Can Edinburgher be debt free and a mortgage holder by 30?

edinburgher

I so want to come to yours for a dinner party

DFW supper club? That's what princesscici is doing with her pals - sounds like a great idea.

We're good thanks. I went to the bank and cashed in £60 from our loose change jar and a cheque from a gift that my brother bought with me, so my account won't be going overdrawn Now just pottering on the internet and looking forward to a four day week next week (Friday off for the bank holiday).

GF is currently playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii! It's odd, she's a fairly normal woman when it comes to shopping, likes and dislikes, but for some reason she loves Star Wars.....

moongarden

edinburgher wrote: »

Home made duck in plum sauce with red peppers, onions and wholemeal noodles (didn't make these!) Also a nice bottle of Austrian wine which I can pronounce but not spell....

I also didn't make the duck, it came from the supermarket....

Sounds lovely!

doodledo_2

Supper club, my how posh we would be. Could get to you in about an hour so I may just turn up lol

Your GF being into Star Wars is cool, as long as she doesn't dress up as a storm trooper, although I am sure you might like a certain Princess Leia outfit

edinburgher

doodledo wrote: »

Your GF being into Star Wars is cool, as long as she doesn't dress up as a storm trooper, although I am sure you might like a certain Princess Leia outfit

This is an eerily unprecise comment. Last night we were discussing her progress in said Wii game and she said it would be cool to have a stormtrooper costume! Sigh, am I the only boyfriend whose girlfriend wants the wrong Star Wars costume? Anyway, stormtrooper suits do nothing for the figure!

Little_Maya

another vote for the Supper Club

edinburgher

Little_Maya wrote: »

another vote for the Supper Club

Such a civil idea.

I'm looking forward to a few more of my peers realising that they're too old to go out clubbing and embrace the world of gourmet dinner parties :rotfl:

Little_Maya

clubbing hmmm, yes, I remember that well... years ago :rotfl:

doodledo_2

Lol so funny, Storm Trooper not floating your boat then :rotfl:

Clubbing - mmmmmm tried it recently in a "I am young and single" moment and hated every minute of it. Felt like I was there as a chaperone and surely its never good when you find yourself worrying about how cold some of the girls will be when they get outside in those outfits

BlueJeans_2

edinburgher wrote: »

Such a civil idea.

I'm looking forward to a few more of my peers realising that they're too old to go out clubbing and embrace the world of gourmet dinner parties :rotfl:

Clubbing! I've not gone clubbing since the kids came along.

I go to gourmet dinner parties only we often tend to forget dinner:rotfl:.

edinburgher

I can still remember my first job and why I started it. I was 16, terrified! and needed money to buy Christmas presents for the family after I'd typically failed to save up any money during the year

After that, a succession of carpy part-time jobs saw me through my university years and just about paid the rent, although little else. Then on to full-time work, the realisation that the equally carpy full-time version of one of my previously part time jobs (working in a music shop) certainly wasn't going to pay off my debts or provide a good quality of life.

The re-training from one job to a career as a librarian was dry work and the tensions and stresses of realising that I wanted to 'go somewhere' in life helped to finish off one long term relationship (albeit one that was founded on wobbly rocks of mutually dependancy!)

Now that I've been practising my chosen profession for a couple of years and can actually see a horizon free of debts, I'm starting to evaluate exactly why I've chosen the path I have.
Stability and future proofing are positive things when you're swamped with debts, but after a flurry of e-mails between myself and my younger brother (a wannabe radio DJ), I've come to realise that I've gone too far away from the idealistic, bolshy, arrogant? teen I used to be. I look back and think that the teen me would be embarassed to see what the future held I feel as if by trying to move away from the wasteful model of my youth I've become a boring middle aged 26 year old and that's probably why I feel so miserable at work all the time!

Don't get me wrong, I know that most of us have to earn a living, but sometimes it seems like that that's all there is and frankly, it stinks

I continue swithering with my idea of re-entering education next year (while holding down my current carpy job) to train as a chef, but there are some practicalities that I can't escape. Principally, could I cope with a (realistic) £10k salary cut? I used to struggle to pay the rent on £12k and that was 3-4 years ago. How would I survive nowadays on £13k? True, I would be debt free, but would life have any enjoyment?

My GF is fully supportive of my dreams and says that we'd cope, but sometimes it feels like I'm directing a train off a cliff. I can draw up charts and graphs all I like and massage the statistics accordingly, but the fact of the matter is that we'd see a real dip in terms of lifestyle and I don't know if I can inflict that upon her.

How do couples cope on low wages and still manage to have families?