“Debt is normal. Be weird.”

Ok, so “tomorrow” actually turned out to be three days later, but who’s counting?! Every time I sat down to type an update, I was overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of cr*p that has happened during these past months and struggled to get the right words out. Going to give it another go. So, in short...

• My lovely car that I bought last year with a loan was horrifically battered whilst she sat quietly in the car park at work. Offending driver did leave their details (thank heavens!), but it didn’t stop the car being a write off and his insurance company only offering half of what I paid for it. Took two months, an independent valuation arranged by my company and a lot of stress to finally get a fair payout.
• DH has had to stop working as we no longer have the childcare to facilitate this. Because our shifts conflicted one weekend a month, we relied on my mum to look after DD3 and DS, whilst DD1 and DD2 stayed with the MIL. Unfortunately, my mum has been unwell and is now awaiting surgery, so babysitting is out of the question. We don’t have anyone else that is comfortable looking after such young children, especially for an entire weekend and often nights included. With DH not working PT, we’ve lost out on £600+ a month, plus all the tips he would generate for our (somewhat neglected) sealed pot . Although we can still live fairly comfortably just on my income, it does mean plans to overpay on loans have been put on hold for the time being.
• My work has been extremely busy recently and bosses have been piling on the pressure. Having coped with this pretty well, it was then disappointing to find out that the higher position I had been expected to take on in the next few months (with the bonus of a significant pay rise) has essentially been postponed for a year.

Right, well those are the key points relevant to our financial situation so I think I’ll leave it there rather than bore you all with all the personal and family problems as well!

Hopefully, I’ve managed to realistically adjust goals to fit in with our new situation and I’ll update on those tomorrow. As it is, DD3 has chickenpox and isn’t sleeping well so I’m off to sing some lullabies. Night everyone!

Today feels a lot like day one on my journey back to financial stability and sanity. I’m disappointed in myself that I neglected this diary during the tougher months, because that’s when I really need it to keep me on track! Never fully neglected the MSE way though, so going to give myself a bit of credit for that .

As it’s Monday, it’s a fresh start for the weekly budget. Over the past few weeks, we’ve adjusted our budget so that we take out £120 cash to cover groceries and fuel for the week (i.e. “absolute essentials budget”), with any left over at the end of the week being either put towards debt or added to the sealed pot. Rather than have a budget for other purchases, DH and I discuss everything that we consider we need and only buy it if we both agree that it’s an acceptable spend. Lately this has resulted in very little spending, mostly on things for the kids (DD1 is tall for 9 years old and her height seems to be increasing exponentially :eek:, so money mostly used to replace outgrown clothes). Even then, we prefer to pick up items from charity shops, so the cost is minimal. One fantastic shop near us sells every item of children’s clothing (including shoes) for 50p, meaning almost an entirely new wardrobe with change from a tenner!

Last week left us with £11.24 from the budget. £1.24 has been added to the sealed pot, with £10 used to pay towards Very. Outstanding balance on there is still £648 and £439 of that needs to be paid by the end of February to avoid interest. As I’ve been paid today, I’m going to immediately pay off another £100 and then see how accounts are looking in a couple of weeks to determine whether I can pay the remaining balance without dipping into February’s pay. Can’t think of any other big purchases that we’re going to need this month, but I’d rather wait and see.

Other MSE things done today: -

• Installed Shoppix app and uploaded recent receipts.
• Checked on Swagbucks account and nearly able to redeem £10 to add to the emergency fund. Will look for a suitable survey or two tonight to get to the target.
• Weekly shop at Ald! - total spend £51.70. Had well-stocked cupboards so this was predominantly fresh items. Being on a diet also helps keep the spend down!
• Going to get DH to chop up some wood tonight to last the week. Have been too reliant on radiators recently and I’m scared to check the electric meter!
• Leftovers for dinner this evening - cheesy leek and Quorn pie that I made yesterday (kids’ favourite ).

Feels so good to be back and seeing my accomplishments (however small) written down. This is just the motivation I’ve been missing!