Divorce debt be gone!

biggerpickle

Looks like we'll ve getting a 3.5% payrise in January which is more than I thought.

Minor win this week (I hope) was finding HMRC online where to correct investment income forecasts. I had to drawdown a load of ISA savings for a few months into normal savings to buy this place when I got divorced so they now forecast £££££ in investment income every year when in reality it was just in 2023 and they've not managed to correct it yet. Hoping that'll bring my tax code back up to normal and increase my net pay.  Another £100 pm should seriously help the debt pay off.

biggerpickle

Watched the smart meter depressingly clock to almost £10 usage today. Hopefully bit better tomorrow as not wfh, though apparently its in the minus outside now and can't have been much above it all day. 

Realised I had no advent calendar stuff in so bought some lego mini figs for filling the calendar for days the teenmonsters are with me and chocolate for the catch up days. With assorted custody shenanigans, I will be on my own Christmas Eve / Day / Boxing Day so feeling very unfestive, I was never particularly a Christmas person and XH & his family trashed that further so think this year might kill any fun feelings off completely!

weenancyinAmerica

Maybe pretend you are having spa says and line up reading in advance, hobbies to do. Do you like puzzles of any kind? Get the hot chocolate and marshmallows ready to go, special tea or coffee - or even something stronger (but limit it so you can enjoy the other things). Turn on the heat and enjoy it. Check to see if any church is doing something special for the holidays. It doesn't have to be your own church - visit other ones too. 

For Thanksgiving Day (here in America), I checked out the holiday bus schedules and rode around for the day seeing parts of my town I had never seen before. Turned out the combined buses for the day and I could see places my local buses never went. Maybe they do something similar there.

You can even binge on Christmas movies or any other kind you like. You can even have meals delivered in or buy them readymade. Main thing is to relax and do you things you enjoy. 

biggerpickle

@weenancyinAmerica thank you for some lovely ideas - if not for me then someone else may enjoy them!

The random bus rides is a clever idea for a non-holiday day - public transport totally shuts down on Christmas Day itself but in London there's a daily bus cost cap of £5.25 so wonder where I could get to??

biggerpickle

Still not feeling right from earlier in the week then the 2026 service charge bill arrives and is 13% up on this year. All planned debt money for December is now diverted for that. Then while still trying to do the maths on that in my head, teenmonster#2 tells me his father has had another payrise, meaning he's now apparently earning practically triple what I do and 40% up on the figures at the divorce finalising. 

Some "positive" bits of the day though turns out teenmonster#2's school is considered underperforming enough to warrant contextual offers at some unis - if he can knuckle down he might do good, he's motivated and has some GCSE mocks in January. We're a couple of streets away from an area that would get him a contextual offer on home postcode though. Teenmonster#1 even did some (so overdue it warranted a call from his school) GCSE coursework and has promised to get more done this weekend so that's a win too.

biggerpickle

Might have just done the £10k this payday but holding off celebrating as things will be clearer in a couple of weeks.

Neighbours and I have banded together to challenge service charge bill, so 2026 rise mightn't be so steep afterall but yet to see the result. The power of a collective voice - plus I met some lovely new people!

I called HMRC to challenge another tax code change (they'd not taken any action on info I submitted online the other week) and looks like I am back to a normal code for a while so that's another £30 a month coming in from December!

Had a poorly few more days but hoping sorting some of the above out will help me - while illness is physical, feeling stress on top doesn't help.

biggerpickle

Another month, another car repair.

I am a bit annoyed with myself at the speed that I've been paying off (or not!) this debt as I've not reigned in holidays / treats / general spending. I've somehow, since I started trying to clear this debt, managed to add £9,967 to my H credit card, that's been predominately paid off / balance transferred along with an actual debt clearance of £2.4k paid. Or despite being permanently skint, only really £133 paid down per month. Also seems in the last 18 months, I've eaten away at £8k of divorce settlement that I'd put to one side for things after the divorce and not into my pension which is where the full settlement should have gone (I got £108k) and that's now all gone and, in reality, I am damned if I know what on. So no savings and still not far off 5 figures in debt. 

This is maybe my 2nd light bulb moment. From here on in, there has to be improvements.

beanielou

Sometimes we need a second light bulb moment. Keep plodding. 

biggerpickle

Some good news though - tax code change and a 400 quid Christmas bonus gone through payroll so I will get an extra £542 net pay this month, at least 300 quid of that is going off the H'fax card in addition to usual payment (the rest is towards birthday present for teenmonster#1, service charge and festive season cross country travels - and something tasty for me for my dinner for 1 on 25th).

biggerpickle

So another year just about rounded off and now I've accounted for all the various DDs going out I the next few days, the total is £9,993. I'll take that! Hoping another 12 months will see that halved.