The Mental Debt Struggle...

Sarahwithlove

Keedie said:

Thanks @Sarahwithlove that's a great trick for Butlins and we will definitely be doing that! The kids are very excited about the water park and the evening party for NYE, although the teenagers pretend that they are not that fussed 🙄. 

I try my hardest with my son, I don't always get it right, but I am very proud of him and thank you.

You might as well get your money worth with the Premier dining! 

Keedie

Most definitely! It’s all about getting our money’s worth. 

beanielou

Accapuncture works well for me.
It's what works well for you 

beanielou

Oh & I will PM you a link of a book that may help.

Keedie

Yes please @beanielou, I'm open to anything that could help me 🤗.

Keedie

I'm knackered but it was a good day 🤗.

We had a whole team workshop review today with a project manager and the Deputy Director of HR to look at how our service runs and where the service improvements lie, and it was quite positive but we packed in a lot in a short space of time - hence I'm knackered. Then we had our team Christmas lunch and Secret Santa and that was really nice and our employer paid for our meal and we had £42 a head so there was quite a lot of alcohol being consumed (not by me, I just had one cocktail that made me extra sleepy 😴 ).

I've managed to put some money aside in the sealed pot and today's contribution was £3.70. I've been thinking long and hard about what I'm going to have as my financial and wellbeing goals for 2023. I desperately want to leave my job in December 2023, and then freelance, temp and take life at a different pace in 2024. But I also want to really get rid of as much debt as I can so that I feel more free and with lower outgoings, I can afford to be more creative and have a better balance to life.

If I pay nothing more than my upcoming debt direct debits and standing orders plus the £11.08 in my PAD Pot, I will end 2022 with a balance of £15,562.77 (29.84% repaid). I have decided to continue use £100 a month from my care job each month (previously I was using the whole £130 towards my debt to my mum, so I will save the remaining £30 as a short term emergency fund). This will boost my debt repayment to £700 a month up from £500 a month (with £100 from increased wages and £100 from the care job). I will keep the increased MBNA direct debit at £202.33 from January 2023 and add the £100 from the care job into my PAD Pot just in case that becomes unaffordable, I'm not stuck with a direct debit I cannot manage.

If the £700 a month is sustainable, then this will shave £8,400 off my debt in 2023, and leave a balance of £7,162.77 (67.71% repaid). This does not take account anything that I can accumulate via the PAD Pot on a monthly basis.

I will continue to separately set aside money in my Chase saving account for the Make £10 A Day Challenge (M£10AD), with a target of £3,650 from freelancing, selling clothes and unwanted items etc. And I will review at the end of 2023 what I've managed to accumulate and the current plan is to split it with 60% towards debt, 10% spending/fun money and 30% towards savings.

However, I realised today when playing around with my debt tracker spreadsheet, that if I worked for an additional year (to December 2024), and could sustain that momentum (£700 a month), that even without the £10 challenge, I would be completely debt free by October 2024 (14 months early). And leave my job with a healthy emergency fund and other savings. 

So I'm now not sure what to do about my job. Therefore I'm unsure of what my focus should be and I've been playing around with a few options:

1. Quit in December 2023 - swap M£10AD ratios, so 30% towards debt and 60% towards savings to help with any cash flow issues and move remaining credit card debt to another 0% interest balance transfer to spread this out and keep original debt free target date of December 2025 and start freelancing properly. 

2. Quit in June 2024 - set M£10AD at 50% debt and 50% savings to reduce debt but boost savings and this will clear all credit card debt and only have my mum remaining for the school fees, so a balance transfer will not be necessary, but there will be 3 months of paying interest. Enjoy summer and focus on freelancing knowing that I only have my debt to my mum.

3. Quit in December 2024 - keep 2023 M£10AD at 60% debt (which clear all debts by around July 2024) and then use previous £700 a month debt money to save, plus 2024 M£10AD money towards savings so that I don't have to temp and I can take a complete break from employed working/temping and enjoy freelancing.

I'm cautiously optimistic that if the changes at work that they have said today may be on the horizon, then it would make option 2 and 3 more tolerable. But if the next 12 months becomes unbearable with the new managers coming in, then I'll stick to option 1, but know that savings takes priority instead of debt overpayments. It's a lot to think about, but I want to set my 2023 intentions so that I know what I am doing and use that to motivate me... 🤔🤔🤔

beanielou

Option 2 seems good. 

LittleMissDetermined

I agree that option 2 seems like a good compromise.  I have been in a position previously where I haven't enjoyed my job and it's hard! So I hope the changes they are promising come to fruition for you x

AntoMac

Clearly No right or wrong answer here of Keedie but I would favour option 3. You would be debt free and have a few quid behind you. Much of course depends on how bearable the job is in the new year, and whether the proposed changes do in fact happen and actually make a difference.

Keedie

Thanks @beanielou, @LittleMissDetermined and @AntoMac for your feedback it's much appreciated. I had a good talk with my East London Sister about the options and she made me realise that I'd much prefer to leave with savings (option 3) but she doesn't know if I could survive in the job that long (even if they do make a lot of changes as I've outgrown the role itself).

So that got me thinking, and I realised that there's an extra option that I hadn't considered...

4. Job Change & Quit by December 2024 - this time next year I'll still be aiming to leave my current job as I won't be able to handle two years in that role. But I'll stay with the university for another year, but in a different administration role. That way I get out of HR, do something different and still have stable employment in 2024 to get debt free whilst I career change and freelance on the side. 

I had a look today, and there are about 10-15 admin jobs at the university at my preferred campus that my disabled parking permit is attached to, that I would apply for now if my circumstances were different. But I cannot change job until my son has sat his GCSEs, it's just too much upheaval otherwise. So as soon as the summer holidays are done, I'll be hardcore job hunting and doing applications from September 2023. The aim is to try and get something for December 2023/January 2024 by the time I give notice.

An internal move at the same salary band or the next level up, will keep my income stable and I can still run away from my job without adversely risking my debt free plan. I'll still be able to clear my debts by July 2024 (17 months early) and have 5 months of savings before I quit. 

I feel a better sense of contentment by going for option 4. It gives me a balance of maintaining the financial security that will stop me from having a meltdown if I leave and can't truly afford it. Whilst it also gives me the freedom to know that I can leave this job (although I will miss my team as they're really great human beings).