Debt, Endo and Reno

birdsfoottrefoil

Thanks Sarah, I was just glad she spoke to me about it as she’s generally very defensive of the situation. I’m reluctant to advise anything to “leave him” as I have before and it’s back fired and made everything awkward. 

Need to ring Tesco as they’ve sent me a letter saying my 0% rate runs out soon, I know it’s not on the whole balance but I can’t find anywhere on the app or letters splitting my balance. Which is vvv annoying!!

birdsfoottrefoil

Morning!

Productive and thrifty weekend; stayed in Friday night and worked on the house most Saturday. I need to get most things sorted so the electrician can finish some last bits of 🤞next week…. Not looking forward to the bill. Did get out for a walk late afternoon and a half in our local pub on the way back.

Sunday was a quiet one with the rubbish weather, there’s quite a lot of woodland round about so I always get a bit nervous with high winds. Spent some of the morning with a strong coffee and worked out what spends are left on the house, about £3k 🫠 so debt will be going up before it comes down. Plan is to get it let out for Christmas otherwise I’m going to be utterly skint. 

Hopefully all “building” ie plumbing elecs etc should be done by the end of the month. Then it’s just reliant on me pulling my finger out! Have taken on a small bit of freelance work on top of work to help, should be about an extra £100-160pm, nothing major but should cover any extra debt costs by my calcs. Minus side of this is less time to do the house, so I need to be strict with my priorities!!! 

Had a small sanity check on my budget with my pal who lives full time in her van and lets out her house through summer and p/t in it in winter. I should be able to bring in a min of £400pm through winter and min of £1500 through summer on the let. So I aim is to split the income between debt 60%/repairs sinking fund 20% and tax pot 20%. I might just chuck the first few months straight at my debt and just take 20% for potential tax bill. 

Spoke to Tesco. £2800 is off 0% in December and then a further £1900 in January. I’ve got offers on balance transfers on other cards. Including an old one I have no balance on which is offering me 5%pa for 2 years with no transfer fee. I think this will be best once the house is let out as the yearly interest total is the same as a transfer fee and I should be paying it off significantly through next summer so reducing the interest liability. 

My sister still thinks I should sell the house clear my debts and just live with the bf. As much as I love and trust the bf I am not keen on this as I don’t want to lose my asset or not have a house if all went wrong. Not the most romantic decision haha! 

birdsfoottrefoil

I still feel a bit of a fraud posting on here as my debt currently increasing. I did debate stopping posting. However I used to be so unaccountable to myself and I’ve found since coming on here I’m not at all perfect, but I’m getting better. I now have a budget, make myself write down my spending weekly and check it to see what can be done better. 

If I’m still saying this with no progress after Christmas then I probably deserve to be kicked off. 

wannabedebtfreemum95

I totally get the feeling like a fraud - I feel the same! I find it helps to write it down and have somewhere to confess. Sometimes the thought of having to commit it to the diary makes me reconsider minor purchases! Definitely keep posting

twiggy86

I would say if you're mindful of what is happening with your debt then you still absolutely belong on here - regardless of whether the number is going up, staying stagnant or going down! But the main thing is, if a diary helps you then you belong on here! If anyone doesn't agree, then they simply don;t have to read!!! 

birdsfoottrefoil

Hi, thank both!! It’s lovely that you’ve both commented and really encouraging.

Had some electrical and plumbing stuff dropped off by the builders merchant yesterday, so that feels like progress. I’ve text my electrician a picture of all the stuff for him in an attempt to get a set date out of him…. I need to get him out to finish some bits before the joiner can be booked in to finish ofd. Feel like I need my own project board like at work at times to keep things moving. That’s maybe over kind to work, as I’m not sure how well they actually keep things on track or turn into a meeting for meetings sake. 

Crappy period pains yesterday eve so I was early to bed. Slept reasonably well and feel a lot less grumpy then last week. Mentioned to boyfriend that I was happy my period had come yesterday as I have some on site work on Saturday and hopefully the “flow” will be less by then as there’ll be no loo. He said he was sure as it was quite remote there’d be somewhere I could have a wee behind a tree etc??? God love him but I do wonder if men really understand how we have periods at times!!! 

Only 2 spends so far this week, £20 on petrol on Tuesday and 2.40 on a half on Tuesday night. I’m not classing the 2.40 as it was out of coins in the bottom of my purse. I’m trying (with varied success) to cut down the alcohol I drink as I got into a habit through Covid of having a wine at least every night. I don’t tend to ever drink a lot in one go (as I get terrible hangovers), so I think I’ve been thinking it was ok even though it’s not. Aside from the obvious it doesn’t help the endometriosis. So happy to just have a half and a catch up with a friend about her latest dating drama. 

Anyway no spend day yesterday and hopefully the same today! We’ve had a veg box delivered yesterday so I think it’ll be a French onion tart and salad or other side for tonight. Had lamb neck slow cooked with toms, olives, lemon, onions and beetroot last night, really lovely and a cheap cut.

Trying to be No spend till Sunday but I might need to pick up some milk. 

Sarahwithlove

It's ok if your debt is increasing if there is a sensible reason behind it not just wasting. You are still doing everything you can do reduce the amount of debt you are gaining. So keep coming on here to keep yourself accountable as you'll need it again next year when you start debt busting again. 

birdsfoottrefoil

Thank Sarah! 

Didn’t end up being a No Spend day as I ended up needing to fill up the car. The boyfriend has done a food shop on his way home, which is good as that should tide up over till next week. 

Renewed my broadband after work. I had a bit of a nightmare with Vodafone’s AI question bot thing when I had a problem in summer (router broke and it kept refusing to send me another unless I signed up to a further 24 month contract, even though the contract is only up the end of this month. It only agreed to send me a new one without the renewing 3 months early after I said I’d speak to the regulator), so I was quite keen to change. Changed to Plusnet through Topcashback. Same as current price (less than the renewal) but should be £53 Cashback!! 

Hopefully that slightly outweighs the petrol! 

birdsfoottrefoil

Hi! Gorgeous Sunday morning here. 

No spend day yesterday, did a few hours of extra work in the morning. Not mega pay but should be an extra £100ish after tax at end of the month. Also keeps me busy and out of mischief (spending). I have thought about taking an extra evening job in a pub which I used to do until I bought my house, but my endo affects my back nerves and I struggle standing up for long periods at certain times of the month. It really annoys me as I feel a bit useless! So feels good to be doing an extra morning a week that’s a little bonus but not exhausting me. 

I need to be careful with “extra money” as it has a tendency to disappear as soon as it comes in. Sold some stuff on Vinted last week came to about £25, then treated myself to buying my lunch at work and a bottle of wine for the weekend and it’s pretty much gone! A bit annoyed at myself tbh! 

That said apart from last bits from the builder merchants which has put my debt up, my day to day spending is down this month on the previous. I’ve been putting all my spends in a spreadsheet since July time and each month I’ve been getting a bit better. Need to get even better still but it’s going in the right direction. 

Only £30 left to come out the bank this month and I’ve £50 in the bank and £40 cash, so hopefully that should tide over till Thursday! 

birdsfoottrefoil

Also the pay at work for this financial year(!!!) has finally been agreed. It should be about an £70 per month after tax/student loan etc, we hopefully should get the back pay in Novembers wage. 

I think it’ll be about £560? (Unsure how it will work with tax all coming in one month). I’m debating on how to deal with it.

Options are:
- straight on debt (will reduce the total but currently I’ve only about £100 saved for Christmas, plus most debt is on 0% balance transfers so if I need to spend then that will be on CC at normal rate)
- spend on house (less likely to increase debt)
- split between debt/house/saving for Christmas (not sure it’s enough money to really impact all)

I think with the risk that if I pay off some of my CC (which is on 0%) and then end up having to borrow again on a higher purchases rate, it’s best to just put it in my savings to split between house and Christmas.