The Mental Debt Struggle...

Keedie

Rejigging the budget feels like a constant song and dance that I'm going through. But I'm very grateful that I do not have to put things on credit to accommodate all of the manoeuvring.

And yes, my son having a job will make all the difference moving forward as it will take some of the pressure off me, with him being a bit more financially independent. I need to sit down and teach him how to budget properly before his first wages comes through. 

The £150 fixed direct debit has gone to Barclaycard, so the balance is now £8,500. I realised in the middle of the night, that if I pay nothing aside from the fixed direct debits, I'll be left with an odd balance that will bug me 🤦🏾‍♀️. With the £450 in fixed direct debit payments by January 2025, and the £1,135 I'm owed from my siblings, it will be £1,585 off the balance. So it will be £6,915 by 31 January 2025. So I'll have to pay £15 so that the balance is £6,900. It will then go up to whatever it will be with the money transfer that I'll need to do to prevent interest occurring from 1 February 2025. And I'll pay the money transfer fee at that time, so that the balance is level again. I dunno why I can't stand to see balances in pennies or a few pounds. It's not like I don't have bigger problems to worry about 😂.

Baileys_Babe

Have you warned your siblings that if they haven't cleared their debt to you by Jan 2025, any transfer fees will be passed to them? You don't want to be paying for them to be in debt.

Cherryfudge

I think there are quite a few people who don't like to see 'bitty' balances! It's definitely a 'thing'.

Makingabobor2

I can't stand odd amounts either. It happens every month after the mortgage payment has gone out and interest added, so my OP always has to be an odd bit to even it up again....lol

Keedie

I've told my siblings that unless the balance is cleared, they are liable for the interest @Baileys_Babe, so they are aware.

And I'm glad that I'm not the only one who has a thing about uneven balances 😂. It just irritates me probably more than it should. Even when I'm budgeting, I disregard any income that is less than £1 and put it in my Monzo pot. And then I have to round up any bill to the nearest £1 so that I am dealing with whole numbers, so the £22.41 for my parking permit becomes £23. In an ideal world, I would have the whole budget in multiples of £5, so that permit would become £25 in my budget and I'd continue to build a buffer. But I can't rationalise that desire because I can't afford it. But maybe one day...

Sarahwithlove

Bit late to the party but with direct payments you get paid an hourly set rate based on number of hours a week. It's often less than what carers charge so you essentially top up the hourly rate. The issue generally tends to be if you have 30 min calls. Hope you manage to get it sorted soon so that you can have your usual carer back. 

Keedie

Thanks for that insight @Sarahwithlove, as I didn't know that about the rates for the carers being based on your weekly hours and so forth. I get 4 hours a week of support, which is 1 hour shopping and 3 hours domestic. The social services lady was meant to come this morning but she cancelled. So when she comes on Monday afternoon, I will ask her how this all works and what I need to do to get it sorted asap, and I will tell her everything that has been happening with the carers.

I've been on leave this week, but not had much of a break as I've been so tired from doing the freelance work. But the good thing is that I have earned the money needed for my son's laptop repair and to replace the money I gave my friend for her sister's surgery. I have one more project to complete before Christmas, and that will give me enough to reach my emergency fund goal for 2024.

I figured that if I get on top of Christmas 2024, reach the £500 emergency fund goal and start an initial car fund of £250. Then I can start doing the Freely Debt Savings in January 2025.

Keedie

Oh I forgot to say that I sat down this morning and moved all the money I needed into the different pots and sub accounts. And this is the first time that I've had proper discipline and not overspent too much. And although I did take some money out for food shopping, and my son got his allowance early, I just adjusted things to put the balance in the relevant pots.

I've decided to use only cash for food shopping to try and get a handle on my overspending in that category. Me and my son did a food shop in Lidl yesterday, and I am back to making use of his muscles 😂 carrying the shopping up the stairs now that he's no longer holding onto the handrail to get up and down the stairs. And I was very proud of myself for making a very simple pasta last night and I'll have the leftovers for lunch today. I've set a budget of £80 a week for food including take aways. I'm hoping to figure out what is happening each week activity wise and who is at home or out etc, do a loose meal plan and then do a food shop on a Sunday for the following week. Then a mid-week top up for fresh things via the carer.

Fingers crossed this all works, and I need to get back to tracking my expenses, as that was very helpful. And in time, I will be able to design my own tracking spreadsheet and dashboard that fits the way I actually budget, as the one I got from Etsy was fantastic, but didn't really fit how I do things.

Sarahwithlove

Keedie said:

Thanks for that insight @Sarahwithlove, as I didn't know that about the rates for the carers being based on your weekly hours and so forth. I get 4 hours a week of support, which is 1 hour shopping and 3 hours domestic. The social services lady was meant to come this morning but she cancelled. So when she comes on Monday afternoon, I will ask her how this all works and what I need to do to get it sorted asap, and I will tell her everything that has been happening with the carers.

I've been on leave this week, but not had much of a break as I've been so tired from doing the freelance work. But the good thing is that I have earned the money needed for my son's laptop repair and to replace the money I gave my friend for her sister's surgery. I have one more project to complete before Christmas, and that will give me enough to reach my emergency fund goal for 2024.

I figured that if I get on top of Christmas 2024, reach the £500 emergency fund goal and start an initial car fund of £250. Then I can start doing the Freely Debt Savings in January 2025.

It only really becomes an issue if you have 30 min or 45 min calls as the rate agencies charge isn't half of the cost of an hour call. But hopefully it won't end up costing you too much you'll be able to work it out once you know what the DP hourly rate is. Do you pay a client contribution? I am going to guess not because you work and wages are disregarded for those assessment purposes. So it will just be a case of paying the top up between the DP rate and the rate the carers charge. 

Makingabobor2

Great news that your EF is going to reach your goal by the end of the year. I found it took a long time to get really disciplined at saving for an EF. I used to dip in and out of mine for things that really should have had another savings pot. It wasn't till I started getting my pension last year, that I have finally been able to save properly as well as paying off debts.