From broke to better ..a journey

warby68

Cars can be money hoovers and always unexpectedly. Much sympathy to you with the tyre and well done for having the money and the good friends.

Try not to let it derail you when you're doing so well 

Blackcats

Boo to the cost of the tyre.  A small consolation but it didn't go on a credit card and increase your debt. 

You are doing well with surveys.

hope you are feeling brighter today.

lillypoo

Thankyou to those who commented.

Lesson learned. An emergency fund is a necessity. When I'm a bit deflated I want to spend money to cheer myself up ...mostly in the form of food or drink. I blew a big chunk of emergency fund on sod the diet food and sod sobriety bourbon.... BUT ..now know and must remind myself in future that doing that doesn't solve my problems.

On a brighter note ...tyre is fixed, had a lovely dog walk in a downpour today but it was full of joy and nature and waggy tails. Then the sun came out. 

Managed over £25 in surveys so far this week AND it's only Tuesday. And hit the £50 payout mark for ylive to pay me at the start of July. Also have two extra shifts at work this week. So the tyre is easily paid for with no new debt.

Mr lloyds had put no interest holds on my two Ccs .

M&s cc still calling about 4 times a day.

Got 9 letters from Mr l in one day lol. Royal mail will make a fortune out of me.

Thought dog c had an ear infection at the weekend and envisaged another huge vets bill but managed to weedle a grass seed out of his ear  today and seems all OK now so that's a relief.

My garden has grown frantically with the combination of sunshine and storms. I really need a lawn mower and tree loppers or I soon won't be able to get out of the house.  Have a couple of argos vouchers but looking on freecycle and marketplace first. 

Feeling much more positive than I did before the weekend.  Still fat though! why aren't I a size 8? I've been on a diet for at least 36 hours!

jusferbrowsing

Amazing work with the surveys. Glad you're feeling more positive.

Spinayarn

@lillypoo I know what you mean about wanting to be thin after 36hrs of dieting! I feel the same about getting rid of the debts. I've been doing this budgeting thing for a month now, why aren't I debt free? I feel there are a lot of similarities between the two things. I just hope I can keep the momentum going on this and that my enthusiasm doesn't wane after a few more weeks.

Willowtree222

I know the diet feeling, but I emotionally eat and cutting money and dieting together was not a good combination. At all. I decided to tackle one issue first and then I didn't feel restricted in all areas of my life. X

lillypoo

It's been a few weeks since I posted.
Credit score has taken the expected nose dive. M&s still calling multiple times a day but no letters. Mr Lloyd doesn't seem particularly bothered that I've missed two payments on my two ccs. I'm sure he soon will.

Having a hard  time keeping my EF in tact. It was all going well for July then a storm brought a big tree down in my garden. I've used the loppers to take off what branches I can but will need someone with a chain saw to get through the trunk and bigger branches and then someone with a trailer to take it all away. 

Had my hair cut for the first time in 15 months. Didn't like the cost but it's given my self esteem a bit of a lift.

Came to the end of my fixed energy contract this month. Best deal I could get means estimated monthly bills will increase from 65 to 95 a month. Could be worse and I've got a few months worth of credit already built up.

Planning on opening two new pots on my monzo tomorrow..one for Christmas and one to self insure instead of paying for pet insurance.  Its taken me a couple of years to come to my senses over that. 

I've been really haphazard with my grocery spending and meal planning for the last few weeks. Must somehow get out of the habit of using chocolate food wine etc as a reward or pick me up whenever I feel the need ...a couple of friends and relations have had recent personal problems  for which I tend to become the major shoulder to cry on ...then I end up feeling emotionally drained and think oh ill have a giant Toblerone and a bottle of merlot because I deserve it. As far as food purchases I'm not so bad, I have stuck to meal plans and shopping lists


Anyway that's me for now. Big breath and big fresh start tomorrow. Need to get back into the surveys too!

Back to the tennis ...

jokono

I think Monzo only allows one pot with interest, doesn't it? Could you open a chase account? You could keep the xmas and pet money into saving pots there, they let you open up to 10 separate pots with 3.8% interest. 

lillypoo

jokono said:

I think Monzo only allows one pot with interest, doesn't it? Could you open a chase account? You could keep the xmas and pet money into saving pots there, they let you open up to 10 separate pots with 3.8% interest. 

Oh I'd have to check. Thanks for the tip.  But I've already got two pots earning interest on monzo so it's definitely more than one. But I'll check it out.

outoftheviciouscircle

Hi Lilypoo, on the self insuring on the pets, I know it can feel that you are saving money by not insuring should something not happen, however my dog got very unwell back in February, we would have done anything to try and help him and his vet bills came to over £10,000 in the end. Unfortunately we lost him anyway but thankfully due to insurance we only paid out a £99 excess. I know if I didn't have insurance I would have found anyway possible to find this money regardless.