Time to break free!

savingholmes

Stardust77 wrote: »

Hi,
I'm also not much use at SOA's but have recently became debt free having paid off a fair whack of debt over 3 years on about half of your income so I wanted to reassure you it can be done.

The main thing that strikes me is whether your OH is committed to being debt-free as well? I think it can really make or break a plan and if he's not onboard you'll find it so much harder to remain focused.

Even with the best intentions, you have to be committed to a change in lifestyle and possibly compromising ethics if you really want to clear your debt. This might mean making more of an effort with the housework, stopping or at least vastly reducing your charitable donations or considering alternatives to your ds's after school club. I can only say what I'd do in the circumstances and fully accept this wouldn't be suitable for everyone but I'd sooner make sure my son was well cared for after school and reduce my charitable giving by the £7 a week then the other way round.

I think Milly's suggestion was a fab idea for you and your family. Could you possibly arrange a big fundraiser each year or even several time a year? I do fundraising for charity and have raised about £10k over the past 3 years for a charity close to my heart. Would this be an option for you? It's something in which you can involve your family and community in too. Although I'm not religious the church in my road is always doing fairs and fetes and treasure hunts and things that are aimed at the kids which involves lots of people and loads of people go along regardless of belief so you could make huge amounts of money for your church.

Thanks for the encouragement re your 3 year journey to becoming debt free.:A

I like the out of box thinking with the fundraiser idea...:T I'll certainly give that some thought. I have an opportunity to sell some cards at work - I may put that money towards the child sponsorship and that way we can keep that up but really I am still saving. Would need to sell a lot of cards to make £36 a month though.

OH says he is committed but in practice is doing nothing to directly help other than not spending as much. :mad: But where I've been doing quidco, surveys etc to try and raise money I feel he just raises blockers. He has been quite hurt tho when I communicated that to him so that is obviously not his perception. He was very anti us getting a lodger but has come round to the idea. I want him to do some reviews on Bview earning us £20 in Amazon vouchers but he is reluctant. He isn't getting involved in any of that YET. I'm still trying to convince him.

On the charitable giving he would let me cancel mine as he sees that as a personal decision but is not prepared to cancel his or the child sponsorship money.

I think I will give DS a go at coming home one night a week if he can't cope then I'm sure the After School club would let me reinstate him....

Stardust77

I'm glad you'll give the fundraiser a thought. It really is worthwhile and you never know, you might find it more rewarding than just giving the money plus it helps you're financial situation.

Are you signed up with Lightspeed panel? I find they come through regularly and the points soon add up to make vouchers. I've just discovered Quidco and I'm loving it, my OH is a builder and regularly buys materials and tools through Screwfix so we get 6% cashback.... not that I tell him lol he pays for the tools, I get the cashback for ordering them!!

Good luck on your journey, you need to do what's right for you and your family at the end of the day x x

turnmylifearound

Could you perhaps not donate the money to charity - but keep a note of how much you would be paying - pay off your interest-bearing debts and then pay off your 'debt' to charity?

savingholmes

I've signed up to lightspeed this week - have done a few but they are very time consuming. Just on a side note - I've got 2 stars - really chuffed - it upgraded today!

Pippilongstocking

Hello
Just a thought about DS and being at home - I cut my childcare by having my 'cleaner/mothers help person' arrive at 4-6 couple nights a week - I don't know how often your cleaner comes but you might be able to combine the two, my lovely girl (marie) basically was bumbling along doing her thing, kids came in tv/got a snack and flopped. She didn't mind when she came, and it gave me peace of mind knowing to begin with there is an adult about.

The girl left to go to univeresity and we felt like we didnt need the extra help anymore. Its the thing at that time of night isnt it - they want to just flop. My two now are often on own after school, there are rules - I did worry about what other folk think - but they are happier with a bit of 'space' and I have the phone at work, and msn switched on from the mid afternoon - the house laptop can be on msn so that if theres anything we tie in.

My two are 12 and 13...they been 'at home' for about a year now afterschool, some nights he has club, some nights she has club and one or two nights they are here together.

No idea if any of that is reassuring or not?!
I am a control freak!!!

Pippilongstocking

ps also thinking about lodger - its a dilema really isnt it - i could clear a cc with renting a room for a year - thats appealing - the invasion of my privicay is not (excuse spelling am lazy) -

Rabbit-in-headlights

savingholmes wrote: »

One of OH's card has instituted a new rule where you can only pay min amount - in their case £25 or the whole amount.

Hello savingholmes,

May I ask which card this is? It seems like pretty sharp practice to me, just so they can put as much interest on as they like if people can't pay off the full balance before the 0% period ends! So, if you can identify this card, it might save others from falling into the same trap!:eek:


Rabbit

savingholmes

Rabbit-in-headlights wrote: »

savingholmes wrote: »

One of OH's card has instituted a new rule where you can only pay min amount - in their case £25 or the whole amount.

Hello savingholmes,

May I ask which card this is? It seems like pretty sharp practice to me, just so they can put as much interest on as they like if people can't pay off the full balance before the 0% period ends! So, if you can identify this card, it might save others from falling into the same trap!:eek:


Rabbit

Virgin - they changed the terms and conditions on him. He was late paying the £25 by one day - they slapped him with a full interest charge and late payment charge on a 0% deal.:eek: he negotiated with them and got back on the 0% deal but only if he paid the above charges. I was planning to let the account settle as we had only just moved to it and then have a go at claiming the charges back a la this site.

When I had a similar situation with Halifax - OH paid late - they took all the charges off and left me on interest free.;)

savingholmes

:eek: I'm struggling with the whole lodger idea too as we are not normally tidy at all - hence why we have a cleaner so it doesn't get too out of control. The good thing about the college lodger is a) if it doesn't work out the college has said we can chuck them out end Oct so we can effectively trial it and if it's not working on either side we can then walk away and b) they are only here 33 weeks of the year so we will get breaks from them at half terms, Christmas etc. We are going to give it a go. If it makes us tidy up more and de-clutter that's all to the good anyway. If we decide it's just not worth it at least we will have tried it - it may then make us give up other things that are dearer to our hearts eg the cleaner!;)

savingholmes

:j Just a quick update... I got it agreed today I could change my hours from September and finish earlier on Fridays so I can pick kids up from school without reducing my hours overall. This should save between £56 and 70 per month depending on the number of Fridays in the month. This is on a 2 month trial basis (to make sure it doesn't negatively impact my job - fair enough).

DS has also said he would love to come home rather than afterschool club on his own 1 day per week so am going to give that a go to - saving another £28-35 per month.
:j

I've left a message at the after school club so that I don't pay unnecessary charges....;)