The Mental Debt Struggle...

Makingabobor2

I think a lot of companies do subscribe and save, and if its something you use regularly then it is a good little money saver.

Keedie

Yeah, it's a great tip @abaka, as I'd no clue that dust was even something to consider to be honest. I'd bumped into a different childhood friend coming out of the Apple Store and told her what happened to my MacBook and she was stunned that this was even something to consider.

I need to look at different subscribe and save options @Makingabobor2 and figure out cash back stuff. As there's things that I need regularly anyways, so I might as well save some money 🤗.

I forgot to say that I have a new Care Coordinator at the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) has been assigned to me. I met her yesterday and she seems really nice. So hopefully, she'll be able to help me work through a few things, as life is quite tough at the moment.

And I'm very behind on my studies so the goodwill free extension that expires in December 2026, is not going to be enough time, and so I am saving for the additional 6 month extension which is £215.

Makingabobor2

Yes @Keedie, cash back sites are excellent. Every little helps, as they say.

Keedie

I'll definitely look into cash back sites, as it seems that I've been leaving money on the table 🥴.

My hair appointment went well although the hairdresser was late, and my hair is a bit tight, it means that I don't need to anything with my hair for a few weeks except grease it and use oil sheen to maintain the plaits. Which is just as well, because this chronic fatigue syndrome flare up is wearing me down. But I'm trying to be as positive as I can be, although I feel like sh*t and as a result, I've reverted to relying on take aways (and eating the cost of that- pun intended 😂😂😂), whenever I feel less nauseous and I am able to eat something. I pretend I'm not feeling so rough, as my son keeps looking at me all concerned and anxious and I don't want to freak him out.

I had money set aside to cash stuff throughout the month, and I got bored of lying in my bed staring out the window in between muscle spasms, so I cheered myself up by playing some cash stuffing games. I had a total of £300, and I had £17.60 in spare change, so £317.60 overall.

I added some money to Stacking Cups (I think £50??), and as a result, I now have £250 in there, and so I need to deposit that at the post office. So Stacking Cups is 25% completed and overall, I've got £300/£1,800 so 16.67%. So definitely on target to complete Stacking Cups by 31 December 2026. I've made a dent in my autumn challenges binder, with some of the challenges approaching the 1/3 mark. And when that is completed at the end of November 2026, I will reallocate the money via my Freely Debt Savings method. So Stacking Cups will get a boost, along with my savings, sinking funds and fun money.

Anyways, the rest of the money was split across sinking funds and savings challenges. I have three sinking funds, with a hybrid mix of cash and digital money;

• KeeMari Silver - for me, my son, Silver and anything home/life related. This now has savings trackers for health, a groceries buffer, a mini pet fund and generic money for household or home furnishing stuff.
• The Gift - for birthdays, Christmas, Eid and any other special occasion. I've nearly got enough to cover the birthdays for the rest of the year, and about 2/3 for Christmas. So when the autumn binder is done, this will get topped up.
• The Keedie Fund - this is for my spending money, hair and beauty, wellbeing, socialising, bipolar buffer and uncategorised money if I just want/need something.

I've managed to bring my buffer/rainy day fund back up to £600 (£500 digital and £100 cash). So that makes me feel a bit better.

So I also have two main savings challenges binders, the autumn one is for Freely Debt Savings (which feeds into KeeMari Silver and The Gift). The other is purely for my savings challenges to feed into The Keedie Fund and kickstart/reignite the Globetrotter fund, as I'm definitely going to the Philippines with my son next year, and we're visiting my brother. One of my other binders has annual and coin challenges. I'll save throughout 2027, for 2028's sinking funds/bills/expenses. That's the binder that the Ducky Dots challenge was in.

It all sounds a bit complicated, but my binders are glittery colour coded (courtesy of Ali Express) and they each have a distinct purpose, and the fund/pot is a hybrid of digital and cash. My son thinks I'm extra, my youngest football nephew thinks I've got 'problems', and my Worker Bees are the only ones that get excited by it all. I guess I left it too late to indoctrinate my son and older nephews to wisdom of budgeting and the excitement of cash stuffing. The East London nephews are interested in the games and the East London nieces are rather ambivalent.

But funnily enough, all the nieces, nephews and my son are on board with the money jar competition on 1 January 2027 🤨. I'll be opening my £1 and £2 coin jar, and they have to guess the amount in there. I've also decided to count the silver and coppers and bag them and take them to the bank, and stuff the notes in the jar as well. So whoever has the closest guess for the overall total gets £10 and £5 for the runner up.

I might take the money out of the clear jar and put it in one of them Poundland tins as you can't see what's in there. My Worker Bee nephew was trying to use some mathematical magic to count the number of coins at the bottom or something and asked for a ruler, when I showed my Worker Bees my progres to inspire them. So I nixed that cheating and need to find one of my other tins to throw them off (cue evil laughter)…

daisy_1571

When I cash in random shrapnel I get it back out the bank as pound or £2 coins rather than notes as I then get to add them to our decades old vodka bottle. Its coming along nicely after years of being empty

Makingabobor2

I don't pretend to understand your binders/ challenges etc, but you seem to be doing well with it. Good luck with Phillippines, hope you manage to save for it. Travel is the best thing to spend money on. X

Keedie

It's never occurred to me to get the coins changed to £1 and £2 coins @daisy_1571, but that does sound like a good idea if you're doing long term coin savings.

My binders help me to sort things out in my head @Makingabobor2 and I have a corresponding Monzo pot or Chase sub-account to go with each type of financial category. This is what the binders look like, and they're in a secure safe:

From left to right, my system is:

• Black Binder - monthly budget split into weeks, money to go back to the bank (the idea is to stay 'in the black' financially, which I'm working towards again)
• Silver Binder - left over coin challenge trackers and annual savings challenges (to slowly save for 2028 expenses throughout 2027)
• Blue Binder - The Keedie Fund and associated trackers
• Yellow Binder - KeeMari Silver sinking funds
• Fuschia Binder - Keedie savings challenges/games
• Purple Binder - Seasonal binder savings challenges (currently autumn)
• Pink Binder - One Month Ahead fund (currently empty of trackers etc until other financial goals are met)
• Travel Binder - Globetrotter to save for all things travel related

The majority of the binders have very little cash as I use placeholders to let me know what I have in each binder/pot. So it's more of a visual representation for some things. Here's an example of what I do with the envelopes within the binders, and the homemade placeholders that I have to show me what is in the bank.

The Travel Binder is the cutest one though…

And it comes with travel categories, to help you consider all that you need for a trip and plan/save accordingly. I will be working on flights only at this stage, and travel documents. My brother is finding accommodation near where he lives, so once I know the price, I'll budget for it.

I'll definitely go and reach my savings targets, I just need to figure out when I'm going and how long I have to save. As my son is travelling with me, it'll be easier to do flights at random times, so that it's cheaper. I found flight to China for example, for £320. When the Help to Save account matures, that will take care of a chunk of what I need, for things like food, spending money, excursions etc. We'll be staying in apartments, and so we'll be able to cook etc and there's restaurants and shopping centres nearby that have cheap food. So priority one is getting the flight money together.

All of the flight money with the Globetrotter fund will be digital, so that the money is there if I find a good deal on flights once we've worked out the dates. Then I can save in cash (as I have better control of my savings) and I'll deposit the money in smaller increments, and mainly rely on placeholders.

Hopefully all of that makes a little bit more sense about how my brain works and how I sort my finances. Visually seeing the trackers and being able to cross off or colour in icons gives me more motivation. Aside from that massive Ducky Dots annual challenge, most of them are much smaller amounts so that they finish quickly. It gives me like a snowball approach to savings, as sometimes I reallocate the money into something bigger. Whereas sometimes, until I've allocated a savings challenge to a particular purpose, and I don't spend the money until I've completed the challenge. It's helping with my impulse control (not entirely, but better progress than before), and that is giving me more momentum. I'm nearly at 45% of all of the debt repaid, and the moped insurance money has jumped up since I've started Stacking Cups, as I get excited to finish it and get the money together.

daisy_1571

Oooooh those binders are niiiiiiiiicccccccce. Makes it a bit more fun to use such beautiful stationery

Dxx

Keedie

They're soooo nice @daisy_1571! And being different colours helps me to figure out where everything is. It definitely makes it brighter and more fund when things are pretty or colourful. Debt is rather bland and overwhelming, but by gamifying it and introducing colour and different systems, it feels more like fun savings that happen to be allocated towards something serious like debt.

Makingabobor2

The travel binder is lovely. I think you have a creative mind to do all this. I tried challenges in the past, but they weren't for me. I just like to work out my money in diary & spreadsheets & transfer weekly/monthly into online saving pots.

The Phillippines sounds very exciting.