Sashybo's Random Waffles

sashybo

Hi all, well having been inspired by reading the diaries of fellow padders, I've decided to start my own diary. It will probably be random waffles - hence the title - but I'm hoping it will help me keep track of everything too.

Last year I joined the Pad thread here - Payment a Day - and have paid off around £1300 extra off my debts due to it. It's also helped me to save for things instead of just buying on credit. I managed to save for a new Cat Lair, a scratching post and also tiles for my bathroom floor.

To introduce myself, I'm sashy, I'm 25 and have an OH (26) and three furries (i.e. cats). We are in approx £18,000 of unsecured debt - £10,000 of this is from stupidly taking a 125% mortgage when buying our first flat 5 years ago. We were young, didn't know much about mortgages and listened to the "mortgage advisor" at the estate agents. :eek: The rest is a combination of credit card debt and loans from stupid spending, plus about £1700 is a bursary from a post-grad course that I dropped out of, thankfully this is 0%.

We have a payment plan with Northern Rock (the loan part of our 125% mortgage) and about £5000 of the debt on a DMP with the CCCS. I also have a separate payment plan for the student money I owe - 0% at £10 per month. We also have about £1500 over two credit cards which I am padding to. My balance is just under £900 and on LOB 6.9% but OH's interest rate is going up to 39.94% on a balance of £616.

I'm currently saving money from the free scratchcards, surveys and reviewing I do online, towards new laminate flooring for the hall of our flat as the cream carpet there is ruined. I generally only save the money that is paid into my paypal account for this and the rest goes to the credit cards.

So, we are in a bit of a mess and I want to get rid of the credit cards as quickly as I can. I'm currently on a fixed term contract at work which ends in July and it's looking unlikely that I will be kept on. My OH is being TUPE'd from one company to another in April for the second time within a year, so is also worried about job security. We really do live from payday to payday so can't survive if either of us is unemployed. Just hoping that it will all work out really.

Anyway, well done if you've reached the end of waffle #1. :T I'm going to try and update this most days, even if only for myself, to see that I am making some progress, even though it feels that I'm not.

Primula

Hello - ooooh I just love all these new shiny diaries! Looking forward to keeping up with you and well done on paying an extra £1,300 off last year - that is fab.

sashybo

Thanks Primula, pad seems to work well for me and a lot of the people over there too. :j

Just been checking out my freezer and have a lot of frozen strawberries and rhubarb, then looked at the jam and preserve book my mum gave me for my birthday and I'm thinking about making (or attempting to make) strawberry and rhubarb jelly tomorrow. Jelly is different from jam as you strain it - apparently.

Had a very lazy day today but am excusing myself as have been ill since Sunday and only really started feeling better yesterday.

Need to check out the bank a/c as both myself and OH were paid yesterday. Our overdraft was about £450 but the plan to sort that out is to get stuff on ebay - OH has a pile of things to get on there.

OH banked £150 of cheques from Christmas as well on Tuesday, £100 is going to my savings a/c towards the flooring fund and OH gets to keep £50 for himself. :rolleyes: The poor lamb was devastated, thinking of the PS3 games he had already mentally bought with his £100. :rotfl:

gilligansyle

Hi, just popping by to say 'Welcome to diaryland'.

Padding has made such a difference to me too. I was working and on a DMP paying a set amount each month, but since becoming unemployed in October, have paid more of debts than in the previous 12 months thanks to PAD. So motivating.

Keep up the good work.

sashybo

Thanks for the welcome gilli.

Just have my strawberry and rhubarb concoction straining to make jelly - the recipe didn't say how long to leave it though.

Went food shopping and headed to Aldi so we didn't spend too much - only to find it closed. :rolleyes: Then ended up spending £50 in Sainsburys, grr. Got a pizza stone in Boots for £8 in the half price sale for our home made pizzas but couldn't really face any of the other shops. Quite proud that I'm not very bothered about looking for sales "bargains".

My oldest cat is getting quite MSE as well - her favourite new toy is a strip of cardboard. :rotfl:

Primula

Good on you making your home-made jelly - sounds delicious. My friend gave us chilli & apple jelly at Christmas and it is really nice. I would be no use though at making stuff like that. I think I saw that pizza set in Boots - does it come with a pizza cutter and a cheese grater? I swithered about getting it but put it back on the shelf but it looked a really good set.

macgirl

Hi there Sashybo :hello: (what no 'nut? :rotfl:)

Well done on starting your diary. I often think I'm rambling on to myself , but it does help you to stay focused. You've already started to make inroads, so well done.
I've just joined the Turn £10 into £10k challenge, perhaps it could be good for you too! Good luck x

sashybo

Hi again Primula, yes that's the set we got - it's bloody heavy that pizza stone! Will report back once we've tried it. The jelly is still straining and I'm really impatient! This is my first attempt at anything like jam or jelly so not sure it will turn out well. I've to leave it straining (not sure how long, it's been about 3 hours) and then boil it with sugar to actually make jelly. I think I will be lucky to make 1 jar as there doesn't seem to be much juice.:huh:

Hi mac, yes no sashanut - we seem to be out of sync at the moment. :rotfl: I must admit I'm a lurker on your diary and I like reading it. I enjoy reading what other people do to get the debt down and about the other stuff they get up to. Will have a look at the challenge, will probably not be brave enough to join though.

sashybo

Oh forgot to mention I'm also doing daily clicks to pay towards the debt/my flooring fund. Started doing them in August '08 and made roughly £350 since then. Quite time consuming and dull but the money does come in eventually.

Well, I'm off to tinker about with my jelly, I'm too impatient to leave it straining any longer - wish me luck!

Primula

Good luck with it then! Let us know the outcome.

macgirl

sashybo wrote: »

I must admit I'm a lurker on your diary and I like reading it. I enjoy reading what other people do to get the debt down and about the other stuff they get up to. Will have a look at the challenge, will probably not be brave enough to join though.

Thanks for that :A
As for being brave, even if you don't take part in the challenge, you should have a read.
It's really inspiring stuff and might give you some ideas on further debt-busting CLICK HERE