Clawing back - the second half

milann

Hows the debt free life going CBM

Milann

Lemon_Tree

milann, glad you asked as i've been meaning to find this thread and ask myself.

Claw_back_money

Milann / LT thanks for your messages - sorry its taken me so long to spot them! I hope all is good with you.

The DF life is good. I wanted to post today as it is now 6 months that we've been debt free (doesn't time fly!). It took me quite a while to believe it though, and whilst every month I've allocated £50 to clothes (after a good time without buying any), I only managed to spend it the first two months. After I had new jeans & undies in the sale I didn't want for anything else and I've put the money into a savings account instead!

Saving has not been as easy as I imagined it would be. I thought there would be money left in the joint account at the end of the month that I'd just move over. Wrong! There is never money left in the joint account at the end of the month! Once I started prioritising saving (almost treating it like a bill) the numbers started to go up, and at the end of October we had just over £2K, of which £1K is in an ISA - emergency money - and £500 is saved towards doing up the lounge/dining room in the new year.

Some things are so much easier being DF that its just indescribable. For instance, a daft van driver reversed into my car which was parked in the drive. The company took ages to report so we went to our insurance company, and it looked for a while like we would have to pay a hefty excess. Instead of giving me nightmares I just though 'well, we'll have to move some money from the instant access ISA'! Similarly when the fridge finally gave up and a week later the washing machine (ho hum), I simply moved money around and used money coming in from travel claims / additional hours and bought new ones. Its the lack of stress accompanying the problems that is so very different.

The tools developed whilst becoming DF I still use - money off vouchers where I can, checking if codes are available before purchasing something, still doing mystery shopping / surveys / piggy clicks (not for much longer) / competitions and applying for freebies.

I hope no one minds this diary entry despite no longer being a DFW. I do check in from time to time and read the early entries just to remind myself what the struggle was like. Six months in and life is ok, we 'just' need to hang onto our jobs and keep being careful.

Best wishes all
Cbm

Lemon_Tree

course we don't mind! it's good to see how things are going. One day we're all going to be 6 months into our debt free life and this is an interesting insight.

Claw_back_money

LT - how are things with you? Wow your total has fallen :T

Are you still in your old job - I think you thought there might be changes there earlier this year? Do you still go to Crops? And did you ever finish that sofa.....

Cbm

Sun_Addict

Hi CBM

Great to hear from you! Glad you're enjoying your debt free life! I'm still enjoying being debt free, even managing to save a little despite OH's work situation still being in the doldrums thanks to this stupid recession! If things ever get back to normal we'll think we've won the lottery! Hope you keep us all up to date from time to time.

Lemon_Tree

hi, yes i'm still in my old job, things are still dodgy with it but i'm hanging on by the skin of my teeth and will continue to fight to stay there. Things are really picking up now with all the changes so we'll find out more information in the next couple of months.
Yes i still go to crops, not as many recently because they always seem to fall on the wrong weekends.
I got most of the sofas done, just got to try and figure out how to cover the wooden frame of one on them, think it involves a staple gun so i'm a little worried, give me a sewing machine any time.
You've got a good memory to remember all these things.

what have you been upto recently?