The ultimate incentive to get debt free, can I do it by New Years?

Birdie85

Oooh, I wish I did have a pet crocodile! Like on Clarissa Explains it All (anyone remember that?!)

It is a hole punchy eyelet setter thing. Haven't played with it yet but I love tools so I had to have it! Everyone will be getting cards covered in eyelets now and my scrapbook pages will be covered too!

We haven't got a date yet, more problems; the solicitors are saying that they are still waiting for the lease which I posted on Friday- they already lost the first one I'll die if they lose this one too!

Cinny91

This book I got off of RiSi, is truly weird! Full of talk of 'french letters' and 'poking' and things I now suppose I shouldn't of been reading in the office kitchen. Was expecting a book of innocent wartime banter and I'm presented with bohemian lifestyle, I have to admit the romantic in my is quite enjoying it!

Where is the lady anyways?! She's normally posted by now commenting that we chin wag too much!

Dinah93

Loving the mini party!

NIM started the new job this morning, hoping it's going okay. It's market research so he's going to get hung up on a lot! He's already said he's going to call all my family to get his first months figures rolling!

Had an exciting morning. First, the trip to work. It's not roadworks Tete, they've changed the priorities on the A66 so now those joining from the A19 do not have right of way anymore, and it's permenant and causing absolute bedlam. Took me 55 mins to get the 3 miles from the Billingham junction to the flyover. I then was late for site visit 1, had to apologise a lot, site visit 2 the people weren't in, and then sat nav sent me off down this single lane track for site visit 3. I got down one hill, and halfway up the next, when my wheels just locked and span and i slid down the hill again. With my knackered handbrake was like trying to fight a leak in a dam with bluetack! So I slid down to the valley between the hills again. After nearly 40 mins of trying to get up the hill half on the grass, at speed, and backwards, I gave up and called work to say I was stuck and would now be living out of my car on the backroad to Liverton, and called dad to ask if the RAC would tow me. However a very nice couple went past walking 3 gigantic dogs (would not look out of place alongside Hades guarding the river stix) and he offered to get my car the mile up the road to the village for me. Took him 5 attempts to get it up the hill, but he eventually managed it by doing around 50mph and just flying up it! And I got to have a nice walk to the village with the lady and all the dogs.

Apparently as well as having a hadbrake that is almost entirely shot, my front tyres have under 3mm tread, which is illegal, so I'll be needing some new ones of those too.

NIM went over to Ireland on Saturday, and saw his mum, who apparently was very apologetic. He doesn't seem to get the difference between things that should be common knowledge and things I told him privately, he told her that I thought she didn't think I was good enough for him! Well that's embarrassing. True, but embarrassing.

NIM is going to buy my mums old car. She's had it about 8 years, and loves it to bits, but dad wants to get her a bit of an upgrade. So he's trading my grandad's car in as px, and getting her a slightly newer, half of the milage car in exactly the same model and colour, with leather and air con and all the nice bits. Best thing is though, my dad went to see the new car, and he told the dealer he liked it, but he had a bit of a funding shortfall, so somehow the dealer has agreed to knock the £500 difference off the agreed price and what dad has if dad paints his lounge, kitchen and downstairs loo! Dad says it should only take one, maybe two days so he's happy as Larry.

Went up to Newcastle on Saturday night to see a friend, only spend £32 including my train ticket, which I was pleased with. Was great to see her again, but I feel so sorry for her as shes in a rubbish relationship situation. OH came to pick me up after, and they seemed to get on well, although having not eaten and then had 6 glasses of wine and some rum I think I was in no state to judge.

Cakes are going down well at work, although I hid the scones in the car, they smell nice but they have the consistency of meteors and my reputation as a baker would be shot to pieces.

NIM and I had a fair few money talks over the weekend. He has suggested that instead of paying off my CC with the money in my ISA, he pays it off with his savings, effectively making my ISA his cash, but increasing the ammount of interest we get as a return. This way we will both have maxed ISAs going into the new financial year, which as a couple is best for our long term finances. From things he's said he seems very positive about the future, but with no commitment and my past experience of being burnt, I'm a bit wary to jump in financially with both feet. Need to have discussions on how we are going to save, and what we will do with the savings if we break up. At present he will have a small ammount of savings, while I still have a bit of debt to pay off, however I'm able to save more as I earm a lot more.

We're going to try to negotiate hard with the gym, see if we can get a better deal, but we're fairly sure we're joining. NIM's jeans are getting tight, and I just feel not myself and want to get toned again. Plus if we go swimming 3 nights a week instead of out for a meal, it's moneysaving. I know, I know, walking is free, but it's dark when I get home, and we both really like swimming. I want to be all bendy with yoga or something too.

OH is living with my parents at the moment, dad thinks he should stay, and is very supportive of the fact we're trying to save to buy a house. Dad really likes NIM, which is great. Mum likes him too, I just think she's tired and stressed at work at the moment. Still trying to show how useful we are at home though. NIM and I should both be home by 5pm tonight, so we're going to try to do an hours helping, have dinner, then tonight we ARE going to do some moneymaking. Over the weekend I did my scratchies and onepoll, but the tidying yesterday took so so long that was about all we did. Got one dooyoo review done on Saturday too. So tonight we need to finish sorting the room, then we're going to do

Me:

• Onepoll
• Free scratchies
• Dooyoo reviews until NIM is finished
• Address parcels

NIM:

• All the surveys
• Wrap parcel from Amazon and one ebay item that finally was paid for

Should get back to listing on ebay in the next few days. However getting the room sorted is priority number 1 right now as neither of us like clutter. Guess if I'm keeping my ISA I should look to swap it so need to research better rates on that too!

I'm trying to work out when to take my 2 weeks holiday now that we're not going away, has to be taken before the end of March, but work is busy and I can't see anywhere to comfortably take them.

Dinah93

I was posting you impatient scallywags! I just wrote a small essay and took best part of an hour while you all went on tangents without me!

Tete_en_l'Air

Yikes, epic post!! I needed to sit down mith my cup of tea for that one! GREAT news about the A66, I thought they were widening it or something. I guess I'll revert back to the scenic route through the chemical works then...

I love how poor old NIM has been incorporated into the moneymaking to the point that he now has his own to do list! Bless though, it's lovely that he's supporting you in a practical sense. What you've said about him paying off your card sounds sensible, but I think you do need to have some kind of agreement in place in case you break up (touch wood) - I've never mixed finances with a boyfriend but by all accounts it can get pretty messy! Sounds like your mum may come round about him staying for a while though, especially if you keep up the good work around the house and your dad likes him so much. I can't see what difference it would make really, he'll be in your room and it's not as though he'll have his stuff all over the house or anything.

Are holidays definitely on hold then? Are you waiting til you're debt-free? I only have 5.5 days to use up before April and I'm stuggling! Can you carry some over? I've spotted this gorgeous hotel in Dublin that I've set my heart on, but when I looked again at the £10 flights, going out was like 10pm on the Friday, then coming home was 6am on the Sunday, so not worth it at all. Better flight times are considerably more pricey..!

And Cinny... What on earth are you reading???!!!

Tesco_points_addict

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

Phew, thanks Cinny! And loving the mental image of a croc in a box of books hehe!

TPA, what is our talk of vouchers and wool not titilating enough?!

Ermmm.....well, erm, well...actually I love the whole chatty thing going on here, but Dinah is a particular insperation..and I am hoping one day she wil post a piccy of the NIM:rotfl:

In fact I love you all (but is not into knitting..sorry:p )

TPA

Tesco_points_addict

Dinah93 wrote: »

I was posting you impatient scallywags! I just wrote a small essay and took best part of an hour while you all went on tangents without me!

scallywags:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

TPAx

Dinah93

Is that from Durham Tees or Newcastle Tete? Newcastle do some seriously good times on flights, early friday, late sunday.

I'm going to have to start coming in the longer route, via Redmarshal and along the A66 rather than Stockton and down the A19, as I can't be doing nearly two hours to work on a morning!

NIM is very, very supportive of the money making, as he knows I'm nearly debt free now, and I think he's thinking it as saving money for 'our' house so it should be a joint effort, rather than when I was clearing my debt, which was my responsibility and it was just nice of him to help out. He's a lot more serious about it than me now I think, I know with him on board I'll end up saving more than I would have alone, and with not flying so much I should make big savings. Our one item still for contestation is date night. We usually do this every friday, however we've swapped to weeknights usually now as it is cheaper. I'm kind of thinking we should cut it out, as much as we both love it, it's about £160 a month. OH wants to keep it. I'm thinking maybe we compromise and say we can only spend £25 on a date night, use lots of vouchers and stuff, making it £100 a month, as it is still quality time together, and I don't really want to become a frugal recluse a slave to a mortgage years before she even has it!

If he can fill my ISA entirely, then basically it's a lot clearer, as that is still his money, it's only if we start mixing it I think it gets complicated. I do agree it's the best way for us to save though, and I'm a lot more comfortable with this than joint debt, or any kind of joint account again. Although I firmly believe money should be joint when married, but luckily OH does too.

No plans for holiday are on hold, we need to save up a bit more. Once OH is driving I'll be getting him to get his petrol at Tesco, so we can use the points for our holiday fund. However we still fully intend to take the holiday before the end of the year. I'm considering taking 3 days off for 3 weeks rather than 2 solid weeks, means I won't get behind on my work again, or get out of the swing of working when I'm still struggling to get back up to speed, but it'll still give me lots of time to commit to starting the invites/paintings side of things.

Dinah93

Tesco_points_addict wrote: »

I am hoping one day she wil post a piccy of the NIM:rotfl:

TPA

Naked or clothed?! I'll see if I can stealth a piccie just for you next time he comes out the shower

Tete_en_l'Air

The poor young'un, plastered all over the internet in the nuddy! Or 'in the nip' - is that an Irishism?

The cheap flights were from Teesside, the expensive ones from Newcastle! It was looking like being something like £200 each for two nights, which just seemed a bit much, especially as we're hoping for Paris in May/June and then NY for OH's 30th in November. Dublin always seemed like a cheap weekend away but that's because I normally stay with friends. Even the Travelodge is like £99 per room per night... We'll see. Poor OH hasn't got his stolen money back yet!

Re. the date night dilemma, I'm in sort of a similar situation as OH and I are both still living at home. We don't really feel we can comandeer the kitchen to cook, so end up eating out an awful lot, and trying to find things to do out of the house so we're not under anyone's feet (not that we would be, but we're just trying to be considerate I suppose), I often think it would actually be cheaper to move out and live together! Can you make a compromise and maybe have a full-price date night evey fortnight, the if you get a voucher or MS or something in between, you can have an extra (MSE) date night, or an Orange Wednesday or something...?