DFSD's motivational ramblings...

debtfreesomeday

In that case, gonna call you GGB - I know all about grey hairs (I keep finding them and pulling them out!!! :eek:) and wouldn't want to make you feel any older than you are!

Things will get better, but it may take time - you really do have to believe that you can and will succeed, even if, like us, it will take you a few years to get there.

Do you have anything you could sell on ebay? You'd be surprised what sells on there - even second hand clothes etc as long as they are clean and photographed etc. Or list books / dvds on Amazon - we have sold a surprising amount on there. www. musicmagpie .com is also a great site to instantly get rid of cds / dvds/ games - they might not give you a lot but it all adds up. Are you able to do a car boot sale or something this month to help with the overdraft a little? We made £100 at our last one - again, it's surprising what people will buy!

Good luck and if you need any support just pop back any time. The road to debt-freedom can be a lonely one at times and sometimes you just need a place to 'chat' - as you can see by these 19 pages or so of me rambling on to myself!

DFSD
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Granny_Grey_Beard

I'm feeling better already. Even starting to think about doing a car boot. Now what can I sell??? I did one years ago and made about £70.

As you say the trick is to limit spends so that the overdraft does not get much bigger. I will have a go tonight at doing a budget. I owe about £5000 on credit cards but need to work out exactly what I owe.


GGB x

debtfreesomeday

Good on you GGB! Get rummaging and shove it all in a pile or box it up somewhere and get car booting at the weekend, even if you make £30 it's £30 you didn't have before and will be £30 less on your overdraft this month.
We've got enough stuff to do one again soon, it's just finding a free Sunday to do it at the moment...

Yes, have a look at all the cards and work out minimum payments etc. If you are able to get a 0% card then it may be worth a try to transfer some of the higher apr cards to that, virgin are pretty good - we had ours for 16 months at 0% although it's about to expire in the next 10 days. :eek:

Good idea about finding out exactly what you owe. It's a horrible shock when you do it and you think it's impossible to pay all that back, but it does give you a starting point and you have to go with the mindset that this is the worst it's ever going to get and things will get better.

DFSD
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satchmo1

Hi DFSD, This is my first post although I have lurked for a while. How far you have come since you started your diary, I applaud you!

One thing I am curious about ref slipping into overdraft....don't you get charged for being overdrawn? If you do (even if these might be reclaimable at a later date), I'd think it preferable to stay in credit even if it meant £20(ish) less paid to CC whilst that is 0%.

Keep up the inspirational diary, you have saved my sanity whilst I'm off work with a displaced pelvis (vv painful).

Satchmo

debtfreesomeday

Hi Satchmo

Thanks for popping by , and sorry to hear about the pelvis - OUCH - that sounds extremely nasty. Hope you're recovered soon...

As for overdraft - yes, we do get charged, but it is minimal (usually about £1-something) as it's an authorised overdraft and we're only in it for a day or two until payday. This month however we shall NOT be in it (my attempts at positive thinking!:o) although it's going to be tight...

Unfortunately our 0% is at an end now in the next 10 days too and we've been unsuccessful in getting another. :mad:

DFSD
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Granny_Grey_Beard

Hello Debtfreesomeday

I hope you're having a great moneysaving weekend.

I am feeling much more positive and in control since my first post with you earlier on this week. Thank you for all your lovely suggestions.

I have allocated £15 a week for our food bill which is not much but I am making shepherds pies and chillis like billyoh. It's surprising how far you can make an 800g pack of mince from Aldis for £2.99 go along with a few old spuds from the bottom of the fridge. But my favourite today was a tin of spicy tomato and lentil soup from Lidls to which I added some left over home made pasta sauce with loads of rosemary in it and a lonely looking leftover chicken breast from the fridge. Everything was either in the cupboard or the fridge so completely free!!! Whoopee and oh so tasty!!

So far I have spent £14.84 and that even includes catfood!! But hey its only Saturday and I have to try and manage until next Thursday night.

My son is going to his dads for a while after next Thursday so I am going to volunteer to do some overtime to try and get extra money.

The only item I have purchased in the past two days is a book for 50p from a charity shop. And it feels goo-od.



The way I'm going I may be able to afford some hair dye in 2011 to doctor the old beard!!


"Now that I have faced up to the state of the finances, they can only improve"
- my mantra (adapted from yours)

Take care

GGB x

debtfreesomeday

Morning all :hello:

Well I have been off jet-setting this weekend! I won a weekend trip away a little while ago so we were off on a mini break to for the weekend in a spa hotel overseas. It was very nice - we managed to stick within our spending money budget and even had about 2 euros left, which we were very impressed with considering the price of food and drink over there! :rotfl:We're extremely tired today though and I'm feeling like it's going to be a long week...

As for money saving, I begrudgingly spent £7 at the airport before we left on some food :mad: as we had loads of time to kill and were starving!

We sold another book over the weekend - for £1.68 profit, but I've also had an email from an ebay buyer saying she hasn't received an item which was posted over a week ago. :mad: So, I may end up having to refund that which was £5.:mad:

We have some shopping ordered to be delivered on Wednesday, that's about £43 I think which will last us until payday in a couple of weeks (it'll have to!:o).
The car also needs filling up which I guess will be about £30 - £35. Hubby's petrol expenses for last month should be going in soon though which is about £80 this month.

The virgin 0% deal ends this week, and I think it will rocket on up from day 1, so I shall be transferring that to egg which, although is 16.9% will be a lot lower than the APR virgin will pluck from the air, I'm sure. We've tried, but failed to get a lower APR card.

I am considering starting going to weight watchers meeting too, but at £18 a month I can't justify the extra expense at the moment. I used to do it online but found the willpower and motivation waning when no-one was there to check up on me each week! We shall see how it goes in the next few months.

Oh, and our laptop has given up the ghost it seems... so we can't access the internet at home at the moment which is proving a bit annoying. I have to see if I can fix it tonight but I'm not holding out much hope!

Think that's about all folks - off to pay the £1.68 off of a credit card now...

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

Today I've listed 5 items on ebay, using pics I already had on file so no need to borrow / beg use of a digital camera . I have some more items to put on there but these will have to wait as I need to take pics of those. Have started all at 99p so don't have to pay listing / insertion fes or whatever they call them now. Hopefully will all sell!

DFSD

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

Sounds like you had a lovely weekend - what a great competition win!

Back to the realities of DFW.... yes, I know what you mean about it being a long week. By the way, I would leave the missing ebay item a few days - some areas had post strikes Friday to Monday or even longer which has held things up.

Best wishes,

CF

debtfreesomeday

Morning CF, how are you?

You'll never believe what was through my letterbox last night................. the missing ebay parcel! Royal Mail had returned it to us instead!!! :mad: Hubby is re-posting it today and have sent my apologies to the lady who seems very nice about it all so far.