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

DedicatedDFW

Morning all!

I'm still not there with the MSE ness at the mo.! Got home from work last night - late again due to a late running train :mad: Walked through the front door popped tv on to catch up on olympics went to get changed and thought what am i doing? And promptly locked the house up and went straight to bed - i did read for a bit before trying for sleep but i didn't do anything money making related :eek: Or tidying for that matter

So alot! to catch up on really - especially as working all weekend takes alot of the time away that i have for these things.

So the plan is so far -

Tonight - try a few items on and decide if they go in the bay of e pile or if i am keeping them. Maybe start listing a couple of bits if they are easier ones to do.

Thursday - run, shower, food shop - sticking to strict budget!, race round on errands for family member before work / on lunch break, once home try and list a few more things - even the small bits that get left have to be listed this week! Try and squeeze some tidying up in here too.

Friday - run, shower, tidy, list on the bay of e, work

Satday, work

Sunday work, try and get remainder of stuff on bay of e.

Just checked banking and its not great Hopefully enough to tide me over but i'm not sure... especially as my mr borrowed my car and i don't know if he replaced the petrol :mad: It would be so much easier for me to fill my car up on pay day each month but i can't in case of my mr borrowing the car and leaving it empty It has happened before.

Oh well! Hope everyone has a good day and i will report back with progress soon i hope!

DedicatedDFW

Hi All

Very small progress to report of having tried on and sorted a few things out for bay of So it is a start at least

Already feeling daunted about the run tomorrow :eek: I'll just have to get out there and do it!

Been so lacking in motivation lately - obviously the tiredness doesn't help or maybe its because, conversely, that i think i won't achieve my goal so have stopped trying so hard ?

Did a couple of sums today - hoping to clear £600 off the debt this month - if i've added everything up right - still a long way short so *fingers crossed* for the sales eh?

Plus the house is still amess after the job that went wrong :mad: which i've not had time to sort out and there is so much to do i am somewhat overwhelmed.

Hope i can come back with a better progress update tomorrow x

DedicatedDFW

Hi all,

Quickly popping in to say that the run may have to be tonight - i *may* have had a bit of a lie-in this morning :whistle: Started listing on the bay of e which is good but the pictures are taking forever to go on. It is a start at least though

Have decided to return an item i bought a few weeks ago - it was only a few pounds in the sale but it will help with the shortfall this month

I also decided, reluctantly to return 1 of my new pairs of jeans but these were out of the timeframe - i do really like them so no hardship to keep them - its just needing the money now. Hopefully some good sales will help *fingers crossed*

Hope everyone is ok x

DedicatedDFW

Am loving the olympics by the way - not sure if i've mentioned it been fab - we were even watching it whilst we were away

Does make me feel even worse though that i haven't been for a run after being really ill earlier _pale_

Might just be worry causing it though - got terrible mouth ulcers again and also realised i've been grinding ? my teeth at night - or at least clamping my teeth really tightly causing some pain too

I got most of the things done today though that i set out to do - best get on with some more tidying up!

jwil

I've been enjoying the Olympics too and I NEVER watch sport. They've been fab and Team GB are doing great!

Hope you feel better today x

DedicatedDFW

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I have been MIA for a few days i have had such a lot going on and not alot of good things going on on the money front either

I wanted to post at the weekend but work was so hellish that i was quite upset and didn't want to come on here and just moan

I did have a couple of sales on the bay of - only a handful of 99p items so these now need to be packaged and posted off. So confession on the money front time...

I cannot post them until tomorrow (which is fine as its the last day i specify i will post anything) because i don't have enough money to cover the postage In fact i didn't have enough money to get to work today either but have managed to borrow travel fare for the next couple of days i was so worried about going overdrawn beyond my overdraft facility :eek:

So whats contributed to this happening now ? A couple of things over the last month - doing the expensive MS that i've not been re-imbursed for yet - i thought i might get it tomorrow but its not showing as pending either :think: i am wondering if i submitted it by their cut off date but as they didn't do whatever they do with it for another week that may mean i don't get the money for another month :eek: Will keep an eye on it this next few days then chase it up i think... This made things a little tight in the month but then the £50 i ended up paying instead of my Mr really scuppered my finances

I've been itching to make a PAD this month too and i've just not had the money coming in to allow that to happen - as i say, sales have been poor on the bay of e - i am glad things are going and as i'll only list stuff at a price i'm willing to accept then if goes for 99p thats fine but i haven't sold a single dearer item which makes all the hassle of it worthwhile. Then after a particularly bad day at work i came home, started to vacuum some bits up and the hoover broke Its going to have to just stay broken until i've the money for my half to replace it - sadly that'll come out of what i was wanting to pay off the debt this month:(

In the next few days though i'll be paying off my current target and starting on the overdraft - so that is something good and positive

I'm also trying to wangle a date with my Mr

DedicatedDFW

And now i may continuing overpaying on the mortgage rather than throwing it at this pesky debt

Remember i was adament they werent giving me the right details and got totally frustrated with it all last month ? Well i rang up now as i got my statements showing just the additional payments and i was right - i have just had the balance confirmed for me and it is what i was saying it should be and not what they were telling me that it was :cool:

It just feels wrong to use this money on the debts - we will see how i feel about it this week - i guess i am becoming more accepting of the fact that i'm unlikely to clear such a large amount of debt in the next few weeks...

jwil

My ebay sales are quite slow too, I think it's just that people are on holiday, so it should pick up again next month. Especially when people start thinking about xmas too.

If you use the mortgage money on the debts though, you'll clear them sooner than you would if you don't. There's no wrong or right answer, but you are desperate to clear your debts asap, so throwing every spare bit of cash at them will help them go sooner.

DedicatedDFW

Thanks jwil

I *do* think i'll pay the 'extra' off the mortgage still though The thing is i know what i am like if i allow myself to use this money for something that isn't the mortgage (even though its still debt) i'll be thinking ooh i'm a bit short this month i'll use the mortgage money, need spends for hols = use mortgage money, i deserve a treat i'll just get this new jumper and i can use the mortgage money :o:o Seriously i am that useless! So i know i do have to be super strict with myself I'm sure if i could be bothered flicking through my diary there'd be money saving activity peppered with lots of treats Then again i'm a firm believer in small treats along the way to help keep us going.

I also *think* even with the mortgage money the debt would not be paid by my birthday - by the end of this year hopefully, but not by my birthday so i can live with that now i think.

I have been suffering alot with tiredness and other thyroid symptoms lately and a trip to the docs is in order - it is such a chore to go though - especially when i'm already convinced that they are going to just send me away again telling me i'm fine - most infuriating when clearly having difficulty putting one foot in front of the other due to exhaustion is not what i'd term 'fine' :mad: Maybe i need to ask to see a specialist again - at least that time they actually did some other tests that *oops* hadn't been done yet and did indeed indicate other problems which were a spillover from the thyroid issue.

Checked again on the MS money - i need to give it another few days and then chase it up - could really do with it now to be honest. I think alot of this month will be spent trying to get myself back on an even keel on the money front and i've not had a month like that for a while.

Still, the freezer is still quite full so if i use the food from there for meals that should help with the shopping bill too.

DedicatedDFW

Oof! Managed to clear target 6 but after a morning of dashing about like a dashing about thing i,ve not had chance to look at the finances and see what i can clear off target 7. I,ve at least paid off another 1% after what feels like forever. The £600 payment won,t happen due to playing catch up after having to borrow money to cover train fare, plus with the hoover needing replacing and no longer using the mortgage money to debt. I,ve also somewhat sensibly decided to budget spending money on a weekly basis - oh and the hairdresser is coming after cancelling twice.

I,ll try and do the sums now and see where i should be at x