A New House For Her , A Rugby Shirt For Me

andy1886

Car part ordered on Monday and fitted yesterday , cost of £75 . Another month of struggling to get through to the end , no surplus to pay off any creditors . Middle of month 5 of the year and already there is next to no chance I will be debt free by the end of the year . Oh well it looks like being another long dark winter but hopefully next spring I will become debt free .

beanielou

Stay positive & keep plodding.

andy1886

Into the month of June . At work I will be moving from holiday and sickness cover into having a permanent place of work . It is slightly less hours and will cost me about £50 a month in fuel but it is one of the busiest places we have so it should survive any closures , sell offs etc . Less well off each month but secure employment was the decision I had to make . Let's hope I've made the right one .
I have next week off work before I start my new rota , 1 weekend off a month something I've never had , not a lot planned but the delayed car service from April is booked in for Wednesday , hopefully nothing too expensive but it needs doing . I had hoped to pay off my third creditor this month but depending on how much the service costs and what is left over may mean I don't pay them until next month . Unfortunately I won't be debt free this year but with just under £5000 left to pay I am definately hoping it will all be gone by this time next year . It is too early to say what the future holds beyond that but I can't wait to get there . Heres to a good relaxing week off watching the current series of The Good Wife which I have been saving since January and can watch them all back to back .

beanielou

Enjoy your break~~you so deserve it
NO PPI to claim?

andy1886

No I am as certain as I can be that I have never had PPI on any account but it may be something I sort out once and for all after becoming debt free and if I am entitled to anything then I will take the better half on a break somewhere . I also forgot that in May the exhaust blew and cost me £125 , bloody cars are doing me in at the moment , hope this weeks service finds no surprises .

andy1886

Well back to work today and don't feel like I've had any time off . Car serviced , £90 and all ok , when I collected it the engine management light and power steering light came on . Checked the engine management code and it is a speed sensor with the power steering fault maybe connected . Drove it for a couple of days and the faults have corrected themselves so for the time being I am going to stick with it and hope they don't return .
Spent the week running about helping out others , the week has passed quickly but I don't feel rested at all . A bit fed up with it all . Have decided against common sense to book a holiday for my next week off in early September . It is Monday to Friday and in the UK and self catering so not costing a fortune but with the costs of petrol , admission fees and food for the week it is obviously pushing back my debt free date even further . This now doesnot bother me , my credit file can't be repaired fully for 5 years due to the arrangement to pay markers so another 4 months to repay the debt next year don't now bother me . It will be repayed sometime next year , no target month just let it happen . In the meantime I am going to live a little just to have an aim whilst working , something to work towards .

andy1886

Car been running great . Enjoying it at my new place of work and enjoying being on a rota for the first time as well . It is costing me about a fiver a day in petrol but so far this month I have no other spends so it is all ok . Have planned holiday for September , plenty to do each day and not a ridiculous amount of money needed but the excitement of going away is greater than the thought of being in debt a little longer . I feel we need and probably deserve this break and once back we will be back on track to repay the remaining amount asap . Once back it will be time to start thinking amount changing mortgage deals as the one we are on finishes in December , will be checking what rates are available and whether to fix or not and if so for how long . That will see out the rest of this year then it is get through winter and then hopefully count down to reaching the ultimate aim of finally being debt free .

andy1886

July passed with no money problems . August hopefully will go the same way . I have no money for the month but other than petrol I don't need any . Everything in place for our holiday in September , I can't wait but there is a small feeling that I should have used the money to pay some debt off but I think we have struggled for too long now that we deserve a short , cheap break and when back will be focused on repaying the remaining debt as quickly as possible .

maddiemay

Hi, I have "popped my head around the door" and read from time to time, you are doing great and a holiday will set you up for the winter.

The pennies can really run away even when self catering, so I'll offer a couple of tips that work well for us (you may do these anyway). If someone in the household bakes (or still time to learn) make and take a few things that keep well, that can be cut and taken out for picnics (fruit cake, ginger cake, lemon drizzle, carrot cake), or any of these made into muffins, flapjack etc. Nothing nicer than HM cake (if you eat cake) and it cost £2-3 per portion out. OH and I like our "days out at NT or EH properties or beauty spots and we notice more and more people taking flasks and picnics. Sandwiches can be pretty unexciting, but we often buy bread rolls and ham or salami or the like later in the day ready to make up and take out the following day.

If you have a couple of cool blocks and insulated bag make some meals and freeze to take with you, chilli, spag bol, casseroles, fish pie, even if no freezer should be quite safe in fridge when you arrive to last first 3/4 days.

Have you come across Memory Girl's blog? google mortgage free in three, she recently (within last three weeks) showed how she sorted and weighed out food to take for 3 adults and 1 child for self catering in a caravan (I have never been that organised but will me more so in future:)

Sorry if I am preaching to the converted, but a good time can be had even if money short and not feel deprived either (can you tell I love good food?:rotfl:)

andy1886

Thanks for the comments . OH is a fantastic baker which reminds me I need to set the recording device to record the Great British Bake Off series . I have budgeted £100 a day for 5 days to include petrol , admission fees and food and drink . We are going to Shropshire which is a bit of a foodie area . OH suffers from anxiety unfortunately so eating out is a no no therefore the plan is to take cereal for breakfast , buy lunch to eat out so salad box , quiches , sandwich etc , stop at a nice cafe for tea , cake ,cream tea in the afternoon then either fetch food from a deli to have cheese ,crackers , meats etc or a take away for evening . Budget about £25 a day for 2 . We will be visiting NT and EH places so picnics it is for us weather permitting . Really looking forward to it . OH sorts me out for food for work all year with variety of dishes that I get out of the freezer not knowing what it is , so I want it to be a break for her too with little cooking , cleaning etc . We will be having days out and relaxing . I actually have not spent any money at work since starting dmp , if I dont take anything I go hungry and with working 14 hour days you dont want to be short of food to take with you. Again thanks for reading and commenting .