The Mental Debt Struggle...

Keedie

Thanks @daisy_1571, this all so incredibly helpful, thank you so much!

The digital saver is 5.13% gross apr, so you're right, it does make sense to stick to £150 a month until the lump sum runs out as the interest is calculated daily. So the standing order adds to the savings on 1st of the month. I'll leave it as it is, and who knows, I might be in a better financial position in November and be able to send a bit more money into the savings account.

I've got a freelance job that I need to invoice for, as I wrapped up that work yesterday and that's £439. As I've not earned my cumulative tax free personal allowance so far this tax year (£12,570/12 x 4 months = £4,190), I won't set aside anything for this tax year, and will just put the £39 into the tax pot for what I owe last year. I've got £100 left to accumulate and then I can pay the £424.50 that is outstanding for the 2025/26 tax year.

All of that long winded explanation to basically say that I will not need to dip into my Attracting Abundance pot for August's budget, as I will be able to cover it with the freelance top up.

With the pension, you're right, the financial logistics and annual values are for a later date as there is no money to contribute to a pension now. But I will do one when I get the bookkeeping business of the ground when I've eventually qualified. I figured that in the meantime, I will continue to get NI credits for the state pension. And I'd not considered the lump sum/ISA versus annual amounts, so I'll snooze that and figure it out once I've got my paperwork in order. You're definitely not teaching a grandma about eggs, as your filing system is not something I would have remotely considered but it makes so much sense. And it's very timely, as I will be going through more papers on the weekend, and once I've marked all the papers to be shredded, I can then go through everything that needs a filing structure. So I will follow your lead and then when I'm able to think about pensions, I will have everything to hand to be able to make an informative/logical decision. So thank you very much for that. Your wisdom has definitely reduced the overwhelm. I was starting to panic a little (okay, I'll be honest, I was panicking a lot 😬).

liselle

I think you sound very organised especially with your de-cluttering system.

As a pensioner, if things are much as they are now, you should be able to get help with your rent and council tax.

daisy_1571

thanks keedie, I'm always nervous of explaining something I do in case its something everybody does it already and I'm the only one who did not know 😂

plus its much easier showing/telling somebody than trying to write it all down. Always sounds a lot more involved if you have to write step by step.

I'd say think of the headings or categories that would make sense to you - pensions, benefits, rent, housing association, council tax, bills (- phones (landline and mobiles), broadband, TV companies, electricity, gas, ), payslips, course work, bank account, health, your son, car, house purchases are just a few I can think of.

if you don't have enough folders just now and don't want to send off to the big river site to get it by Saturday, get any container you can, put a labe on each and just start piling paperwork into relevant receptacle. It can be gone through for date order/cover sheets at your leisure. Dont be wasting time on that when you have the help and want to get big stuff done. This first pass is broad reaching not finessing. Label label label otherwise people put things in wrong piles o you have to keep checking which pile is this?

I have used old work cardboard envelope style folders for years (ancient ones proper sturdy, newer ones almost as flimsy as paper) and they bear many scored out previous work then personal headings and scrubby bits where labels have been pulled off, or plastic popper type and they are splitting , they are different sizes and colours, different styles. I also had poly pockets which were so flimsy trying to get some papers in was a pain in the proverbial. Finally I decided enough! Im fed up using them. Have passed the latter on to a charity which was needing the poly pocket and will only use them once so they will be fine there.

I ordered some good quality poly pockets that go in binders, decent open sided poly pockets and packets of the plastic popper files. I can't tell you what a pleasure its been over last few weeks, everything matches, its easy to use, ive found they fit in tassimo coffe boxes outerboxes so can be split into banking, bills, groups, archive etc so I'm not raking through them all looking for an individual folder. Love it, definitely been worth the fairly small expenses when I consider how many years I'll use them

daisy_1571

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077MN7DNT?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

daisy_1571

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CRGH5YG?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

These

daisy_1571

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000SHR8DC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

aand These

no need to go ordering, I just found its made it so much easier than years of making do with a mishmash of differing stuff and did loads of double checking i wasn't buying the same flimsy stuff that I already had. If this saves anyone a little time I'm glad

liselle

I hate to say it, as your system sounds marvellous, but do you then keep them in a fireproof box or filing cabinet?

AntoMac

You’re making progress Keedie. Maybe not as quickly as you would like but it’s still progress.

The pension you have built up is at least something. I know people with much less of a pot than you have. Good advice from @daisy_1571 . Maybe hold fire on adding to your pension for now but keep it in mind for when your finances improve

Baileys_Babe

@daisy_1571 Thanks for explaining your filing system I do something similar but without the coversheet for each section which is a project I will work on on cold wet winter days

daisy_1571

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82055083#Comment_82055083

I don't have such a thing no. I did experiment with keeping certificates, the up to date info for vehicles etc in one folder to be grabbed in case of fire but I know that would only be a success if we were here when it happened