The Mental Debt Struggle...

Keedie

Using cash and my phone’s calculator was a good strategy today as I realised exactly how much things cost and how much it’s gone up. I also realised that I can’t add up properly even using a calculator! I was over budget at £52.13 instead of £40 but that did include flowers for my dad’s grave for Father’s Day, bin bags and my favourite ice cream was finally back in stock. I’ve planned meals for the weekly loosely and got some lunch stuff and I should have enough petrol for the week. So fingers crossed I’ll have some NSD or low spend days as I’ve only got £15.64 left for the week. 

I have 5 current accounts as well but only use the Monzo one really. I’ve allocated Santander for my son’s tuition fees. But I think the other 3 I’ll leave as is, but make use of Chase’s multi account style pots to budget as virtual cash stuffing for my spending account. 

I just found out today that I can lock a bills out on Monzo which is great. As a lot of my overspending has been because I’ve dipped into the pots that have direct debits for my bills and debt repayments. So if they’re locked, the direct debits will still come out. But I won’t be able to keep pilfering money from them. I just need to work out how much to put into each pot as I get paid at various times in the month. I’m hoping this will make me more disclipned. Fingers crossed. 

savingholmes

Good luck with setting up the pots right. It gets easier with time. My strongest advice would be to try and sell stuff to get an EF and a float... so that there's less pressure... You are making good progress on your EF.

Keedie

I think with the emergency fund, I’ll save £35 a month instead of £25 a month. As the £50 that I’m not paying to my mum, can be split. So that I use £10 of it towards the EF and £40 as spending for the month. As my disposable income is quite tight after all direct debits and bills etc comes out. 

My aim is to get to the end of a month and be able to have a surplus, even if it’s only a pound. As at the moment, I’ve got into the bad habit of claiming my money from 4pm the day before any payment is due to reach my account using Monzo’s early payment feature. 

Once I’ve got my head around the different pots, I think things will get easier. I completely forgot that I’d used the Christian Against Poverty Money Management course and their budgeting tool in the past. So I’ll need to see if my account is still active, as that helped me to know how much to put in different categories and should help with the pot management as well. 

Keedie

I messed up a bit with my MBNA direct debit, as £150 came out today (my normal payment), and I realised last night when I saw the charge pending in my Monzo account that it's because I only changed the direct debit last weekend, which was within the 14 days window of the DD, so the change won't take effect until my next bill. 

That's £125 extra that I've had to pay as I misjudged the timing and the payment window. I'm a bit confused as it was showing on the app that it was set to minimum payment, with a balance of £19 as I had been PADding, and so the £25 minimum payment, there was £19 left. At least next month, I'll know where I stand I guess. I'm just very annoyed with myself as I don't get my employed wages until this Friday 24 June.

It's just as well that I got that unexpected work on Friday, as what I earned will make up some of the £125 that I've gone over budget. I'm just very grateful that I'd been paid from one freelancing job last week, as I was able to take the money to cover the higher direct debit, from my tax pot, and I'll have to put it back soon so that I can sort out my 2021/22 tax bill. I don't like to pay it in January as there's always something wrong with HMRC's system at that time of year because everyone is using it at the same time.

That's making me worried about my Barclaycard DD, as that's also showing minimum payment, but I'm hoping that as it's not due until the end of month, there's time for that one to actually go through as a minimum payment.

CRANKY40

Don't waste time worrying, call Barclaycard and check. If it's not going out as minimum payment cancel the direct debit and pay it manually. Do you still have the MBNA card? If you do then use it to pay something but only use it for the difference between what you were going to pay and the overpayment. There is no point leaving yourself short and getting stressed. That will lead to worrying and it's a downward spiral from there....

As you become more organised and more used to paying things off it will become easier but there are always a few slip ups to start with. Keeping the right mindset now is important. 

LittleMissDetermined

CRANKY40 said:

Don't waste time worrying, call Barclaycard and check. If it's not going out as minimum payment cancel the direct debit and pay it manually. Do you still have the MBNA card? If you do then use it to pay something but only use it for the difference between what you were going to pay and the overpayment. There is no point leaving yourself short and getting stressed. That will lead to worrying and it's a downward spiral from there....

As you become more organised and more used to paying things off it will become easier but there are always a few slip ups to start with. Keeping the right mindset now is important. 

^ My advice would be exactly this ^
It's not worth worrying about. Or if you can't speak to Barclaycard then just cancel the DD and make a manual payment for the minimum when it's due according to your statement. You can always set up another DD for the minimum payment once that's done. 
LMD x

FreedomBringsPeace

Hi @Keedie so much of what you said resonated with me. The student debt, the mental health issues, the purchases, the takeaways. Ive actually been advised to take surplus cash out now and do cash stuffing. As online spending is a large part of my problem when i struggle mentally. Due to my anxiety, vision and walking difficulty im not a window shopper etc and dont go out regularly. My friend has encouraged me from next month to start addressing the takeaway issue. I too ha lost huge amounts but ive forgiven myself and try to look forward. My friend set up spending tracker app helps you to plan better, we also set up all my direct debits for the end of the month so we can track stuff easier. We are looking forward, we will get there. I became debt free in February had another episode after this and now im paying off some things over the next few months next november should be the end. Can you tell me hiw i add that information to my signature please ty for sharing

Keedie

@CRANKY40 and @LittleMissDetermined that's actually very good advice, thank you. I spend so much time worrying, that my anxiety breeds more anxiety and then I can't sleep properly and it goes downhill from there  . You're right that the mindset with setbacks makes all the difference, so I'm trying to remain positive. 

I'll contact Barclaycard this afternoon as I finish work at 1pm. I've got a meeting with my Mental Health Care Coordinator at 2pm, so once I'm back I'll contact Barclaycard. If it's not set for the minimum I'll take your advice and cancel it and make the payment manually and set up another DD. I've still got the MBNA card, so if I need to, I will use it. The problem is that my final Klarna payment for my car service is due on 5 July, and that's what I earmarked some of that money for. But I don't know if I can pay Klarna with a credit card, so I'll have to look into that in case I can't juggle things around and need to use the MBNA card.

@FreedomBringsPeace well done for becoming debt free even if you have had setbacks, at least you have a plan for clearing it again. Mental health really does impact on everything doesn't it? I'm hoping to curb my reliance on my takeaways, but I think the logical thing would be to have a small part of my weekly budget set aside for it, so that if I need to it's there, and I'm not going to beat myself up about it, or be panicked that I've spent money for something else. I've watched a few cash stuffing videos on TikTok and YouTube and I kind of understand the basics, but I do need to learn more so that I can do it properly. I also have physical disabilities due to chronic conditions and so it's easy to do things online, and I've noticed that spending on my card leads me into a downward spiral as I don't pay enough attention to what I'm doing. It sounds like you have a great friend and support network, and that can make all of the difference. What app did your friend use to track your spending? That sounds like something I need to download! I have direct debits scattered throughout the month, so I need to see if I can tidy that up so that they all come out around the same time, as I get paid throughout the month and find it hard to manage that properly. 

With regards to the signature, the link is here, https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/profile/signature. Under your profile, you click 'edit profile' and then 'signature settings' on the left hand column. 

abaka

That's sad to hear about the overpayment especially with all your great planning.  However, small little setbacks aren't the end of the world at the start....and it's probably expected.  I lost out on £70 pound this month I didn't budget for because I forgot I had subscripts due to renew and then I also had made an £80 payment on my PayPal balance which I didn't realise didn't lift from my account balance for a few days so I made spending/payment decisions based on thhinking I had an extra £80 I didn't!!!

What I have found helpful this month - Is paying my min payments on day the bill generates and then holding off on a bigger payment until the day before PayDay.  At the start of the month I expected to be able to make a payment of £270 toward my smallest account but because of the unforeseen circumstances I'm now expecting this to be £150....If I had have paid the £300 straight away, I'd finish the month £120 into my overdraft....This is one of the small lessons/adjustments I've made since starting my journy which are making the difference

Keedie

It really is frustrating @abaka that I got that so wrong, but I'm trying not to be disheartened. It's so easy to fall into trouble in these first few weeks isn't it? I've learnt the lesson, so hopefully in this upcoming month once I've been paid on Friday, I'll be able to judge it better.

When you make a payment the date that the bill is due, is this via a normal card payment through the app or bank transfer etc? I like the idea of just paying the minimum and then any surplus being sent over to top up the payment at the end of the month after the month has been paid. I've tended to try and clear things and pay it all upfront, and then I run out of money.So your approach makes so much sense!