather.

Keedie

Sorry I kinda checked out for a few days...

I had a great time in Manchester, I went to an event called The Big Budgeting Meetup and there was lots of people from the cash budgeting community that are on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram etc. I had a really good time and there was lot of activities and loads and loads of freebies and a great goody bag. And it included lunch 😋.

But I was wiped out from all of the driving. So I'm still being a bit gentle with myself as my right shoulder is aching and so is my back.

Funny how we seem to visit the same places isn't it @Cherryfudge? I hope you had a good time despite the weather. It was dreary on the way up on Friday, but for the event on Saturday and the way back on Sunday, the weather was a lot nicer. So much so that I almost left my coat in the wardrobe when I was checking out of the hotel early on Sunday morning 🤦🏾‍♀️😂. 

I salute you for commuting to and from the centre of Manchester @badmemory. I find it as stressful as driving in London, especially as I've no clue where I am in relation to anything else. But I do love the Manchester accent and general friendliness though. Not like us miserable Londoners 🤣.

I was 98% convinced that I was gonna pull a sickie yesterday instead of going into the office, but I forced myself to stop being a diva even though I was more tired than usual (self inflicted from my road trip). And boy am I glad that I went in! Turns out we're being restructured and everyone found out on Monday (my non working day), and so we attended a Teams meeting yesterday afternoon and that was the start of a 30 day consultation😳!

My sub team wasn't part of the proposed scope of changes. But there were some gnarly changes being bandied about as part of the new structure, which saw the management team being downgraded (literally dropping a salary grade) as their role in the new structure is obsolete. Everyone was in shock, some people cried. I was a bit overwhelmed by it all, because I was confused by the proposals as they don't make that much sense to me. The office was buzzing with all these side conversations about what's going to happen and confusion about the change management process in general. 

There was also an air of somewhat arrogant relief that our sub team isn't being affected, but I told everyone not to get so comfortable. It's just a proposal and anything can change... I've worked on numerous restructures from a transactional HR point of view with processing the changes on the system etc and attending meetings at the end of consultations to inform impacted staff about what the next steps are. And I've worked in the redeployment team, helping people to find alternative work when their roles have been deleted or they don't want to do the new proposed roles. There's often a lot of change from the proposed structure to the final structure after feedback and counter proposals take place, sometimes even to the point that they seem like two completely different concepts. 

I felt a bit cruel telling them that, but I didn't see the point in them getting dismissive of the impact of everything, and then potentially getting the shock of their lives. Anyways, I've got a one to one consultation with the Head of Service to discuss my own situation, as I've asked about increasing my hours as currently I'm only earning a little more than my half pay due to returning to work on 18 hours a week and my half pay was the salary of 14 hours a week.

Budget wise, I've been able to restart my build a buffer and the envelope challenge at £5 a week and I've automated both of those, so they will go into their relevant pots every Monday. So those two and the emergency fund and the 18th birthday pot money is coming together nicely. I've realised that I function better when I have less money. So I need to pay all my bills, automate my savings and have a weekly allowance hit my account each week. I can then work out what I need from there. If I have access to the money, I fritter it away. Especially with how I'm feeling at the moment. I'm becoming hypomanic and really struggling to keep the agitation and racing thoughts at bay, and these times tend to be spendy with a long financial recovery... 🤦🏾‍♀️. So I need to save myself from myself 🥴.

Cherryfudge

Your Manchester event sounds great fun! Did you get your coat back?

I see what you mean about the potential for the restructure to affect your department. These things are always super-stressful so I hope it goes as smoothly as possible and you have some joy from your meeting about your hours.

Automating payments made a big difference to us: it's effortless once it's in place and as you say, saves us from ourselves. We were always in danger of forgetting bills but the bank doesn't! And automated savings are just brilliant.

I hope you can stave off the hypomania.

KajiKita

Wow that whole restructuring thing must have come as one heck of a shock! It explains why there was such inertia in supporting you and the general overwork load - very typical factors in the run up to something like this as management know about it for a long time beforehand but can’t say anything and it completely distracts them. They will be feeling relief that it is finally out in the open. 

I am torn between hoping they offer you something so you can leave with a buffer and go to something that suits you better and hoping that they don’t so you have stability. What are your thoughts on this?

Well done on learning about yourself better. I lock down all my monies after payday each month, so a set amount is siphoned off for savings or an OP. Then I know I have ‘achieved’ for that month - all I have to do then is ‘cruise quietly’ until the next payday. 

Good luck with getting through the hypomania with minimal financial fall out. 

KK

AntoMac

I’m another fan of automating payments and savings as much as possible Keedie, especially making savings difficult to get instant access to! One reason why I’ve put a bit into Premium Bonds as you can’t get at your money immediately.
We’ve had restructures in our place and they’ve been very poorly jhandled in my view. We had people who didn’t want to go being made redundant and people like me who did want to go, having to stay.
I am sure there will be considerable uncertainty in the air at your workplace for a while

Keedie

Everyone is on tenderhooks at work and it's causing stress levels to rise! I've prepared myself for the fact that my sub team will be included, as I don't see how we will escape unscathed. And even if direct job roles are not impacted, ripples of disruption and overworking from a reduced headcount in other teams, will inevitably impact us. I've not got myself into a position whereby I can leave just yet @KajiKita, so I definitely do need the stability of an income over the next 12 months and I need to blitz my debt and save. In the background I will be working on what I need to do to jump ship and get another job that better suits me. And yes @AntoMac, it's usually the ones that want to stay then get booted out and those desperate to leave that are trapped into staying.

The redundancy payment is only statutory and as I work part time, and have 5 years of service, it wouldn't be much. It's 1 week's pay for every year of service, but 1.5 weeks of pay for every year of service over the age of 41, so the equivalent of 6 week's pay as I am 42 now. So I would literally get just a month and a half's pay, and I've been back at work in a job I dislike because I need to rebalance my finances.

I must say though, it has been an eye opener to how little savings I have. The debt definitely needs to get going as it takes up a chunk of my wages. But I need to increase my savings more than anything, as 6 week's pay isn't going to get me far, and I have a lot of financial commitments that needs to be trimmed back. I'm not exactly sure what to do finance wise. But I figured being extra frugal this month and seeing the outcome of the restructure in the first instance would be a place to start. It's such a spendy month though. It's my nephew's 18th next Saturday 15 June and it's Eid on 16 June, so I need to give money to my nephews and niece for that. 

If the restructure goes in my favour and my job is safe, and not being downgraded a salary level (like some of roles are), then my sole focus will be savings, and increasing my debt payments and cutting back on spending to a very frugal level. I'd need to snowball my debts and snowball my savings. Everything was very tight in 2022, and mentally that is not something that I can sustain for a long period of time, but if my sub team remains unaffected, then I will be very rigid for the rest of 2024. I'll then be able to see where I am debt wise and savings wise. So I think it's time to once again get my side hustle on...

And yes, I did get my coat @Cherryfudge. I was just putting the key in the lockbox when I remembered luckily, so I quickly went back up to the room and grabbed it and then checked out. I left very early, just after 7am so I could eat and hit the road by 8am to try and avoid some of the traffic. So there wasn't anyone around when I left, so I dunno what I would have done, as the main door to the inn locked once you closed it as there is no handle on the outside, but it's secured open during hours of operation. So that was a lucky escape 😬.

Cherryfudge

I'm so pleased you got your coat! I'm paranoid about leaving things when we've stayed somewhere.

Restructures are a nightmare and people get so very stressed. The waiting can't do anyone any good. If it's any comfort, sometimes people get away with no change, which is what's just happened to DH. Perhaps for you it has a silver lining in that you can work on your side hustle and debt repayment and it's made you think more urgently about savings, so some goals have come into view, which is a good motivator.