Ellie's DF Diary

Ellieseleven

Over the last few days since my LBM I have had wildly changing mood swings, I'm either very positive that I can do this or I'm in floods of tears worrying about what's going to happen and how we will cope.

I've had lots of advice from the people on these forums and have started to address some of the area's that have been suggested.

Now I'm going to write everything down in the hope that it keeps me motivated and on track.

I am ebaying anything that I can find in the house
I have signed up with various on-line surveys
I've been on comparison websites to reduce my buildings & contents insurance etc.
I've started a spending diary so I can see where I'm spending

Today I'm going to see what else I can put on e-bay and check out Quidco to see what that's all about.

I'll post again tonight with my progress;)

jacey98

hi ellie

welcome to the world of diaries. The mood swings are def something i can relate to having a big one today but i know now that at least i am dealing with and moving forward slowley but will get there.

good luck will pop back in soon

jc x

september09

Hi Ellie.

Welcome to the board! Just started my own diary too and will subscribe to yours so I can hopefully be of some help or motivation.

Good luck on your journey!

I too can most definatly relate to the mood swings. So as you can see you're not on your own there!

September x

Ellieseleven

I thought that I would update my diary with something about my life so far......

I am 51 years old, married with two grown up daughters (one who shares her time between us and her boyfriend) and our cat.

My OH worked in a factory for years and I work for a software company. We managed quite well and put both girls through college and university and life plodded along until...

My OH was made redundant and with the money he got he set up business as a gardener (he had done this type of work before). At the time he didn't drive but his brother-in-law was also made redundant so they started to work together and with some hard work the business started to produce an income.

We put all the money into the business and our brother-in-law took 50% of the takings (but didn't put anyhting back) which I kept trying to point to my husband was not a good thing but he wanted to keep him onside because of the driving so this carried on for a while. By this time my OH had taken several driving tests but kept failing!

Eventually my OH and his brother-in-law parted company due to the BIL being so greedy:mad:. This meant that my OH could no longer get to any of his jobs. This is where the cc's rocketed out of control, we were still trying to keep the business going and putting in for driving tests (and failing!), oh, and trying to live!

After 9 months of this my OH finally passed (11th attempt Hurrah!!!) and we thought that we could now get back into business and start to pay back what we owed. He has had a few jobs and things looked good but then the rain came (we live in Manchester, so you would have thought that we would have known better lol:rotfl:)

I have spoken to my OH and said that we can't go on like this and now need to do our best to clear our debts. He's supportive but is a pain in the !!!!! at the moment and is moping around the house feeling sorry for himself:p

Anyway thats how I got to where I am and I am determined to do something about all this debt (not sure what though at the moment, quite tempted to do a DIY dmp after reading through one of the threads on here, everyone seems so positive!)

Today I have been to the Doctor's who has signed me off on the sick for 4 weeks which will give me time to write letters, ebay my possessions, feel sorry for myself etc.:o

My OH has been to see 3 jobs today so we are hopeful that he will get these and that will bring in an income.

I've spent most of the afternoon going through various posts on here to see what other people are doing so haven't done much else. Need to get my !!!!! into gear for tomorrow. One of the things that was pointed out to me in my SOA is that I spend too much on food shopping so the big challenge for tomorrow is to cut this down by £20.... I'll let you know how I get on!!

Anyway I've waffled for far too long so I will finish now but not without first saying Thank You to you all for your advice and tips, they are much appreciated and keep me motivated:beer:

Ellieseleven

Well, today I have manged to do my shopping for 38.50 instead of the usual £60+ and I bought a scratchcard for a £1 and won £15

I made a list before going shopping and stuck to it!!

I have sorted some stuff out for ebay which I need to list and also a pile of books for Green Metropolis

Managed to pay the minimum on two credit cards!

Buffythedebtslayer

Excellent stuff Ellie keep going!xx

cookiecrunch_2

Well done on the shopping, i find it so hard to stick to a list that i'm always so impressed when someone else does!
CC

cookiecrunch_2

Oh and i've subscribed!

Intergalactic_Floozie

Hi Ellie, good luck and stay focused!

Ellieseleven

Thanks to you all, I know what you mean Cookie Crunch, I was very tempted to stray off my list... don't know how long I will be able to keep it up LOL!

Ellieseleven

Today I have:

Listed 3 items on e-bay and re-listed 2. I have had an offer on a very expensive chess set that I have listed but £700 below the asking price so I have declined!

I'm selling a Wii Fit which I don't appear to need at the moment as I have lost 8 lbs with the stress diet that I'm on lol:rolleyes:

I've also listed 5 more books on Green Metropolis

Apart from that I have just watched Benjamin Button which has made me feel very sad but both my girls have been to visit so thats cheered me up again!

I've managed to pay MBNA a minimum payment but also totted up what I've paid over the last 12 months. This totals £2598 but with interest etc. only £600 comes off the balance. I'm sooo tempted to throw the towel in and say that I can't afford their payments but the thing that is stopping me is my OH's business account is with the same bank that we have our current account with and I don't know whether we will be able to move this?

Hubby has to give prices on two jobs tomorrow so we will see how they go, if he gets them then we will be able to keep going a little while longer:o