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

Lemon_Tree

the year was hell but like you was hours worth of phone calls daily and lots of texts.
I didn't like the fact i had lots of debts to bring into our marriage but i have also brought the same amount in equity in the flat we live in so feel a little better, also i do and will always earn more than OH so until we know what his take home pay will be i'm paying all the bills and everything. He won't get a proper months wage until next month then we'll sit down and work out what bills he'll take over. All good fun really.
I keep wondering about listing books and stuff on amazon, i'm not sure if it's worth it or how to go about it. I got fed up with ebay especially with the recent changes but need to clear some stuff and as the car boot season has pretty much finished here until next year it may be the best option. All info would be gratefully recieved about amazon

MissShoes

Dinah this is an ace thread- such an inspiration! Have just sat and read it all and you've really motivated me. I get so sluggish inbetween paydays but think I like the idea of your ten items a day on ebay to keep the pennies (and hopefully pounds) rolling in!

Hope you're having fun with your OH, the incentive of him moving is doing the job! :j

Dinah93

Awww what a lovely lot of replies to come back to. Sorry have been so absent this weekend, but OH and I have been nice and busy. Didn't post this before hand as I know sometimes he reads the thread, but I used a days holiday to take Friday off work so I could suprise him by picking him up at the airport. He was so confused bless him when I drove up and not my dad (who usually picks him up as he can work from home).

Only got 4 items listed on the free listings weekend on ebay, oh well, could be worse! OH is listing another box of games and books I found in The Shed. Going to have a look at websites today to find one which has the lowest fees for reselling all these silly comics. Not sure but think I might do better on a specalist website than just on ebay. Have bids on one item ending in 3 days, 99p for a pair of unworn shoes. 2 more books sold so OH wrapped them for me this morning while I ran around in a tiz getting ready for work. One made a nice £8 profit too. I really would reccommend amazon to anyone looking to sell books/dvds/cds/games as there are no fees until you sell, and you know upfront how much you would get including postage and minus fees, so you can decide if you want to sell or not. Some of the books and things go for so little, but my way of looking at it is I would rather have 50p in my bank account than clutter in my shed that I will just carry over and still not use when I get my own place again.

Had a fairly Moneysaving weekend, whilst still going out a lot. Went out for a walk at this woodland place near us on Saturday, got a little lost and ended up doing this 4 mile long loop as well by accident! However we thought we were being good going for this walk as it was free, healthy, appreciating coutryside etc etc and halfway round we found a £10 in the grass at the side of the grass! Morally I know we should have handed it in, realistically it was the middle of a field and clearly had been blown there by the wind and would never find it's original owner. So that paid for our hot chocolates, cake and cobbler in the cafe back near where we parked the car :T .

We went to the fair on the evening, parked way out of town to go to the free park and ride to save a few pennies, but we only ended up going on one ride as I have high blood pressure and I felt very, very ill after just going on the waltzers. Used to love them so was a bit dissapointed. (Bit of a rant coming on here) When did the fair get so expensive? When I was younger (going back about 10 years admittedly, but not so long) a ride was usually about £1 each. This fair the rides were all £3-£6 per person! It's madness, you could go for a full day out at a proper theme park for a lot less than going on a handful of rides. But then again you do miss out on 5 'authentic original and one and only rosa lee' fortune tellers all within 10m if you go to the theme park ..... :rotfl:

Went for lunch at pizzaexpress yesterday (with my MSE voucher ofc!). Was a nice trip out, but still came to £40 which is a bit rubbish for a lunch.

Lemon Tree - I know exactly where you are coming from, I have had to move house and change my mobile number to get the ex off my back, but he is still sending horrible emails to my work address and my mother telling lies about me. Fair play to you for supporting your OH a bit while he gets on his feet. I think I would feel the same as you if I had equity in a house or something to balance out my debt, but all I have is a car. OH is likely to earn more than me when he starts earning, it's just finding him a job... 11 letters back on Saturday, all to say no availibility. Oh well, only 131 more to go.

Lemon_Tree

It's terrible whilst they're looking isn't it? My OH tried for a year whilst he lived away, got a few interviews but got nowhere, quite often they wouldn't send forms because they thought he was going to commute 100 miles on minimum wage! In the end we had a last resort date when he would hand in his notice so he was here before the wedding, luckily he started a job the week before the wedding but we had a few weeks with him not working.
He bought a scooter this weekend, as the busses really aren't working and it's all extra journeys for me in the car. It's the best decision really and very economical.
Hope your mum and ex start behaving soon it's terrible what you were saying.

Dinah93

Ex should be out my life permenantly soon, so he can do whatever he likes with the poor young thing he's since hooked up with - kinda wish I could warn her!

I'm confused - what's my mum done!? My mum is awesome! She's been so supportive of me, and really loves new BF.

Unfortunately BF is looking to go into the legal sector, however they are laying people off left right and centre, so might be a case of part time paid work in a shop or something, and part time unpaid to get experience in legal until something comes along. We gave my address as his as we thought it might be offputting having an address 600 miles from the office he was applying to!

Went out and posted my books at lunchtime, and went to the bank as they are trying to give me a second £25 annual overdraft review fee in the space of 3 months! They claim they refunded the last one but I'm not so certain, am going to go home tonight and look at the online banking. Have done a few onepoll surveys this morning and updated my prices for books on amazon so i have the lowest prices, with lacking work to do, downside of working in a field so closely relating to the construction industry, they stop selling houses, their agents stop applying to build houses, and I just twiddle my thumbs writing guidance notes on breathable mortar over and over again!

Tete_en_l'Air

Hello, I know what you mean about Pizza Express - OH and I went with the voucher last week and all I got from him was "This pizza's never gonna fill me, why didn't we go to Pizza Hut?", I had the Melanzane Parmigiana (sp?) and have to admit it was smaller than the starter version of it at the local Italian. Ah well, at least we found out it's a rip-off when we were paying less for it! Must look at the end-dates for the other vouchers to see where we're going this week

What do you do Dinah? You sound like my OH, he's in building control and says there's loads of housing sites being 'mothballed' til demand increases. Luckily he wprks for the council though so his job's not in danger!

Dinah93

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

Hello, I know what you mean about Pizza Express - OH and I went with the voucher last week and all I got from him was "This pizza's never gonna fill me, why didn't we go to Pizza Hut?", I had the Melanzane Parmigiana (sp?) and have to admit it was smaller than the starter version of it at the local Italian. Ah well, at least we found out it's a rip-off when we were paying less for it! Must look at the end-dates for the other vouchers to see where we're going this week

What do you do Dinah? You sound like my OH, he's in building control and says there's loads of housing sites being 'mothballed' til demand increases. Luckily he wprks for the council though so his job's not in danger!

Our pizza's weren't small really, but very thin to the point that we both had a dessert and we shared a starter and OH was tucking into the snacks a few hours after coming home, and neither of us exactly have huge appetites. OH ordered a margerita with a couple of extras, but only the base price was taken off where he could have had a £9 pizza with about 5 toppings free instead. Grrrr! :mad: Unfortunately we live a bit in the middle of nowhere, no I don't think there are any other vouchers available at present for our area.

I'm a planning officer, also for the council. Unfortunately our council had £6million in icelandic banks, and received a lot less money from the government this year than was originally allocated, so we're experiencing a few shortfalls and a spending freeze is likely to be placed within the next few weeks, after which I'm expecting the voluntary redundancy and early retirement letters to start doing the rounds again, but not worrying about compulsary redundancies for the time being. I have about 1/3 of the workload I had this time last year, and I find it really draining having nothing to do. I could have completed all my work for the week today already, but then what would I do the other 4 days?! Just hope the money saving for the council doesn't get as bad as last year, when they only turned the heating on for 1 hour a day in january! Have gloves hat and scarf in my desk in preparation...

Tete_en_l'Air

Ah you poor soul, it's worse I think having nothing to do and trying to look busy than being run off your feet! (I'm only saying that because I'm having a moment's respite!)

Dinah93

Haha! No I know my dad mocks me when I tell him I'm short on work to do, he tells me I can come do some of his! But really I would rather be busy than struggling to fill my days as I just feel like I'm wasting time sat at my desk clock watching which is not benifiting my employer or myself in any way.

Bless him, OH has been feverently working his way through my to do list while I'm at work (that and eating all the ice-cream!) so he's parcelled books, entered my competitions, and done my surveys. Given I won't be home for another 2 1/2 hours at least, wouldn't be suprised if he hasn't made a start on putting the books on amazon too. Book sales have really slowed down recently, don't know if it is just because I have sold about 1/4 already so have less stock, or if people just aren't buying atm with Christmas coming up and having less money generally.

Dinah93

Good morning all, hope you're well. Still no more books sold (but there tends to be a slow down towards the end of the month, I guess this is related to payday?!), but when I got back I had a letter from pinecone with £3 of survey vouchers in, which I have given to my mum as part of next months rent, so that's another £3 off the total debt as I will transfer the coresponding £3 into my ISA. Realised my dfw-ness might be getting a little out of hand yesterday when I put a transfer through to take the 4p out my savings account into my ISA so I can count it off my total! Poor OH was doing surveys yesterday, he was gutted to spend 35mins on one only to be told he was ineligable, but to have 5p to say thank you for trying!

Also got my statement through from CC1 yesterday, seems I underestimated the number of minimum payments I have made, so I actually owe about £100 less than my sig says :T . Going to do the maths this evening. With the two big cheques of ex's mother my OD1 was briefly at £0, however I made the decision to pay for my car insurance in one payment as it would be cheaper that way, and pay the £40 a month I usually spent on insurance straight into the ISA on payday. I also bought the family christmas present last night, a weekend in centre parks in January in between my birthday and my dads. Will be a nice little break for everyone, and I used a discount code so 25% off, and £303 to pay for 5 people's presents is less than I end up spending if I get them all bits and bobs like normal. Still going to get OH a few bits mind, and my brother can have one something to open himself as he's just turned 18 and this is the last birthday he'll be living at home before uni so we can still spoil him like a kid! Mum gets quite stressed without holidays and they can't afford to go away right now, so this should be a nice little treat.