Just wanna cry :(

sugarpants_2

Gosh my kids dont go to bed till 8pm. DH dosent get in till 8pm so likes to tuck them in. does annoy me as I dont get any peace till late. Lucky you your DD goes to bed at 7pm.

Yeah I live nr Reading and its very expensive although prices are falling slowly.

I work from home so I can only swap books with myself. I do use the local library to get books out. Might pop in there over the weekend and get a couple more. I just never finish them. Got any recommendations? I love autobiographies too. Just finished all 3 of Sharon Osbourne and they were amazing.

Are you planning on anymore kids? Or is one enough? My friends are all trying for number.3!! Not me, I ahevnt got the money or the patience for anymore! haha

mrcow

Hi Sugarpants,

Just to help you focus, what is your actual debt free date according to the snowball calculator? Having it always in mind (and perhaps adding it to your sig) really helps to focus on what you are doing - and why you are doing it!

When you feel like falling off the wagon, keep that date there in the forefront of your mind and imagine how you are going to feel once you've achieved your goal.

If feels like forever - but it's a long way from that

sugarpants_2

Hi smallfish
Yeah youre right. Buying now (even if we could afford it) would be daft I reckon. By the end of they year hopefully our debts will be reduced and we can shop around for mortgages. Whos is yours with> Did you go to IFA or direct to the banks? We will be first time buyers so its all new to us. Cant wait to start looking though! ALthough I think we will only be able to look at small places..But hoping to work our way up the ladder..Thats the plan anyways. Fingers crossed.

smallfish wrote: »

Hi again SP, You're welcome and glad you're feeling chirpier You'll be fine, particuarly now you've found the forum, these people are AMAZING! Restore your faith in humanity :j . One last thing, I think by the time you've got rid of the debt the housing market will have had a chance to rebalance, you'll be more likely to get a mortgage and more likely to find a more reasonably priced house. I'm a mortgagee myself but tbh, I think you're best off waiting right now, even if it feels enforced, it wouldn't surpirse me if in a few years when you're debt-free and looking to get that nest, you'll be thinking well thank goodness we didn't do it in 2009 (no disrespect to anyone who's recently bought -including my sis and my DH'S best friend - just findng the silver lining for this particualr member's situation

sugarpants_2

MRcow (love the name...fab!!)
Whats snowball ? Sounds great.

mrcow wrote: »

Hi Sugarpants,

Just to help you focus, what is your actual debt free date according to the snowball calculator? Having it always in mind (and perhaps adding it to your sig) really helps to focus on what you are doing - and why you are doing it!

When you feel like falling off the wagon, keep that date there in the forefront of your mind and imagine how you are going to feel once you've achieved your goal.

If feels like forever - but it's a long way from that

sugarpants_2

Have to go now, Dh is home early!!

You guys have been like therapy to me tonight!! Thanks soo much to you all xxxx

I will be back later or if not tommorrow

HUGS XXX

Ps/Enjoy your beans everyone

Caroline73_2

sugarpants wrote: »

Did apply for some mystery shops but only here once a month off one company which do rubbish shops. Do you have any good companies you can recommend Caroline? Ps/The pizza hut trip sounded fab! Being paid to eat Pizza...HEAVEN!:A

The two I use the most are Gapbuster and Grassroots. They have the most work and pay regularly!

I used to live down your way and know it is stupidly expensive to rent down there. Don't worry too much about the beans on toast - me and brother still joke about only ever eating Jacket Potatoes as children. He's 33 and I'm 35.

deaks_2

Hiya

know that feeling same sh*t, different day - just as a cheery up thingy - when I was really skint (and this is better when the weather improves obviously) I used to take my little ones to a car boot at the weekend at "a treat" - a couple of quid each and they/we could get some amazing new toys and then we used to go on picnic/adventures to the local parks with our new toys/books etc - good cheap fun and I used to pick up a few good trashy books for me too (only the 20p ones!) and some old cookbooks with lots of cheap easy recipes.
The kids used to get really excited about spending their few quid at the weekends and it taught them money skills too! - they were about 4 and 8 when I started doing this! - kinda made up for the lack of holidays - it was like every weekend was an adventure.
I always found the "small peoples" clothes good too - as kids grow out of them before they have had any wear, so found some fab things for next to nothing - it was a good morning out and the kids loved it cos they got some new stuff - we also sold the year befores stuff once a year too.
You're doing well and it does get better - honestly - it just takes a while

Raksha

Just a word of warning re Mystery shops - you will need to pay for your purchases upfront and then reclaim the money from the MS company. If cash flow is a problem now, you might find this temporarily makes things worse. It's also easy to do lots of shops because they are earning money, and forget that you end up spending money on things you don't need/wouldn't have bought ordinarily.

Kittikins

oooh carpet picnic, we love those in our house, DD gets the picnic rug out, I make sarnies and salady bits and we eat them out of packed lunch boxes, a must for DD, who's getting ready for "big girl school" in September and can't wait to have a Fifi lunchbox, lol

smallfish_3

Hi SP, our mortgages are with HSBC, 2 fixed and 1 variable, I know, three:eek:, it's a long story! But although we have had massive amounts of debt in the past outside of the mortgages, we've managed to pay it all off every time and this with one house purchase despite the house sale falling through thus having two MASSIVE mortgages for 8 months and my DH being out of work for 5 of them! This is how I know you'll be debt-free much sooner than 10 years! HSBC have been great for us although to be fair we went with them more by luck than judgement as coincidentally my DH and I had been with them since Griffin Saver days (showing my age now!) and my DH's bank manager had known him since he was a baby and that helped . I'm sure, because you've already found this forum, that you'll be a lot more savvy about mortgage hunting than we were when we first bought, omigosh, TEN years ago now, honestly I'm not that old . And I'm sure you'll find people who aren't happy with HSBC just as some aren't happy with Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Natwest etc etc but always good to get as braod a spectrum as poss so my experience of HSBC has been nothing but good... thank goodness