DFSD's motivational ramblings...

claire0788

I have no idea what my rights are.

I have also looked at the details the sales man has put on the agreement he filled out and hes spelt things wrong, up'ed my income (apparently im on 1100 after tax!).

debtfreesomeday

Feeling a bit miserable this afternoon.

My Dad's not particularly well at the moment and I'm worried about him and my Mum who is trying to look after him - even though her health is poor - so that's playing on my mind at the moment. Just wish I lived closer so I could help.

Usual thing with the job getting me down too, and, of course, the lack of available money which is holding our lives back for the next X number of years.

What astounds me is that many of my friends are earning more than double my salary alone, with amazing career progression prospects and the ability to relocate easily within their job sector. I could've been doing the same if I'd just made the right decision with regards of what subjects to study at uni - I had brilliant exam results, better than a lot of my friends in fact, but I chose to do something I enjoyed - which I now hate with a passion!

One couple in particular both individually earn more than double what I do, so they're combined household income is more than quadruple ours. They did have debts and use to put everything off the credit card, owing near enough the same amount we did, but they changed their ways and made the effort to pay it all off. Difference is it took them only 9 months due to their salaries being so high. 9 months to become debt free, after owing tens of thousands - that seems out of this world!
I'm not begrudging them their lifestyle at all; they're a lovely couple and they work really hard and are extremely generous, and we really value their friendship, but I just wish I could be as successful or even half as successful as people like that.
Just the green-eyed monster coming out in me, sorry.

Think we'll make the effort to buy a lottery ticket this weekend... and I'll try and cheer up a bit too...

DFSD
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wantabetterlife

Hi DFSD, sorry your having a bad day. I guess its probably normal to feel this way. There will always be people richer and poorer than you in this world, but money isnt everything. Dont get me wrong it certainly makes things easier, we all have things we would do differently if we could turn back time. On the positive side you are digging yourself out of this hole bit by bit. Maybe when the debt is cleared and it is not the be all and end all of your life you will be able to look for another job or train as something else. What line of work are you in if you dont mind me asking? Hope you feel better soon
WABL

debtfreesomeday

It gets worse. Just had some further bad news about my Mum's health now. She is likely to need major surgery sometime soon. No idea what the prognosis is as yet but it looks like we're all in for another rough ride.

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

Struggling on at the moment, in more ways than one.

This is how things look budget wise, with 10 days until payday:

Petrol: £43 left in the petrol budget which will buy us another tank of petrol. That should be ample until pay day as there's half a tank left in there presently.

Groceries: We have £40 left for groceries. Should also be fine as only need to buy some fresh fruit, veg & dairy. Freezers and cupboards are still well stocked.

Bill account: All is coming out of there as normal, no problems there at the moment. We do need the car serviced, but can't afford that for a few months.

Everything else: The 'everything else' budget has gone now, have no more money left in that pot for this month!

DFSD
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debtfreesomeday

Just ordered a shop to be delivered in the week - has gone over budget a bit at around £45, but there's enough in the account to buffer this.

Have also put £60 onto the cleared egg card.
I have really been struggling with healthy eating and sticking to this diet by myself without any resources, and am desperate to lose weight for my health, self confidence and for my long-suffering hubby who puts up with my 'down and fat' days. So, I have joined up to slimming world online for 3 months. I shall pay back half of this next month, the other half will have to wait until the month after as I'll need to buy some Christmas presents next month too.
I'm determined to stick to this, it looks relatively easy once the basic understanding is there, so I shall look through it properly tonight.

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

I've transferred the balance which I'd put on the egg card to my 0% virgin card. Am planning to pay off an extra £104 to the virgin card this month as this is the amount we will be paying towards our sofas from next month. So I will be paying off about £520, plus an extra I'm able to.

Last week, we also received a Lloyds tsb credit card which we applied for ages ago. This has a better APR than the egg card, so I think I will cancel the egg card and keep the Lloyds card at home in the file for emergencies only.

Had a little unplanned spend of £7-something last night which will send us very close to the overdraft, hopefully not actually in it though. Also need to fill the car up today so that will cost about £35 I imagine, which is still within budget for petrol - just.

Am still feeling quite down and dismal, but trying hard to plod on. Hubby and I have arranged to make an event of cooking ourselves a nice (healthy) meal at the weekend and are also planning a long walk and healthy picnic if the weather stays nice.


DFSD

debtfreesomeday

Have ordered a new mattress from Tesco Direct (after the one purchased recently was returned as it was rubbish!) - found it on the 'Grabbit..' board for the bargain price of £143.75. Looks like it's a mis-price, hope they honour the sale - we're currently mattress-less in one room!

The last one we bought was £124.50 which was refunded to us, so this one is an extra £20 which I'll take out of next month's 'surplus' money fund (if there is any!:o).

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

Petrol came in at £37, so have £7 left in the petrol budget which will buffer the little overspend on the groceries budget.

Have just worked out our budget for next month and written it all down in my filofax (I'm finding it really helpful to keep track of everything in there as I carry it around with me - can note things as I spend them!).
I've worked out that we shouldn't be overdrawn this month as long as we don't spend more than £5 in the next 8 days from the main account! Hubby has alittle money left in his account so that should be fine - we have no plans that need money coming up this week as far as I am aware (and I have about a fiver in my wallet which is practically unheard of!).

Bills come to £697 (rounded up to £700).
Loans come to £385.23
Groceries & petrol budget is £300 combined.
Our Tax & Insurance saving pot is getting £100 a month from now on.
I've allocated £537 for credit card repayments already:
(£411 as per snowball, £104 which we'll be paying next month to sofas instead so using it for cc this month & £22 I owe credit car for two presents).

That leaves me with £185.77 'spare'. As much of this as possible will go towards extra credit card repayments but I will need to do some more Christmas Shopping this month too. Hubby will also have some 'spare' spending money from his wages which he often dips into if we need it or fancy a treat. He is also saving for Christmas presents too.
No birthdays / weddings to buy for this month either. :T

Now we just need payday to hurry up...

DFSD
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debtfreesomeday

Mr Sainsbury's came last night as expected, order came in at just over £48. :eek: The only substitute we had was a roast chicken - driver listed it and gave us the sheet, (which didn't have the price on!). I said yes, that's fine- thinking it would be around the same price. How shocked was I when I actually checked the receipt after putting everything away to find that this chicken was nearly £6 and about half the size! Even though they were both 'happy chickens'! The one I'd ordered was bigger and only £3.63. Not happy. :mad: Oh well, we're gonna get as many meals as we can out of that bloomin' chicken!

We've put a meal going in the slow cooker this morning for when we get home tonight. Have also made sure I've brought a healthy breakfast, lunch and fruit to snack on - pretty much ran out of food for lunches yesterday and had to buy a sandwich. :mad:

Also started having trouble with our 'fixed' laptop last night. :mad: It seems the repair place put a dodgy pirated copy of windows on it. I am not happy. They will be hearing from me very shortly. If they don't refund or repair, they're going to be hearing from trading standards!

Got screened out of another survey last night - 10 minutes after giving them answers. :mad:

Oh well, all's ok today because I have the day off tomorrow. :D:D

DFSD