the maccas Debt Free Diary - 20K to pay in 18 months

chevalier

I know you have just done it up, but do you really need to sell it? Would it be worth more to you to rent it out again?
chev

themaccas

Yes unfortunately we need to sell, when OH gets posted it will be too far to commute and we don't want to spend the week apart and only getting together for the weekends, we've tried it before and it's not the life we want. We did make provisional enquiries about renting it out again, this though is not really an option, we learnt that there are currently 180 houses similar to ours currently 'For Let' in the town. This is an extraordinary amount but it's because there are many people that wnat to sell and are finding the market slow so are renting their homes out. There is a very large USAF base nearby which has provided many tennants in the area. However with the current rate of exchange USAF are preferring to go into their own married quarters as it is far cheaper for them so many houses are going back onto the rental market.

With all that, we have come to the conclusion the right thing is to move back in.......I think!

themaccas

Had some good news today, our first quote for removals is in: If we strip it to the basics - we pack/unpack/dismantle beds/provide our own boxes then the cost for them to move it all is £597:j . If they do EVERYTHING then it is £1186.:eek: We'll be doing it the MSE way. We have another quote coming next week and they hire out boxes - as many as you need for a flat £10 fee - Bargain!!

I have also spent £93 today on:

Bathroom cabinet
toilet roll holder
Curtain poles
towel rail
Light shade

And we bought a wardrobe and chest of drawers - £710:o

We still need:
Wall fixings for pictures
Bathroom cabinet (another one)
Another toilet roll holder
OMG it could go on and on.........................:eek:

We are going to leave the water softener though until we can afford it.

WorkingHardDFW

Hi themaccas

I just wanted to say that I read your post and entire thread with a huge amount of interest. So much of what I read makes sense to me. I can only admire your and your family's commitment to get rid of the debt - well done :T :T :T :T :T
This is the first time I've posted on the boards. Like a few I've been lurking in the ether for a while, picking up tips, and getting a reality check which has helped my light blub moment. As you'll see from my signature we are really in a bad way but like you my OH and I have good incomes which mean we service the debt. Thats fine but we're now interested in getting ourselves clear and breaking the bad habits which have got us into this mess in the first place.

I saw from your posts that as well as being really confident and motivated most of the time there were times when this motivation dipped and you fell off the wagon. Any tips for a newbie with a long journey ahead

themaccas

Hi WorkingHard
I'm not sure if I have many good tips, we have been motivated pretty much throughout but just seeing our debt clear, the biggest motivations has been clearing whole debts - paying off credit card/storcard/loan completely then using that payment to pay off another debt (snowballing). However we have definately need time out from the debt busting and sometimes this has gone a bit crazy but becuase it has been inshort bursts, we have been able to reign in from spending too much. I have use this site as a confessional and seeing it written down here in black and white has spurred us on to clear the wayward debts faster.

What we came to the conclusion of a long tiome ago was to occasionally give ourselves a break from the debt. In the past 18 months of clearing our debt, we have been on 2 holidays - camping in cornwall and a fab holiday to New York. DS1 has been on an expedition to South America, we have had major renovations and repairs done to our house and we are moving house in 10 days time. All this and our debt has still reduced from £37K to under £5K in 18 months. There is no easy way to do it and we have sacrificed a lot of family time and worked our backsides off working extra shifts at work, ebaying our hearts out and just cutting back on the frittering - the hardest thing of all!! I have been highly motivated throughout though and I think this is the key reason, if the will isn't there it will always be an uphill battle, though I am still surprised at how keen I am becuase I have a very low boredom threshold.

I am not sure I have explained things very well but I wish you well in your debt free journey, I have changed a lot in the way I think of things in terms of being important in my life. I no longer crave material things and the weekly shop til I drop outings, I am hoping to shorten my working hours when we are debt free and be able to take my children to school more often, take them to the park after school and meet up with my friends during the week for coffee. That to me represents real freedom.

themaccas

I'm back at last after a week without broadband and no TV!!!

We moved back into our house last week and have taken our house off the market. We both agree we can't face another move right now and OH is now unlikely to get posted til spring next year. It is dead weird being back in here after 4 years away and we have tried to be fairly mse about it but now we're here it is really hard to ignore the 'wants' we both have and I can see how our debt spiralled when we moved in here the first time. So far this move has cost us:

£550 - removal costs
£1050 - water softener (I know a complete luxury and a 'want' not a 'need')
£980 - furniture
TV aerials - being put in right now - £250 we had sky before and the old aerials are not giving us ANY normal tv reception so I still think it's a cheaper option than sky.
£140 - Cleaner for the old house, a 'want' rather than 'need' just haven't got the time to clean it with an inch of it's life in time to hand back to the MOD and I think it's money well spent:o
£135 - Gutter repairing and cleaning

So bloody expensive:eek: Won't be doing this again in a hurry!!!!!:rolleyes:

themaccas

I forgot to say that I have paid off another debt - Northern Rock has been PAID OFF. We now have no debt on our cars:j :j :j :j :j :j
That's never happened before in 20 years:T

Snaggles

Well done on the Northern Rock loan (don't forget to update your sig!) - I've just been reading your post about how you've done it all, and I think you've explained it very well.

£140 for a cleaner sounds quite a lot, but if you had spent a couple of days cleaning it yourself, that's a couple of extra shifts at work you wouldn't have been able to do, so the net amount probably isn't all that much.

We're about to clear our car loan too (hopefully) and I agree, it will seem strange not to owe anyone any money for them!

themaccas

Just been springcleaning our outgoings and looking at new car insurance quotes. We *had* been considering buying DS1 a very cheap car to drive as he is learning to drive and the insurance quotes we had done to put him on mine meant paying an extra £2000.

However I have now found an insurance website called quinn direct and they seem a lot cheaper. I don't think they have the best reputation but money talks I'm afraid and I have learnt that to put him on my insurance with them will cost £880 a year fully comp (no quidco though :mad: ). This is a massive saving on buying an extra car and all the associated costs, although the insurance for just myself and OH would have been £230 - £95 (prudential quidco) = £135:rolleyes: .

So getting DS on my car will cost in real terms - £745. This is cheaper than buying him a car, taxing, servicing, running costs etc. I'm still not really sure though.......

Then I looked at our home insurance, we have been with the same insurance co for 11 years:o partly because they offered a good insurance quote when we were renting the property out. However they are no longer competative and I changed to the AA today. Our monthly home buildings and contents insurance has now gone from £65 per month to £27:T :T :T :T That will help towards the car insurance:rotfl: :rotfl: And I get £35 through quidco.....I love QUIDCO:beer:

themaccas

We got a phone call from OH's parents yesterday , his dad asked OH if he could lend him £1000 for them to both go bankrupt (for the second time). OH said no. We get on well with them but have seen them make a series of really bad decisions over the past 20 years, each time we have told them to think things through but they have just done their own thing each time. Now they are in the position of having to move into sheltered accomodation (they are in their early 60's), his fil has had to give up work due to ill health caused by smoking, I wouldn't mind giving a contribution towards their costs but OH is no budging as they have not cut back on anything to help themselves.

It's heartbreaking seeing them in this position as it could all have been avoided. They have been living with OH's sister and her husband for the past 3 years in a lovely self contained annexe for £250 including everything - bills/rent/c.tax. They have decided that it's too remote and forced their daughter and sil to make them homeless so they could be more independent. I'm not sure how moving into sheltered housing (costing £350 plus bills) makes you more independent but that's them.