£7k in 7 months...I hope!

Choc-addict

jtr2803 wrote: »

Thanks for the subscription Choc-Addict, mmmmm Chocolate - could do with some now!!

I don't feel organised at all, I still haven't refreshed the tank water and the ironing is still hidden in the airing cupboard! I am already counting down the days till next payday :eek:

You'll be fine lovely As you know I have had many a LBM in the past and I think this time round it's my 'proper' one

Perhaps set yourself a mini goal - do you have a debt that is particularly low that you could save towards clearing?

Want_to_be_free

Don’t get annoyed with yourself, you are doing great. I will get paid this Friday and will go to my first restricted shopping, I hope I will be as organised as you.

Abcynthia

Hey,

This isn't specifically to help you with debt I'm afraid, but fish are my weakness too! I have a 450 litre tank, a 400 litre tank and a 240 litre tank. I've kept marines before, but now only keep tropical freshwater (specifically central american cichlids). I get sick of explaining to people that I don't ever go out and fish are my hobby so thats where my entertainment money goes. There is always something needed for them lol

I try to be MSE with them a wee bit and look for the cheapest deals and recently I collected large pieces of slate for my 450. I was very lucky when I had my marine tank because I worked in an aquatic shop and we specialised in marines (still sold freshwater too though!). This meant I got discount and it also meant I met a customer who gave me her tank and marine setup stuff for free. My other MSE thing is feeding them prawns. I have a lot of big fish and it would be a waste of time (and very expensive) to feed them tiddly little cubes. A big bag of prawns will last me ages though because I chop them up. Mussels are another good one. That all depends on which fish you keep though.

What I am meaning to say is I understand when you want something for your tank and you can't afford it. My 450 is what has got us into some of our recent debt. I had to have it though didn't I? lol

You are doing really well so far! Keep at it

Edited to add : Don't worry about housework piling up. It happens to us all! Especially when there is beautiful fish tanks in a house to watch instead :P

jtr2803

OOOh I learnt how to multi quote! :rotfl:

Choc-addict wrote: »

You'll be fine lovely As you know I have had many a LBM in the past and I think this time round it's my 'proper' one

Perhaps set yourself a mini goal - do you have a debt that is particularly low that you could save towards clearing?

Actually now you mention that, apart from the loan with Cabot and the Egg Loan and Credit Card there is a small CC debt that is about £150 according to Payplan, although the actual balance may be different according to the debt managers - would have to check. Perhaps that could be a new target for me - to maybe clear this by end of September?

Want_to_be_free wrote: »

Don’t get annoyed with yourself, you are doing great. I will get paid this Friday and will go to my first restricted shopping, I hope I will be as organised as you.

I am flattered that you see me as 'organised'! The budget shopping actually wasn't too bad, certainly makes you see all the 'tricks' of the supermarkets!

Abcynthia wrote: »

Hey,

This isn't specifically to help you with debt I'm afraid, but fish are my weakness too! I have a 450 litre tank, a 400 litre tank and a 240 litre tank. I've kept marines before, but now only keep tropical freshwater (specifically central american cichlids). I get sick of explaining to people that I don't ever go out and fish are my hobby so thats where my entertainment money goes. There is always something needed for them lol

I try to be MSE with them a wee bit and look for the cheapest deals and recently I collected large pieces of slate for my 450. I was very lucky when I had my marine tank because I worked in an aquatic shop and we specialised in marines (still sold freshwater too though!). This meant I got discount and it also meant I met a customer who gave me her tank and marine setup stuff for free. My other MSE thing is feeding them prawns. I have a lot of big fish and it would be a waste of time (and very expensive) to feed them tiddly little cubes. A big bag of prawns will last me ages though because I chop them up. Mussels are another good one. That all depends on which fish you keep though.

What I am meaning to say is I understand when you want something for your tank and you can't afford it. My 450 is what has got us into some of our recent debt. I had to have it though didn't I? lol

You are doing really well so far! Keep at it

Edited to add : Don't worry about housework piling up. It happens to us all! Especially when there is beautiful fish tanks in a house to watch instead :P

Oooh a fish geek like me! Trying to be MSE with the fish is hard. What I haven't added to the main thread is that I sold my original marine tank last month and other half just went and bought me a new tank that I had fallen in love with which was so sweet of him. Trouble is....it needs lights, rock, sand and filter material so to actually get it set up is going to cost a fortune! That's what the new LED lights were for! It's going to be a slow process which makes me feel bad as I don't want him thinking I don't want it anymore but I think he understands it's financial constraints. I am trying to culture my own live fish food and hopefully once things are more settled my corals will grow lots and start splitting so I can sell some baby ones.

Well it sounds like a good plan!

I have some odd obsession with baking cakes tonight, I must be ill! Also going to start writing a list of objectives, almost like things to do before I am thirty but it might have to be 35 as I am scarily closer to 30 than I realised :eek:

OrangeFairy

Hey Jody!!! I have been meaning to search to see if you had a diary and finally looked and found you today! :j

You seem to be doing really well. I know what you mean about money 'disappearing' on extra spends. I think the important thing is that you have realised you have to do something about it! My worst thing was popping into town and buying little bits for the kids which all added up.

I bet your fish tanks are gorgeous. I kept a tropical tank but we have moved a bit in the last few years and i didn't set it back up again.

I understand not wanting to get married until out of debt. This was originally our plan as OH wanted it to be a fresh start. I really want this and if we weren't getting married abroad we would have waited. 2011 is realistically the last year all of my family could go away together abroad. Plus my Grandad is giving me away and he isn't getting any younger. I suppose one good thing is this way we won't fritter too much money on the wedding as we are more concious of spending! We have been together 8 years and i really want to be the same name as my children! I hate that i am not at the moment. So in this respect next year suits me!

I hope you enjoy Centreparcs. I have always wanted to go. This year we discussed it but now need to sort out the wedding!

As Choc said - find a small target! In my case i have the target of each debt but i also have mini targets like getting a certain debt under the next hundred mark!

jtr2803

littlekel wrote: »

Hey Jody!!! I have been meaning to search to see if you had a diary and finally looked and found you today! :j

You seem to be doing really well. I know what you mean about money 'disappearing' on extra spends. I think the important thing is that you have realised you have to do something about it! My worst thing was popping into town and buying little bits for the kids which all added up.

I bet your fish tanks are gorgeous. I kept a tropical tank but we have moved a bit in the last few years and i didn't set it back up again.

I understand not wanting to get married until out of debt. This was originally our plan as OH wanted it to be a fresh start. I really want this and if we weren't getting married abroad we would have waited. 2011 is realistically the last year all of my family could go away together abroad. Plus my Grandad is giving me away and he isn't getting any younger. I suppose one good thing is this way we won't fritter too much money on the wedding as we are more concious of spending! We have been together 8 years and i really want to be the same name as my children! I hate that i am not at the moment. So in this respect next year suits me!

I hope you enjoy Centreparcs. I have always wanted to go. This year we discussed it but now need to sort out the wedding!

As Choc said - find a small target! In my case i have the target of each debt but i also have mini targets like getting a certain debt under the next hundred mark!

Hi Kel, thanks for coming over to my place :T

After looking at my spending in April I realised that a lot of the 'extra' things I was buying were items that might have been £5 here or there but they soon add up! I am trying to practice the MSE 'Do I need it, is it cheaper elsewhere?' mantra for future spending habits!

I said to OH that I wouldn't want to get married while I was in debt because of it being to do with past partners and our married life but he said it wouldn't bother him. At the moment I am feeling a bit underwhelmed with a wedding as I can't really see it happening in the near future . Our first priority really needs to be a house deposit once the debt is cleared so I don't see how we could afford a wedding and whilst I am MSE my wedding day would be one day I wouldn't want to down brand on . Oh and there is the small fact that OH hasn't proposed yet! :rotfl: He has told me a few times he intends to marry me, he just hasn't provided the diamond goods yet! It's our two year anniversary next month but I can't see him proposing as he isn't the most forward thinking of people!

I didn't change my name when I got divorced as I didn't want daughter to have a different name but it's so common these days and it seemed a bit off for me to stay with ex hubbys family name.

Centreparcs should be good but I can guarantee it will cost a bomb!

Right, gotta make my way home from work now so will catch up later this eve

Ciao all x

Want_to_be_free

I really like your diary , reading about your daughter, Asda trip, fish tank , not liking house work and mad accountancy training along with getting married plans even though there is no proposal just yet ...:rotfl:
I don't think I can give any advice as you already seem to have all the answers but I just want to say I am here ...Somehow we cope with all the madness around us, but one thing I wouldn't be able to do is long time studying... I can take short courses like I am doing Lean 6 Sigma at the moment but cannot go through years of studying any more, that finished when I got my degree from Uni. So on top everything else , you are studying which impresses me the most ....You are doing a lot and you are doing briliantly:T


PS; I don't go to Asda because I go mad thinking that everything is cheper and end up spending a fortune. So no ASDA for me

jtr2803

Want_to_be_free wrote: »

I really like your diary , reading about your daughter, Asda trip, fish tank , not liking house work and mad accountancy training along with getting married plans even though there is no proposal just yet ...:rotfl:
I don't think I can give any advice as you already seem to have all the answers but I just want to say I am here ...Somehow we cope with all the madness around us, but one thing I wouldn't be able to do is long time studying... I can take short courses like I am doing Lean 6 Sigma at the moment but cannot go through years of studying any more, that finished when I got my degree from Uni. So on top everything else , you are studying which impresses me the most ....You are doing a lot and you are doing briliantly:T


PS; I don't go to Asda because I go mad thinking that everything is cheper and end up spending a fortune. So no ASDA for me

I am glad you like it! It's nice to 'speak' to other people who are going through the same things and hopefully when one of us is a bit down the rest can pull us up and vice versa I can't say I enjoy studying, it's just become a necesity which makes me dislike it even more! You might be impressed with me after tonight though............

Well tonight has been great (no sarcasm either!), it started well when I went to the sorting office as I had two items to collect. I knew one was Phytoplankton for the fishies but I had no idea what the other one was and it was dated the 12th of May - I only saw the card in my post box on Friday, oops! So I pick them up and curiousity gets the better of me so I open the unknown little parcel and I won a new Rimmel foundation! :T I never win anything, I was so chuffed with this as it's exactly the right colour and my old foundation is well past it's best - that put me in such a good mood!

Got home, had a cuppa and read the paper then finally changed some water in the tank and set up my new fish food culture which will hopefully go well but I wont see any results in there for a week or two. OH then cooked dinner which was awesome, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.... Mango, Chili and Lime chicken with little crispy potatoes and coconut rice...mmmmmm all courtesy of Asda :cool:

Then I did two revision questions, ok not a great deal but it is a start and I wrote two pages of answers!

AND today was an NSD....yay...happiness....dance with me!!!! :j

Choc-addict

Woo hoo to your great day yesterday :j Congrats on the foundation, do you enter many comps? I used to but got a bit lazy

Hope you have a lovely day x

jtr2803

Morning all

Just a quick post as I got up an hour late today and had two very vivid nightmares in the night so I'm trying to catch up at work, oops!

Will pop back at lunch and catch up with everyone