A Budgeteers Quest to be Debt Free & Mortgage Free By 40

DedicatedDFW

ebayqueen wrote: »

Hiya DDFW

Sorry to hear that you were not well yesterday. You are under so much stress. What about a nice hot bath warm jammies and hot drink tonight. You have done so well this month. Do you feel you are in control or do you feel overwhelmed at the moment?

Hi ebayqueen and thank-you for your kind words. Whilst i don't feel in control / on top of things at the moment i *am* pushing myself to do 'bits' every day to pay the debt down in order to give myself some space where i feel i can think more clearly To be honest i am sure alot of us who owe money have been in this position so i think people reading will understand what i mean.

So, i posted what i did on Friday.

Then the weekend *could* have been quite productive - depends if something works out and i will share if it does - From an MS type thing but completely different to what i'm used to and i was feeling dreadful so we will see - will be £95 if all goes to the good though so it was worth persevering if this pays out.

I did my usual bits towards amaz*n

I got my 100 items on eb*y - mostly re-lists but still is all to the good

I sold some items and received payment and transferred the money to my bank

I *should* be getting £30 in my bank at the beginning of march from my bingo referrals :T - straight to target 3 as it goes into that account Gotta love free money

I sold an item on amaz*n.

I re-organised some storage space so its alot better now - i had 'help' doing it before and discovered things were just crammed in :eek: :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Today I have:-

Contacted the mortgage company to check what the new payments will be in a couple of months time. Later i will contact my bank to put the standing order in place This has been a major worry but now i'm just wishing the months away to when it changes and then i can see whats happening there. Still should be better for us. Took ages to get through to mortgage people mind so was not a quick task.

I added some pics onto my newly listed stuff on eb*y as my camera battery needed charging up.

I have completed a survey.

I have chased and received a missing gift voucher.

When i couldn't sleep in the middle of the night i set myself a challenge of 30 newly listed items on eb*y - so you can guess what i'll be doing later :cool: :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

The decluttering helps actually as i let go of things that are not important or not neeeded and the money obviously helps too. Although OH has made grumblings about these things now being in the spare room *fingers crossed* for sales i say then they will be gone :T

I *might* put the stuff i've had on at a higher price on at 99p if they don't go - what do people think? The thing is i am not using / wearing these items and i need both the space and the money. So if i re-list them a couple more times and they don't sell i'm thinking of popping them on at 99p. Obviously the stuff i didn't want to part with anyways i'll re-assess e.g i have a new t-shirt and a dress which i can happily wear on holibobs / in the summer. Any suggestions would be fab

DedicatedDFW

Also got another survey thing through for am amaz*n voucher if all goes well on this one

The Amaz*n won't reduce the debt obviously but i am *still* on my quest for those loft ladders :cool:

jwil

You've achieved loads DDFW :T

Another thing to consider with ebay is offering free postage. People often get a bit silly when they don't have to pay postage and pay more, you get higher standing in the search results, and also no-one can ever complain if the postage comes to less than you were thinking. The downside is obviously that your FVF includes the postage charge, but I've always found I sell better when offering free postage.

ebayqueen_2

Hi DDFW

I agree with what Jwil says above. What I do if it doesn't sell I lower it and sometimes find that it goes for a higher price Thats ebay. Delighted that you are earning your amazonia vouchers, you will soon get that ladder:):) Keep going ddfw

jwil

Hey DDFW, can you empty your PMs please

DedicatedDFW

ebayqueen wrote: »

Hi DDFW

I agree with what Jwil says above. What I do if it doesn't sell I lower it and sometimes find that it goes for a higher price Thats ebay. Delighted that you are earning your amazonia vouchers, you will soon get that ladder:):) Keep going ddfw

thanks for the hints guys

jwil wrote: »

Hey DDFW, can you empty your PMs please

duly done - i've had some on there for years

DedicatedDFW

Hi everyone

First of all i really, really appreciate all of the advice and support i've received today so thank-you so much It has been brilliant and it is good to know that you kind people are here to help

Whilst posting about what seems something quite positive today i didn't post that i am not having a great day and what i don't want to do is bring others down writing about it Nothing to worry about i'm sure but i think i need to force myself to wind down a tad before 'venting' so that it'll be more a tale of a budgeteers daily battle against the things that are sent to try us rather than letting off steam.

I hope to be back in a more cheery fram of mind soon guys - maybe i just need a good nights sleep?

DedicatedDFW

Shameless copy and paste from another thread to keep my lurkers in the loop

Advice Please

Hi everyone - i know we are coming to the month end so hopefully lots of people are popping on with updates :T i would just really appreciate some advice please

Several years ago i took out a long term savings account. This requires i pay in a set amount each month during the term of the savings. When i took out the savings my situation was very different to the one i'm in now. I was not in debt, I had savings, i had a job paying more than double what i'm earning now and i didn't have a mortgage (at that time - got the house just before being made redundant) and the mortgage is higher than the rent i was paying. Following redundancy i am working but have been unable to find a job with the same salary i was on before - i know alot of us know how hard it is with jobs now. So when i took out the savings account i was paying 6% of my salary into this which means with my new job i am paying about 12% of my income into this. - Putting this a little more into perspective my mortgage is 43% of my salary :eek::eek::eek: - i know but i was earning more before and the rent would still be 29% if i hadn't moved.

I am now considering if it would be best to cash in these savings early and pay the money towards the debt.


Positives i can come up with for keeping the account going are:

I have no other savings and i have no pension - these savings were something for the future so that will be gone. I have used all my other savings meeting the mortgage and bills payments when i was scraping in £400month working part time.

I have kept up the payments so should still be able to do so.

Currently alot of my debt is 0% but that will end soon.

If i cash in early then i will lose some money - but as savings are linked to stuff that fluctuates i could save and still lose money - not sure if the is a plus or minus really


Reasons to take the money and run cash in early:

The savings are not guaranteed - linked to things that fluctuate so i could carry on paying in over the next few years and lose alot of money (to me).

If i cancel this and use the money to pay towards debts i could set the same amount up to be paid into a more guaranteed account like a cash isa - so still have saving that are less risky.

The debt has been getting me down alot lately sleepless nights etc. am sure alot of us know what i mean so this would relieve some of that - i'd still have debt to clear but it would be less

Currently alot of my debt is 0% but that will end soon - as a negative as it will end soon.

Any advice would be really appreciated

The above i shamelessly copied and pasted from another thread i'm on But have also realised some other things to note:-

I have not used this account when i was really struggling because i can't instantly access the money - they are going to send me details of what its worth currently if i do finish the savings now.

Not only would i save the money i'm currently paying into this - which i *would* pay into another more secure savings account but by paying off debt - i am thinking of one nasty credit card balance in particular which is due to incur interest again in the next month or so - I would be freeing up £80 a month which i am repaying towards debt.

As i am currently due to pay off target 1 in my sig in the next few days *fingers crossed* i *think* depending on what the deductions are for taking the money sooner - i could reduce my debt by 1/3 so have 2/3rds left still to clear. Please note the £17,000 target in my sig isn't my debt balance its debt balance + hopeful mortgage overpayments.

DedicatedDFW

So, an update for everyone

I haven't been able to cancel the above mentioned savings account as yet but i am pretty much decided that this is what i will do. I cannot cancel it over the phone i need a special form and all sorts of things - no doubt followed by a forward roll and a cartwheel - to get my money paid to me. All of this is in hand just now BUT what i *have* done is cancel the payments going into the account - seemed silly to allow more payments to go in when the value of the account is quite a bit less than what i have paid in :eek: Cancelling the payment also meant i can just about cover all my bills this month too. I was hoping for a surplus to make an extra payment with but as a bill due next month was demanded yesterday i paid that. At least that is all done.

My savings were for the future so i guess it was a bit emotional making the decision to get them now and throw at the debt But i should remind myself that the debt was created by keeping up with my mortgage and household bills following redundancy so *really* it is being used towards an investment thing just not in the way i had hoped - in a way if you can follow that ?/

So as i say this was probably a bit of an emotional thing - and not entirely positive considering how much there is to what i have paid

But i had a bad day because i was on the phone for what felt like *all day* to different money places :mad: All issues have not yet been resolved so for now that is something else that will be on my mind. There is nothing more i can do until they come back to me with some details - why that takes so long is anyones guess *harumph!*

DedicatedDFW

So we are at the end of february already :eek: - is it too soon to mention the c word yet ? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

So far this year i have:~

paid all my bills each month

reduced my debt by more than just the minimum payments

sold my car which was a huge relief to see it go and get some pennies in

Put a plan in place to be debt free by the end of the year but aim to be debt free by my next birthday - fortunately late in the year too

Decided to cancel a savings account which will hopefully have a big impact on my outstanding balances.

Joined lula-hoola's challenge and after a rocky start ( i *did* start in december mind ) have been alot more mindful of the clothes i need / buy and why i *want* things

Decluttered even more than i thought was possible listing a massive 150 newly listed items on the bay of e - some of these items were sold as 2's or batches so more than 150 items to go / gone

I have also challenged myself to get rid of 30 more items which is going slowly just now

I have some money to one side to have a major maintenance job done on the house

i have re-discovered the pleasure in baking

i have continued to do surveys and other things for amaz*n vouchers

So all in all not too shabby a start to the year i feel.