Flying gleefully into 2009 - One Fresians adventures in debt-busting

mooomin

Hello all!

I have decided to discontinue my old thread and start a new shiny 2009 one. I have made amazing progress in the last few weeks, and want to use this thread to record the aims I have for 2009 and my progress towards them. It will also be useful to me to have somewhere to record all the challenges I have said I will take part in :rotfl:

A bit about me

I'm 28, I live in Edinburgh with t'other half and our two cats. I am working full-time, t'other half is at college and we are living on my income at the moment. His student loan covers his commitments and his spending, I pay for the household stuff and the food.

Boo hiss, here come the debts

Barclaycard - started at £1131.90, now at £931.24

Overdraft - at its worst £1007, I think it should be about £587 at the moment, I'll have accurate figures the day before payday (Three weeks tomorrow, eek!)

Personal Loan - was £6973.73, now £6884.52

So, my LBM was on the 28th of November 2008, and since then I have cleared around £710, which is blooming amazing as far as I'm concerned (Modesty is not my strong point!)

Challenges

I have signed up for a number of MSE challenges to aim to clear the above debts quicker. These are:

• A Payment A Day....makes the debt go away :rotfl:Does what it says on the tin, you pay one amount per day to your debt to reduce it quicker. It has helped me to make amazing progress
• The Crazy £100 Clothes Challenge - you are only allowed to spend £100 in 2009 on clothes. This doesn't include accessories and underwear, but I have set myself a budget of £100 for this as well.
• Make £10 a day in January - I haven't done this before, so I'm going for £5 per day
• Summer Sizzler - I have registered for the Bronze level, so I am looking to make £1009 by the 22nd of June 2009. I will be including my £5 per day in this. I will be using any money I make from this before April to pay half to my debts and half to t'other half's birthday fund.
  
• Sealed Pot Challenge - save change into a piggy bank that you don't open until the 1st of December 2009. I am aiming for £150.

Statement of Affairs

Now, I know that MSE loves a good SOA, and I have posted mine on my previous thread, but there will be a couple of change in my monthly wage in January, and I will post another one then.

Other DFW actions taken

I have started selling items on Amazon and Ebay, and will be looking into doing the same with Green Metropolis too. I have sold things via musicmagpie recently as well.

Surveys - I have signed up with Toluna and OnePoll, and also slicethepie, although that isn't really my thing I don't think!

I turn off lights when they aren't in use, wash most things on the 30 degree wash and have started cooking more. I have bought myself a slow cooker and will be using this a lot this year I hope! I would also like to see myself making more meals from scratch and batch cooking more, but am not going to commit to anything yet :rotfl:

I also post every day on the "What Small DFW Actions Have You Taken" thread, as if I post the list in the morning, I feel as though the whole of the internet is watching and telling me off when I'm too lazy to do anything

Ok, massive first post from me, hope to see all the faces from my old thread here soon!

flying_fresian

mooomin

I need to be able to get at my smileys easily that Terri gave me, that is the sole purpose of this entry!

Shoe_Gal

:hello: Hello - have just read your post, it's inspiring! Have just started a diary today and promised that I will start making some headway with my debts. Have known what I should be doing for a while - it's just doing it that's been the problem !!!!:o

Am going to take on baord all the washing @ 30 degrees, turning lights off (whoops - just looked around my apartment!!), and batch cooking ideas. I know I can't give up life's treats (look at my name!) but I'm hoping savings in other areas will help to 'fund' them!!

Good luck, take care
Shoe Gal x

mancbird

Hi Fresian,

I've just finished reading your other thread and think you've done amazingly well to shift so much in such a short time, very inspirational

Love the smilies btw

penguin83

Hey Friesian - lovely positive start to 2009 and well done on the amount you have shifted so far.

Loving the smileys but you are missing a cute penguin one!

x x

mooomin

penguin83 wrote: »

Hey Friesian - lovely positive start to 2009 and well done on the amount you have shifted so far.

Loving the smileys but you are missing a cute penguin one!

x x

Oh, I have penguins!!

pixiechick99

Hello....I'm still here...will join you on your new thread!!

I'm all ready and raring to go too....have the bank account all sorted, new one ready to use for my general spends...so will see if that organises me more;)

Good luck....here's to a fab and successful 2009 for us all:beer:

mooomin

Hello!

I wanted to quickly update with what I had been doing today before I crawled off to my bed.

So, today, the first steps in 2009s debt-free journey were:

• Checking online banking and making my PAD
• All food today was in the house already, nothing bought in
• Made enough dinner for tomorrow as well
• Did washing on 30 degree wash and hung up on the airer
• Listed books and DVDs for sale on Amazon
  
• Sold DVDs and games on musicmagpie.com - it's only worth it really if they are only going to make a small amount on Amazon/Ebay and their fees would wipe out your profit
• Packaged up the Amazon items I have listed and put Post-its on them so that when they sell I just have to grab them from the pile and go to the Post Office
• I'm going to take photos of some games I'm selling on Ebay before I go to bed (I'm keen, aren't I?!)
• Cut out pictures from Christmas cards and saved them in my Christmas drawer so I can make gift tags later in the year

So I have had a lovely DFW day, with lots of random activities done and (hopefully) some money made in the future. Tomorrow I'm planning on Ebaying some items as well. I want to hit my target of making £5 a day in January.

Anyway, bed for me now, see you all in the morning. Thanks to everyone who has commented, it really motivates me to do things when I know that people are watching :rotfl:

moo2moo

Thank you!!!! I listed a pile of CDs that I've been unable to shift on E-bay despite trying on every free listing day they've had since September. MusicMagpie traded 5 of them for £7.47 which is way more than I expected, one of them even going for £2.50. Wish I'd known about them before sloging my guts out on E-bay for £2.99 less fees. Its a new incentive to peruse the CD archives and get rid of a whole heap more.

katie2407

just found your old thread yesterday so will be following this one

well done on you DFW day

moo2moo

Some time later... in fact a whole 20 minutes has flown by a further £15.45 for another small pile of very dusty CDs has been liberated from their hidey hole. I had to wipe the dust off to read the barcodes so no one (no one being code word for OH) will miss them. Thank you again. Thats the easiest £22.92 I've made all month.