The Mental Debt Struggle...

Keedie

I'm very excited about being under £5k with my Barclaycard loan by the end of February 2025 💃🏽. It also means that my overall debt should be £8,000 by the end of February as £25 went to the Argos Card today. So I have £125 left for Argos Card, and by the time February's payments come out, MBNA will be £2,900 and Barclaycard £4,975. If I can scrape together some money, I might be able to get under £8k overall and under £5k on the Barclaycard by the end of this month. That would be super exciting 🤗!

It's amazing what motivation you can get from receiving compensation isn't it? 😂 

The gaming expenses are mind boggling @Sun_Addict. I can't wait until he's earning and able to take care of that for himself. I'll have a serious think about the blog. It's something I've always wanted to do, but I don't really think I'm that interesting and I don't know if anyone would get value from my quirky way of doing things. But I'm starting to feel encouraged. 

I'm off to Essex tomorrow as my nephew in East London (The Mathematician) was 10 this week and he's having a Ninja Warrior party. Sounds like it will a lot of fun. I wish I was agile enough to go all Gladiator on the assault course and live out my 90s childhood dream. But alas, I will be stiff and sore from the 1.5 hour drive, relying on my walking stick and he'd die of cringeworthy embarassment if any of us adults even dared to participate in front of his friends. So that's a non-starter of a fantasy innit? 😂

beanielou

Enjoy your day tomorrow

Keedie

Thanks @beanielou x

KajiKita

I think you shouldn’t underestimate the potential interest in your blog. You are both creative and persistent in how you are tackling your debt and your finances. People will appreciate that and learn a lot from it. 

KK

Makingabobor2

Definitely look into doing the blog. People will love it

Cherryfudge

I'll read it!  

Keedie

THE SUNDAY SUMMARY

(Week 5 ~ 2 February 2025)

Debt Regrets

Goal 1 - 100% repayment to Argos Card - due 30 April 2025
Progress Checker = £50/£175 (28.57% repaid)
My standing order of £25 a month has been reinstated and so I've now paid a total of £50 off the Argos Card and I have £125 left to clear by mid-June 2025.

Goal 2 - Clear Barclaycard Plan 1 (£1,506.20) - due by 31 October 2025

Progress Checker = £175/£1,506.20 (11.62% repaid)
The £100 compensation from Barclaycard for my missing credit card statements and the fixed direct debit of £75 has meant that this week's payment was £175 total. It's a great start to the repayments for Barclaycard. I'm so excited that by the end of the month the Barclaycard balance will be under £5k. Yippee to me.

Goal 3 - Pay £750 off my MBNA balance in 2025 - due by 31 December 2025
Progress checker = £50/£750 (6.67% repaid)
The fixed direct debit for MBNA is not due until around 20 February 2025, so there's no progress with this goal just as yet.

Goal 4 - Pay £2,500 off my overall debt balance in 2025 - due by 31 December 2025
Progress checker = £275/£2,500 (11% repaid)
Between the £25 to Argos Card and £175 for Barclaycard, there has been a reduction of £200 from my debt this week. It's amazing what a difference payments can make, as last week I was at 3% repaid and this week it's at 11%! That compensation has really helped me out, as by the end of February 2025 I will have paid £400 off my debts, and then I will have a further £1,500 cleared by December 2025 (based on £150 a month for the remaining 10 months of the year). That will leave me with £600 to find to reach my £2,500 repayment target.

Saving Grace

Goal 1 - Build a Buffer of £250 - due by 28 February 2025
Progress Checker = £0/£250 (0% saved)
This still sits at £0 as I am waiting for the Help to Save bonus to come through in mid-February 2025. Then I will be able to complete this goal and focus on the emergency fund.

Goal 2 - Save £1,000 emergency fund - due by 31 December 2025
Progress Checker = £0/£500 (0% saved)
This is still at £0 as I am waiting for the Help to Save bonus to be paid and then it will go into the emergency fund. I have opened a Digital Regular Saver with Natwest as it gives around 6% on balances up to £5k and you can pay in up to £150 in a calendar month. So I figured I'd put the Help to Save bonus in Natwest and let it trickle into the Digital Saver over a few months. It's still easy access, but gives a good rate. My first payment is set to 28 February 2025, as that gives enough time for the Help to Save money to clear.

Goal 3 - Save £750 for 2026 Subscriptions - due by 31 December 2025
Progress Checker = £0/£750 (0% saved)
I've not done anything with this as yet, but should hopefully be able to start this in March 2025. This goal is split into fixed subscriptions (set due dates) and aspiration funded subscriptions (a year's worth upfront). The overall amount is £730 but I have rounded up in case any of the subscriptions increase.

• 3.1 Fixed ~ EA Access = £0/£40 (0% saved)
• 3.2 Fixed ~ Amazon Prime = £0/£95 (0% saved)
• 3.3 Fixed ~ Apple Care = £0/£85 (0% saved)
• 3.4 Fixed ~ Playstation Plus = £0/£60 (0% saved)
• 3.5 Aspirational ~ Kindle Unlimited = £0/£120 (0% saved)
• 3.6 Aspirational ~ Crunchy Roll = £0/£60 (0% saved)
• 3.7 Aspirational ~ MGM+ = £0/£55 (0% saved)
• 3.8 Aspirational ~ Apple One = £0/£225 (0% saved)

Goal 4 - 50 Envelope Challenge (£1,275) - due by 31 December 2025
Progress Checker = 0/50 Envelopes = £0/£1,275 (20% saved)
I have not officially started this, but I have been designing my 50 envelope challenge folder and there is some money than can go in here once I figure a few things out. I'll be saving up £50 at a time via smaller savings challenges, so I'm working on those. By saving in £50 increments, I will be able to cross off two envelopes at a time, like 1 and 49, 10 and 40 etc.

Goal 5 - Penny Challenge (£667.95) - due by 7 January 2026
Progress Checker = £3.51/£667.95 (up by £1.61 since last week)
This being done automatically via Monzo's Penny Challenge and they move each consecutive daily amount from my current account balance. It's slowly but surely starting to creep up as today's payment was £0.26. The current account has £63.50 in there, and the spreadsheet I created tells me that will cover all transfers until 3 May 2025. So that gives me a couple of months to get my hustle on and to keep adding money via second hand sales, cashback, market research etc. As May 2025 requires £39.68 for the entire month based on when it all started for me on 8 January 2025.

Balancing the Budget

This section of my weekly check-in will focus on how I am preparing for the upcoming month, so that I can stay on track and be more successful in meeting my targets.

Income Tracker - £2,000 for March 2025's Budget
Progress Checker = £925/£2,000 (46.25% accumulated)
My universal credit has been paid, and with the rolled over money from the surplus in January 2025, I have £925 towards March 2025's budget. With the PIP coming in this week and the child benefit for the rest of the month, that will be a further £505 for a total of £1,430. The freelance money that I am owed is £666.50 (before deductions), so I will take the remaining £570 that I need from that as I won't need to put as much towards tax for the remainder of the tax year, as I am not employed at the moment, so with my tax free allowance, I have more leverage in terms of what I have set aside and what my overall bill will be for the 2024/25 tax year.

Freely Debt Savings - £0 Goal for March 2025
Progress Checker = £0/£0 (0% saved)
There isn't going to be any surplus money for the coming months that can be freely used. Anything above my fixed budget, due to receiving money from siblings and earning freelance income, will all be rolled into the following monthly budget until I am sure that I have got my sums right in terms of projected income and expenses.

Keedie

You've all made me very emotional and happy to know that you think the blog is worth pursuing and that you may read it. I have been toying with the idea for a while now, and just lacked the confidence to think anyone would be interested in it. But I'm all fired up now! So thank you very much 

I'm going to sketch some ideas this week and put together an outline of what I want to say and how to serialise it. I also just remembered that in an hypomanic episode a few years ago I signed up for loads of courses with the College of Media and Publishing and one of them is a blogging course. So I think I'll give that a whizz, as it's already paid for and I have lifetime access, so it will only cost me my time. But it's going to help me to think creatively and also gain the techniques I need to monetise the blog too.

I'm getting excited now. Thank you all xx

Cherryfudge

I'm looking forward to it! (No pressure, then!) You write well and you have a story to tell... go for it!

Humdinger1

Yes, your diary is a blog.  You're already doing it @Keedie love Humdinger xx