The Ultimate Incentive to get debt free… again. Dinah & NIM go head to head!

Birdie85

Errr.... I'm afraid my skills stop at finding you a possible flat!

How scary Ruby! I don't blame you for wanting a duvet day!

Lara44

:rotfl: Tete! Thanks for the tip about scratch no more. We have sanded floorboards here so she's not able to wreck those (I think). Our sofa is in bad shape anyway, it was once white, now grey with splodges.... What can you do, eh? Maybe when my new sewing machine arrives I can make new cushion covers and pay someone else to make the whole big bit that goes over the back, as that looks too scary to attempt.

Aww Dinah, can't believe all your clothes went mouldy, that's awful! Hope you managed to find something suitable. Will be thinking about you today, I hope the funeral is a comfort.

wendz86

Hope all goes well today Dinah, thinking of you x

Hopefully the Zumba was working you without realising it, is supposed to burn a lot of calories.

Dinah93

Thank you for all your kind words today. It went okay, a few tears all around, but Gran had a lovely sunny day, and she had a fantastic turn out - I think almost every teacher she'd ever worked with turned out. My brother showed is soft side too, he was in bits a few times, held my hand most of the day, and (he's a bit of an indie lad) he put one of his leather bracelets on the coffin, which mum said was right as she always wears a ruby ring I gave her about 8 years ago, so she has one bit of my jewellery and one of his with her.

Been doing some money fiddling this evening. Money is all in the different accounts, worryingly all our money (including NIMs bonus) is already allocated - basically our spends money for the month is going to be whatever we can bring in from mystery shopping. Our allocated spends has already gone on finally getting NIM a coat (poor lad was a very chilly Irishman, even if not quite naked!) which was £39.99 reduced from £140 in the Go Outdoors sale, getting him his first haircut in 4 months as he was starting to look like a poorly groomed sesame street character, and finally we need a new headlight bulb.

Hopefully someone is coming to view the car tomorrow, if it sells that will be a collosal weight off us.

Really pleased to be both under the £17k mark, and to have cleared over £3k now. Thats putting us at roughly £1000 a month, or £31.83 a day to be exact, which isn't bad going.

NIM is going to town tomorrow with proof of student status from the OU to try to get a student overdraft from the bank. If he can he should get £1000 interest free, which we can pay straight off the credit card, and work on paying off without having to pay all this nasty interest stuff. We've also got a few more mystery shops lined up this weekend, and we're planning to hit ebay big time to try to start clearing our ebay room. Simply because its mental that we have an ebay room.

Dad is coming over probably sometime tomorrow to fit these trickle vents. Hopefully it'll make all the difference and the mould will stop, but mentally I think both NIM and I are thinking we're going to be moving sometime in the spring. I think we'd like to make the morgage a bit smaller, if we made £20,000 off this one we'd be just about at the 25% deposit stage, which would nearly half the interest rate we're on. That'd make a nice difference! Still need to finish this one though, I think it has about £2000 left to put into it, to put down nice wood flooring in the lounge, downstairs bedroom and front room, and put in a stove in the fireplace in the lounge. Conservatory could do with a lick of paint, and the garden, well its a tip. But the end is in sight. We've completely fallen in love with a REAL doer upper about 20mins further from our workplaces. Out of our price range though, we could afford to buy it if we sold this, but we couldn't afford all the work it needs doing. It has a 300ft garden, outbuildings, it's a 3 bed in a very desirable village, with an unusual plot arrangement just crying out for a 2 storey side extension to make it a more well rounded 5 bed. But all the work, fees, etc would be about £92,000, and even though it'd sell for about £65-£95k profit, we just don't have it. Oh how I wish I was rich!

My birthday on Tuesday, although me and dad are celebrating together next Friday. After which I plan to do a 5 day detox, try to reinvigorate me on the diet. I sort of lost 6lbs and hit a wall.

ruby_eskimo

Glad that the day went well for you.

Sounds like you have a proper plan for the house. I really admire you and NIM, I don't think I would have been able to put up with all the hassle you've had of doing up your current place. I want to move into somewhere with just a bit of redecorating to do!

Dinah93

Lol it seems like an easy way to make a third salary effectively for us. Plus I'd LOVE to be able to quit my job to run my business and property develop (which I know everyone and their dog wants to do, but I think being a planner, and listed building specalist makes me look at projects others might not consider if they don't know the regs etc), so doing a few of our own houses on the side seems like a good way to learn and practice and build up enough funds for me to do it full time/alongside another business.

NIM made a VERY generous offer the other night. He suggested that once we've cleared the debt I quit the job, which I hate so much, and work on setting up my business(es). It's an amazingly sweet thing to offer to do, and financially we could survive, but realistically I think it's too big a jump. Although there may be discussions about maybe going part time to still have a regular wage, but give me a lot more time to work on other projects to try to quit fully in the not too distant future.

Cinny91

The service sounded lovely Dinah, sounds like your Nan was a much loved lady

I think if you did quit to work on your business you should save up at least 6 months worth of expenses before hand. Then you've got back up if living on NIMs one wage is too extreme a life style change, or if the business doesn't plan out (eeeverything crossed that is a major success!) you've got 6 months back up to find another job, and won't have rush into another job you'd hate.

Swinstie73

Hey Dinah, funeral service sounded lovely and it's nice of your gran has something of yours and your brothers.

Quick question (and hopefully not a cheeky one), obviously you were in the midst of clearing £16K of debt when I first started reading your diary and successfully done it, can I just ask though what your new debt is made up of? The reason I'm asking, is that I'm going to be free of debt by the end of February, yeah!, and I really want to stay out of debt, but I'm already thinking of things I need/want to buy and scared that it's a slippery slope to debtsville. I'm hoping that most of your debts were house decorating/building related, as we've already considered that when we move, we will have some house-related debts - saving up for wedding/honeymoon so that should be ok.

wendz86

Glad all went as well as it could yesterday.

That is really sweet of NIM to say you could stop working to get the business off the ground etc. Obviously something that would need to be thought a lot about. Sounds like a good idea too to try and get somewhere with a smaller mortgage after you have finished that house, bet you will be glad to get out of there after all the problems.

We have got more car problems today...never rains but it pours! The engine light has come on and it is shuddering. Going to give my dad a call in a min to see what he thinks. Wish he lived nearer and could come look.

Dinah93

Swinstie73 wrote: »

Hey Dinah, funeral service sounded lovely and it's nice of your gran has something of yours and your brothers.

Quick question (and hopefully not a cheeky one), obviously you were in the midst of clearing £16K of debt when I first started reading your diary and successfully done it, can I just ask though what your new debt is made up of? The reason I'm asking, is that I'm going to be free of debt by the end of February, yeah!, and I really want to stay out of debt, but I'm already thinking of things I need/want to buy and scared that it's a slippery slope to debtsville. I'm hoping that most of your debts were house decorating/building related, as we've already considered that when we move, we will have some house-related debts - saving up for wedding/honeymoon so that should be ok.

Course it's not cheeky. The issues were things like me being out of work so long my wages were slashed, so we lost about £4200 in my wages last year we were expecting to go towards the wedding, and the house cost a lot more than I think I had planned, so that was about another £3000. We paid extra on top of our grandparents money to get our bedroom furniture which was about another £1200, and then we bought a new car as NIM got panicy about me getting stuck on the moors again where there is no phone signal, which was another £8600 - a lot of money but the piece of mind it gives is almost worth it. Stay clear of new cars and prolonged periods of sick leave and you'll be fine!

Sorry to hear about your car Wendz, hope its nothing major.

So, erm, I started a new blog. And quite possibly an utterly mental project - but it's been a while since I did a mental project and I'm in the mood for one! Especially since the end goal is something I so desperately want and need. Personally I think this could be a whole lot of fun, and enlightening at the same time.

Having another crap day today. My mums best friend collapsed last night in Tesco about an hour after leaving ours after the funeral. So mum spent the night at the hospital as her husband was in Bristol so had to drive back up, and her daughter was a nervous wreak obviously since her healthy, vibrant mum had collapsed in Tesco and was in A & E. They think it was a seizure as she has memory gaps yesterday, but she has no history of them, so she was kept in overnight and is having a scan this afternoon. Fingers crossed it was some one off event through low blood sugar and rushing about or something.