31k is a scary number

Waywardgirl3

Happy new year everyone! 

Kicked off the year with two NSDs so happy with that and shouldn’t really need to spend this week. 

Up early to the horses this morning and now for a long day at work. 

Also I messed up my budget this month - but in a good way!

turns out I have a spare £170 pounds not accounted for so this has been thrown straight at MBNA 2. Overpayments for January now at £195.94 - happy with this two days in. 

Joint account already looking quite sparse with overspending in December (and all our direct debits come out on the first day of the month) so going to have to be clever with groceries this month. Going to audit what we have in, shop at Lidl/aldi only and I also have some Tesco vouchers/gift cards I can use for a shop to get stuff from there without spending. 

Had a manic day off yesterday of life admin but not yet updated my vinted  - must do that this week! 

Waywardgirl3

So I’ve not posted all January 

largely because my mental health has been trash and it’s been somewhat of a disaster finances wise. 

My debt has increased and now stands at - £33,253.58. I feel sick at the very sight of that. 

Coming back here to be accountable but I am truly ashamed and feel so down. I need to sort this out that is a ridiculous scary number. 

I get paid on Wednesday so a fresh start will be happening. My word of the year is discipline and I have been anything but so giving myself a kick up the !!!!!! 

twiggy86

Don't feel down for increasing the debt. I have been on these boards for too many years and each time I seem to come back with more debt (having made great progress to then let it all slip!) And I am not alone, so nor are you. Well done for coming back!

Why has your debt increased? Probably the best thing you can do right now, is identify what it was spent on and what was the trigger for spending? I.e. was it an un-budgeted (but necessary) item, emergency, emotional etc. That seems a good first step to getting back on track and hopefully reduce chances of the same thing happening in the future. 

Waywardgirl3

Thankyou for your kind words @twiggy86

My debt has increased for a variety of these reasons I guess, my horse needed a saddle which I got second hand but was an unbudgeted expense along with quite a few other tack-related items. Really these could have waited I suppose although they are needed to make progress with her and her education- the downside of having a young horse. 

One of my lovely cats also got PTS (so vets bills and emotional spending there as I was really quite depressed about this), darling pup has had issues with food which has meant a new expensive diet and we've also had to get some emergency gutter and faschia replacement done too as we were having really bad issues with leakage/damp. So my emergency fund has been completed wiped out and credit utilised. It has also been my birthday and I have spent far far too much treating myself here and there because I felt down and I am an emotional spender. 

Looking back January has felt like the longest month ever, I get paid tomorrow and actually cannot wait. 

Going over my budget tonight and finetuning what I can. I don't have much overtime on this pay slip so I really am scraping by next month, my livery bill is also very high (horse in for backing - being taught how to be ridden for non horsey people!). I can meet my minimum commitments and pay my bills though so I am grateful. Just going to have to be really strict on spending and try to generate extra income where I can. 

It's really worrying me that I no longer have an emergency buffer so I need to focus on building that back up ASAP. 

I am committing to writing my total debt amount in my daily planner each morning to prevent me burying my head in the sand and to keep me focused each day.  - if I don't have that daily planner everything falls apart.

 I'm also going to try to reduce debt daily - even if its by 1 pound per day from my personal spends or if I generate any extra income. My personal spends are set at £20 per week though I am really trying to be strict and spend as little as possible. 

I'm also trying to check in here daily (or as often as possible) to keep myself accountable. 

Waywardgirl3

My debts now stand as follows; (in order I am going to snowball them)

• Monzo Flex - 1,175.98
• MBNA CC2 - 2,640.57
• MBNA CC 1 - 6,984.47
• Monzo Loan - 10,629.53
• HSBC Loan - 11,794.45

I have just sent the remaining money left in my accounts to my Monzo flex (£18.90) which is reflected in the above figures (and saved me 9 POUNDS in interest so the app tells me). 

Total debt as of today is £33,225

Will check back in tomorrow once everything has been allocated out to the appropriate pots. 

twiggy86

I feel you pain re animal related expenses as I had a £1,400 vet bill last year and only about £20 in the animal column of my spreadsheet!

It sounds like you don't have enough "pots" in your budget maybe - rather than you've been in complete "sod it" mode! Or maybe you do have pots for animal related expenses and house maintenance but are too early in your budgeting journey to have built up enough everything. Either way getting out of debt and budgeting is about learning and adapting so now you have a bit more info to help you tweak things moving forward. 

Waywardgirl3

Payday yayyyyy. Checking in quickly as busy day with lots of horsey stuff and I’m exhausted. I’ve deleted the Uber eats and asos apps from my phone. I don’t need takeaways or clothes for the next few months and these are crutches for when I want to emotionally spend. 

Cancelled Amazon prime and expecting a 8.99 refund. 

Budgets all sorted and bills paid for the month - I managed to find enough wriggle room to send 160 to my EF which is not much of an emergency fund but better than nothing!

I did spend 9 pounds on coffee out for me and a friend today as she’s going through a tough time but all accounted for in my weekly spends. 

One loan payment to go out tomorrow and then I’ll update my debt total here🙏🏻

enthusiasticsaver

Well done for posting up the increased debt figure and at least you know why it has increased.  Can you make a rule that you do not spend without taking 24 hours to think about it?  Spending some time thinking whether you really need that item before clicking buy now assuming you are buying online may be sufficient time for you to realise it can wait or you may even already have something that will do the same job. Ideally while you are trying to pay off debt it would be better for you not to use the cards at all.  Can you remove them from your purse and websites? 

 Pets are expensive though and as you have a dog, cat and horse realistically you will need to allocate a fairly substantial amount to them each month.  I am guessing a lot of the existing debt came from pet expenses too. 

Waywardgirl3

Hello, February has started this morning with a Pilates class and a dog walk before work and it was bright and sunny and just overall lovely! 

Working from home now until late in my Oodie and it will be a No Spend Day. 

Off to make a cup of tea and crack on with work and then I will check in properly later with debt totals/MSE thoughts. 

Waywardgirl3

Hello so debt total today, (after a mini £1.01 payment to get it to a round number) is 32,418

reading the above posts and definitely agree that the animals are a huge expense and have contributed to my debt. It’s important for me to be aware of this as whilst I cannot live without them (they are quite literally my family) it is a privileged position to be in and one I need to budget responsibly for going forward. 

I didn’t post yesterday as I had to be up at 5am today to ride before work and I got a really early night but I did write my daily debt total in my diary as promised. 

Yesterday was a NSD as promised though! And a very productive one at that so feeling happier than I’ve felt in a while to be honest. I have clinical depression which I will probably be medicated for the majority of my life (have been since a full mental breakdown at 18 and it’s worked well for me the past 13 years) and have big ups and downs but happy to feel quite stable this week. 

Today I bought a birthday present for my sister (34 pounds) all budgeted for and not as much as I usually spend but I know this is an indulgence whilst I’m in debt so I need to keep an eye on this area of my spending. 

Big money win though is that I called up to see if I was out of contract for my phone and I am so I’m moving to a sim only deal for 10 pounds a month instead of nearly 50! So happy about this as it’s something so small that previous me would have found too much hassle/stressful to call up about and just ignored but I’m so glad I bit the bullet. 

Taking the dog out for a long hike this weekend and got 16 hours of overtime to work through (from home) so feeling very blessed at the moment, should be a mindful low spend weekend