Jelly Babies' Squidgy Easter Diary

Jelly_Babies

Look away now if you are not going to listen to my self pitying moaning :rolleyes:

This month has gone spectacularly wrong and I am quite literally back at square one and ready to give up DH was told he was going to have a bonus, we were given an estimate of what to expect when he started.......for reasons that are too many to mention, everyone in the company has received a few hundred pound as opposed to thousands :eek:

Last year when I fell off the bandwagon I foolishly booked a holiday for this year, we paid for the holiday last month expecting the bonus to cover it- which hasn't arrived. Fortunately we did a 0% transfer to pay for it until the bonus arrived, but this now means we have more debt. On top of this, our free overdrafts are finishing this month and so we have to transfer balance to cover these as our bank charges a daily rate now.

I just felt we were doing so well, mentally we were using the bonus to treat ourselves as all other money was going towards debt but this has spectacularly backfired

So now I am left with more debt to pay off because I was stupid and greedy and booked a holiday. On top of this, we have just returned from a family wedding which has cost us a fortune, wish I had had the balls to say "no we can't aford it", but we didn't and used that stupid reason that the bonus would cover that as well.

I have tried to be proactive this morning, I have shifted MBNA card to Barclaycard for LOB and used another LOB to clear our overdraft.

Feel so so annoyed, stupid, disappointed with myself. Cannot bear to change my signature again as it seems such a failure so may just delete it.

God, listen to me moan.........chocolate might just help!

Jelly_Babies

Also wanted to add that I am waiting for travel agents to ring back and let me know if we can cancel the holiday and how much money we will lose.

Seaxwyn

Hi JB. Commiserations. I'm really sorry to read of this latest blow. I know that sickening feeling, but don't feel too terrible. You can still enjoy the holiday.

Are your free ODs with Alliance & Leicester? If so, it's not so bad when the 0% ends as the interest is capped at £5. I still use mine to the max and it only costs me £5/month.

redsquirrel80

:grouphug: Right, listen, you are not a failure! You planned according to the information that you had (you thought a bonus was on its way) and circumstances have let you down. You've already been taking steps to sort things and you WILL get there, it might take a bit longer, but you will. It's thoroughly cr*p when things you were expecting don't come through and leave you in a bit of a mess but you have all your great DFW skills to see you through.. chin up xxx

Jelly_Babies

Thank you both, it is just so horrible feeling this carp! By my calculations the bonus would have paid for our holiday and spends, paid off the overdraft and left us some to throw at the debts as well. It was just such a massive blow. My OD is with the A&L, good to know it's capped at £5.00 though, if that's the case I may leave the £500 OD with them but I do need to repay the other as it is never in credit and it doesn't look good.

I feel I have quite literally gone back to November now and have added months onto my debt free figure.

I suppose it's a case of pick myself and start again, just wish I had took more steps forward than back! One huge lesson, never ever rely on money until it is there!

Keeping_Positive

((((hugs)))) JB you werent to know the bonus would be smaller than advised. Enjoy the holiday you deserve it.

Jelly_Babies

Thanks Wendy

I don't really think that I deserve a holiday but we would lose a lot of the money if we cancel so it's case of buckling down and getting on with it!

How are things with you?

Keeping_Positive

Raising a family and battling to be debt free is hard work so I do think a holiday is deserved. I would enjoy the holiday plan ways to keep costs as low as possible but still have fun.

Im ok upset my OH because Im off on a work trip tommorrow until Friday at short notice. No luck in raising extra money and seem to be spending a fortune on the cars at the moment. 1) the new cheaper one to get it in order and 2) the other to get it saleable as possible.

Trying to stay positive becasue it could be worse. The weather has been great!!

hypno06

I used to do the same - our skiing hols were always paid out of my bonus (figured that it is EXACTLY what a bonus is for !) and worked out what I thought I would get, down to the last penny, and booked the holiday for payment the day after the bonus was due to hit the bank.

Every year, though, I had sleepless nights the week before, in case the bonus didn't materialise as I had no other way of paying for it otherwise.

So, I feel your pain!

(and feel the need for chocolate too!).

Deep breath.......and move on - nothing you can do about it now other than to deal with it......crappy and frustrating though that may be - we should be used to it by now shouldn't we!!

Seaxwyn

Well I have never had this problem because neither I nor OH has ever had a bonus (boo hoo)