The Mental Debt Struggle...

Sun_Addict

Those binders are gorgeous and if they help you save all the better. It’s great that you’ve found a method that works for you. The trip to the Philippines sounds like an amazing experience to aim for. You know we want pictures when you go 😆

Keedie

All of our brains work differently @Makingabobor2, which is a great thing, otherwise the world would be exceptionally bland. I always write things down and use a spreadsheet to calculate everything, but even that is colour coded as my brain can't process black and white properly. That's why I give things specific names, like The Burden for all the bills and stuff, so that I can categorise things in my head and have a visual image to see where I am at a glance. My Monzo pots all have cartoon type images, so that they amuse me as they're keeping me organised. I do make myself chuckle at times 😂.

The binders and challenges definitely help with the savings @Sun_Addict, as it becomes something fun. I get very stressed about money, and I'm always redoing my budget. But doing things this way has helped me to relax a bit, and there's something quite mindful about colouring in savings trackers, and I get a sense of achievement when I complete one.

Me and my son had a chat about our Asian Adventure today (see another name for things so that I know what I'm doing 😊), and we're going to see if we can do a triple trip; China, Japan and the Philippines. I honestly don't know how long I can keep travelling long haul flights and so this may be the only opportunity. He's looking for a second job, and will use that money to go towards our trip. I've got some freelance money coming my way, so I'll put half into Globetrotter to start things off, and then split the rest across other categories.

And yes, there will definitely be pictures of our Asian Adventure! I'm probably going to bore everyone talking about it, so apologies in advance. The main thing is to get the money together for flights to the Philippines. My brother said it's a lot cheaper to get flights within Asia once we're there and everything will be a few hours from Manila, so the plan is to make the Philippines our base and travel if we can. I need to look at the weather, as when it is too hot I get really bad fibromyalgia flare ups. And I need to be careful of the time and route that we fly, as a long haul flight and jet lag is almost certain to push me into a hypomanic bipolar episode. So health trumps the budget, and I need to think about flight times and save/spend a little more if it means I reduce the mental and physical impact of the travel, as the average travel time is around 20 hours 😬😬😬.

Makingabobor2

Ooh Japan & China would be amazing. Both places on our bucket list, if we ever actually get to go abroad again.

You can never bore people talking about travelling. I used to be aTA & travel is still my favourite topic.

daisy_1571

My brother and sister in law are off to China today for a couple of weeks but for me personally I'm happy to stay home 😆

peb

All sounding exciting.

JJust to be sure to research your travel insurance - a lot of insurers don't cover trips when flights are booked outside of the UK.

Makingabobor2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82135829#Comment_82135829

Yes, indeed. A friend of mine had that problem after she moved to Spain. Insurance won't be cheap either, with Worldwide destinations. Make sure to declare all your medical conditions.

abaka

just got caught up with your diary Keedie! Very exciting to hear about your trip. Deffo a part of the world I want to visit one day.

Keedie

I hadn't thought of travel insurance being impacted by flights booked whilst travelling etc. I knew that I would need travel insurance, which for me is always astronomical in price due to my rubbish health. I'll definitely have to look into that more, so thank you. And yeah, it would be good to be able to travel.

The funeral for my Granny on Monday went well. I got a bit overstimulated by the number of people, but she had a good send off. My sister made a great slideshow of all the pictures from my Granny's life, her kids, grandkids and great grandkids. And I did a playlist for the wake. We had a lot of technical difficulties at first, with the projector not working properly, and so were given access to the member's lounge of the cricket club. It all ended up being for the best, as it meant that we could have that smaller room to have the slideshow and song on repeat. Luckily, I'd packed my Apple adaptor so that I could use the HDMI cables and I had the charger so it didn't accidentally die, whilst it was playing everything on repeat. People were able to come in and out, and watch the slideshow as they wanted/needed, and so that was very nice.

The kids were all running around outside, playing football, chasing each other in the playground, excitedly congregating on the climbing frame and expressing utter shock at how many cousins they have. It was nice to catch up with everyone, despite the circumstances. And we worked out that there is a 41 year age gap between the oldest grandchild (my sister who is 56) and the youngest grandchild who is 15. And some of the great grandkids (like my son) are older than some of the grandkids (my level of cousins on the family tree). It was all a bit surreal to be honest.

I've been getting a bit mentally unwell, so I've stopped the freelance work for now. I need to sort out my latest invoice as that is £818.75. I have one more, albeit smaller invoice to be sent at the end of this month. But aside from that, I don't know when I'll be able to work again and my work experience hasn't continued due to poor mental health. So I'm at a bit of a financial crossroads. I'm not well enough to work, but the lack of routine from not working is not helping my mental health. So it's a bit chicken and eggy. I'm trying to figure it all out. I've got another meeting with my mental health care coordinator next week, so I'll get her input about all of this and how to get back on track.

Anyways, all of that to simply say that I'm living on my bare bones budget for the next couple of months, as I don't feel quite right and I don't want to put myself in a precarious situation budget wise. I don't know when I'll be well enough to freelance again. So I'm going to save everything above my bare bones budget in my Attracting Abundance pot. I've moved the £635 surplus that I accrued for October 2026's budget into the Abundance fund. I'll keep moving money over until I'm well enough to do a bit of ad hoc freelancing. It will give me a good safety net for the coming months. As the weather gets colder and the clocks change, I decline even further. So I'll save the money until I know I in a position to earn again, and then I can start back up with Freely Debt Savings. I'm feeling a bit too fragile at the moment to do much of anything.

Baileys_Babe

Sorry to hear your mental health isn't good at the moment, but well done for putting yourself first and stepping back from your freelancing and also making decisions about your finances to help keep you secure. I wish I could offer better support, but I hope a virtual hug will help 🤗

Keedie

Thank you @Baileys_Babe. I've been trying to do things around the flat that might make me feel better. I cleared out one of the built-in drawers of my bed last night. But I felt sick afterwards. I think I did too much activity and so I had to rest. But I'll do more this evening or tomorrow morning. The drawer was full of loads of toiletries and beauty products, a hangover from when I used to make more of an effort. It won't be hard to get rid of things though. Anything opened will be binned, as they can't remain open for years and not cause some kind of damage or irritation when used on my sensitive skin. I have a few toiletries sets. I think I'll take pictures of everything and create a whatsapp group with my mum, sisters, ex-sister-in-law and nieces. They can then select what they want and I will put them in a bag for them.

The same will happen with my books and the ones that no one wants will go to the library. My books are new, but I find it hard to read fiction books as I've got used to using my kindle app on my iPad. But ironically, I can't read non-fiction or self help books in digital format, so those are the physical books that I am keeping, and have already been organised on my bedroom bookshelf.

I need to put my son's muscles to work this evening and over the weekend, for him to help me to organise things to take to the dump site. I need to hire a car for a couple of hours, and get rid of all of the junk. My little Worker Bees have been helping me to bag things up to take to the charity shop. So I'll put them in my shopping trolley and me and my son can take them over on the bus. The shop is on a main road red route, so there's no point him getting a ticket for using his moped, when we can do the clothes drop off in one or two trips.

I had a look at my budget again, and I should be okay until January 2027's budget, as I use the current month to fund the next month. Therefore, I have the money for October 2026's budget all sorted, and as I am only having a basic budget for the rest of 2026, I will be in a better situation for January 2027's budget and my other financial goals. I will continue to accumulate all surplus funds so that at the end of the year I can figure out how to make next year easier to cope with, and what my budget could look like. Only saving money digitally will also mean that the first £150 of each surplus can be easily transferred to Natwest to cover the monthly maximum to take advantage of the interest rate. I just need to have more discipline as I tend to spend money willy nilly when it's digital, as it doesn't seem as real.

I think to reduce the overwhelm, I will only focus on one quarter at a time. I've roughly figured out what is important and needs to be funded for Quarter 4 (October 2026 to December 2026). It'll be pricey as it includes 6 birthdays including mine and my son's and nephew who is turning 18, plus 2 birthday meals and Christmas. I need to look in my cash binders with my sinking funds and savings challenges and my digital pots, and see what I have saved to cover everything. If I don't have enough, then I will amend the budget for next quarter. But I think clearing out everything will leave me with a fresh start for 2027.

So until the end of December 2026, I am only putting money into Stacking Cups (in cash) to accumulate money for debt repayments and to reach as much of the £1,000 target that is practicable. And the surplus rollovers each month will serve as digital savings. When things are a bit better mentally, I will wrap up the next freelance project and add to the digital surplus. As it stands, when my recent invoice of £818.75 is paid, 30% will automatically go into the tax pot to cover this year's taxes and next year's payment on account. That will leave me with £573.13 to play with, and as there is around £25 in the business account that isn't allocated into pots, I will be able to withdraw £575. When that is added to the £635 surplus, PIP and Universal Credit, I should have £2,972 accumulated in October for November's budget. That is waaay more than my monthly budget, so I will continue to have a healthy surplus to roll over, even with November's Natwest money being transferred.

I can then go into 2027 with a fresh start and enough money to make realistic plans, and focus on what is needed for Quarter 1 2027 (January 2027 to March 2027). I won't need to have too much set aside, as the Help to Save account matures in February 2027, and I'll be able to set aside some money to continue to fund that savings account, clear up some debts and sort out my sinking funds.

I'll definitely be reducing the gifts budget from 2027, as it's costly because my family is not small, and it's too much unnecessary pressure. But I'll keep it the same for the remainder of this year, so that it's fair to all my nieces and nephews.

I counted my £1 and £2 coin jar last night when I was transferring the money into the Poundland tin that you can't see through. I'm not sure if I did it correctly, as I was rather tired, but I think I have about £345 in there. So when I count that all up, and bag it to take it to the bank after the 1 January 2027 count, I should have about £400/£425. I have no specific allocation for it at the moment, but with the digital count up at the end of December and the coin money, I should be able to figure out what to do with all of it.