A Ditherer's Diary (again)

So the car will be about £1k to fix. It's not worth that but it has no MOT so shouldn't be driven really. I'm so depressed, we really don't have the money to spend on a new car. We do have two cars but it's not practical to get rid of one and not replace it. The only way we will probably be able to get one is to use the credit card which again isn't debt busting. We may be able to get a loan but we only just extended the mortgage to pay to put right all the stuff the builder did so I don't really want to apply right now. We want to sue the builder but that's also going to cost with no guarantee of getting anything back.

armchairexpert wrote: »

Oh no! Can you survive with one car just temporarily while you get back on your feet? I do sympathise, what a lot of things to go wrong at once. It always seems to be the way when one starts trying to get a handle on the finances, for some reason.

With YNAB - I think starting from the last pay packet and deducting the things that have come out since that date makes sense.

The other option is to literally start from the day you're on: you record whatever's remaining in your bank account as existing income and just allocate that, ignoring anything that's been paid this month so far. You might not get to the next pay without going into the red this time, but hopefully you will over time. That's what I did, which meant the first month told me nothing useful in terms of reporting (because some bills had come out pre-YNAB and were therefore invisible) but it did mean I ended that month at zero and when the next pay came in it got a lot simpler.

Afternoon,

What Iv'e done is started as if 1st March was Mr Mr'M's payday and taken out anything that has come out since he was paid. We still seem to be overbudgeting so I need to look at this. I have a lot of stuff in red!

I've decided I HAVE to look for a new job. I work 4 days a week and asked for full time and they said no a few months ago. I was quite relieved as I don't really want to work full time but I can't keep on worrying about finances and how to pay for something. I've applied for one nearer to home and seen one I really like the look of but it's in Central London. MrM works in Central London and if I work there too it would cause problems with childcare. At the moment I get home at 5pm so 11yo has hour or so on his own and 7yo is at Grandparents until then. They aren't happy about the idea of me maybe not getting there until after 6pm and I'm wondering about how I will feed and get them into bed at a decent time if I'm home much later. :question:

I've just signed up for an online course to help broaden my skills which should help on my CV so fingers crossed I'll be earning loads and busting those debts soon.

Naomi

I had a bad weekend. I'm feeling stressed and do what I normally do, stuck my head in the sand and spent money. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't much but I just don't have it to spend. A couple of t-shirts for the kids, a couple of coffee's whilst out and about, a pokemon trading game for 7year old and some trousers for me to wear to job interviews coming up. (I work in a relaxed office where jeans and t-shirts are the norm)

I probably spent about £60 or so but I'm so annoyed with myself for doing it.

Thanks for bearing with me Georgiana. Things are horrible,and tough and I'm so unhappy. Financially we are in a terrible state. We are right upto our overdraft limit and I'm scared that if I go to use the bank card it'll be declined.

We went to a solicitors to get a letter sent to our builder to try and get some money back. We then got a bill from the solicitor for £750!! MrM was fuming. We don't often fall out but he didn't talk to me all weekend. This hasn't happened since before the kids were born, we've always talked things through. Then MrM went out, got lost looking for a builders merchants and got caught on a camera in a bus lane in the same place 3 times!!!! So that was £195 in fines. .

The builders were supposed to reply to the solicitors today so we'll see where we are in a couple of days time.If they don't we can take them to court but then the fees are 5% of your claim and for us that would be £1,500. We just don't have it. We're stuck in a catch 22.

I've applied for lots of jobs but not had any interviews apart from one today. It's a job I really want but it's so hard to tell how the interview went. The hours are standard 9-5.30, as I mentioned before, my MIL isn't happy about the idea of me not getting there until after 6pm.

I just feel everything is just s**t at the moment. I'm trying to stay happy for the kids but it's so hard.

One thing I did was be direct with MrM about our incomings and outgoings. I worked out our outgoings were £10 more than our incomings a month. He was spending the best part of £300 a month on cigarettes so he's stopped. He's been vaping this week so I hope this will be a lot cheaper than the cigarettes and eventually lead to him not needing anything to rely on.

We have some money in a savings account but this is the extra mortgage we borrowed to get the house finished. It's an on-going project so money is coming out of it in dribs and drabs. I was thinking of changing bank accounts so we start with a clean slate and treat the overdraft as a debt, however I'm worried about two things. 1) if we change accounts, will our current bank account take the money from the savings to clear the overdraft as there will be no salaries coming in to it. 2) will they up the interest rate on the overdraft?

Sorry this is so garbled.. just trying to get my head around everything. As usual I've been ignoring it all but I know I'm far happier when I feel in control which I certainly don't at the moment.

N x