DFSD's motivational ramblings...

debtfreesomeday

Thanks for your opinion CF, always great to get another person's angle on things. I think we're going to try and look at factoring in a little bit to save per month, just for repairs and replacements of those little things that go wrong when we least expect it. BUT, only after credit card is paid off which will be the first few months of next year (unless I win the lottery in the meantime!:rolleyes::rotfl:).

debtfreesomeday

I relisted a couple of things on ebay last night which didn't sell last time. Bids are up to about £7 - £8 on other items so far which is fine as they're not high value items.

This weekend will hopefully be a quiet, relaxing one. I plan to have a clearing out binge in our bedroom which we're presently not sleeping in (we're in the spare room - it's comfier!), but our room has become a bit of a dumping ground for clean laundry, paperwork and associated 'stuff' which hasn't been put away yet.

Other than that, I'm hoping to relax and chill and pray we don't have any more emergencies / trauma / illness in the family - It's been a bit worrying this week.

Have a good weekend all

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

Good news and bad news...

Good news is that our laptop is currently in laptop hospital, hopefully will be fixed by Tuesday / Wednesday next week. :j

Bad news is that it's gonna cost us £70, the week before payday, meaning we will be overdrawn after all. I know it is cheaper than buying a new laptop, but it was all going so well in the 'not being overdrawn this month' game.

DFSD

wam73

Hi DFSD and all readers,
Been abit awol lately but still been following you!!
Amazon sales are fabulous, Not had anymore tho. Good luck on e-bay, It's amazing how it all adds up. Even if fees are steep.
Only thing I can think of as to your laptop is if you change your internet provider. Some offer free laptops. I had one from AOL nice too and cost me nothing.
Try not to panic about your debt free day, It will come to your eventually. If you didn't do what you do so well it may never come. You should always remember that. Your working so hard maybe a week off would do you some good. Instead of putting all your money off your card see how much it mounts up to. This may make you feel better.
Only a suggestion, You seem to be doing so well yourself.
Take care
Wendy. x

Chocforever

It is a pity that you will go into the overdraft, but life without a laptop doesn't bear thinking about! I was just thinking about all the things I would give up before my laptop and the answer is most of my possessions!

Have a relaxing weekend.

debtfreesomeday

Hi all

A nice (and very money savvy!) weekend for us, although Monday morning has come round way too quickly - as ever.

I spent £5 on a friend's birthday pressie & card on Friday, but took back a couple of bits on Saturday worth £21 so am actually 'up' on money this weekend!

I have had to 'borrow' £80 from our e-saver account (which we use for saving towards insurance / tax etc.) to pay for our laptop repair this week. I shall replace that money when I get paid. Thought that better than going way into the overdraft. Hopefully the laptop will be working perfectly when we pick it up!

I also have a few things ending on ebay tomorrow - not large value items but it all adds up.

Sat in bed Sunday morning and realised we could have done a car boot sale yesterday! I was so annoyed I didn't think of it earlier - we were too late to set out and get the stuff together when I did think of it. We don't have another free Sunday for about 3 or 4 weeks now and goodness knows what the weather will be like by then! Hopefully we'll have an Indian Summer!

This morning I've transferred our virgin balance to the egg card. Away from the nasty 17.9% and probably them increasing it more before long, to, urm, egg's 16.9%! BUT there is method in my madness... Virgin have offered me another 10 months at 0% on balance transfers. :j However, after the 2.98% fee, means I won't be saving a whole bunch anyway, probably only about £50 over the term until we've paid it off. Psychologically, I think it's more encouraging to see the whole amount being paid off every month without some of it disappearing on interest, so as soon as it hits egg, it's going back to virgin!:rotfl:

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

I've been playing around with our income/outgoings figures again to see if I can squeeze any more out of our budget to allow for extra overpayments. Now that hubby is able to throw a bit extra in, I've worked out that we should have £330:eek: left over a month once everything has been budgeted for, providing we're not overdrawn of course and based on us keeping within our groceries / petrol budgets too.

When we get paid this month, I'm making us write down every little bit of money we spend! I started doing it early in the year and it really helped but was quite time consuming and often got missed - now that I've got a 'filofax':o so to speak, gonna stick it in there as and when it's spent. It will be great if we can put at least £100 extra towards the credit card, on top of what we're already throwing at it.

There is £80 owed to the insurance/tax savings pot, borrowed for the laptop repair, so next month, our 'spare' total should be £250. I'm also due about £200 in overtime this month but am not going to include that until I know exactly how much I'm getting.

EDIT: Just remembered we've got a wedding present to buy next month too, so 'spare' money will be £220. We usually spend £50 on friends weddings, but we've decided to cut that a bit and spend £30 from now on. £50 was just proving too unaffordable for us most months!

Now, if we can, we're definitely going to buy a new mattress this month - we tried moving back into our room from the spare at the weekend and we lasted 20 minutes until my back started to hurt from lying on a spring!:eek: Was shocked to see a decent mattress costs £150 - £200!!!:eek::eek::eek: I guess the overtime will be going on that then. :rolleyes:

We're clinging on to having money in our account at the moment too - it's a week until payday and we have about £30 in there, out of which I just need to buy petrol and maybe post some ebay parcels - it's gonna be tight!!!

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

Forgot to mention my weekend of being a culinary domestic goddess!

Hubby treated us to the 'M&S two dine for £10 deal' on Saturday. We bought a chicken, veggie side dish, raspberry pudding slice thing for two and 2 bottles of apple press stuff (didn't fancy wine for a change!). We cooked the chicken and had it on Saturday evening...mmmm

We had the leftover chicken last night in another meal, but also made a lovely soup by boiling the carcass and bunging in some veg from the freezer, some pearl barley from the cupboard and some herbs, after removing the bones. We felt very pleased with ourselves when we worked out we got about 8 - 10 meals out of one chicken! :dance:

Also did a 'stocktake' of the freezer! We had to defrost it anyway, so went through everything we had and made a list. Have started ticking off what we use then so we know what we have and need to buy without having to rummage through.

Hubby also made a healthy meal plan for the week from stuff we have in, which he proudly stuck up on the fridge, bless him, he's a star. :A

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

Nothing big to report today, although there are a few little bits and pieces of cash coming in (makes a change from it flying out!).

£9.69 so far from Quidco to be paid to us at the end of the month. :T
Approx £20 worth of auctions ending on ebay today, a few more with 2 or 3 days to go. :cool:

Amazon has gone quiet - no more sales for the past week or so, although we only have 10 or 11 things left on there I think.

Six days left to payday and have half a tank of petrol left. Trying to make it stretch so we don't have to buy any more this week as don't want to go overdrawn! We will need some at the weekend as going to a family party a 3.5 hour drive away, but giving a few people a lift so hopefully petrol will be split between us making it cheaper. Hubby said he has a bit of money left he can throw at that too.

On a different note, I've been extremely good this week on the diet front - first week getting back into it and have lost 5lbs! I haven't rejoined weight watchers as can't justify the expense, just going to go it alone and eat well, rather than getting too hung up on counting points and calories. It's worked this week! :j:T:D

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

£16.30 (before postage) made on ebay today. :T That's another little extra cc payment to make as soon as it hits the bank account.

One more auction ends tomorrow, and another 2 or 3 in a couple of days, although one of those is for my sister and some don't have any bids on yet.