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

peaceandfreedom

Happy Monday everyone.

Kicked off the day with a lovely cooked breakfast and a pot of coffee. DH is away for a couple of days and although this sounds mean, I LOVE having the house to myself.

I put a few things up on amazon last night and one has sold already, which should mean about a £6 profit, not bad.

Very busy few days ahead so must go.

Hope everyone is well, and that your DH is feeling a bit better, Jwil.

jwil

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

I'm fine thanks, DDFW. I'm very busy and I've had a domestic-goddess sort of day, getting all kinds of cooking and other stuff done in the kitchen, took stuff to the tip etc.

DH hasn't started looking for another job yet, he's still discussing the ending of his current one. They haven't exactly played fair so far. :mad:

Yay to domestic goddess-type days

That's so frustrating about your DH's job - it's bad enough that they are making him redundant without messing him around as well. I hope he manages to get it sorted soon.

jwil

ebayqueen wrote: »

Hi Jwil

So sorry that you are having a rough time with your hubby. Depression is an absolute curse, you wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy. It affects everyone around you and you can't see it. All you can think about it yourself and how you are feeling. I hope the worst passes soon, hopefully your plans for the next few weekends will help him. HUGS to you Jwil, God bless you.

You mention the fact that there are no clutter free areas in your home to escape to. What about you pick 1 room and completely clear it out into another one. Give it a lick of paint and use it to read in etc. Is that possible.

Take care
E

Thanks ebayqueen - that is the toughest bit - he's so down that he is just blind to how it affects me. He can't even try and hide his feelings.

We had a good weekend, he was much better. Hopefully he's ok today.

The clearing a room is a wonderful idea and what I would love to happen. The problem is, that there just isn't the space to do that. We really *do* have that much stuff. Absolutely everywhere is just jam packed with stuff or boxes to sort.

Funnily enough though - this is a massive improvement on what it was like before.

We always had a lot of stuff anyway, but the house we had to clear was a 3-bed semi which was jammed to the rafters. There was literally enough space to walk through and that was it :eek: The problem was that firstly we needed to make sure there was nothing personal in the piles of stuff, and we wanted to realise the value of items ourselves rather than just get a clearance company in.

At the car boot sales, you get a lot of house clearance firms and you see just how little care they take with belongings, and so much gets ruined. We decided that we would not have that and dealt with it all ourselves. Charities have benefited HUGELY from the clearance, and we have ourselves too.

It's taken a very long time, and although there is still a lot to do, we can sit back and know that very little has gone to landfill, a lot has been recycled, and huge amounts have been donated or sold.

jwil

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

Happy Monday everyone.

Kicked off the day with a lovely cooked breakfast and a pot of coffee. DH is away for a couple of days and although this sounds mean, I LOVE having the house to myself.

I put a few things up on amazon last night and one has sold already, which should mean about a £6 profit, not bad.

Very busy few days ahead so must go.

Hope everyone is well, and that your DH is feeling a bit better, Jwil.

That sounds like a great start to the day. I do love it when I get the house to myself as well, so I know what you mean.

Well done on your amazon sale, that's great!

Hope you have a good few days.

DedicatedDFW

Hi all - very quickly stopping by

jwil - good to hear that you and your hubby had a nice weekend

peaceandfreedom - i am muchly envious of all you achieved the other day and also what a fab start to the day - proper coffee and brekkie

ebayqueen - hope all is well with you

Am too tired to properly move things at the mo. - been at work all day and have been a bit under the weather these last few days too so i'm alternating sitting down on here and then moving a few things - back to it i suppose

jwil

Hope you're feeling better today DDFW.

I've got a few things I haven't updated recently.

Another book sold on amazon, woo hoo! I listed a load of stuff on ebay at the weekend, and did all the relists.

My MSE sponsored OU course has started now and is very interesting, so I think I'm going to learn a lot from that which is good. First assignment due this week though which is not so good :rotfl:

I've just redeemed £5 amazon from a survey site and got one last week from Bingoport so happy with that.

In not so fun news, we've got an item not received claim on ebay grrrr. The buyer is abroad and another newbie who paid over the odds for the item. They bought two items, which collectively came to over £100 including postage. I posted the two items separately so I was covered by RM, but conveniently neither has arrived. I'm guessing that if they haven't arrived, it's probably because they have been held up by customs, but the buyer did not contact me to let me know there was a problem, and have not responded to me when I've asked them to confirm details. They just went straight to a case. The thing which makes me suspicious is that they've recently changed their feedback to 'private' - making me think they've got something to hide and have tried this before.

I'm leaving the case with Paypal - interestingly they've told me I don't have to provide tracking details as I used Paypal postage. I'm curious about this as Paypal only accept proof of delivery which airmail doesn't provide. They've also put a hold on the funds until it's decided so the money is there when they agree a refund which is what will happen. I know I can claim from RM for a lost item, but it will take ages to come through, and it's a pain. It's a lot of money to lose.

jwil

I've started up the 'Pay off as much as you can' challenge again for 2012 here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3642065

It would be good if anyone wanted to join me.

I've taken the decision that I'm going to use that challenge to count how much I pay towards my debts (including interest) so have set myself a target of £15,000. I'm hoping that that will result in a £10,000 overall reduction of my debt.

Some of my payments will be towards loans, which trickle on by themselves, so I'm going to aim to clear two credit cards next year in full. I haven't decided which ones yet.

I'm also probably going to start a new diary soon, just to have a fresh start for the new year.

peaceandfreedom

jwil wrote: »

In not so fun news, we've got an item not received claim on ebay grrrr.

I'm leaving the case with Paypal - interestingly they've told me I don't have to provide tracking details as I used Paypal postage.

Well done on the amazon vouchers and the book sale, you keep a steady stream of profit going. Hope the MSE OU course proves very useful.

It is very annoying about the ebay parcels and I think you are right to be a bit suspicious. Hopefully, Paypal will be equally suspicious and it is useful that you sent the stuff through their postage, seems to make things more straightforward. Hope it works out for you, Jwil.

jwil

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

Well done on the amazon vouchers and the book sale, you keep a steady stream of profit going. Hope the MSE OU course proves very useful.

It is very annoying about the ebay parcels and I think you are right to be a bit suspicious. Hopefully, Paypal will be equally suspicious and it is useful that you sent the stuff through their postage, seems to make things more straightforward. Hope it works out for you, Jwil.

Thanks peaceandfreedom. I'm sure the person will get a refund anyway, but it's a lot of money to be out of pocket - even for a short time!

I'm liking the OU course, I'm not far into it yet, but it's very interesting.

I spent some time last night putting the course material on my Kindle - it makes a huge difference, and means I can read it a lot more comfortably rather than lugging a large textbook around with me.

I :heart2: my kindle :cool:

jwil

Well it's payday today, hurrah! It's been a long month.

The good news is my finances are not looking as bad as they have previous months, and particularly last month which was a shocker due to various things.

The bad news is, I'm still short, and I have MOT on Monday :eek: (service will have to wait until early next year) and my insurance is due too. I NEED to get the starter motor replaced too which I am hoping to do subject to a decent MOT.

I've got my renewal quote, and funnily enough the quotes I've had from using a comparison site are around £50 cheaper (including from the same darned insurer :mad:) so I shan't be sticking with them.