Jwil's sorting the debt, the body, the house, the garden and everything else diary!

jwil

Hello everyone :hello:

I have been lurking on this website for a couple of years and following lots of diaries, so I thought it would be helpful to start my own.

I am 32, rather overweight, and live with my DH, dog and cat in a house we purchased in February which needs complete renovation. It has not been touched since the 1960s. So far we have installed central heating and a new boiler, and painted through in magnolia to get rid of the bright colours and flower power wallpaper, but everything else still needs to be done, including carpets and curtains. It's a huge job, but we'll get there one day! The gardens front and back just look like jungles to me, so they need clearing and redesigning, but I haven't got a clue what I am doing there, so they will wait for at least a year while we see what comes up over the year.

My main focus is to get rid of my debt.

To do this I will:

Make a Payment A Day (PAD) towards my debts (I will be including normal payments in this as motivation and also to show how much I am wasting on debt repayments :mad:)

Take part in the No Spend Day Challenges

Clear the house of clutter - we have loads of our own and also a huge amount of stuff we inherited to sell on from my MIL's house. Clearing this lot will help reduce the debt and also help make space to do up the house.

I purchased a huge coke bottle recently, and am aiming to fill this with spare change. There is over £16 in there already and it is barely past the base, so there should be loads when it's full.

I am also going to try and eat healthily and more importantly, increase my exercise. I have been suffering with depression for the last few months, so things have not been good on that front. I was told I am depression-free last week :j and although I have to stay on the meds for a while yet, it is so nice to be feeling normal again and having the energy to do stuff.

Well, that's enough for now I think, if you are lurking out there, come and say hello

Wish me luck!

jwil

Today we did a car boot sale and sold well over 100 books and some other bits too :j (Told you we had loads of clutter ) That has not even touched the amount of books to be sold, and does not even include the 6 bookcases double stacked, and the huge pile of books on the floor in front of them, all waiting to be read :cool:

I am a huge bookworm and managed to buy 10 books this morning too, so that is not helping the decluttering. I do read them and then sell them on again, so they are usually money-neutral, and on the odd occasion I can make a profit from them, (though I do not buy to sell on, I buy what I want to read) so that always helps.

I've got 7 items selling on ebay today, and hopefully will get bids on some more before they go out.

I've got some stuff ready to go on which is in turbolister so might get those on today as well.

jwil

Made my PAD of £1, and have declared a no spend day for today which is my fourth. I've also added 12p to the coke bottle. Am off to update my signature.

jwil

Well I sold 11 items on ebay last night :T all but two have paid so far so a visit to the post office later is in order. Hopefully the other two will pay up during the day then I'll only have to go once!

Today was meant to be a NSD, but have just realised that I am late for my BIL's birthday (it is today), so need to get something for him doh! For some reason I thought it was later this week.

d3mon4ngel

Congratulations on the Ebay sales :beer:

jwil wrote: »

Today was meant to be a NSD, but have just realised that I am late for my BIL's birthday (it is today), so need to get something for him doh! For some reason I thought it was later this week.

Give him a weetabix cake :D

/subscribes and runs back to hide on her diary...

jwil

d3mon4ngel wrote: »

Congratulations on the Ebay sales :beer:



Give him a weetabix cake :D

/subscribes and runs back to hide on her diary...

Great idea

jwil

I forgot to mention that I also listed 27 items on ebay yesterday :T

Went to the post office today with my parcels, and oh dear was I getting bad vibes from the lady serving I remembered why I normally print postage from the computer, she was not impressed! I wish my folks lived closer, they have a post office!

Came home and have done the free scratchies on Butlins and Virgin, only 10p on each today. I've also done my 10 posts and played the points on bingoport. Am not going to be able to redeem this week unless I am lucky tomorrow or Wednesday, but should get my amazon voucher next week!

Just done my PADs for today, 50p each to CC1 and CC2, and have decided that I am going to try and save up a small emergency fund (I know you shouldn't have savings whilst trying to pay off debt, but I think I need to have something). So 50p to that too. I've also put 11p in my coke bottle.

DH has filled up the dining room and extension with more clutter, we can barely get out there now :rotfl:. I'm not too annoyed as I knew it was going to happen as he can't get to his motorbike in the garage. We really need to get on with selling stuff!

Oh, and finally, DH got the bargain of the week yesterday at the car boot sale, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creuset-Cast-Shallow-Casserole-Volcanic/dp/B0000DIO0U/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1276536925&sr=8-4 Guess how much he paid? - £1.00! It is in mint condition, just needs a clean! :T:T

We have quite a collection now, a kettle, and two casserole dishes, and now this casserole dish - we've paid less than £10 for the lot! They are all the same colour too, so that's good. They were good 'dressing' items in the kitchen in the previous house when we were selling it. They are soooo heavy though!

La_escocesa

Hi jwil, :wave:

Just thought I'd have a wee nosey into your diary to see what you're up to. You're doing great!! Nice one! :T

Good luck with clearing all the clutter!

Have you ever been on bookcrossing.com? I signed up for it a few weeks ago and going to give it a go - you can 'hunt' for books in your local area. People post where they've left books for the taking.

jwil

Hi La Escocesa! Thanks for looking, with you and D3mon 4ngel visiting and the fact that 101 people have looked, I don't feel like I'm completely muttering to myself :rotfl::rotfl:

I think that clearing the clutter is going to be a loooonnnnggg job, though it is really annoying both of us, so that should be motivating! DH did sort a few things out to boot sale yesterday, so that is real progress on his part as he his much more of a hoarder than I am.

I did sign up for bookcrossing a while ago, but haven't tried it yet. I'll have to have another look at it I think, it would be really interesting to follow a book's progress after you've released it. I have on occasion left books on the train if I've finished with them, but you do always wonder if they just wind up in the bin.

jwil

We had some good news yesterday - we have an old 1972 VW Bay window campervan which decided to give up the ghost on the way back from Cornwall on bank holiday weekend. We have replaced the engine (£2,000 :eek:) and also need to replace the carbs which we thought would be an additional £750, but on speaking to the supplier yesterday, it is only going to be around £350 so that is better.

DH bless him has paid for it, and that figure is included in the £15,000 that I owe him which may be slightly less now that the carb is going to be cheaper. That figure is an estimate and needs to be calculated properly, but it is a generous estimate so I will probably actually owe him a little less.

jwil

Having read through the thread 'Sneaky ways to save the pennies' I noticed that a lot of people were using bubble bath instead of handwash. I have loads of bubble bath at home, but I don't have many baths being more of a shower person, so they don't get used.

In the interests of decluttering, I have now decided to use my bubble baths as shower gel, and have been doing this for a few weeks now. I haven't noticed any ill effects in terms of skin care or cleanliness :rotfl:so will carry on doing this until they are used up and will save myself some money on shower gels now :T