Head out of sand time! £63k to zero!

enthusiasticsaver · 5 May 2017 at 5:02PM

You sound as if you are now motivated to clear it so good luck. It is a lot but you have a decent income and are paying quite a high repayment each month. Just think what you can do with that £1900 when the debt is gone

Bigskies · 5 May 2017 at 5:22PM

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

You sound as if you are now motivated to clear it so good luck. It is a lot but you have a decent income and are paying quite a high repayment each month. Just think what you can do with that £1900 when the debt is gone

Thanks! Yes, feeling motivated right now, have made a moodboard with nice house pictures to spur me on...despite our salaries we'd not get a mortgage right now because of our debt levels so it will spur me on.
Had a good day today, not spent anything and drove straight past the drive through Starbucks.....twice! That's at least three quid saved already. :rotfl:

hugglemonster · 5 May 2017 at 7:41PM

Just wanted to say hi too, good luck with your journey sounds like you have some great plans to pay back your debt and you'll get addicted to coming on here to post. I seem to fall behind if I don't get my MSE fix everyday!

H x

Bigskies · 6 May 2017 at 9:09AM

Morning! It's the weekend and I have plans! Today I'm going to sort out some items to either put on eBay or a few FB selling pages. Today will focus on shoes, bags and clothes and other bits and bobs I've got knocking about the bedroom, I think.
I've had a chat with hubby about what we are doing and he's on board, which is great.
The other thing I'm doing is unsubscribing from each email I get from companies I have bought from before. Yes, they email me with all their offers, but I must get twenty a day from all sorts of companies that sell my favourite things, so in some ways it's like going shopping every single day! No wonder I struggle to control my spending. :mad: Anyway, I'm hoping that by unsubbing, I'm far less likely to think about the store and then won't casually buy stuff unthinkingly.
I'm going to do the same on FB too.
Baby steps.......hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Bigskies · 7 May 2017 at 10:04AM

Well yesterday was successful. Did some housework and tidying Jobs. Hubby went to do the food shop with a strict budget and came back 82p under. Our little town has recently got a lidl and it's been eyeopening. I used to shop at Tesco and for our family (2 adults, 3 teens, 2 dogs and 2 cats) never got out without spending less than £120 a week. Lidl yesterday hubby spent £59.18! And we got a few treats, and nice food.
I then went and bought two hanging baskets from the nursery shop for £12, but that was from £20 that the outlaws gave us for our anniversary, so the extra £8 went into the £2 jar for Xmas.
eBay listing is going okay, have sold a designer handbag that I love, but don't actually use that much because it's quite heavy. And I can't afford to keep it at the moment, so it's going. After fees I will clear £450 and part of it will go to some work we need doing in the garden, and the rest, once it comes, will go off the Next account.
Today should be a NSD, as not planning on going anywhere!

Cherryfudge · 7 May 2017 at 8:50PM

Hello, I've just discovered your diary.

Well done for selling the handbag - not an easy choice but in a few years you will hopefully be in a position to get its latest equivalent (though you may be so MS by then that you will put the money to overpay the mortgage on the bigger house, instead!). Remember it's okay to treat yourself a bit from time to time, otherwise it can be a long, hard slog and you'll be more likely to overspend.

I like your idea about unsubbing from sales emails. If you need something the companies will still have their websites, but it's possible you won't need new clothes for ages. I mentioned to someone else on here recently about a programme (possibly 'Shop Well for Less'?) where someone used to spend a huge amount on clothes and for the programme they gave her access to just a handful of her stuff for a week. By midweek she was in despair because she'd worn everything, then she got inventive and worked out new combinations. She ended up realising she had every version going of every item! X number not only of little black things but of the red shirt, the white shirt, the yellow tee shirt, the blue scarf, the stripey canvas shoes (or whatever). It really showed me that less is more (though I haven't exactly 3bayed my wardrobe as a consequence...)

Anyway, I hope you find lots of support on the forums. There are great people here with lots of helpful and friendly chat to keep you motivated.

Bigskies · 7 May 2017 at 9:19PM

Cherryfudge wrote: »

Hello, I've just discovered your diary.

Well done for selling the handbag - not an easy choice but in a few years you will hopefully be in a position to get its latest equivalent (though you may be so MS by then that you will put the money to overpay the mortgage on the bigger house, instead!). Remember it's okay to treat yourself a bit from time to time, otherwise it can be a long, hard slog and you'll be more likely to overspend.

I like your idea about unsubbing from sales emails. If you need something the companies will still have their websites, but it's possible you won't need new clothes for ages. I mentioned to someone else on here recently about a programme (possibly 'Shop Well for Less'?) where someone used to spend a huge amount on clothes and for the programme they gave her access to just a handful of her stuff for a week. By midweek she was in despair because she'd worn everything, then she got inventive and worked out new combinations. She ended up realising she had every version going of every item! X number not only of little black things but of the red shirt, the white shirt, the yellow tee shirt, the blue scarf, the stripey canvas shoes (or whatever). It really showed me that less is more (though I haven't exactly 3bayed my wardrobe as a consequence...)

Anyway, I hope you find lots of support on the forums. There are great people here with lots of helpful and friendly chat to keep you motivated.

Thanks, that's really interesting. I have loads of clothes, a lot don't actually fit me but I'm hanging onto them for 'when I lose some weight'. I really need to either lose the weight and get rid of the bigger clothes, or just accept it isn't going to happen and get rid of the smaller clothes as I can only wear about 50% of my wardrobe right now! I end up wearing about the same half a dozen outfits every week to work, and then at weekends live in jeans and tops or hoodies.

I shall add "sort my wardrobe" to my list of jobs, I think, so thanks :beer:

Bigskies · 8 May 2017 at 7:11AM

Morning! Back to work this morning. Today's plans are:
1. No spend day. Meeting a friend for coffee, but I have a Dobbies card (£10/year) which gives me 2 free drinks (large cappuccinos which are £2.75 each) a month, so I only go when I have free drinks left!
2. Lady coming over after work to pick up some suitcases that I'd advertised on FB. They are old ones we don't use, but are a pretty matching set. Priced them at £45 and could have sold several times over. Should have priced them higher lol, but £45 is good.
3. Hubby is posting handbag this morning, so once tracking number is loaded onto paypal, they should release funds in three or four days. Funds are held at the moment as large payment....it's happened before and is annoying, but always comes eventually!
4. Few payments gone out today. We are paying mins on all cards but the Next one, and two payments are loans -one has 10 months to go (£162) and the big one has 23 months to go (£588) Once that ones paid off we shall be able to chuck loads of money at the remaining cards.
Am finding this diary is focusing my mind, hopefully it will give me the motivation to keep this going for the next thirty six months :eek:

Treadingonplaymobil · 8 May 2017 at 9:44AM

Sounds like you're doing really well getting in bits and bobs of money, it will really make a difference.

Bigskies · 9 May 2017 at 6:54AM

Thanks, hope we will get there!
Morning! Rubbish nights sleep last night as work was a bit of a 'mare yesterday. Still -onwards and upwards!
Today's plans:
1. Handbag should arrive today, so the clock will start ticking for PayPal to release the funds, hopefully by Friday.
2. Pay in a cheque from my Dad, we paid for a summer school for our middle kid and my Dad has given us half back, but as it's already paid, I'll use that money towards a Next payment. Paying in a cheque these days involves a huge palaver though, I have to pay it into the holding current account I have with the nationwide that I literally only use to clear cheques. Our own bank doesn't have a branch within 30 miles any more! Then once it's cleared at Nationwide I'll go online and transfer the moment to our proper account. For years I've been trying to persuade my Dad to do online banking, but no joy yet :cool:
3. Shouldn't need to spend anything today. Yesterday I ended up having to pay to park at the office as the free car park was chocka when I came back from an emergency meeting, I'll get the money back in my expenses at some point, but it was cash spent so it's being counted. Hopefully today will be my third NSD of the month though.
Let's hope today is less crappy than yesterday then!

Head out of sand time! £63k to zero!

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