DFSD's motivational ramblings...

debtfreesomeday

The surveys have been coming in thick and fast over the last week or so; I've done a few more since my last update so that is building up nicely.

Our TV licence direct debit has dropped in price now to just over £11 a month from now on. Six months ago we changed it from quarterly DD to monthly and had to pay in advance for the privilege so they charged us around £26 a month for the first six months or so - I think that's right anyway...
Well, it's come down to less than half what we have been paying for the past few months so that's good, even if my sums are mixed up a little! :rolleyes:

I've brought breakfast and lunch with me today and we've got chicken out of the freezer, defrosting for tea tonight, so I'm pretty hopeful for a NSD today. I'm even charging my mobi at work in true DFW style-ee!

debtfreesomeday

It's been a while since I was on here, I am back at work from a wonderful 3 weeks off including a 2 week holiday abroad, and my mood today is grim. I'm so upset at being back at this horrible place, full of nasty, small-minded people. Once the debts are paid and we have a bit of money in the bank, I'm looking for a different job - or emigrating!

We spent far too much money on holiday, well over what we budgeted for, but we've managed to save and draw it back so we were not overdrawn by much - less than £100. I haven't worked out a budget this month yet which I need to do this week.

We've made another £300 payment to the virgin card which is now at £3066 and a few pennies. I shall also pay off the £66 this month from the £147 we're due from Quidco this month. :jIn fact, I'll probably pay the whole £147 off of it if we can afford to do so.

I also have lots of surveys to catch up on which I'll have to do one evening at home.

The diet has started today too. We've bought in lots of healthy food from our online delivery, no junk or convenience food, and have some meal ideas/plans in place. As usual, I've bought my lunch and breakfast into work too - all weighed and measured and counted!

We've also nearly finished our garden now too. We've been working really hard and it looks great so far. I just don't seem to have the same enthusiasm for it since coming back though.

debtfreesomeday

In anticipation of the Quidco payment going into my account, I've just made an extra payment of £100 to the virgin card, which brings it down to under £3000!:j Balance now stands at £2966.37 - I can't remember a time when the amount I owed on credit cards was actually this low!

wantabetterlife

Hi DFSD, psycologically it must feel great to be below 3k. well done:j. Im sure your gutted that holiday is over. what type of work do you do? Also how do you get that line through your previous totals in your signature as i cant work it out. thanks

debtfreesomeday

Hiya

Yes, it does feel much more positive to be under 3k, but am eager to reduce it even more! I have a few bits to list on Amazon and also ebay sometime in the next week or two so hopefully they will bring in a few more pennies towards it.
Also, I have loads of surveys to do which I should do tonight (but they are soooo boring!).

As for signature, there's a little 'score' button on the signature page which looks like a letter with a line through it (think it's the letter S off the top of my head) - highlight the text and click on the button - voila!

debtfreesomeday

We had quite a productive evening last night - I re-opened our Amazon listings as they were on hold whilst we were on holiday, and I also added 4 more books on there to sell. Hopefully a few will start selling soon.

We also had a 'clothes amnesty' (!) and sorted out all our clothes that no longer fit or were ready for the bin. We had a charity bag posted through the door so we filled two bags for them with clothes and some other household stuff. We also added a few more things to the car boot pile and now I also have a some brand name clothes to put on ebay at the weekend - my least favourite job, but if it brings some more pennies in I'll do it!

We also caught up with all the surveys that we'd missed whilst away. Amazingly, we didn't get screened out of any of them so we added a good few more points to our account on those sites. We have enough for £10 cash now but are going to leave it and let it build up for a while at the moment.

I also did a bit of research on swapping our virgin card to a 0% when it ends in August. Fingers crossed we may be able to swap it to a Lloyds card who we bank with - we'll wait and see what they say.

We also meal planned for the next two days and made lunches / breakfasts for work today for both of us, as well as doing the washing and sorting the spare room out - it felt great to be so productive of an evening!

wantabetterlife

Well done. :jAll that would take me at least a month!!!!

debtfreesomeday

Woo hoo! £6.77 made on a book sale on Amazon tonight. :j That's gone straight off the credit card, leaving the outstanding balance now at £2959.60...
A few (hundred) more books sold and we may have that credit card paid off! :rotfl:

I also did another survey tonight, for a further 80 'points' in the account.

I am also in the process of sorting out a couple of household items from the garage to put on the 'for sale' board at work. These should bring in £15 - £20 hopefully and we don't use them anymore. Will also clear a bit of space!
Still haven't tackled 'e-bay mountain', I should do it this weekend...

debtfreesomeday

Not a lot of progress on the DFW front this week really. I still haven't listed the items on ebay - I need a new battery for my camera so will get one asap (it's a proper camera battery, not normal ones!).

No more sales on Amazon yet. I do have a few more surveys I need to do which I shall try and do tonight. Also need to go through cupboards and sort out some more stuff for car boot sale as we're going to do one in a few weeks - I shall try and do this tonight as hubby is out for the evening! I shall also have a 'shredding night' tonight and get rid of loads of paperwork I've been neglecting since our hols.

We're doing ok with money this month so far, although have had a couple of non-planned purchases for the house - some new furniture costing us about £100 and a couple of garden bits. We still have money left at the moment, and I think we have about £100 'buffer' left if all spends go to plan this month. I'm sure it'll go though, it always does!

I am trying to be really strict with the weight watchers diet I'm following too, but am finding it so expensive to keep buying fresh fruit and veg weekly. We're eating much better though and I've lost 3lbs a week into the diet. Didn't do too well last night and ate naughty foods we had left in the freezer, but back on the wagon this morning...

wantabetterlife

Congratulations on the weight loss:j:j