Teetering on the brink

BadBookkeeper

Do you have a thermal mug with a lid you could use to keep your coffee warmer for longer? Don’t cut out your simple ‘luxuries’ if you can.  

EatingBeans

I’ve decided to keep my coffee first thing in the morning and just pay attention to drinking it as I do really love my first cup of the day to be out of a proper mug. The rest of the day I think I am going to revert to green tea as I don’t mind microwaving that or indeed drinking it cold. Failing that, I might just try hot water as often I think I just want something warm to hold. 🤣

This evening I watched the Martin Lewis reducing bills programme on catch up, and on the back of that I finally got brave enough to change my energy tariff. Still can’t bring myself to switch suppliers as I had a really bad experience of doing this years ago and it cost me many sleepless nights and several thousand pounds to put it right, but I did at least switch to a lower fixed rate tariff with my current supplier, saving approx. £90pa compared to todays prices. If nothing else I know it wont go shooting up any time soon. 😁 

EatingBeans

Oh and I haven’t forgotten to post my SOA asap. I will do asap, I just need to wait until I have a laptop free as trying to switch back and forward on my phone is just too painful.

peb

Hi, as you've posted on the diaries section I suggest that you post you SOA in main debt free section.   From what you've said I think its possible that you may be recommended to pay priority bills only, save an emergency fund and enter into a DMP.  The experts on this sort of thing mainly post on the main forum.

BadBookkeeper

Well done on watching the programme & taking a positive step.  If you break it all down and do even small things it all adds up.  As a book keeper maybe apply the bookkeeping rules to your personal finances and keep a ‘set of accounts’.

would entering into any dmp have a negative impact on your employment as you are a bookkeeper?

have you looked at the snowball repayment method?  Have you read the debt free roll of honour there’s a lot of tips & success stories on there.

perhaps set up a burner account to switch bank accounts regularly it’s a good way of building up an emergency fund/pay extra off cards.

EatingBeans

Thanks for the encouragement @BadBookkeeper ! I am looking at it as every little step counts and trying to at least find one new thing a day to chip away a bit more at the debt. 

As it happens I already do keep a spreadsheet of all my finances down to the penny and have done for the last 20years. It is how I got myself of a huge debt left to me by my now ex husband who was financially abusive and refused to sell our jointly owned house (which I originally paid all the deposit for) and take his name off our join account, unless I took on all his debts in my sole name. I eventually just caved and took on the mountain of debt just to free myself and my kids from him, and it worked as like I said earlier, I was debt (and husband!) free, when I bought this house just over two years ago. This house though has nearly killed me. As fast as I fix it something else breaks. I’ll admit, some of the debt has also accumulated from buying two puppies and rather too many takeaways, but mostly the debt is from fixing the house. Which is why, despite the hole in the roof, and no toilet in the bathroom, I have just stopped repairing things. I know, that even if I fix those things there will be something else, so my no.1 goal is get out of debt asap so I can sell this house and move to something else. 

Given the desperate need to move (and therefore remortgage) a DMP just isn’t an option I will consider unless forced into it kicking and screaming! It is essential for me to bring my credit score up not down during the next couple of years, I can’t wait 6years. So clearing the debt the hard way it is. 

I understand the snowball and avalanche methods and er more towards the avalanche, focusing on bringing down the interest. I just like to make my core debt payments rounded to whole numbers to make the maths easier but I adjust the fixed payments on a regular basis so I am focusing my payments that are above the minimums towards the highest interest first. The only difference now is that I need to also be able to move debt around so I can take advantage of the 0%’s offered too me. It makes it a bit of a headache to work out where to pay off first, but it will get easier. 

I will go and read the roll of honour, thanks for the tip. I have been scouring various threads on here to look for ideas - I can’t believe I didn’t find this place before now! Everyone seems so supportive and friendly, a whole community I knew nothing about. I no longer feel like the only one which is lovely (in a slightly odd kind of way because I wouldn’t wish being in this much debt on anyone!).

Funny you should say about switching bank accounts. That was something else I was considering yesterday. I have never done that before because I had never really looked into the switching service so didn’t know how it worked. Now I have I will definitely be switching but mindful of not damaging my credit record any further because obtaining those 0% offers is what will help me the most. I have pencilled it in for after I juggle things around in February to avoid another hard search on my account between now and then.

Off to start the day job to earn some pennies.

…and drink my cold coffee! 🤦‍♀️🤣 Oops, so much for paying attention! 

BadBookkeeper

Switching banks will bring your credit score down slightly.  I tend to do one every 6 months to avoid this.

use a burner account with just a couple of non-essential dds set up rather than your everyday current account so you don’t have to worry about messing up your main account with important payments and salary going in and just transfer the burner account each time.  There’s a post from Martin on here somewhere that explains burner account better than I can.  My burner account as an example has 2 charity dds and a lottery dd on it and I transfer money to it on payday to cover those things.  Then move it around and close the old one whenever a new offer comes up.

BadBookkeeper

Forgot to mention you may like the monthly challenges set by NST look under debt free challenges  its great for ideas and support

Andyjflet

Just wanted to say hi, Ive read your story and think you're an amazing mum and person. Humble and thats a fantastic trait. I have absolutely no doubt you'll be debt free before you know it. The journey is actually the best bit!

What things does your daughter need for DOE ?

EatingBeans

Aw thanks @Andyjflet I do try. ☺️

Thankfully my daughter just needs waterproof trousers, gaitors(on the essential list which seems a bit overkill to me but hey), and a whistle. My plan is to buy a dog whistle and gaitors that I can use afterwards for dog walking, both of which have been on my wishlist for a long time - killing two birds with one stone, and then the cheapest pair of waterproof trousers I can find. We have, or can borrow, literally everything else. 😁

Did I really read your signature right… £65,000 saved as an emergency fund?!! 😱 I am wondering what step 7 is?