Trying to reboot my journey without burning out

SunshineDaisy

Hi there in diary land,

I have been here before but diary long since been archived, so thought I’d start a fresh.

A bit of quick background: single, 50 year old gal, no children, love travelling. Due a disastrous business investment, a long term relationship breakdown, I found myself with  25k debt, no home, no savings, a dying car and on my own.

A few years later, after working several jobs, no social life, living on cereal, bare minimum budget, a few lucky breaks and wonderful friends who were so generous, it still brings tears to my eyes, I’m now  down to 9k debt.

So, why back here??

Basically I burnt out. I worked through covid and volunteered to take on any extra shifts to cover colleague sickness, which you can imagine was at a high level. Luckily and probably due to the fact that I was single, no social life and living alone, I manage to dodge the lurgy. Financially, I did quite well out of it but mentally it was tough. My job involved taking calls from the public and the abuse level was very high. I could understand their frustration with an overwhelmed  infrastructure but everybody was doing their very best during a worldwide problem.

Instead of being grateful for our commitment during the pandemic, management started to trim down our benefits so I knew it was time to leave. I left the stressy job with loads of overtime opportunities, to a variety of  lower paid part time roles. One is  salaried but most are seasonal or zero hours. The debt repaying has slowed down considerably. At the end of last year, the debt had sneaked up a little, which was starting to worry me.  

I looked back and found that after a good month, I was paying large ‘additional’ payments but then on a low pay month, I was putting essentials onto a credit card and was balance transferring instead of paying it off.  I was initially thankful for the 0% offers. During my darkest times, I couldn’t even get an extension to my overdraft. However, at the beginning of this year, I couldn’t find any offers (probably due to the start of the cost of living crisis) and it brought back the memory of those times, which gave me quite a scare.

After this ‘wake up call’, I changed the order in which I allocated payments. Instead of essentials, emergency fund, extra debt payments, then day to day credit card, I inserted paying off current cc after essentials. Simple really but as the credit card was due early the next month, I wasn’t including it in the previous month’s budgeting.

This new strategy seems to be working in that I haven’t had to balance transfer for the last 4 months, but this month is tight so I need a plan to generate extra funds on these low months.

Goal is to raise £1500 by the end of June, which works out nicely at £50 a day.  I’ve raised £591 as of the 11th, so slightly ahead of target.  Sounds good but I tend to run out of steam after the mid way point so I need the community's help to keep up motivation.

I’m only counting funds raised outside my paid jobs. This includes my side hustles of an ebay shop, surveys, interest/bonuses from bank acc (interest usually only pennies but expecting a lovely £100 from Nationwide bonus this month), bit of ad-hoc care/gardening work and any other income streams I can start.   Like most of you, I have been bombarded with social media posts about amazing side hustles or using AI to link Etsy shops with print on demand. I am understandably cynical about the truth of these claims but I might research a bit  to see if there is anything on the fringes that might be worth a dabble.

Anyway, that’s enough for now.  I have the day off so time to earn that £50.

Daisy..xx

outoftheviciouscircle

I didn't want to read and run. I understand where you are coming from with regards to the working through covid as I also did it. Initially I found it bought out the best in people, the general public couldn't have been more grateful to those that had to work but we soon went from hero to zero.

Good luck with that £50 a day target, thats very ambitious. I was taking part in the make £10 a day challenge but I even found that hard!!

SunshineDaisy

Hi there, Thanks for popping in. Yes, it was sad to see such an initial community spirit disappear after a while and be replaced with selfishness and lack of understanding. At the peak I suspect every ambulance crew available, was on the road, dealing with high priority issues whilst worrying about their own and their families health. People still couldn't understand why there wasn't an ambulance available for minor issues or why it was taking several hours to reach them. Calls to the police were just as bad...demanding police go arrest a neighbour because they had one more visitor than the allowed limit. It seemed to bring out the worst in people.

15th June 23
I'm still on target for the month. Goal :£750 at this date and I've earnt £786 so far from side hustles. 

Also, although not counting it within the above figures, I have worked £240 of overtime from a seasonal job in May, that I will receive in June's pay. The month is therefore balanced and essentials covered.

I've paid an overpayment of £30 to a credit card. Its only a small amount but keeps this one on track to pay off by its 0% expiry date, so I decided it was worth doing. Now I'm working  to pay the active monthly credit card. It is high this month as I've bought a fair bit of stock for my ebay business and paid for a few trips during the summer. Nothing extravagant ...just day trips and deals half paid via store loyalty schemes. 

It is this point in the month that my motivation wanes, so I must keep pushing through.

Bye for now
SunshineD

ShyAndRetiring

Hi Sunshine

Just delurking to wish you well with your plans. Our Nationwide bonus came through this week and has been a big help in the debt-busting, so hopefully yours will be through soon too!

All the best, SaR x

SunshineDaisy

Sunday 18th June.
Yes - mine came through ok. Such a welcome bonus - thank you Nationwide. 

Day 18 - target £900. I'm currently at £937. So just  £13 tomorrow. 

Looking forward to my financial goals for 2023 - I have 2 0% deals expiring in the autumn. cc1 - £540 and cc 2- £945. 
So once I hit target, I'll  start throwing anything extra onto cc1

After this, I really need to get ahead as the bulk of my 0% credit cards expire next year.  I know I can probably refinance but I'd love to get this millstone from around my neck. It will be nice to clear cc4 this year and push cc6 forward. Then the others are more evenly spaced out. 

2024 :
Feb - cc3  £133 (will pay this one off later this month as part of the usual monthly payment)
Feb - cc4 £1100
Mar - cc5 £1200
Mar - cc6 £1650
Apr - cc7 £1470
May - cc8 £1100
Nov - cc9 £1100
 
2025 
May - cc10 £1200

Anyway, back to it...until next time...

Sunshine D

bigbeff

Just wanted to say good luck with your journey - you are doing great with side hustles, I need to start ebaying or vinted again. You sound determined and will get there. I will be following your journey! Good luck. 

SunshineDaisy

Thanks for dropping in. I love this place for its sense of community and for making us feel that we are not struggling on our own.

Day 19 and I'm up to £1007 - so a day ahead of myself. 

I received my house insurance renewal quote today..£20 more than last year. I was going to let it auto renew as its quite close and obviously very aware that everything has gone up. However, I had a rare bit of free time so I gave them a ring and asked them to run the quote again. They reduced it by £30 - so ended up cheaper than last year.
So for 5 mins of my time, saved £30. So the lesson is to ALWAYS make that call. 

Back to the ebaying..I have loads to list but trying to focus on the high ticket items. I did take a few surveys last night for a change...but only a fiver made via that stream.

Bye for now, Sunshine D

SunshineDaisy

24th June - extra earnings so far for the month: £1284. so only £216 to generate in the rest of June to reach target. 

I was very restrained at the auctions this week - only 1 item purchased. I'm getting better at resisting the bargains and not buying lots just because they are cheap. The one lot I did buy wasn't super cheap but should double my money and usually sells 1st time round,  so happy with that one. 

July is a heavy spend month. Its the one with car mot, service, insurance and house insurance in it. I'm happy with the prices of the insurances, after a call round, but I'm always nervous when the car goes into the garage. I've  £400 allocated in my emergency fund but its that time of year when my emergency fund completely empties and this makes me feel very vulnerable. 

For my peace of mind, I'm seriously thinking about balance transferring my everyday credit card this month and keeping the extra money above as a buffer. I can then use it to make sure I pay off CC1 and CC2 at their end dates. The new transfer end date will be in 2025 and at a time away from other end dates, so spreads things out a little better. It will cost me about £60 which is a lot but will mean the rest of the year will be less stressful. One of my jobs might be coming to an end soon, so will  take a bit of pressure off.  I'll think about it for the rest of the month and decide 1st July.

Anyway, I have a freebie evening out tonight, so best go get ready. Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Sunshine D

SunshineDaisy

28th of the month. Current extra earnings: £1404. 
End of month target was £1500 and  2 days to go. I'm at the final push. 
Best go and cash out on every survey site I have.....every penny counts.
Sunshine D

SunshineDaisy

Happy Sunday.
Thought I'd do a breakdown of last month's extra earnings:
Ebaying: £743.07
Interest and banking bonuses (thank you NW): £112.87
Care/gardening work: £535.91
Survey sites (cashed out):  £12
Total: £1403.85
I did make almost another £100 to hit my target of £1500 for the month, but it didn't clear in time to make the end of month deadline.

I paid an extra £40 into cc1 to get it under £500 and £30 into cc6 (already budgeted to do that). I decided to balance transfer my day to day cc onto what I will now call cc11. Its on 0% for 24 mths. This will give me a bit of breathing space for the rest of the year and mean that I will easily be able to pay off cc1, cc2, cc3 and cc4 before their offers expire. 

Paid excess funds into savings buffer. This will give me peace of mind that I have the money ready for these cards, but I'm not going to pay them off until the month before they are due. July is a heavy month for car expenses so I want to keep my options open. 

Goals for July:
£133 - Pay off cc3 - 0% offer doesn't end until end of Jan 23 but I have been paying more than the minimum for a while, so its paid off nice and early.
- £250 Pay half of the balance of cc1. The remainder I will pay off next mth.
- £33 extra to cc6 (I pay a little extra on this one each mth) so that it will pay itself off by the end date. I had divided up the amount by the number of mths (like a loan) but it didn't start taking the DD payments for a couple of months so the figure was slightly less than it needed to be.

Target for extra earnings: £1500. This wasn't too difficult last month, so I'm going to keep at that level.

How I'm going to do it:
Ebay- try and clear as much existing stock as I can and only buy new stock that I know will sell well and quickly. 
Surveys - try and grab any large payment opportunities when they come through.  
Care/gardening- I have a week of work at the end of the month - estimate £400. Although, might not get this until early/mid August.

Challenges:
Reduced hours: Job 2 - will only get paid for 3 weeks work and job 3 only 2 weeks work this month. Job 4 (no work until autumn).
Next month, I only get paid for job 1, so I need to be mindful of that and grab any overtime, if offered. 

Non-financials for this month:
I am trying to schedule in a bit of fun stuff over the summer. Its so hard to stay on a tight budget long term, so I'm building in some low cost treats. I have a day trip which is already paid for and includes lunch so no further spends. Later in the month, I have a 2 day trip which I'm going on as a volunteer which includes an overnight stay, 2 days of fun activities and all transport costs covered. I will try and organise a few meet ups with friends as well. I have a couple of free passes to tourist locations, so will try and use those to get out and enjoy the good weather. I feel so much better if I do something away from work.

Time to get back to it. I'm going to work for a few hours then treat myself to a walk in the sunshine later.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday, 
Sunshine Daisy.
 

SunshineDaisy

11th July 
Can't believe we are inching towards the middle of July already. I can almost feel time speeding along.
A quick round up - I'm up to £350 of extra funds earnt so far this month, which is 4 days behind where I should be. 
Things are going to get really busy with work for the next couple of weeks, so I'm restricted with what extra I can earn so its a bit of a worry.

Also I've just been told that the working hours are changing for one of my jobs and it just doesn't fit in with the others anymore, so I may have to leave that role in a few weeks. It only brings in about £70 a week and to be honest I've been thinking of leaving for a while. Its stressful and is spread across the whole week so really restricts the ability to take on other work and my own business. If I don't give it up, with the new hours, I won't be able to do my care/gardening work any more. If I do give it up, I will be able to continue that work, maybe once or twice a month and have full free days to concentrate on working within my own business.  I'm almost convinced to drop it, but obviously although only £70 a week, this is a fair chunk of money on a monthly basis. Therefore I  must be strict with myself re making up this time/ earnings in some way.  I don't need to decide quite yet so will mull it over for a few weeks.  

Anyway, best get back to it - I have a few spare hours before having to leave for work. Will see if I can get a few things listed in the shop. 

Sunshine D x