My all new debt diary

moanymoany

Hi 4littleone, I think you are doing really well, any 'falling off the wagon' is clearly minor stuff.

Do you use 1899 or one of that kind for your phone calls? I save massive amounts on that. There is the connection charge, but for UK calls that's all. When I first started I was with telewest, but I was still able to do it. I did change to BT.

I understand why you save. It is nice to have a bit of cash for the inevitable curves life throws. It can mean not having to use the credit card.

bummer about the £308 phone bill, difficult because we can't always control the significant other in our lives.

I understand where you are with the smoking. I'm going through a stressful time at the moment and I find I have an EXTRA glass of wine.

I think you are doing very well. With your positive attitude you have changed your life. :T

4littleone

That's fantastic news!

I'm really pleased to hear you're feeling better. My sis was diagnosed with depression a couple of years ago and she's doing really well now despite her hubby leaving last christmas :eek:

It feels good when you start to feel in control doesn't it. I find myself actually NOT buying stuff now when even 6 months ago i would have just bought things/expensive groceries without even checking my bank balance.
I haven't had the old "you have £0 available to withdraw today" message on the atm for a long time now :T

I wish my OH would wake up a bit. :mad: Still, i can't mother him, i've just got to get on with my journey and leave him to sort himself out.
At least he's started to pay for a couple of bits now.
Thanks for subscribing, it's great to have support, do you have a diary i could support you on?
Take care.

4littleone

Hi,

welcome to my ramblings and many thanks for your kind post. :beer:

Thanks for letting me get away with the old falling off the wagon bit! It was a fairly rubbish month but at least i haven't given up. 12 months ago i wouldn't even have known i'd overspent! :eek:

So whats your story then? Are you a DFW as well?

4littleone

Well today has started off really rubbish. I was supposed to be flying to Glasgow for a meeting, got to the train station, found the train was delayed, missed flight and can't get another one today....:mad:

However.... my firm haven't paid my expenses yet so i had transferred £70 out of my savings account into current to cover taxis and trains etc, so as i don't need to spend this now i can put it back!! :j

Am going for a NSD today now. I'm really pleased because as the expenses hadn't been paid i would have had to use some of my food budget up tomorrow for the expenses as well, now i don't have to.

moanymoany

4littleone wrote: »

Hi,

welcome to my ramblings and many thanks for your kind post. :beer:

Thanks for letting me get away with the old falling off the wagon bit! It was a fairly rubbish month but at least i haven't given up. 12 months ago i wouldn't even have known i'd overspent! :eek:

So whats your story then? Are you a DFW as well?

Well now miss 4littleone, how do you know that old song? You are quite right, that is where I get the nickname from.

I'm not a DFW now. I, we, dh and me, started on the frugal way when we realised that our endowments weren't going to cover the mortgage. It was going to be about £14,000 short and in my book that's debt!

We could pay back £500 amonth on our deal, dh said we couldn't do it, but I said let's put the money into a savings account - if we have to dip into it - so be it. Not only did we manage it but after the 18 months left to the end of the mortgage we had enough in the bank to pay the mortgage off.

We then turned our savings into preparing for retirement - which is soon. I used to think it was easy for us because we were older, had no children and only ourselves to please. But, it's never easy.

What galls me is when I look back and though we have only had the mortgage debts, I have wasted so much cash on rubbish. You are lucky - when you've paid your debts you will have learned the life lessons that will help you form a successful financial future.

Where I'm lucky is that dh and I both have the same outlook and goals. I get the feeling that you struggle with your oh. In the dim and distant past I was a solicitor specialising in family law. I know that this can be such a stumbling block in forming a lasting relationship. There are two newish threads about women who have run up debts without the knowledge of their oh's, such a damaging situation.

Have you ever heard of a book called 'The Tightwad Gazette'? I love it, well there is a series but you can get them all in one volume. OS'ers have a love/hate relationship with it, but it is amazing how that woman makes the money stretch.

Have a good day. Thank you for posting on my thread - if you hadn't we would never have met. :hello:

moanymoany

Hi 4littleone, what kind of a day have you had so far? I mowed the lawn - who knows when it will rain next? I also made 8 loaves of bread so my poor old body was tired!!!

Shame!

moanymoany

Good morning 4littleone :wave:

My day is going to be a bit strange as my mum is very poorly and I have to be ready to go to the hospital at any time! Dh is away for the weekend, he's helping his friend to paint anti-fouling on the bottom of a boat - I foresee a nippy hubby as the weather forecast is for coooold weather! :rotfl:

We've reduced our house price by a hefty wack, we'll see what happens! At least we don't have a mortgage! I have to say, if we knew earlier what we know now about saving money, we would be better off AND we would have paid our mortgage 10 years earlier. Here I confess that DH has always been pretty much old style it is down to my spending that we didn't do these things - hides face in shame again.

4littleone

Gaaagh! I did you a lovely long reply but it's lost itself in cyberspace!

I'm at work but i'll post properly later today.
I just wanted to say that i'm sorry to hear about your mum. I hope everything goes as well as it can for you.
I'll repost everything i tried to say later tonight.
Take care.

moanymoany

Thanks 4littleone, mum is not very well. Tomorrow I am likely to see my sister for the second time in 20 years. The hospital recommended getting the police to find her - it took the police 10 minutes and they were so kind. She (sister) has phoned the hospital and is going tomorrow.

What is so frustrating is that no-one will tell me if she is going to get better, they fudge so much I think that the answer is no. We are allowed to visit at any time - in itself a bit odd.

Have a nice weekend - though a bit cold. Fortunately nothing in my garden is 'tender' and likely to get frostbite.

4littleone

Morning,

I'm glad you found your sister. That must be strange though seeing her for the first time in 20 yrs. I hope it all goes smoothly for you.
Yes it does make you think when they waive visiting times doesn't it. Could you ask for a meeting with your mums doctor/consultant to get a clearer picture?
I lost my grandad last month (he had been ill for a ver very long time though) and i do remember the nurses being quite evasive about possible time scales etc. Luckily my uncle is a gp so we were able to get more information than most people i guess.
Best wishes to your mum, i hope she is comfortable today.

Well, i thought i'd give a little idea about why i am in debt and have an extremely bad credit rating.:eek:

I have a nearly 8 yr old dd and i was a single mum when i gave birth. I did however have a job, that although was low pay at the time, would eventually pay very very well when i finished training and had relevent experience.
So, i spent the first yr of daughters life in the red each week by about £20. Back then this website didn't exist, i had no internet and no advice from anyone about financial knowhow. I managed as best i could paying for full time childminder etc with no maintenence but inevitably got into trouble.
I spent the first winter i had my daughter with no heating and hot water had to come from the kettle. Was very skinny as couldn't afford to eat properly and feed daughter properly as well. So i made a choice to feed her as best as i could and i would kid myself that 6 1/2 stone was a healthy weight for me.

Anyway, fast forward 3 yrs and i meet my OH. By this time i am earning a decent enough wage and although i am still rubbish at managing money things are better just because i earn more.
Unfortunately, as part of my general crapness at managing money i ended up haveing a loan with black horse and another with welcome finance.

Fast forward another year and i have now moved in with OH. He is possibly the most unsavvy (is that really a word!) financial person i have ever met. I am paying all the bills and food etc. He only pays half the rent and then spends the rest on himself and his daughter.
I get made redundant a few months later. I managed to make the money last for about 6 months but couldn't pay the loan repayments and ended up with a huge overdraft.
I got another job, but by this time i had defaulted on the loan and the overdraft was going up by 100's each month with the charges.
I called debtline and they advised me to get a safe basic account to stop my wages going into the overdraft. So i did this, but the bank responded by selling my O/D to a recovery agency rather than let me pay a sum each month.
The loan was rejigged but they whacked huge interest and fess on it. An £1100 balance became £6000!
Another year passes and we buy a house. I am still paying the lions share of household bills but after many huge rows OH is now contributing more towards the house.
One day a bailiff turns up at the door. I am served papers from Black Horse, they are taking me to court for the loan even though i am paying each month.
We get to court, the judge says he cannot see why i am here as i have been paying but makes an order for the amount i was paying each month.
So, i now have a CCJ.
Fast forward to this year, i now earn a really good wage, i am paying my debts each month and i have learnt that there is a thing called a budget. :rotfl:
However, things at home are not so good. My OH has generally spent his wages by the 2nd week of every month. He spends roughly £70 a week on beer, £10 a day on rubbish and food at work, then he has to go to the pub most nights and eat out at least once a week...... the list goes on!
So, he thinks i earn £10k a yr less than i actually do (to stop him spending my wages) and we can't live like normal people who save for things like a new kitchen (which we desperately need) or a holiday (which would be nice but is definitely non essential)
Instead, we will probably have a holiday this yr bvut he will not save for this and will spend a whole months wages on it, not pay the bills and expect me to bail him out again.

I am saving my escape fund. One day i plan to have a peacful home where i can go through each month without panicking about what my partner is spending and where i don't have to prop up anyone elses bad habits.:T

So that's me, in a nutshell, (or a really long post! :rotfl: )