Debt Free by 40 Debt Diary

spud30

oakdale_minx wrote:

Fences weren't included in the policy - quote my OH "That's what you get for buying cheap house insurance". Felt like retorting with "at least I have some".........

Hi Minxy

I've never had house insurance that covers fences, cheap or not.

Our fences are all tied to trees at the moment, after last week's gales, so we need to replace all ours too.

Just when you think you're getting somewhere, summat else happens.

angelavdavis

Hi OD,

My recommendation for carpet is to shop around for remnants. Take the measurements of each room and carry them around in your handbag. Then if you come across a shop that has rolls of remnants outside, you can see whether any are big enough and put down a deposit.

Examples of a bargain I picked up was a piece 14'8" x 23' for my bedroom at a shop that sells to hotels (extra widths - otherwise I would have had to buy two lengths and only used about 1 foot of it) priced at £118 including underlay and fitting! The other bargain I got was actually for lino for my 10' square bathroom - £51 which I fitted myself.

Hope that helps!

gallygirl

angelavdavis wrote:

Hi OD,

The other bargain I got was actually for lino for my 10' square bathroom - £51 which I fitted myself.

Hope that helps!

10' square - oooh that's big, get you!!!!!! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

OM if you go on the Carpetright website you can get a 10% off voucher emailed to you.

spud30

ali007 wrote:

10' square - oooh that's big, get you!!!!!! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

OM if you go on the Carpetright website you can get a 10% off voucher emailed to you.

I was just thinking that....angel's bathroom is bigger than my kitchen

oakdale_minx

Undercover Agent Oakdale Minx returns safely from her first early morning mission to the photocopier..:cool: ...has to be on the look out for rebel insurgents when the copier jams and all the lights start madly flashing, but a safe return to base was eventually made...........Mission Photocopier II scheduled 0.800 hours tomorrow morning...........:cool:

I'll definitely be on the look out for remnants on my travels. I've had remnants in the past in my last house and they were great - and saved a fortune.

i'll get the voucher emailed to me - cheers for that , I didn't know about that, I think there is one locally.

Katyusha

I've been reading your debt diary with great interest. It's fascinating being allowed to snoop on other people's lives!! Tell me if I've missed the crucial post, but you seem to own a house. Can you not move into something smaller, clear the debt, save the interest that you would have paid up until age 40, have the freedom perhaps to change jobs, get off the medication and enjoy yourself a bit more?? I hate to wheel out the cliches, but these are some of the best years of your life, etc etc. Is there really no alternative to carpet remnants??

Katyusha

gallygirl

Oh dear Katyusha, what a can of worms I fear you have opened.........:eek:


anyway, nothing wrong with carpet remnants is there?????

oakdale_minx

Katyusha - thankyou for your thoughts.

Yes, I own a house.

I bought it with the equity from my relationship break up in 2003 - the equity paid the deposit of 55k. I have about £80,000 in equity now due to the rise in the housing market in the area. I live in an extremely expensive area and even small flats are around the 160k mark. Downsizing (I have a 2 bedroom, 1 reception room bungalow) paying off my debt and putting all my equity (probably about 60k remaining)into a small flat would still mean I have a mortgage of 100k - my mortgage is 105k now!

I don't think downsizing would be good - for me - I would have a smaller property, with the same size mortgage, I would be debt free, but I think will have regrets when I hit 40 and still have a small flat with a similar size mortgage and know that if I had stayed put and paid off the debt gradually, I would have a lovely bungalow.

I have worked hard to re-organise my life, put a plan into place and to keep slogging every single day to make either some progress or to cement a small change.

I only started taking the Prozac in October and it is not debt related. I'm guessing you've read the whole diary to understand why I am on it, so I won't bore everyone with my dealings with Cruella! I don't aim to be on it for very long, it took a lot of persuading to start taking it in the first place and I see it as a kind of support to see how bad I was beforehand. My GP said I was 'on the brink' when he saw me in October and I can see that I was.

Change jobs - top priority at the moment!!! Hence all my postings about re-deployment. Other than moving to London/outer London to work or a complete career change, I'm a bit stuck job wise in this area. Salary is also hard to match locally. Dorset is notoriously expensive to live in but with low salaries. (Secretary posts as an example pay around 15k, and a small house on an estate will cost around £170k - £200k.)

Enjoy myself a bit more? I spent most of 1999/2000/2001 enjoying life to the full. Believe me, I went out and enjoyed myself more than you would think possible!!!!

This led to 'sticking my head in the sand' debt, addtional problems in my then relationship, and basically going a bit wild. yes, lots of things can be done for free/low cost, but I'm not now at a point where I don't know how to enjoy stuff at the moment, which is weird, I know, but I just have no desire to do anything other than work and sit at home. I know it will pass, but for now, it's not happening.

This diary is about me 'getting off' my fix of spending. I would like to think that I'm getting there, if slowly. To be honest, if I had the problem solved overnight, I'm not sure I would have learnt.

I see my new carpets as the next stage of a goal to aim for to improve the house. It is a seed of a plan at the moment and won't come to fruition for a few months.

I've reduced my DFD from 20 years to 5 years in about 18 months. I'm happy with that, I've got budgets and plans in place which are slowly becoming more flexible (ie the guilt free takeaway!) I'm going to review the situation again in the Summer to see if I can bring the DFD a bit closer again by increasing the loan payment. An extra £80 a month would chop another year off. That will be almost possible once my unsecured debt is cleared. I should get a cost of living pay rise of about 2% in April/May, so I'm hoping that in June the figures will stack up for me to re-visit the secured loan.

Depending on how things pan out, I might even start throwing AQA money at the secured loan at some point, but that will take some careful consideration - if I reduce the loan term to 2 years for example, I would have to know I have job security AND AQA for the next two years. It would also mean carrying on working 7 days a week in both jobs and I'm not sure I can sustain that for that long.

I've realised that I have to sort out each big area of problem in my life:

My debt: In control and daily working towards improving
Job: Next to get in control of. I need to take it stage by stage and see what happens with the re-structuring
Relationship: This is the year to sort one way or the other
Weight: Need to try and have the same lightbulb moment that I did for my debt - and make it permanent.

The boards are full of people who fall off the wagon debt wise,some get back on, some fall off temporarily, some come off completely and go back to where they started. i'm hopeful that I've made enough changes, for long enough now to be in control and, if something happens where money needs to be spent, that it is taken into the big plan and not something that railroads me. I've been there too many times over the years.

I hope that this explains a few things about me - hopefully I've not bored everyone with my ramble!!!

slowlyfading

I think you're doing so well. Its nice to see that you feel you can treat yourself every now and again. You're working so hard that sometimes you need to have a treat - takeaways taste so good if you haven't had them for ages! you're an inspiration
nicola x

Imelda

O_M, you truly are an inspiration, I always read your diary but hardly ever post. I just wanted to lend my support to you.

I think you're doing the right thing about the house, like you say the debt is under control and you would not be better off at the end of it all.

I hope you get things sorted out with Cruella and OH soon, hugs to you O_M x