LonelyRat's (not so lonely) Road to Riches

Thanks for the messages :j

Today was OK, could have been better though. I've been browsing and seen people talk about no spend days. I was thinking about it and I actually can't remember the last time I had a truly no spend day, scary I was going to try and go for one today but I was too knackered last night to make dinner which meant I had no leftovers for lunch. Not ideal :eek: A work friend wanted for us to go out to a cafe for lunch but I put my foot down and we ate in the office. I bought porridge which cost £1.50, but it could have been a lot worse. Small wins huh?

I finish up at 3 tomorrow and then have some time to kill before heading to the airport. Mr LR will meet me in town and we'll go get something for dinner. I also need to return 2 work dresses I got in Primark a few weeks ago so that's an extra £28 coming back my way tomorrow. They are nice, and I dooooo need work clothes, BUT my old tatty dresses can last a few more months I feel!

I have my lunch for tomorrow sorted (quorn chicken fajitas, extra mild - because I am a child and cannot handle even the mildest of spiciness. It's actually embarrassing!) :rotfl: It will be a bit of a spendy day though as I'll be halfing in for dinner then will need to buy a bus ticket to the airport (a return is about £8.00) and then a train ticket when I get to Gatwick (£12.60). The rest of the weekend down there should be fine though. My dad is a very thrifty gentleman so perhaps I will even learn some more tips when there :T

I'm planing on nosey-ing around other peoples diaries tomorrow when in transit so I hope nobody minds me snooping :cool:

*Sheepish Wave* Hi guys!

Balances to start?

Overdraft 1 £500 / £1950
Loan £382.22 / £770
Santander CC £2685 / £2770.90
Very BNPL £263.98 / £288.98
Overdraft 2 £0 / £450
Capital One (1) £0 / £404.25
Capital One (2) £0 / £179
Barclaycard £0 / £390

Total Debt £3831.2 / 7203.13

ALMOST HALFWAY!

The good news is now the credit card and overdraft are both interest free - so that’s something. I had planned on having Overdraft 1 down a bit more but had some unexpected costs come up last month. One of our poor ratties has a lump which we suspect is a mammary tumour :eek::( These are quite common in rats but I’ve never experienced it myself. Upon discovery there was much flapping and panicking from me and some expensive vet visits which had not been budgeted for. Good news is ratty is ok for the moment and money has been shifted around and taken out of this month's spending to cover it.

I’ve been AWOL.. *sigh* my plan to post more actually turned into posting less somehow I haven’t fallen off the debt busting wagon though so don’t worry!

Thank you so much for checking in Pauline. It was very kind of you.. I do want to be more active. It does help. Writing everything down helps me focus more than just looking at a spreadsheet. Sometimes I do just get in my own head too much I think.

I don’t know why I vanished. I think I was feeling a bit dejected. I had a good visit with my dad and a few NSD’s which felt good but I got home and realised it was still October and pay day was so far away and got myself down a little bit. I’m finding it hard not to let every small setback knock me… like with the vet trips I had to dip into the non interest free part of Overdraft 1 which felt a bit rubbish and I felt like such a failure. (Emergency pot where are you?) I’ve since worked it out and it’s only going to cost 13p in interest but it still felt like the biggest set back and it’s mucked this month's spending money up a wee bit. I need to work on not letting my mood be so affected by the little knocks - it’s life and it’s going to happen and I AM still making progress- so i need to look on the positives

On that note I had put in to go part time at my work a little while ago as I was really feeling down and currently I work pretty crappy variable shifts anywhere from 7am - 9pm and the lack of stability was really affecting me. I hadn’t heard back until just now and I’ve been approved! It’s very exciting and means I can try and fix my head a little bit. I do find having a pattern really improves my mental health so on the one hand I can’t wait… but on the other hand I’m worried already about the loss of income. Probably not the best time to be doing it but hey ho my mental health takes precedence My income will drop by about £300 a month (if I don’t do any overtime) but I’ve already rejigged my excel sheets and everything is still manageable, albeit it takes a little longer. It’s going to happen as of January so I still have next month's wage as a full time one which is ideal. After that I will be dropping down to shifts that start at 8/9 every day and there’s overtime offered every day so the plan will be to start work at 7 every day - which will make the commute more bearable as well! I will have the option to go full time again in the future if I want it as well. So if I can get myself into a more positive headspace then maybe in the future I will feel up to going back to what I was doing before. I do have the option for overtime whenever I like really as well so if I find that I’m doing OK mentally I could put through to do some full time weeks to bring up the wage. The main thing is having a consistent start time, which means a consistent bedtime which makes for a happier LonelyRat :T

I have £190 left of my spending money to last me till the 15th which is very doable. All my bills have been paid and there's food in the fridge/ freezer so if nothing goes wrong I should have some left over. I do, however, need to get my OH something small for Christmas. We’ve ordered a new bed and split the cost as a present to one another which I am extremely excited about… The bed should be here at the end of the month and I’m very much looking forward to it. It’s got an orthopaedic mattress! I sound like such a granny but I don’t even care :rotfl:

There’s going to be some changes in the next few weeks with how my debt is structured. I panicked a little bit when I got the news about going part time and took out a card with Virgin to do a balance transfer as I was worried I wouldn't be able to manage the Santander CC with the time I’ve got left on it. It’s 0% fee for the transfer and will be interest free for 24 months. It’s got a £1700 limit so I’m going to transfer £700 from the Santander CC and the actual card will get cut up straight away.

So tentative plan for next month:

BT £700 from Santander CC to Virgin
£289.50 payment to the Santander CC
£25 payment to Virgin
£500 (and 13p haha!) payment to Overdraft 1
£102.81 to RBS loan

Balances should be:

Overdraft 1 £0 / £1950
Loan £279.41 / £770
Santander CC £1765 / £2770.90
Virgin CC £675 / £700
Very BNPL £263.98 / £288.98

£2983.39 / 7203.13 - Which would be over half way - eek!

After that it’s just fling everything at the Santander CC to clear it while paying £25 on the Virgin. The plan is to have Santander paid off by April/ May. I’ll be getting a bonus payment in March which should be around £500 again so that will help with that as well. After March my loan payments will be finally be done as well and that’ll free up an extra £102.81 a month :T The Virgin card will be paid in June/ July. From my forecasting I could have done the Santander card by the time the interest free period ends in September but I want to give myself some breathing room. I’ve learnt from my experience the past 5 months that unexpected costs do very much crop up, which is something I don’t think I even noticed before… Anything that did come up just got put on credit I don’t want to fall into that trap so by extending the interest free period on the credit card it means if anything does come up that needs addressing then I can use cash and just make smaller payments to the Credit Card.

In light of the fact that I’m going to be back to having to make credit card payments rather than Overdraft payments I’m going to take EssexHebrideans good advice and make minimum payments on payday and put the rest into my savings account to pay just before my next payday. I really do think this will help overcome any blips in the budget.

I’ve also had a think about my emergency pot. I’ve decided it’s going to be called the Geriatric Rat Savings Pot (GRSP) and is going to take more importance than it had done previously. With little lady rat getting her lump I’ve had a think about them (we have 4 in total) and they’re all getting on a bit and I’m sure we’re going to be hit with more health problems in the next few months/ year. I want to be fully prepared to be able to cover anything that does crop up as it can be quite expensive.. The GRSP will be receiving £30 a month and it won’t get touched apart from rat emergencies. I’m also going to have a smaller general emergency fund which will be in the account that Overdraft 1 was with and this will be for anything non- ratty related

With regards to Overdraft 1 I haven’t received any communication from them about the change in my student overdraft charges. I received an email last year saying the interest free amount dropped from £2000 - £1000 and that was at the beginning of November and took place in December. I haven’t had anything yet this year though. I don’t know if I should attempt to contact them or just wait and see what happens. It changed on the 6th of December last year, so if the same happens this year and if I get charged on the £500 balance it should work out at £8.50 in overdraft fees to be paid in January eek! After that no more fees though as it will be paid in December.

Actions for this week:

- Organise the balance transfer when I recieved Virgin card/ log on details
- Close down the 2 Capital One cards and the Barclaycard as well. My amount of available credit is pretty high and I don’t think it’s a good idea to have so much available to me, especially when my income will be reducing.
- Do laundry (eugh)
- Finish moving from one bedroom to the other (as my OH’s sister and boyfriend have moved into their new home)!
- Figure out what I can get my OH for christmas which will be a) cheap and b) useful
- Decided whether or not to call Overdraft 1 provider
- Try and stay positive and not get bogged down with work/ money stress.

Have a lovely evening everyone

Hi Pauline! Thanks for checking in again - I find your replies to be very uplifting. Thanks for the thoughts about poor lady rat. She's in good spirits so all OK at the moment. A bird/ squirrel category sounds lovely! Are they pets or outdoorsy friends? I follow a lady on instagram who rescued an orphaned squirrel and she is so beautiful. She feasts on flowers and is always zooming around her home... Not a conventional squirrel life but she seems content!

You're right about the devils in my head... I do give them too much power. I try and remain positive/ optimistic but some days it seems too much even to wake up. I am trying to keep hopeful about the future, however hard it seems some times. Currently I do feel more on top of my finances so that helps slightly. I check my spreadsheet daily which I'm starting to think is a bit of a compulsion *eek!* better than being out spending money though I suppose!

I have a tentative debt free month of July next year :beer: I think if I just keep thinking about that then I'll stay positive!