DFSD's five year plan... and all it brings along the way

debtfreesomeday

The £10 music survey cheque came this week, so I shall be putting that in the bank tomorrow. I bought some shopping from Sainsburys this morning and had to use the debit card as I hadn't picked up any cash from the grocery tin in the house, so I will be taking £25 out of there and putting that in the bank tomorrow too.

We had to spend quite a bit on petrol this weekend, but there's still lots left in that budget.

We bought a big Christmas present and a wedding present last week too, from a bargain on the Grabbit board. Two beautiful picnic hampers from BHS which we got for less than half price - £25 each reduced from £60 each. This will save us giving £50 cash as a wedding present and also is one of our large Christmas presents done! I just have to find somewhere to store them now...

debtfreesomeday

The car was running on empty this morning so hubby filled it up - it cost £46! :eek:

I've ordered an online grocery shop to be delivered Friday; I wasn't going to bother but we have a £10 e-voucher which is due to expire soon so I thought I may as well stock the storecupboard up a bit whilst we have money off. We've spent around £36, delivered, using the sainsburys card, so hubby is paying the £35 cash in out of the grocery pot today and I'll transfer it off the card immediately.

Hubby won £155 through a lottery syndicate at work this week. :j He is putting £50 towards our holiday spending money, £50 towards a fund for the wedding we are going to at the end of the month - some drinks whilst we are there and dry cleaning his suit. The remaining £55 he is using to pay for a meal we are going out to with friends tonight and also some 'fun money' for the weekend for himself as he is going to an event on Saturday where he'll need a little bit of money.

I have the day off tomorrow, mainly to accept delivery for the two Christmas pressies we bought last week, but also because Tuesday was such a bad day at work, that I booked Friday off immediately so I had an even shorter week! Bad isn't it.

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

I have the day off today. :j I was hoping to get out in the garden but the weather is very iffy and it looks like rain any minute, so I'm pottering around the house and catching up with some jobs instead. I have done two loads of washing and they're on the line, hopefully drying before the rain comes. I averted a small disasted this morning which could have been costly. :eek: There was water leaking from under the sink and gushing out into the cupboard and across the kitchen floor, thankfully it was just a connection that needed tightening and I spotted it in time before it did any damage. :cool:

The grocery delivery has come - costing £37 ish - and has all been put away, I'm just waiting on the home delivery bhs parcels now.

We have some bananas which are past their best, so I shall make some banana muffins later. I also need to hoover through, dust, clean the kitchen and maybe the bathrooms later if I can muster up the will to do so.

I've tried to do the scratchies this morning but JJoy and BB isn't working for some reason, it wasnt last night either. :mad:

Off to be busy...

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

I haven't posted much here lately as I'm feeling a little disillusioned with the diary to be honest. It is meant to be a place to record our progress and we just don't seem to be making any. In fact, I feel like we're going backwards. We still haven't been able to start making overpayments to our loan, whenever we think we'll be in the position to start doing so, something always comes up. This month it was a broken bed which needed replacing and lodgers who stayed longer than expected.

Last month it was the cost of the garden which came in more than we thought it would (and it's still not finished - we need to spend £100+ on gravel soon).

The sainsbury's card has a balance of £550 on it which has gone on from us being unable to afford things that crop up in the month, plus our larger than normal grocery bill last month. We'll pay off £400 of this in two weeks when we get paid, but it's so frustrating we're still in this same position.

We are not saving towards the tax/insurance pot presently as we can't afford it. We need to do this soon though as the car tax is due in August and the house insurance in November. Once the regular payment for the sofas comes out tomorrow we will be overdrawn. We still have 2 long trips to make this month so that's at least £100 in petrol left to pay for, if not more with everyday commuting to work and back too. I desperately need a hair cut (haven't had one for a year! ), we need to get hubby's suit dry cleaned for a wedding, buy a new baby gift, a birthday gift and some shoes for a wedding as neither of my two pairs of 'posh' shoes are suitable.

Sorry for the rant. Hubby said last night before dropping off to sleep, he's so tired of us budgeting for everything and it still not working out every month.

Oh, and we've had no internet access at home all week and, depsite a 45 minute phonecall to their 0870 helpline last night, they still can't figure out what's wrong with it.

I'm just tired of it all.

On a very small plus note, we have £8 coming to us from surveys this week and probably about £1.80 profit from a CD sale on Amazon after postage.

I think it's time I got ebaying again, but we're away next week so that's out for now, as I won't be around when any auctions end. I'll try and gather some stuff to list when we get back. I'm thinking a car boot sale has to be on the cards the first weekend in June now though.

Sorry for the rant

DFSD

yukkibear

Hey, good to see you back posting. I know what you mean about the credit card, ours has £1300 on it and only £500 of that is wedding deposits. The rest is things that have cropped up etc and I hate it.

We have both dd's birthdays coming up and despite managing to get things with vouchers etc I still need to buy small bits and the credit card will no doubt have to be used again.

It's always something isn't it.

wantabetterlife

Hi DFSD try not to get too disheartened, last month was terrible for us aswell and i was constantly checking the online banking to make sure we didnt go overdrawn!!! Hopefully things will ease up a bit now that the guests have left . Maybe you could try putting the total amount of the loans outstanding in your signature and then everytime you make a payment you can see it reduce, the way you did with the credit cards. I think if we have a visual reminder it lets us see we are making progress and keeps us on our toes. Hope that helps
WABL

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

I have not been on MSE much as I have been staying away from home for the last ten days. Sorry to read you feel like you are going backwards. The thing is, these expenses would have come up in any case so at least you started off with nothing on the credit card. I am sure you will clear it over the next few months and at least the sofa payments end soon which should help. You have both come a long way on the debt-free path and you could always let the two remaining loans just run their course. I don't know what savings could be made if you repaid the loans early; maybe it would be as good to build up a few savings instead to take the pressure off in the event of unforeseen expenses.

What a pain about the internet access. It is so frustrating when it doesn't work and eats up a lot of time in sorting it out.

There is little fairness in terms of which sectors of work and jobs pay better than others. I thought of career changing a few years ago into what I considered to be a more interesting and challenging area. One of the main deciding factors against it was the long term drop in pay and lifestyle, despite needing far more qualifications, and I have decided to stay put. I suppose I just wonder whether you and your OH would be happier if one of you went into a better paid career, even if it wasn't your first choice of subject.

Sounds like the holiday can't come soon enough for you both. Have a lovely time, you really deserve it xx

wantabetterlife

Where have you gone DFSD???? Hope your Ok

debtfreesomeday

Hi all, well I'm back - been on hols for a week - a cheapie deal that we booked in Feb via the grabbit board. It was nice to get away and have time off work, but didn't feel much like a holiday really, nevermind.

I'm back to work today too and really miserable about it. I met up with a lot of my old colleagues from a previous job at the weekend and I forgot just how much fun work could be. We used to have a really good laugh and I have some great friends from there; a far contrast to where I am now.

DFW update: Not good. We're £250 overdrawn; Sainsbury's balance now at £700 and I'm not feeling positive. Good news is that it's payday tomorrow and I can clear £350 of the CC balance, leaving it at £350 which we'll pay off next month. The card is to be used no more, it's too confusing and inevitably we ended up racking up more CC debt when we were initially just using it for the nectar points. HOPEFULLY, we will be able to overpay the loan from July's payday once the CC is cleared.

Moneymaking update: None, but I have done quite a few surveys of late and we have plans to do a boot sale next month. I also need to knuckle down and do some ebay listing as we have several items we can try and sell on there now.

Will try and keep motivated to post on here this week.

DFSD
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yukkibear

Hi, glad you had a nice break. I have this week off work.

Can make you feel better about your cc, mine is £1500 - need to get that down again. It's too easy to build up isn't it.