Teetering on the brink

SuzeQStan

Morning EB - we’ve all been there on crisp n biscuit days xx your plan of action/recovery sounds really well thought out.  

I know you won’t let one battle defeat you - and I respect you too much to complete that idiom xx 

Cara_

I'm sorry you had a bad day yesterday and I hope you are feeling better today.

I'm pleased you are forgiving yourself for the off-plan food shopping trip as there was a reason for the extra spending and rather than dismissing the spending, you have learnt from it and have put a plan in place.for the future. I think you should take a moment to recognise the progress you have made, as the old version of EatingBeans might have continued spending but you haven't and that shows you are committed to your debt free journey.

You have a freezer full of food so using what you already have in should reduce the food budget for March.

It's a good idea to do some batch cooking for the winter which I think will help when if you are not feeling your best.  

Cherryfudge

Sorry you had a tough day. If it's any comfort, I've been eating too much junk too: the difference is that mine was stuff from stores.

I hope the batch cooking is successful. That sounds like a very positive way forward.

Some of the nicest advice I've seen is to treat ourselves as we'd treat a toddler in our care. I've seen it written out 'properly' but I can't find the link. The essence of it's here, where it's presented in a neurodivergent context, but the same things are true for everyone: take naps, have snacks, don't push through, be kind, play, dress for the weather (not easy, I appreciate, when it's your face that suffers).

Put yesterday behind you, don't beat yourself up if the budget was blown. That was your younger self and you can now give her advice - as you've done - about how to get it right next time. And if she doesn't learn the lesson all in one go, who does? Sometimes it takes time to get it just right but in the meantime, practice helps embed the better way of doing things.

Take_a_hike_Elon_and_Jeff

I can understand the slight moment of weakness, it happens and well done for forgiving yourself. On the plus side at least you are now living on a budget like I am too. My LBM was back in October and now it's the end of February and I feel a good habit is now forming, imho it takes a few months to get it right but now my mental well being is so much better. I realised that needs are so much important than wants but every budget, needs to have a small amount of wants allowed.
After being too strict I upped it slightly and have shifted my monthly fun money (aka pocket money) onto a separate card which I'll use for whatever guilt free. Maybe what you can do is deactivate Apple Pay or whatever you use and don't go out with your bank cards on days you may be tempted and just carry your fun money card as I have called mine and don't laugh I've even taken a black permanent market and written fun on it! When the fun money runs out it runs out that's it, although I've taken my monthly fun money put it in a separate account and load my fun funds onto it once a week so I know that I have access every week to some little pleasures.
I use Monzo as my main account and they have a pot system but recently I applied for a Chase account and have opened up multiple accounts within the app each with their own account number i.e one for the dog, car maintenance etc and then what I did was set up multiple standing orders so the day after pay day everything dispersed automatically as they say automate everything. It's the first month I have done that and it is a great feeling to see every pound allocated a job.
I listened to a brilliant podcast and the words that stuck to my mind are:  by managing our money we are controlling it and by not doing so, money is controlling us! I know which I prefer. I think this is what debt free diaries is doing ,it's by sharing our experiences and what others have shared with us ,is helping us all slowly to gain control!

Sun_Addict

We all have days where we slip up, the important thing is you've drawn a line under it and not letting a bad day become a bad week or month. 

ellenvan

Hopefully you have had a much better day today.

Learn and move on you're still doing very well

EatingBeans

End of	Dec-24	Jan-25	Feb-25
Brother	£    5,400.00	£   5,400.00	£  5,350.00
Overdraft owed	£    1,349.90	£   1,107.76	£            -
MBNA CC	£  10,534.20	£ 10,002.26	£11,455.85
Barclaycard CC	£    9,667.21	£   9,569.95	£  7,981.04
Fluid CC	£             -	£      772.50	£     762.50
NatWest CC	£  12,018.14	£ 11,674.22	£11,634.21
Total debt	£  38,969.45	£ 38,526.69	£37,183.60
Monthly paid off		£      442.76	£  1,343.09
Total paid off 2025		£      442.76	£  1,785.85

End of month figures look pretty good even with taking the swallowing of the pots into account. Considering I have also had a few days off track, I am pleased with the result. 

March here we come!

I am going to have another go at trying to find £5's but this time I am setting my monthly target at £200 or 40 £5's. 

dawnybabes

That’s an excellent months result 

Cherryfudge

Lovely to see the total coming down!

biggerpickle

Well done on the overdraft slaying in February @EatingBeans! You've almost cracked another £1k barrier too, should be a doddle for March!