The Mental Debt Struggle...

AntoMac

Love all your charts Keedie and so pleased you’re being listened to now and getting some help managing your pain.
That’s a lovely way to look at it @Sun_Addict
My Dad has been gone for more than 20 years but I was talking about him today with my Mum, as we always do.  We were laughing at his eccentricities and praising his wonderful understated kindness. It’s good to always keep them with us.

Keedie

Thank you all for checking in on me @cinnamon123, @beanielou, @LittleMissDetermined, @Sun_Addict and @AntoMac, and for your kind words and encouragement, I really appreciate it. I do feel seen and like things are finally falling into place. It has been a long and painful few years, and knowing that there are treatments available to me makes me feel so much better as if my experience of pain has been validated. 

I'm very grateful to the NHS as I can't imagine having to pay for treatment, and I can see how some people in countries that rely on medical insurance can end up going bankrupt. I'm very happy that I have a plan in place for different treatment options as I have been really struggling in recent years and the stress of the last few months has really taken a toll on me physically and mentally. So to have hope for changes is really good. And I have my bipolar session next Thursday as well, so hopefully on the mental front will get better as well. 

I'm nervous for my lidocaine infusion treatment in the morning as I don't tolerate medication very well and I'm not sure if I'll end up with adverse side effects. But the thought of having some pain relief for up to a few months is beyond exciting.

I think I'm still in the disorientated and slightly stage of grief when I've had dreams about my dad @Sun_Addict, but I do feel comforted sometimes by my dreams. I would be very sad if I no longer had them, I just get a bit down when my brain catches up to the fact that he's gone and so I grieve him all over again to a certain extent. But it's only been 2.5 years, so I guess it will get easier. But I do cherish those dream moments when we meet again. I think people truly die when there's no one around to remember them. So it's good that you can have a laugh with your mum @AntoMac and keep your dad's memory alive. Me and my siblings and my mum often have a laugh about the eccentricities my dad had as well.

I'm really pleased with my charts, they make me smile and keep me going. I'm hoping to clear Level 2 by the end of June 2023 (if my brother pays his debt in full as promised). That's if I can keep up with the PAD Pot at the current level of £25-40 extra a month. I've caught up with my penny challenge as my employed wages came through today so I now have £53.48/£667.95 towards Christmas 2023. 

My tax 2022/23 tax pot is coming along, and I have £142.81/£1,000 saved, so hopefully I can reach my target by 31 May 2023 and then I can do my tax return once I receive my P60 and see what my actual tax bill is. I'll then adjust my budget accordingly, if I need to save to pay it by January 2024 or if the amount saved can cover it and I'll have surplus towards the following year's self assessment. 🤗

Keedie

Another one bites the dust... 💃🏽

I've made the final payment of £133 to the Bank of Mum 2 for our family holiday and that clears the amount that I owe on that debt. I'm really happy to see one more crossed off, because I know it will be several months before I can cross off another. But I've got a revised repayment plan as I have been offered a pay rise at work of two spinal points, in exchange for me covering some of the basic duties of my manager's position when she leaves and acting as a mentor to a new member of the team when she starts in January 2023. I will have to make sure that I train her (which I've done for everyone else in the past for free) and help them to come up with a development plan for her probation so that she hits her milestones (which yet again I've already proposed in the past for free).

So that increase in salary will coincide with the increase in my working hours on 5 December 2022, so I will be £200 better off a month and I've decided to add £150 extra towards debt and £50 to have as a contingency to spend on whatever is needed for the month. I think those are called slush funds? Anyway, so I'll increase the direct debit for MBNA from January 2023, as that's the debt I'm snowballing first. I currently pay £500 a month for all debt, so this will increase to £650, and MBNA will go from £102.33 to £252.33. Then when I do my care job, I'll pay another £130 onto MBNA, so the total payment to MBNA (minus any PAD Pot offerings) will be £382.33 a month. The care job puts my debt repayments at £780 a month, but I am not increasing my direct debits to match this as you never know what can happen in life and I'd rather have the flexibility with this money.

The increase in debt budget due to the payrise, means that I'll pay off more next year, with direct debits of £7,800 (£650 x 12 months) + £2,555 (70% of my £3,650 target for Make £10 a day) = £10,355. If that comes to fruition, then I will end 2023 £5,230.84 outstanding. Which will mean 76.42% will have been cleared. It's ambitious, but I do like a challenge... 🤗.

LittleMissDetermined

Really well done Keedie! Another debt paid  
I'm certain you're up to the challenge, given how well you have been doing lately!!
LMD x

beanielou

Another one bites the dust 

Sun_Addict

Fabulous news on another debt gone and the extra pay 👏

Keedie

Thanks @LittleMissDetermined, @beanielou and @Sun_Addict! It feels really good to be crossing things off. I'm focussing all my energy on getting rid of MBNA, and hopefully clearing Level 2 on my Debtris Debt Free chart by June 2023, as the payrise will help me to increase the repayments. 

I've managed to put £14.55 into my sealed pot challenge today, which was made up of 2x £5 notes, a £2 coin and some loose change. I think there's a high chance I'll meet my £500 target for the challenge by October next year if I keep saving what I can. I've decided to round up spending to the nearest £1 when using cash, in the same way that I do when paying by card.

I've also brought one of those cash stuffing binder thingies from Amazon, as I'm moving to cash only for grocery shopping as I think this will help me to spend less. Tapping away with my card doesn't really work as I haven't really got into the mindset that I'm spending real money when it comes to food shopping. But when I go with cash and have to work out what I'm buying and what I can afford so that I don't get shamed at the till, I think this should reduce my impulse spending. I'm getting better at pretending that middle aisle in Lidl and Aldi just don't exist, but my my at this time of year it's so tempting!

cinnamon123

Yay for paying off another debt - even better because it went back to your mum.

Also great news that you will be paid for duties you previously did for free out of the kindness of your heart.

One thing that is absolutely certain is that expenses always crop up when we least expect it. I would consider reducing the amount that you put towards debt (maybe do £125/£25/£50 instead of £150/£50). You could put the £25 to the side and let it build up. If you need it for something else (be it a bill or the need for some Keedie away time or something for your son), it's there. If you don't, then you'll have an extra £300 to chuck at debt at the end of the year. It's extra £s so whatever you do with it, you are still ahead of the game! 

IMO what a lot of people don't really understand about money is that the best thing about having more of it, isn't that you get to buy more things. It's that you have options and less stress. (And again IMO this is what we need young adults to understand because it can literally change their lives.)

For this reason, even with debt, I do not think it is always best to chuck everything at reducing debt. Because life/stuff happens and with it financial stress, having some money purposely set aside that you can chuck at the problem is always a win. Even if all you are doing is buying a take-away that week.

You are doing so well Keedie! I hope lots of good news keeps coming your way Have a good weekend!

AntoMac

It’s uplifting to see that things are going your way Keedie - Mentally, physically and financially. 

@cinnamon123 makes a good point (as always). You could indeed hold on to a bit of your extra money for longer, maybe even earn a little bit of interest on it and keep it temporarily out of temptation’s reach.
Talking of our wonderful NHS reminds me. I asked my Uncle about life pre NHS, as his sister was Ill and needed treatment. She had to sell her sheep to pay towards the cost! What different times they were. I am still in awe at how my grandmother, a single mother of 6, managed to bring them up. Anyway, I’m digressing again! 

Whichever way you choose to do it you’re wonderfully well. Keep going and keep inspiring us. 

Keedie

Feedback from all you wonderful people is what makes this forum so invaluable. It's a really great community 🤗. 

I'm going to sit down and redo my budget as you're right @cinnamon123, life does happen and today brought that home as I realised that I obviously didn't give enough consideration for different categories in my budget. As my son asked for new (and unnecessarily expensive) pair of football boots and I realised that for some odd reason I had not even considered clothing as a budget category 🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️! I think because I don't buy clothes for myself and he's been buying clothes with his allowance and he had everything he needed sports wise, it just slipped my mind that it was needed. I used to have a school uniform category but he doesn't go to school and I didn't buy new clothes for him to start college, so that was a bit dumb of me to disregard it. But I've finally regained access to my Christians Against Poverty's CAP Money account and can use their online budgeting tool, so I'll go back to the drawing board and tweak everything.

I now won't be putting more than £100 extra towards my debts, from the £200 increase as I don't want to leave things too tight. My budget is based upon my employed earnings and universal credit and a top up of freelance income if needed, to reach that baseline figure of earnings and universal credit (as the more I freelance, the less universal credit I get). But I'll put £25 into a contingency fund, one that allows access if needed for small unexpected things. Like if my son needs clothes, but there's only £56 in that pot, but what he needs comes up to £70, I can transfer the £14 and not touch the emergency fund or rely on credit. Or I do need that take away or a break to escape for a bit. That way I can leave the main emergency fund for major things like replacing a household appliance etc or a major shortfall in income.

So I need to have a good think and work out what my budget is missing, and then allocate the remaining £75 accordingly and tweak the existing categories so that I don't go over the baseline amount. The new budget doesn't start until January's 2023 as I'll be taking care of Christmas, so there's still time for tweaking. I'm going to disregard my freelance income unless it's used to top up and reach my baseline budget, and I will take your advice @AntoMac and put that money aside to earn interest. So anything that I have above my standard monthly budget will get split as I originally intended, but the 70% debt, 10% spend and 20% save will now be 50% debt, 20% spend and 30% save. With the money saved going into 

I've set up another saver account and sub-account with Chase to help me manage this. With the 50% going to the saver which will be used as a long term PADding point, to accumulate my Make £10 a day money and anything extra that I can squirrel away and I can make a lump sum payment at the end of next year if the money is not needed. The sub-account will be used as the contingency fund, with the 20% spend going in there and the 30% saved will go to my emergency fund.

It makes more sense this way, so thank you for all the advice. I realised that I will need some non-emergency fund savings to play with when I leave work next year in case I need to top up whatever freelance income I have. And if everything has gone on debt reduction, then I'll have nothing and probably won't end up taking the leap and leaving my job and I'll end up trapped. There's no point having less debt but no happiness in life.

I forget how young the NHS actually is, as I've known nothing else in my lifetime, that it seems so strange and fascinating @AntoMac that your family and many others had to sell livestock or family valuables to afford treatment. We take a lot for granted without realising it. And I take my hat off to your grandmother! A very strong woman indeed. And please continue to 'digress', I love hearing about your family 😁.