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

DedicatedDFW

Hi everyone - gosh I got a but down in the dumps there for a while. Already it is nearly the end of January and if it is going to be my year of being debt free and then focusing on the mortgage there is only going to be me who gets me there! So a fair bit of pulling up of socks and moving forwards with a plan of action to be done methinks. :cool: And also a fair bit of 'well, you want to do things in life which you enjoy and make you happy and give you self-esteem and make you feel fulfilled as well as working 2 jobs, running a home, looking after others then yep! it's gonna be hard work for a while - but hard work only for a while - in the short term because by x date you'll have paid £x or finished x assignment etc.' and keep that goal in sight. Its too easy for me to become so overwhelmed that I find it hard to just keep doing what i need to do. Hence the massive project I have just caught up on and put a system in place to KEEP it up to date. *where is the rolly eyes smiley when you need it? *

Now my last plan went a bit haywire mainly due to a leak which needed to be repaired :eek: and the loss of p/t hours meaning the income I was expecting didn't materialise and thus my plans of paying off target 1 by March went back to the drawing board.

But what i am now thinking is that I need to do something everyday. No matter how small, that focuses on the finances and helps to move me towards my goal of debt freedom. So today, I have, re-listed an e-bay item at a lower price and listed a pair of boots for sale too

I have had an NSD


TADA list: -

Got as far as possible with the dreaded task I have been putting off
Done the washing
And drying
Moved the creams I purchased with vouchers yesterday
Re-organised the tops in my wardrobe and found an item to sell :T
Boxed up unsold e-bay stuff ready for the carboot

DedicatedDFW

Morning Everyone,

So I am going to need a change of routine - this will be hard considering the late hour i get home at night but I think I need to start getting up earlier and doing the free bingo / catching up on things on here / checking for any MS in the morning before going out to work. At night, I need to make sure I have everything ready for the next working day and if its a friday, have everything ready for monday.

Today I got up late which was not the best start to the day

But I have made 2 essential calls - and that reminds me 1 more to do before I rush off to work
I have done my free bingo

The small things I will be doing towards my debt freedom today are (apart from bingo) listing 2 items on e-bay this evening!

Give me a shout if I don't confirm that I have done this please

Yesterday I also picked up a MS and have had a look today but nothing is available locally.

So it is small steps but all in the right direction. Will update again later.

beurgh! to Mondays but the week is started and hopefully by the time the weekrnd gets here that will mean i have taken 5 more steps towards debt freedom.

Hope its a good week for all x

DedicatedDFW

Yawn! Am soo tired, really really must contact the docs this week!

So, I listed 3 things on e-bay :j:j:jIt was 1 of the things I had planned and 2 other items I had lifted out. The other item I had decided to sell is tucked away in a box so a small amount of rummaging and this will be listed TOMORROW *i pledge* so small steps but hopefully it will all add up - please all send positive vibes for bids for me - even if its only minimum bid it all helps

I had decided to keep the heating off but it is soo cold so what I have done is put the heating on but just for an hour to try and keep the bill down. So another small step there.

Right, time for bed and hopefully will be on at a cheerily early hour of the morning - Night all x

DedicatedDFW

Hi everyone - no i didn't make it up early this morning which means I have everything to do tonight *eep* I didn't actually sleep well, when i finally warmed up enough to snooze I was busy worrying about the debt and my job *shudders* which as I've said I find very stressful. So spent much of the night tossing and turning or jumping up with my heart racing about 1 thing or the other Maybe i should have just got up and done something, like put a pile of e-bay things together ready to list?

Oh well, Jwil has set me a challenge of listing 5 new items on e-bay so I am going to have a good think and see what i can list tonight. I already had 1 thing in mind so hope I can get this done tonight! I won't count the 3 things I've already listed yesterday

Right best head out to work Hope it is a good Tuesday for all

jwil

Hey DDFW, just catching up! You keep so busy!

I'm always full of good intentions to get up and do bingoport before I go to work, but I rarely manage!

Sorry the job and stuff is getting you down, I know the feeling! I listen to audiobooks at night - stops me from 'thinking'. It really helps me. I just have them on the ipod with headphones so it doesn't disturb DH.

I expect I'll get my 5 items on ebay on Thursday, so kick me if I don't!

DedicatedDFW

Hi Jwil and everyone

Erm, I have no ipod or walkman for that matter, would be fab but just no pennies at the mo.

Okay, 1st things 1st is a brief update on yesterday:cool:

The small steps I took yesterday were:

Found 1 item to list on e-bay - not listed as yet mind but hopefully it will be tomorrow and at a better hour than if I'd put it on at midnight (The other item is make-up and not sure if its worth the effort of all that typing :eek:)
I picked up a MS :j
I bought £30 worth of food for £8 - loving those reduced price stickers
I worked p/t
I did my free bingo

DedicatedDFW

So my small steps for today were:

I got up 5minutes earlier :j - ok its not the 1hr and a half earlier that i could do with but it is a start :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
I did my free bingo
I worked p/t
I picked up 3 MS's :j
I posted an item which I had sold on e-bay

And, And, And... I had a bit of a LBM :idea:

But I am going to sleep on it first before I post it. I don't think it's anything groundbreaking :rotfl::rotfl:and probably just something that has already happened to everyone else but it has made me feel really focussed and energised - althought my eyes are drooping now lol:rotfl:

Oh and I completed the form i needed to post on Sunday and took it with me and forgit to post it Monday and then lost it :eek: but have found it again and popped in post too

DedicatedDFW

Hi Everyone

Well the start to the day didn't go as planned - probably because I had an upset stomach which meant i had to keep getting up in the night - think it had gone 4am before I finally settled in bed. Also every time I got up i'd end up freezing and take ages to warm up when I got back in bed. So I got up at the latest possible time i could feeling completely shattered but having my p/t work to do and an MS.

Pleased to say i did both of them though i really felt like trying to postpone the MS. Still feel shattered now and not had anything to eat either

So small steps for today:

As above, 1 p/t shift
1 M/S completed - need to write report up
and got another MS :T
Sold an item on e-bay and need to package and post this today

DedicatedDFW

:TSo my LBM yesterday, which has sort of lead to other LBM's :j This is probably glaringly obvious to everyone else but i think i have been so busy just trying to make ends meet and scrape a bit extra together for the debt that it has been hard for me to stand back and see the bigger picture. And I don't mean the bigger idyllic picture of a beautiful debt free world where everything is just rosy.Though of course that would be lovely :rotfl::rotfl:

I was walking along and obviously i have had debt on my mind for a long time now - how much?, how to re-pay? etc. all those niggling questions going on in my head. At this point i don't think I was consciously thinking about the debt and suddenly the thought popped in my brain - I can re-pay this. I can re-pay all my debt this year. I can re-pay all my debt this year and then re-pay the mortgage in 2years. :j

It is going to be hard work since the debt I have is more than my annual income :eek: but it is only 1 year of hard slog, keeping focused, taking up the offers - like free bingo etc. and then not frittering the money away. First of all it occured to me I have lots of things. My wardrobe is full, granted it is only 1 wardrobe but nonetheless its full. I have found it hard to part with some things in there because they are just so pretty but I don't need all these things so a more ruthless than ever purge will be visited upon said wardrobe and all items I am parting with put on e-bay The small steps I am taking everyday are obviously a part of this too. So taking up more MS's yes it takes up a bit of time but I get paid for it and that money can go straight to the debt.

This is probably all coming out a bit higgledy-piggledy now but i just want to throw these thoughts down and then try and harness the motivation they gave me The other thought i had when i thought about listing more things on e-bay was not about how sad i would be to see the item go but about being able to open my wardrobe and actually have space in it. All of this sort of snowballed into the next thing that I want which is a simpler life That is not to say that i don't want to learn new things or be challenged by new information / experiences but that I realise in terms of things I have more than I need so I want a home which is easy to live in because there isn't so much stuff everywhere, making it easier and therefore quicker to clean. :T Now, I also want to spend less, which will mean I will put the money in my account for the DD's etc and then give OH my cards. That way i can only spend the cash i have on me - so if i have £10 for petrol it is £10 on petrol and not £10 on petrol and oh saw this offer and thought I'd stock up etc and then I've gone over budget on food or treats etc. and there will be a budget for treats as I'm a firm believer that if you give up on all treats then you don't stick to the plan.

Best rush off to post office with this parcel, be back later hopefully with a better structured goal :rotfl:

brizzledfw

Cracking post. Let us all know how you get on..

Brizzle