The MSE Forum will be undergoing some maintenance this evening. As a result, some users may experience temporary performance issues. Please use the Site Feedback board to report anything major. Thank you for your patience.

LonelyRat's (not so lonely) Road to Riches

1356760

Comments

  • New bed has arrived and I am in heaven! I never want to leave (but in a good way for once)! It's firm and wonderful and our new duvet we got is lovely and cosy. Got some cheap candles from Tesco and the new room looks very inviting :) Also I noticed walking from the train station to work today that my back didn't hurt and I can't remember the last time it didn't! Best (early) Christmas present ever! :T

    Balances are unchanged. Sorted my Christmas gift for OH now though which feels good. Available balance for spends is dwindling so fingers crossed for no unexpected costs until payday on the 18th. Not likely considering my recent track record!

    Shifts for Christmas got posted today and I'm off the 25th, 26th AND 27th which is really very lucky. There has been communication about potentially having to work boxing day though as the company didn't have enough volunteers for it *eek* ideally I don't get scheduled in. Technically shifts shouldn't change when posted, but it's happened to me before.

    I've got £50 pending on pay pal from a sale I made on eBay so waiting for that to clear and I'll have about £160 coming in from my OH when he gets his student loan as I've subbed him some this month so that's going straight to OD1.

    Virgin card arrived - requested the balance transfer from the Santander CC and then me and OH had a ceremonial card cutting. We recently cut up his CC's and my cards for the current accounts with the Overdrafts so we have a fairly large pile of coloured plastic lying around. It would make a good mural.

    OH has recently got on board more with the debt busting :T he's been keen to help me as much as possible but hasn't considered his own debt situation so much. I've created a sheet for him on my Excel document and i'm going to help him try and get organised. He very much buries his head in the sand with money things and if he doesn't understand something he just ignores it. Not ideal but together we will bust his debt too! Thankfully his is A LOT smaller than mine - £1200 . I snowballed him and we have a solid plan of action. This is helping me to feel more positive as well. Obviously I want to clear my own debt, but I also want us to move forward together debt free and him taking more of an active interest in sorting everything else out makes the future seem brighter :beer:

    Nothing much else to report. Plodding along... always plodding along! :)
    Total Debt : ?? / ??
  • Hi lonely rat

    Sorry I haven't popped in recently but glad to hear your OH is now on board and even better to get the time off over Christmas.

    You don't realise just how bad a mattress is until you get a new one.
    Hope the Christmas plans are going well
    Take care
    Pauline

    My birds and squirrel are outside friends. They give pleasure every day
    Don't get it perfect - Get it going
    Better Than Before
  • lonelyrat
    lonelyrat Posts: 567
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post Photogenic
    Forumite
    Hello again!

    Another fail on keeping this updated eh? Oh well… Maybe I should make it a resolution to post more? Probably best not to though as my track record isn't great…

    Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas :beer:

    I’ve still been slogging away… slowly bringing my overall balance down. Overdraft 1 has now been paid off fully - which is a massive relief! Got a letter from RBS saying that the they were going to start charging interest on it as of the 6th of Feb so it feels pretty good to already have cleared it. All my debt now (bar the loan) is interest free which makes things easier. The loan has three more payments then it’s done thankfully! Never again!… it’ll make a difference having an extra £100 a month not already committed to something.

    This month will be my first month with a lower pay after going part time. I did some overtime in December though so this should be added on. Been checking at work and currently they're not offering any which is a bit of a blow :( Every other month it’s been available but now it seems there’s finally enough staff. Fingers crossed this changes as I had hoped to bag a healthy amount of OT every week.

    Until I know what my wage will be next month my plans for payments are a guesstimate. So far I’m tentatively thinking:

    £100 Santander CC
    £100 Very account
    £102.81 RBS Loan
    £25 Virgin CC

    If I do have spare money it’s going to go to the Santander card as the interest free period runs out the soonest - September.

    I’m also going to put £150 in Savings as the emergency fund has never really taken off (£12.80 in it currently). Now that everything's on zero interest I think this would be the best.

    Seeing the Santander balance be under £2000 will feel like a positive step. I’ll get another bonus payment in March which should be £400 - £500 so that will be going straight to the Santander card.

    My work offer a season ticket loan so I’ve taken that out for a six month rail ticket. I do pay the same monthly but it comes direct from my wage which means one less thing to have to worry about/buy which is always good.

    Balances:
    Current Debt / Debt at first DFW post

    Loan £289.28 / £770 (nearly… nearly!)
    Santander CC £2000 / £2770.90
    Very BNPL £250 / £288.98
    Virgin CC £800/700 **
    Overdraft 1 £0 / £1950
    Overdraft 2 £0 / £450
    Capital One (1) £0 / £404.25
    Capital One (2) £0 / £179
    Barclaycard £0 / £390

    Total Debt £3339.28/ 7203.13

    ** This jumped up as I booked a holiday (not very MSE I know...) I put everything on the card but paid the majority of it off at the same time. This extra £100 is the remained of the flights. This is the reason for the £150 a month going to savings as well… I want to sort out spending money before we go. It’s been two years since I last left the UK so I actually can’t wait. I booked up Copenhagen for our anniversary in March - I haven't told OH yet and don’t plan on telling him till we’re almost at the airport. We’re flying from Edinburgh and I have family there so I’m going to tell him we’re going to stay with them for a few days (hence the need for a suitcase). Only issue is getting his passport from him without arousing suspicion! Any tips fully welcome! **

    If I make the payments I plan next month then the debt should be hovering just over £3000. I’ve set myself little mini targets to meet as well as I found paying off the smaller CC’s a lot more satisfying. Seeing a balance drop down to nothing was motivation to keep going but with the Santander card it just seems so massive. The plan is to pay £300 in feb so that’ll bring the total down to £1600. If possible I’m going to see if I can make another £100 somehow so it’ll be at £1500. I don’t really have anything to sell but I’ll do my best! :rotfl:

    OH’s debt repayment is going OK as well. He’s got less coming in than me (£700ish) but I’m now allocating where the money goes so it’s more effective. He’s a bit scatterbrained sometimes and didn’t always leave the funds in his account for dd’s so he was getting charged left, right and centre :eek: I got him to cancel the dd’s so now he just pays a certain amount into our joint account and I make manual bill payments to the cc’s for him. It’s working a lot better and gives me something else to focus on which I quite like. It takes the stress off as well as before I was always worried about the state of his account/cards and now I know everything is ticking along nicely. I’ve got him to withdraw his spending money in cash as well (and just leave £25 in his bank account for bits and bobs) and that’s working a lot better. I’m going to start doing it too as it is so much easier to manage physical money I think… It just seems more real when you’re spending so I feel like I question what it is I’m actually buying.

    My New Year hasn’t gone as well as I would have liked… I was planning on dieting and cutting booze out for January but I’ve already had a slip up on that front. Had a bottle of wine last night which was fun at the time but I paid for it today. I just get so, so hungover and then work is a nightmare. It needs to stop!

    I’m going to need to work out some kind of pattern as well for eating as my shifts now mean I finish at 1 or 2 pm. It’s lunch time but if I go home I just end up snacking then snack all evening as well. I think I need to have one set lunch I eat when I get home then have an early dinner as well. I read someone elses post about the Savvy Shoppers Cookbook so I’ve gone and bought that and I’m going to be converting all my shops to Aldi now :T There’s one right next to the train station I get off at when I come back from work so it should be ideal really. When I get paid I’ll need to stock up on some stuff but after that I’m going to record my food spend diligently and see how it goes. Food and booze is what I end up frittering my money away to the most so I really need to make some changes.

    I am feeling very motivated at the moment. Me and OH had a bit of a pregnancy scare before New Year and it made me think long and hard about our situation. I’ve gone a bit baby mad (friends in work all seem to have fallen pregnant at the same time so there’s a lot of baby talk!) but there’s no way I could justify bringing a baby into the world with this level of debt / no assets / no place of our own. It’s something both of us do want going forward so the sooner we sort the debt the better. Once it’s gone it’s all about saving and getting a place of our own.

    I now have a debt free day in my mind: 19.07.18

    That will be 12 months since I made my trusty spreadsheet and started this journey. It doesn’t seem that long in the grand scheme of things and I think if I keep thinking about this date (and how close it is) it will make the hard days easier.

    Very will be paid in March.
    Loan will be paid in March.
    Santander CC will be paid in May.
    Virgin CC will be paid in July.

    Let's do this :beer:
    Total Debt : ?? / ??
  • lonelyrat
    lonelyrat Posts: 567
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post Photogenic
    Forumite
    edited 9 January 2018 at 6:55PM
    Off work today and haven't done anything productive so feeling a bit useless... :( not a NSD as well as I bought baked beans. On my days off I think I need to come up with plans as if I end up just lazing in bed watching stuff I always feel really dejected at the end of the day.

    Working tomorrow but finish at 2 so the plans for tomorrow are:
    1. Go to boots in town when I finish
    2. 30 minute walk after work
    3. Do the (very neglected) pile of laundry and organise closet/ drawers
    4. Hoover
    5. Meal plan for the week after I get paid (try and budget what it should cost)
    6. Take something to an Amazon locker to return (never done this before... not really sure how?)

    Fingers crossed there's some overtime been posted as well as I really need to do some otherwise next months wage will be too low. I've got a monthly meeting with my manager as well so need to go in early to prep for that. I don't start till 9 which isn't great as the commute is really busy. Ideally there's overtime posted and I can just start at 7 for the foreseeable future. I can dream :rotfl:

    Plans for this evening only include having a shower - it's so cold though the idea of getting out of my duvet isn't appealing.

    I've got £18 (excluding my sad little savings pot) to last till payday which is in 8 days which is very doable. I've got a freezer full of food which I need to work through. I need to go through it and take stock of what I actually have as I don't have a clue at this point! Maybe i'll add that to tomorrows plans as well :)
    Total Debt : ?? / ??
  • OK... not the best day. All I did was go to boots. The rest of my to do list didn't get done unfortunately.

    Work was fine. No overtime posted yet. My £18 is now £16.

    I made lemon curd fairy cakes this evening which are actually quite tasty. I'm not very culinary but I'm trying. I'm racking my brain trying to remember a sweet treat my Mum and I used to make when I was younger... I'm sure it involved lemon curd and fairy cake but it's not what I've made. It may have involved pastry but I'm not sure. I've spoke to my dad to see if he can remember what it was but he can't either. It's been plaguing me for months now and I'm really disappointed in myself for not remembering. My mum was an amazing cook and baker and I'm just useless... Makes me feel like a right failure! Oh well...

    Off work tomorrow so will aim to do all the tasks I failed to do today. Tomorrow will be better.
    Total Debt : ?? / ??
  • lonelyrat
    lonelyrat Posts: 567
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post Photogenic
    Forumite
    TODAY:
    1. Return Amazon parcel to Amazon Locker
    [STRIKE]2. Laundry
    [STRIKE][/STRIKE]3. Wash dishes
    [/STRIKE]4. Organise closet/ drawers
    5. Hoover (will try and rope OH into doing this)
    6. Meal plan for the week after I get paid and try and budget what it should cost
    7. Buy nail varnish remover (will do this when I return the Amazon parcel as there is a locker next to Morrisons).
    [STRIKE]8. Go through freezer/ fridge/ cupboards [/STRIKE]
    9. Shower and dry hair

    Made a list of everything in the cupboards/ freezer. Basically I have enough food to feed a small village for a month. OK, slight exaggeration there but I do have a lot. I have a lot of quorn chicken so I plan to use most of that up. Based on what I have we'll mostly be eating stir frys / fajitas for the immediate future. I was going to use my new cookbook and plan meals for when I get paid next week but I think instead I'll try and use up as much food I have in the freezer as possible. This month is going to veeeeery tight money-wise I think (still don't know what I'll be paid so not sure how bad it's going to be yet) so the less I buy the better. :)

    I think I will buy some frozen veg when in Morrisons - carrots, onions and peppers. These will bulk meals up a bit. I have £10.60 in my purse which I hadn't included in how much money I have left so if I can use some of that, then my £16 will remain £16 which would be ideal.
    Total Debt : ?? / ??
  • lonelyrat
    lonelyrat Posts: 567
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post Photogenic
    Forumite
    My £16 is actually not £16 now.. It's down to £12 as I just noticed I had some cashback paid onto my credit card and it made the balance look funny. I have a weird thing about balances being in multiples of 5. Can't wait till the loan is gone then everything will be in nice round numbers. I do the same with my spending account... Anything that isn't a nice number gets taken off and fired into a savings account and I don't look at that balance! I'm a nut job. :eek::(

    The balance after the small payment on the card is £1490 - this isn't real though as I put the £500 I got from work for my rail season ticket on the card and I haven't bought the ticket yet. Even though the balance isn't a true reflection of my debt it still feels good seeing it that low. Going to use it as motivation for it to actually be the case!:rotfl:
    Total Debt : ?? / ??
  • Late again checking in.... happy New year

    It sounds as though you are doing fine. Don't forget there is a funny lull in January when nothing seems worth the effort.

    I understand about multiples of five look so much better on a statement. Also it might reduce your debt a teensy bit.

    Personally I would plan to use up what you have and then buy what you need as you go. That way you will know exactly what you have and then you can replace it.

    You know you don't have to re-invent menu plans each month. Once you have eaten down your stores, you can spreadsheet your menu plans so you can keep using the bits that work well.

    Regarding finishing at 2.. what I would do is take a healthy sandwich to work with you and eat it when you finish work. Then you will avoid that awful over-hungry feeling you can get which leads to over-eating and over-spending.

    How did your meeting with your manager go? And also how is poorly rat?

    Take care honey,
    Pauline
    Don't get it perfect - Get it going
    Better Than Before
  • TODAY:
    [STRIKE]1. Return Amazon parcel to Amazon Locker[/STRIKE]
    TRIED to return the parcel.... Unfortunately the locker wasn't playing ball. I scanned the barcode on the returns label but it didn't recognise it and said my return wasn't registered. I tried manually putting in the code but no joy. Eventually I got cold and decided to give up! Got home and did a chat with Amazon to get some help and the guy just gave me a refund and said not to bother returning it. Free things!
    [STRIKE]2. Laundry[/STRIKE]
    [STRIKE]3. Wash dishes[/STRIKE]
    Feeling pretty guilty - OH's dad came home from work and asked where his curry was... I scraped it in the bin when I was tidying! In my defence it was an uncovered half plate of curry sitting next to the sink and I was trying to be helpful by doing the dishes :rotfl: I will need to get him a replacement at some point.
    4. Organise closet/ drawers
    Not done - I've run out of steam so will do this tomorrow.
    5. Hoover (will try and rope OH into doing this)
    Not done - will try and rope OH into doing this tomorrow :A
    [STRIKE]6. Meal plan for the week after I get paid and try and budget what it should cost[/STRIKE]
    Done and done!
    Tomorrow: Quorn chicken, pepper and onion fajitas (FREE)
    Saturday: Quorn chicken, brocolli, onion and pepper stir fry (FREE)
    Sunday: Steak, brussels and roasties (will get OH to make the roasties as his are v. good) (FREE)
    Monday: Quorn chicken, sage and onion stuffing balls, carrots, leeks and veggie gravy (FREE)
    Tuesday: Repeat Saturday (FREE)
    Wednesday: Repeat tomorrow (FREE)
    Thursday: Steak, onion, baby potatoes (FREE)
    I did buy veg today (carrots, peppers, onions)... but means I don't spend during the week right? Had to buy some olive oil as well which was pricy so it totalled £6.20 BUT the veg is frozen so should last. Everything else I already have so I'm going to attempt to have a No Spend Week if that's a thing.
    [STRIKE]7. Buy nail varnish remover (will do this when I return the Amazon parcel as there is a locker next to Morrisons).[/STRIKE]
    Didn't need to buy this as OH's mum had some
    [STRIKE]8. Go through freezer/ fridge/ cupboards [/STRIKE]
    [STRIKE]9. Shower[/STRIKE] and dry hair
    Will let hair air dry and get OH to braid before bed.

    I've now also laid out my clothese for tomorrow, set my alarm and am going to settle down with a show on netflix then ideally fall asleep quickly. Got a good day at work tomorrow - I finish an hour early. I'm silly and I got my times wrong on Monday and came in at 8 rather than 9 so they want me to take an early finish tomorrow. I wish they would have just paid me for the extra hour but unfortunately not. Will be nice getting away even earlier though.

    Plans for tomorrow:
    1. 30 minute walk after work
    2. Organise closet/ drawers
    3. Hoover
    4. Paint nails
    5. Clean ratties cages
    6. Make little party hat for birthday rat (have everything I need to do this already so no spends)

    :)
    Total Debt : ?? / ??
  • lonelyrat
    lonelyrat Posts: 567
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post Photogenic
    Forumite
    Hi Pauline - thanks for checking in. I’ll go have a wee snoop on your diary now too. :)

    Don’t ever worry about lateness - considering I’m usually so sporadic there usually isn’t much to check in on. I am really trying to keep this more updated now. Writing down my goals for the day (financial or otherwise) is very useful and is perhaps motivating me to post more I think. I used to have a wee notepad I’d jot down what my plans for the next day were before I went to sleep… Somehow through the years I’ve gotten out of that habit and just sort of bob along so I’d like to get back to it.

    Oft, I am 100% feeling the January lull. I know my wage won’t stretch very far this month and it’s worrying me quite a bit. Also still no overtime posted at work so likely going to be the same next month :(

    That’s a good idea with the meal plans. I will use it going forward… I definitely do love a spreadsheet. I am trying to be more culinary and creative and make food from scratch. I usually used to just buy chicken nuggets and the sort (not very nutritious I know) but I am making an effort. For New Years day I made my first homemade Steak and Ale pie for me, OH and his parents. It was a lot of fun and turned out really well, for a first attempt anyway.

    I am currently just using up everything in the freezer and stores and will do until everything runs out. I like the idea of a sandwich for after work as well. I do well with routine so maybe I could always make my sandwich the night before and then eat it on the train home. Then no snacking until I make dinner. I think that would work as for me it seems when I get home I’m so hungry I just eat anything and then once I’ve started I can’t really stop.

    Meeting with manager was fine. We have monthly performance meetings to discuss the previous month. All went well and I’m on target for all KPI’s which is always good. I’m guaranteed my bonus in March but I’m not sure of the amount yet, probably won’t find that out until the end of Feb. Last time it was just over £650 but now I’ve gone part time I think it will be reduced. But, having said that, I did perform better last review period than the previous one so who knows? I’ve put in £300 on my spreadsheet just to be safe as I would always rather plan for the worst and then have a nice surprise.

    Oh the ratties… It’s not going so great. I’m a bit weepy and broke down yesterday. The lady rat who has the mammary tumour is doing OK. The plan of action was to monitor and then decided if it started to impact her quality of life to either have surgery of have her put to sleep. She’s still leaping around and having a great time but the lumps gotten quite big now and is starting to annoy her so we’d decided that this coming Monday we would take her to the vet for a check up/ ask their opinion and ideally schedule surgery - which is all fine….

    Unfortunately other lady rat (Lonelyrat - my namesake) has been acting a bit funny. She’s just been slower and seems to have trouble balancing. From her symptoms I think it’s a pituitary tumour which isn’t curable. We’re now thinking she needs the vet so they can check and see if that is the case. If it is she will likely have to be PTS. I was sitting cuddling her yesterday and I just couldn’t stop crying. Just thinking about it makes me weepy. I love all the ratties so much. They have their own individual personalities and stories and it’s all just over far too soon. I feel a little heartbroken.

    Lonelyrat was never actually meant to be her name and we never actually meant to get her. We were in the pet shop getting rat food and she was there and she was all on her own. Rats are really social so they shouldn’t be on their own really so we debated getting her but decided against it and were sure someone else would. A week later we went back and she was still there. A few days later we went back and she was still all on her lonesome. At that point I broke - I was like, “Lonely rat you’re coming with me!” She fit in with our other two ladies straight away and they all became pals. She’s our youngest and we decided she would be our last. I really didn’t expect her to be getting sick as she’s still so young. It's just rubbish :(

    Have shoogled around the spreadsheet a little for this month and the next few to deal with the cost of the vet. I’ve no idea how much everything will cost so I’ve reduced certain payments and will leave a spare £200 in one account as a buffer. From my spreadsheet it shouldn’t really affect my Debt Free Date as long as I’m extra extra careful with my spending for the foreseeable future. Worst case scenario it may be pushed back a month which would be frustrating but not the end of the world.

    Bleugh. Today I feel crappy. I feel crappy that I’m in debt. I feel crappy that I may lose two of my babies. I feel crappy that I’ve done nothing with my day off. I feel crappy about my job.

    I need to stay positive. While today may be crappy, maybe tomorrow will be less so.
    Total Debt : ?? / ??
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 342.4K Banking & Borrowing
  • 249.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 234.6K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 607K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 172.8K Life & Family
  • 247.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.8K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards