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

Lara44

I have run out of fun things to do too wendz and now contemplating the ironing! And the hoovering, washing, tidying .....

On the plus side I sold another book on amazon for £12! Everyone must be ordering college books left right and centre as it's coming into dissertation season x

Flower08

Ooh now theres a thought Lara, i have loads of uni textbooks that i bought in first year. There must be over £250 worth of books there as i will no longer be a student in just over a month i may aswell sell them on.

wendz86

I sold a few of my uni books when i finished, a couple wouldnt sell though which was annoying!

Dinah93

I've sold a load of my books from uni on amazon too, still have a few left as they keep coming out of the woodwork. Have managed to list a few more random books today on amazon, have a big stack of CDs to do this evening too.

Also spent this morning working on the drawing for a painting, might get a chance to do a bit more work on it tomorrow when NIM is out either at my grandads or doing the mystery shopping.

Tesco_points_addict

Welcome back both, I cannot pretend not to be disappionted re. lack of proposal, after all it was me that was first brave enough to ask!

Good luck with everything

TPAx

Dinah93

Been reading your diary most of today TPA. Still have a very bad tummy from Egypt so not up to much. Very impressed with your mortgage-free journey x

Cinny91

I sold some of OHs uni books on amazon last year, they seem to sell really quickly!

Been my typical spendy Cinny this weekend! Went to a car boot this morning and managed to only spend £1 (Strawberry plant - Called Herbert) so not too bad today!

Did you manage to get anymore of your painting done Dinah? Just noticed your debt is only at 2.5k now!! :j

Dinah93

Morning girlies (is NIM the only guy on here?!)

Well I've been efficient this morning, I spent an hour working out our budget now that NIM has a second job. We're coming in (worryingly) at £108 more outgoings per month than incomings (exclusing all my extra earners), however we did the budget based on NIM only working the minimum of 2 days a week at the farm, when in actual fact he's been told it will usually be 3 or 4 (has 3 this week). Each extra day he works will bring in £24 after tax and petrol getting there and back. In addition we make a fair bit from the £10 a day challenge, which should be going to the house deposit, but if needs be it'll have to cover the basic outgoings, or more likely we reduce the holiday savings a bit that month.

I have opened two new savings accounts, one with Egg and one with Tesco. This is to help us budget, Egg is going to be for car stuffs (MOT, insurance, services, uhohs etc) and Tesco is going to be for holidays, holiday spends, holiday insurance etc. Each of these will get £250 transfered into them every payday.

This seems like a lot I know (especially for the holidays) but we'll get through at least £100 every other month going back to Ireland. Still leaves us a very healthy bubble for weekends away, and a couple of holidays a year. I was quite blue last night as I feel like I have nothing to look forward to at the moment. Then this morning I found the food and craft fair at Newby Hall is in late May this year, so thats my mini-highlight to look towards!

Also, we run two cars. Mine gets through almost as much oil as petrol, being all italian and alfa-romeo-ish. NIMs gets through even more oil than mine, as he has a cracked sump plate so it just drains out again! Because of this we get through about £35 oil a month. Insurance on both cars is really high atm, as while I've been passed my test for 7 years, have 6 years no claims, park on a drive, live in a very safe village etc (sort of offsets the group 16 car!), I then have NIM on my policy. And he's a nightmare. Passed a year and a half, never had his own insurance policy, no no claims, newly arrived in UK, non-UK licence, male under 25, non-homeowner, see what I mean?! Putting him on my policy doubled it this year to over £680! His policy is only third party fire and theft, and is also in my name as to have it in his name was about £1600 on a car only worth £500! So his policy was another £520 again. Luckily he is earning a NCB on my alfa's policy, so hopefully these will both be a bit lower this year when he has traded in his Irish licence for an English one, and has a bit of a history both of living here and of not driving into things. However when you add on services, MOTs, tax, general oil, new tyres etc, £250 suddenly doesn't seem like much at all! Anything we have extra will gradually build up for when we need a new car if one of them pops it.

This month will obiously be a bit odd, as on payday we're taking loads of money out the saver account and paying off the rest of the debt. However in future months what will happen on the 25th of each month when I get paid is:
£250 to Egg Car account
£250 to Tesco holiday account
£35 to ING saver. This is supposed to be a payment a day based on £1.01 on the first, £1.02 on the second etc, but I got lazy and added them up!
£250 to my Barclays regular saver (House fund)
£250 to NIM Barclays regular saver (House fund)
This looked really scary when I worked it out, I only get paid about £1600, so that's leaving me with £565 for the month! All our direct debits and so on come out of this account too. However NIM is going to be earning more than pocket money now, so from his wages our £480 rent has to come, and his petrol needs to be covered (£40 per week). Hopefully this will still leave some of his wages left to go towards more of our expenses, but we'll have to take it as it comes with that. At any rate £565 - about £160 for my petrol still leaves £400 to cover the various direct debits, date nights out etc.

I've also been on Tesco clubcard site, unfortunately I can't change my address online though (clubcard points still going to old address!) so will have to call up about that this week.

Went to do a load of Ebaying yesterday - only to find fieldmice have eaten loads of the clothes! So we started with some CDs and a game, a few went on Amazon but the majority on music magpie. Will get just under £7 for trading in 19 CD albums if we can ever get the process to complete!

Also last night we went through our phone collection. Have arranged to trade in NIMs Irish phone for £40 to mobile phone buyer (he's going to use my Irish phone for the time being as that was only worth £9), and my mums old Motorola Razr for £5.65 (money goes to her, but I got £3.60 cashback for doing it!). Also I'm up for contract renewal in August, so I looked at how much that would get me for my current phone, and it's £145! (Nokia N95 8gb). Not bad for a phone which only cost £9 new! I know technically I should go payg, but I only pay £20 a month, it's convenient, and I get 5000 texts and 1500 mins which I never go over (been with o2 8 years, every year I threaten to leave so they give me more goodies!) as well as cheap international calling, free internet on the phone, and ofc a snazzy new phone I can trade in for about half a years calling costs at the end of it!

NIM is off doing a couple of MS today (bit jelous, one was to a National Trust property which I've never been to, but my tummy just wouldn't have been up to going atm) but when he comes back we'll be power-ebaying for the evening.

Update: Egg account fully opened set up and accessable online within 45 mins of opening - seriously impressed! By contrast Tesco make me send in the £1 opening payment by cheque - boo!

Strawberry plant is a fantastic buy Cinny, I can't wait to grow my own fruit and veg - strawberries and raspberries are top of my list. And a cherry tree, mainly because I think they are beautiful.

Dinah93

Tells you how long that post took to write that I started it with 'morning girlies'!

Flower08

Wow you certainly have been busy! I wish i was as organised as you, i really should sit down and do OH and i a proper budget rather than just trying to live from one pay day to the next!

Is your stomach still not feeling any better from Eygpt? I hope you feel better soon!

Great news about the money for your old phones, not so great about mice eating the clothese though!!

Im quite pleased with myself, after the talk of uni textbooks lastnight i decided to list mine on amazon, so fingers crossed some of them will sell soon.

Newest development here is that OH is now really desperate to move back to his home town ASAP, which will mean moving over 200 miles and starting all over again. I dont mind its just the fact of how much its going to cost. Im thinking we are going to need to pay at least 3 months rent upfront (preferbly 6), the actual removal costs and deposits - its not going to be cheap.