Baldybears diary...trials of life!

Baldybear

Hello All,

Well decided after much umming and ahhing to start my own diary, have lurked on here for a while and am finally facing facts about my life and where I would like to go from here!

Basic background, female 32, currently living with OH and parents, no kids but 1 horse and care of 3 others too and 1 hamster!

Total debt (shocking)
CC1 £5700 (14.9% and then account closing down due to me declining interest rate hike)
CC2 £3800 (15.9%)
CC3 £2400 (0% for 10 months and then 18.9%)
Car Finance £303 a month for 3 years (approx £12k) (12.9%)
Total owed approx £21k Eeek :eek:

We came into this mess as OH was self-employed last year and only ended up earning £5k ish Also had few holidays and nearly new cars etc but needed cars and have had problems with second cars before so have gone for things that will last us for years now rather than throwing dead money away.

Also doesnt help that I am currently on a 25% pay cut at work, so effectively losing £300 a month of my salary :mad: Stupid recession, word of advice, never work in the construction industry! I think my job is fairly safe at the mo and OH has just started a new job which looks pretty secure, not great money but hopefully should be enough to help get us out of this mess!

Aim is to pay of as much as possible in a short space of time:-

Had to buy the new car as needed 2 cars as OH only has work van and cant use at weekends so makes sense to have 2 cars, but have bought a newish car now that I will know will last a long time. Also new car has 2 years free servicing and MOT and only £30 a year to tax so a good saving all round. Both cars we have are diesel and are great on fuel so that shouldnt cost us too much (around £60 a month for both).

a) Should get £3k back from insurance from old vehicle
b) Selling like no tommorow on ebay at the moment
c) Daily Clicks/Surveys etc


We are lucky at the moment to be living with parents as we only pay our own food and no bills. My animal bills are small so say £200 a month max so in theory should be able to throw at least £1k a month towards debts.

My parents are very keen to downsize their house and sell up which would be fantastic as would enable a chunk of the house sale money to be used for a deposit on a house for us, unfortunately live in a part of the country where housing is extortiante but the salaries dont always match! But we NEED to be debt free (apart from possibly the car finance) asap.

Snowball says Dec 2012 which isnt good enough as need to be before that as hoping to get a mortgage next year!

So need to not spend anything unnecesarily, dont have any holidays planned, am trying to be frugal with food etc, still raiding the house to sell on ebay and just want to get rid of the debt.

No idea how I am going to do this but thought I would try and document things each day to help me along!

Baldybear

Sorry text is huge!

Baldybear

Another day...another crappy day at work, with redundancies my role seems to have expanded from just Admin...seem to now have 2 PQQs on my desk to try and write, since when did I get promoted to Business Development!

Well ok on the money front, get paid this friday and hopefully OH will be paid shortly and then will be able to do proper budget for month as been very up and down but will have hopefully settled now! Also got a day booked in for next week to do some Admin for a friend that she pays for so every little helps!

Spent a long exhausting evening raiding one room and then taking photos and listing a load of items ready to go on ebay, still got a pile to wade through but will try and tackle that tonight.

NSD day today, posting ebay parcels, daily clicks, surveys and meals from stores, so all these little things are helping.

Baldybear

Just thinking and after reading a few diaries have decided that its not just the debt I need to concentrate on but other things too.....

So my list of things to achieve etc
1. Pay of all Debt
2. Get a Mortgage asap after debt paid off (with deposit help from parents)
3. Stay debt free (apart from Mortgage)
4. Got engaged at Xmas and would really like to start organising my wedding but I think that will be put on hold until after the debt and the mortgage.
5. Have big party planned this summer, joint engagement, joint 40th for bro in law and joint parents 40th wedding anniversay so really start needing to sort things out like invitations etc (marquee & disco booked so far...!)
6. Really would like to lose some weight, think in reality need to lose about 4 stone eek! So need to set myself a plan to do this as am really crap with food, great during the day but snack all evening.
7. Really need to get my exercise levels up....this will help diet as well!
8. Need to do a lot of work still down where I keep the horses, starvation paddocks to be built and hardcore to be laid, just need to find time to organise this and find some money to pay for materials, luckily OH & I can manage to do most of the work ourselves. Its amazing what you can do when you have no money, if someone had told me 2 years ago that I would be felt roofing and doing post & rail fencing I would have laughed at them!
9. Get more on top of work although at the moment just seem to be drowning in it and whenever I try and organise myself just end up getting more piled on, so really need to work out some sort of action plan!

Well I am sure there may be others, but I think that will start....! I am sure I will be adding to them but nice to get them written down and then hopefully will be able to start crossing things off as I can get a few things done.

jacey98

hi

just thought i would pop in as in similar circumstances we have been told at work our admin function is going from 5 to 1.5 through redundancies...joy!!!!

i have been on here a while and it really does help to write things down and do lists.....i am heading down the wedding route but think may go for kids first not really sure.........but also have a simlar weight goal not sure how it all manged to creep on to be honest but its there so have to deal with it.

stared going out on bike rides so hopefully i will start to see a change soon!!

anyway keep going it will all ease up at some point.

jc x

Baldybear

Hello Jacey, yeah seems very similar circumstances, may have children in the future equation, but need the house first! My sister has just had a baby so that should keep me busy and my animals are my children, although they are a lot easier, if you have had enough to can just walk away from the field!

Paid today, salary as always pitiful Am very tempted to ask for my money back now I have taken on more roles, think it is definitely worth trying. OH gets paid Tuesday so will have to wait till then to work out budgets properly.

Checked paypal and transferred £100 over last night to bank so that will go straight off the debt, not sure which CC yet will need to have a proper look over the weekend.

Only a LSD today as just something for lunch. Am going to try and not spend too much money over the weekend, we have NT so may go and visit there or go to coast as seems mad not to appreciate the good weather somewhere!

Had a fairly productive evening and manged to find some more things to ebay, just need to get them all on there at some point! Cleaned the hamster up as he seems to have got sticky eyes, but he is knocking on 2 and a half so not doing to bad! Considering his age though and the fact that he cant see much until I clean him up he doesnt stand still, who know cleaning a hamsters eyes could take nearly an hour

Weight lets just not go into that....seen as for lunch have already consumed small salad, bread roll and 2 choc mini rolls! Hmmm...

jacey98

oh mini rolls - jealous!

i have a cat which is my child at the moment did have horses but quite a long time ago but would love to again once the finances are sorted out.

Planning a weekend of sorting out for carboot and ebay have lots that i need to get rid of so hopefully make some good money.

also having first bar b que of the year on sunday so looking forward to a nice relaxing day with family.

have a good weekend.

jc x

Baldybear

I looove chocolate, its my biggest downfall, I have to have a fix every day!

Today was lovely, had day out to Avebury and walked round the site, was MSE and took a picnic. Also realised my new car does 500 miles to a tank of fuel YAY

Checked ebay and only 3 watchers on 12 items which is depressing but have a shed load of stuff ready to go on tomorrow so fingers crossed they are a bit more successful.

Baldybear

Fairly DFW day today, went into town and got a load of padded bags and packaging cheap from the 99p store and then raided Wilkinsons for tissues and tights! Seem to be eating tissues like no tomorrow as hayfever season has started Least they were cheaper than the normal supermarket so have stocked up!

Only bad thing was a book from Waterstones which is a major weakness for me!

Busy evening planned of ebaying as have loads to put on now due to efforts in the week, just hope to have more of a declutter and find some more stuff this week!

Baldybear

Bad day for me yesterday, worked all day but completely wiped out by hayfever Why does the rain and damp always make it worse! Argh! Was crappy with food as managed to eat loads as felt so crap and didnt even think about money. Only good thing was managed to get a few ebay parcels off in the post.

Today was slightly better, OH got paid although they have put him on emergency tax, but hopefully they will have sorted it out by next month. Managed to work out what his earnings will be though so that will really help the budgeting.

Still fighting the insurance company over the existing money which is frustrating as could really do with that and that will really help the DFD come closer!

A much needed day of work tomorrow and extra money to be earnt for working for a friend so will be able to grab a lie in and a bit of me time so really looking forward to it!

Baldybear

Haven't updated for a few days but have needed a bit of time to get my head around a few things. Decided against going to work for a friend for the day as migraine came about and although the money is nice is just an extra pressure I am putting upon myself.

Work is very stressful at the moment with what seems as doing 4 jobs in the space of one and everybody wants everything instantly. Luckily my immediate line manager seems to realise this, just don't think my MD does just yet but am not going to try and worry too much. At the end of the day there is only so much I can do, there is one PQQ that I am just going to have to say no to as its really outside of my remit and I don't have the time so that helps not having to worry about that one.

DFW had a very good weekend, checked all budgets with both of us just being paid and OH managed to transfer over £1k which I have sent to the debts, £500 on CC3 and £250 each to the others. Also managed to make about £15 on ebay, so items packaged up now ready to post this week. Managed to list a few more things on there too. Thinking if I can make £15 a week that will all help. Will update signature when payments have gone through later this week.

NSD days on sunday and today, but £80 spent on Saturday for fencing for the field, but should do most of the field, getting rid of barbed wire and replacing with straight, and will last for years so a good long term investment.

Managed to sit down and sort out all the summer party invitations this weekend too so feeling quite positive about things all round.