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Feb. 11th, 2025 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
totchipandaI kept this under wraps bc there was a lot of uncertainty, but late last year I had contacted a debt insolvency company about my options, and they put together a consumer proposal for me. I got the notice last week that it had been accepted. Basically, I agreed to pay my creditors X amount over 5 years, where X is equal to about 40% of what I owed with 0% interest. No service fees, no annual fees, no gathering interest, no collections calls. I can absolutely afford the payments and all of my responsibilities and still have a handful leftover for "fun" things like eating out and movie tickets without worrying about how I should be putting that money towards the debt (but when the debt is so high and only getting higher bc so little goes to the principle, what's the point? Life is hardly worth living without the fun things)
So my adulting task last night was grocery shopping, and y'all, it is real fun doing it without a strict budget. Before the proposal, I was budgeting $150-200 per month for my own groceries, which often included the things I needed for the cats. As you may imagine, this was not enough and I had been living like this since I bought the car in 2014, so I have been real good at keeping myself not-hungry for a long time. My first "real" post-proposal budget was in January, where I forced myself to just grab what I wanted and not consider "do I *need* this, no regard for cost (i did price compare in some cases, bc that's just smart shopping. Generic tin foil is just as good for my purposes as brand name, as is dairy products, but I bought brand name sodas just because I could). My bill was $180 and I topped it up with $45 cash after I got back from Toronto.
My budget spreadsheet had $150 filled in for this months paycheques, which I told myself ALSO included fast food eating bc I'm paying M back for the hotel still. Well I overspent that a little bit, after also having fast food this weekend, BUT I have already accounted for all of my recurring bills up until the first pay of March, and have one more cheque this month which will mostly be rent and the "little things". I got a lot of things that will last me for 2-3 weeks and the top up towards the end of the month won't be horrible.
Now I just need to spend one of these upcoming weekend days doing things like baking granola and bread and I will be SET. As I get more comfortable with the budget (it's still weird to remind myself that no, I don't need to concern myself with how to maximize the payment to the credit card) and get further into the year, I should have a better stock of on-hand pantry-stable items.
It's wild y'all. As a young adult I was struggling with low pay and all the expenses that come with having my own household. My parents/grandparents have never supported me financially. I got my first credit card at 24 and immediately developed bad habits with it that ended up with me literally 20 years later trying to undo that. In the summer, I didn't have enough for the minimum payment so I just sent what I had, and they called me multiple times a day until I answered. Fees and interest were so high that the principle wasn't being touched. I was at a point where I was considering just not paying at all bc what was the point? Then I saw a note somewhere in the news that the living wage in my city is the wage I am making, and what am I even doing right now?? I'd been thinking about this for over a year already, so I finally did it, and it's SUCH A RELIEF to have that off my plate.
I have to take two financial counselling sessions, which I have recently seen is first about creating a budget and the second was about long-term planning. I grew up in the "we don't talk about money" era and never had good money management modeled to me (should have learned about this instead of taking care of an egg in school!) so it's something I've always struggled with. I'm very happy to take these sessions to move forward. I have PLANS that could never be even considered bc of the debt load, but the LIGHT IS THERE. IT'S HAPPENING.
In other news, I have an eggplant in my fridge that I am going to experiment with (I SWEAR I had a recipe I ate in the summer which was supposed to have eggplant in it, but I cannot remember what it was except that it was *delicious*), chicken strips, and a fun block of cheese. Tonight's adulting is laundry and kitchen stuff, plus FAJITAS!!!
I took a square of the questionable interfacing and fused it to a bit of cotton shirting. Wool setting on the iron did nothing, but cotton setting got it on there nice and tight. One corner didn't get fully set, which was good bc I could try to pull it up, and that glue is on there good. The real test will be different materials, but I am optimistic.
No sewing, and very little cross stitching last night. It's fine, I have yummies in my fridge again!
So my adulting task last night was grocery shopping, and y'all, it is real fun doing it without a strict budget. Before the proposal, I was budgeting $150-200 per month for my own groceries, which often included the things I needed for the cats. As you may imagine, this was not enough and I had been living like this since I bought the car in 2014, so I have been real good at keeping myself not-hungry for a long time. My first "real" post-proposal budget was in January, where I forced myself to just grab what I wanted and not consider "do I *need* this, no regard for cost (i did price compare in some cases, bc that's just smart shopping. Generic tin foil is just as good for my purposes as brand name, as is dairy products, but I bought brand name sodas just because I could). My bill was $180 and I topped it up with $45 cash after I got back from Toronto.
My budget spreadsheet had $150 filled in for this months paycheques, which I told myself ALSO included fast food eating bc I'm paying M back for the hotel still. Well I overspent that a little bit, after also having fast food this weekend, BUT I have already accounted for all of my recurring bills up until the first pay of March, and have one more cheque this month which will mostly be rent and the "little things". I got a lot of things that will last me for 2-3 weeks and the top up towards the end of the month won't be horrible.
Now I just need to spend one of these upcoming weekend days doing things like baking granola and bread and I will be SET. As I get more comfortable with the budget (it's still weird to remind myself that no, I don't need to concern myself with how to maximize the payment to the credit card) and get further into the year, I should have a better stock of on-hand pantry-stable items.
It's wild y'all. As a young adult I was struggling with low pay and all the expenses that come with having my own household. My parents/grandparents have never supported me financially. I got my first credit card at 24 and immediately developed bad habits with it that ended up with me literally 20 years later trying to undo that. In the summer, I didn't have enough for the minimum payment so I just sent what I had, and they called me multiple times a day until I answered. Fees and interest were so high that the principle wasn't being touched. I was at a point where I was considering just not paying at all bc what was the point? Then I saw a note somewhere in the news that the living wage in my city is the wage I am making, and what am I even doing right now?? I'd been thinking about this for over a year already, so I finally did it, and it's SUCH A RELIEF to have that off my plate.
I have to take two financial counselling sessions, which I have recently seen is first about creating a budget and the second was about long-term planning. I grew up in the "we don't talk about money" era and never had good money management modeled to me (should have learned about this instead of taking care of an egg in school!) so it's something I've always struggled with. I'm very happy to take these sessions to move forward. I have PLANS that could never be even considered bc of the debt load, but the LIGHT IS THERE. IT'S HAPPENING.
In other news, I have an eggplant in my fridge that I am going to experiment with (I SWEAR I had a recipe I ate in the summer which was supposed to have eggplant in it, but I cannot remember what it was except that it was *delicious*), chicken strips, and a fun block of cheese. Tonight's adulting is laundry and kitchen stuff, plus FAJITAS!!!
I took a square of the questionable interfacing and fused it to a bit of cotton shirting. Wool setting on the iron did nothing, but cotton setting got it on there nice and tight. One corner didn't get fully set, which was good bc I could try to pull it up, and that glue is on there good. The real test will be different materials, but I am optimistic.
No sewing, and very little cross stitching last night. It's fine, I have yummies in my fridge again!
