£1 loan payments, orangutans and learning it doesn't all happen overnight...

Kepp

I had the best news in the world on Saturday morning when the post hit the mat - my redundancy application has been accepted!!! After 18 months of waiting! So, in January 2014 OH and I are off for a year travelling the world! :j:j:j

Lots to do and sort out but trying to calm down a bit over the next few days and start making some plans.

I had already got some stuff on eBay recently and had some good bids over the weekend, but must really ramp this up now. Not just for the money, but we need to be rid of all our stuff before we go.

Had a great weekend too - lovely night out for 3 friend's joint birthday and a 17 mile walk yesterday, still got to keep preparing for Africa too.

Going to be an exciting year!

postingalwaysposting

Fantatsic stuff Becky :j What an exciting time for you and you OH :j Have you already planned you stops etc and decided where you are going to see? Are you going to do it the MSE way or in a little more luxury?

Do you have anywhere to go between Africa before Jan 2014? Are you getting rid of absoultely everything or will you be using a storage facility/friends for odd bits? I am wishing you all the luck with the ebaying, I don't even want to think how many listing I would have to write just to sell my stuff, which isn't much!

Your MM is going well too... Congrats

Sorry, this just seems like a list of questions but I am really interested in your coming adventure!

Emzilla

Congratulations Beccie :T - exciting stuff.

I'm really interested in the details too. It's something I would love to do, but I would get homesick pretty quickly and I don't think my illness would help either.

Are you going to do a blog whilst travelling?

Emz xx

Kepp

Thanks both :A

My final working day is 31st December. We are planning to move out the flat mid-December so as not to be faffing with moving over Xmas and New Year. We think we will fly out to who knows where mid-January! A little bit of time to get sorted after Xmas but I don't want to hang around too long not earning money.

We are just thinking out ideas at the moment (so much to do, so little time! ) but I think we are settling on SE Asia, South America and India. We want to plan some bits but also leave a lot open for just seeing what happens. I'm getting 22K so its a balance with trying to have the best time away possible and having a little to come back to. OH didn't get his (same company) but is appealing the decision. Another 14K for the pot if the appeal is successful :eek: we could be looking at going for 2 years if that's the case.

We are probably going to rough it for the most part - although I have said to OH I only want to go for private rooms in hostels, my dorm days are over! Had things stolen before, too much noise and in one case some bloke trying to get in my bed :eek:

My only other plans other than Africa are a holiday in Spain in September with my Mum, but plenty to keep busy with during the countdown

We are going to make a list of things that we would ideally like to keep, see who has loft space and then whittle it down accordingly. Really only looking at keeping things like our bed (an expensive housewarming present from OH's parents) and things like that. No junk whatsoever. I do think though that unfortunately we will have to part with our lovely corner sofa, nothing wrong with it, just too big for someone to store. Storage units seem to be extortionate so we don't want to use anything like that.

I hate to think how many eBay listings this will result in - will just have to do the best I can in the time I have left

We also have to find a home for the car. We have it on a lease deal where you pay monthly rental for 3 years then hand it back. We will only be a year in when we leave. To buy our way out we would have to pay the full 2 remaining years and give back the car. We hope to get someone will take it for the year and then we'll take it back and finish the lease. If they help pay to the lease would be great but if it comes to it I'd rather a friend go the use from it if we are going to be paying it either way!

I had thought of a blog but not sure if my writing would be interesting enough

Sorry - epic post! Good to get some thoughts down though and hope that's answered all the questions :rotfl:

Emzilla

beccie wrote: »

Thanks both :A

My final working day is 31st December. We are planning to move out the flat mid-December so as not to be faffing with moving over Xmas and New Year. We think we will fly out to who knows where mid-January! A little bit of time to get sorted after Xmas but I don't want to hang around too long not earning money.

We are just thinking out ideas at the moment (so much to do, so little time! ) but I think we are settling on SE Asia, South America and India. We want to plan some bits but also leave a lot open for just seeing what happens. I'm getting 22K so its a balance with trying to have the best time away possible and having a little to come back to. OH didn't get his (same company) but is appealing the decision. Another 14K for the pot if the appeal is successful :eek: we could be looking at going for 2 years if that's the case.

We are probably going to rough it for the most part - although I have said to OH I only want to go for private rooms in hostels, my dorm days are over! Had things stolen before, too much noise and in one case some bloke trying to get in my bed :eek:

My only other plans other than Africa are a holiday in Spain in September with my Mum, but plenty to keep busy with during the countdown

We are going to make a list of things that we would ideally like to keep, see who has loft space and then whittle it down accordingly. Really only looking at keeping things like our bed (an expensive housewarming present from OH's parents) and things like that. No junk whatsoever. I do think though that unfortunately we will have to part with our lovely corner sofa, nothing wrong with it, just too big for someone to store. Storage units seem to be extortionate so we don't want to use anything like that.

I hate to think how many eBay listings this will result in - will just have to do the best I can in the time I have left

We also have to find a home for the car. We have it on a lease deal where you pay monthly rental for 3 years then hand it back. We will only be a year in when we leave. To buy our way out we would have to pay the full 2 remaining years and give back the car. We hope to get someone will take it for the year and then we'll take it back and finish the lease. If they help pay to the lease would be great but if it comes to it I'd rather a friend go the use from it if we are going to be paying it either way!

I had thought of a blog but not sure if my writing would be interesting enough

Sorry - epic post! Good to get some thoughts down though and hope that's answered all the questions :rotfl:

Sounds good to me Beccie.

I think a blog would be really interesting. You would have lots to write about.

Emz xx

postingalwaysposting

:hello: and to Em!

What a great idea to move out before christmas, have you got a place/places to stay until you fly or is that something you need to plan? Great choice of area's, plus not your usual places 'back packing' that students do so maybe less youngster (although I know you are still young) in the hostels.

Once you ahve finished your trip will you need to rent a flat/home, if so maybe alongside some money to come back to could you save a deposit/months rent? I know a couple who lived in Aus for a year and blew everything and in the end had to beg for somewhere to live. Thankfully a landlady trusted them and they got jobs pretty quickly too.

Wow if your OH could get some sort of payout too that would be amazing. Two years would be even better, is there a chance of working visa's too in these destinations? Maybe that could extend your trips by a few month even if you didn't have his imput.

Hopefully the list isn't too long. I agree with the bed though best to keep things that are sentimental rather than just 'liked' ie your sofa :rotfl: After all they are only material things with no meaning, you can always buy the same/better one once you return.

Car is a sticky one but I agree that letting someone use it would be a better course of action. However I think it would be better to ask for some sort of donation to the monthly costs. Especially so if your will be away for 2 years, as they would be using it 2/3rds of the time you have 'owned' it which is a huge proportion compared to the time you have used it.

I would love to read a blog from you whilst you are away. I love your down to earth writing style on here and to continue to read about your life in the coming years would be fantastic. However if you do please don't get to lost in updating it daily/weekly. A blog would be great (plus you can look back at it) but don't let it come at the sacrifice of you two having the times of your lives!

Ohhh exciting stuff :beer:

Kepp

Fortunately both sets of our parents live locally so somewhere to stay is easy to sort, although I've lived with OH's for a couple of weeks before when we were between leases, I would choose to live with mine for preference, will let OH do what he wants

We are aiming to breakdown the costs as follows - 10K to travel with, 5K to come back to, 2K to perhaps covers car costs etc and 5K for unexpected travel costs or a nice extra bonus for when we come back. I expect those numbers to move around a lot though!

For me if it comes down to just keeping sentimental things that would be one box OH seems inexplicably attached to such things as his Playstation, so his box may be larger :rotfl:We were on a bit of a de-junk mission recently anyway, I had borrowed Birdie's idea of de-junking 2013 things in 2013 and so far have managed 294 things so hopefully this will be a good extension of that.

We have considered working while away and decided that should the opportunity present itself then we wouldn't be averse as it would be a good way of extending our time. However, with knowing some people who spent half their time looking for work while away we don't want to get too caught up in job searches and waste time we could be seeing things.

Will definitely consider a blog then if I already have at least 2 readers!

Now for an eBay whinge (I expect there will be a lot of those over the coming months!) I sold two items on Sunday evening there was a bit of a bidding war and the same person won both items, one for £26 and the other for £14.50. So, they were on there bidding literally till the last second, have they paid me yet? No! Why do people do that?!

On a less whingy note, email this morning, I have sold another book on Amazon for £22

Cinny91

Love the sound of your plans, Beccie! Like I said on Dinah's thread, I can't think of a more impressive way to spend a redundancy package, will keep my fingers crossed your OH too

I'll take a free car as long as a million husky hairs won't ruin your warranty :A (worth a try, ehy?!)

Kepp

Cinny91 wrote: »

Love the sound of your plans, Beccie! Like I said on Dinah's thread, I can't think of a more impressive way to spend a redundancy package, will keep my fingers crossed your OH too

I'll take a free car as long as a million husky hairs won't ruin your warranty :A (worth a try, ehy?!)

:rotfl::rotfl:Would a husky fit in an Aygo?!

Cinny91

beccie wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl:Would a husky fit in an Aygo?!

If I can teach him how to drive while I sit in the boot then yes!