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

DedicatedDFW

Hi All,

Well i'm sat here drinking coffee and becoming very nervous about the day ahead :eek: 1 of the MS i'm doing today is a completely new one to me - new company, new type of shop and also somewhere that i need to travel too and i have a fear of being lost :eek::eek::eek:

Not put my make-up on or dressed yet either :eek: Keep on telling myself i need to do this for the money - and for the vast amount of time i have spent preping for it already :eek::eek::eek: - although clearly not enough time as at the moment i am feeling quite clueless about it Oh well - this is pushing me right out of my comfort zone in many ways - doing a completely new shop ( one i wouldn't normally choose to do ) and travelling to it when i really dis-like going somewhere when i don't really know how to get there :eek:

And i can see i am working myself up - already spent now 4 hours! Prepping for this - wasn't told about this when i accepted the job and was also told questionnaire would be a straightforward tick box - erm no - virtually every question needs a fully typed answer And there is about a million things i need to remember. Have just seen whether i can actually cancel this as its actually now going to take more time than its worth - but no - have to speak to someone during the week for that *Eep*

Ok people, wish me luck then :cool:

Have PADed another small payment over to target 2 and looking at my predicted income from p/t work should hopefully be in a position to pay another few pounds to this on Monday :T

Plan now is to get ready, print off some directions and get on with it! Oh and have to ring the place up to make sure i can get there today too :cool: considering i spent much of my time from 4pm onwards yesterday doing just that

jwil

Wow that MS sounds like a bit of a nightmare. I'm sure you'll be fine though, you've loads of experience doing them.

Good luck and hope it goes well!

Chocforever

I also hope the MS went OK for you.

I have done my fair share of MSing. Sometimes the scenario/instructions are just unreasonable and unrealistic (e.g. asking for extensive verbatim comments), in which case I just do what I can to give the salesperson a fair assessment. I think it also takes a few goes at a particular scenario to get comfortable with it and gather all the evidence that the client was hoping for. So don't be hard on yourself if it didn't go perfectly.

I must admit to being quite lazy now and tend to stick to a few MSs that I know well. Sometimes I try new ones for change but I think the complicated scenarios are only worthwhile if they are for shops with lots of branches so you know you can re-do the scenario many times to make the initial time investment worthwhile.

With the amount of work you get through, I am in admiration. I also see your debt is coming down nicely - well done!

jwil

Hope the MS went well DDFW

DedicatedDFW

Hi all

Welcome Chocforever :wave: - thank you for your kind words of support. I didn't do the MS - got well and truly lost, wasted lots of time will have to do during the week now but will give me more time to re-check everything that i need to do - so thats a positive i suppose...

Lots to get on with here so i hope to report back later that at least some progress has been made

DedicatedDFW

PAD

Day 1 £5.42 paid across from current account - just so i've made a payment
Day 2 £5 off target 1 - again just from the very little funds i have in my current account
Day 3 £5 off target 1 - again just from the very little funds i have in my current account
Day 4 £9.59 off target 1 as interest has been added so wanted to cover this and reduce the amount owed
Day 5 £5 off target 1 - from p/t work
Day 5 £5 off target 3 - towards usual payment
Day 6 £5 off target 1 - from p/t work
Day 7 £5 off target 1 - MS money arrived
Day 7 £10 off target 3 towards usual payment
Day 8 £5 off target 1 - MS money
Day 9 £5 off target 1 - MS money
Day 10 £4 off target 1 -MS money
Day 11 £1 off target 1 -e-bay money
Day 12 £1 off target 1 - ebay money
Day 13 £1 off target 1 -e-bay money
Day 14 £81 off target 1 - energy refund *sob* it couldn't be more as i need to leave funds in the bank to cover DD's
Day 15 £38 to target 1 - MS money
Day 16 £5 to target 1 - MS money
Day 17 £5 to target 1 - MS money
Day 18 £30 to target 1 from cashback
Day 19 £14 to target 1 - from cash back
Day 20 £40 to target 1 - p/t work
Day 21 £30 - final payment (i hope - unless interest is added) to target 1 :jmoney from p/t work

Target 2 balance £1900.70

Day 22 £110 - combination of usual payments £50 each to target 1 & 2 & £10 p/t work income
Day 23 £5 - used credit note for £3 and rounded this up a bit too
£60 - money left in my account due to using 0% card :cool:
[ £40 - usual payment to target 3]

Day 24 £5 - p/t work
Day 25
Day 26
Day 27
Day 28
Day 29
Day 30
Day 31

DedicatedDFW

I am just itching to make a huge dent in target 2 - the balance dropped from £6000 to less than £2000 due to a BT i managed to do shown as Target 5 in my sig Thing is - as i've probably said many times the interest on this card is huge - i pay a round figure of £50 off this and the balance goes down by about £6 - and it mainly goes down by this much as my minimum payment is about £46 so the £4 OP is what is making a difference but a teeny one at that :wall: So first things first - well after clearing away pots and washing some as the pile was getting dangerously high :eek: i did some sums :think: I've been using my 0% card for purchases so there will be another balance at some point but it is 0% and i am due to be re-imbursed this from MS's :T So in the meantime the cash or 'float for MS's' has been paid off the dreaded card Trying to get it paid down so that my next statement shows interest at a lower amount.

Further plans for this card and PADs to this for rest of this month and next month are: - £1000 AUGUST PLAN - all to this target. Remainder of this month expecting about £150 back in MS payment and fees :T:T:T expecting about £15 survey money, expecting another credit note i can use...

Am also seriously contemplating using my short-term savings to pay £500 off the balance but i have tried so hard to maintain these savings each month i am holding off on doing that for now... the money is there and does give me a (albeit) small cushion and if i have my o/d facility withdrawn it'll help to pay this off in one go. Also if i get enough of a credit limit on my new 0% card i won't need to use it So will wait and see once my card comes and then think about what to do.

Now am on with my next task

Oh and decluttered a tray from the kitchen - not for e-bay though :cool:

DedicatedDFW

Stopped for a bit of food and a cuppa :coffee: - so far have done part 1 of the great organisation :cool: Am now ready to start in on part 2. Great to have things moving along. i kinda think the idea was to get everything together at once. Whereas i'm getting several bits together, sorting this and once all organised getting the next lot of stuff together. This should hopefully work for me today - my fear was if i got it all together first i'd stop there and stop altogether so even more stuff builds up in other places and the big pile of things would just look completely untidy. Not sure if that makes any sense to anyone other than me? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: But time to get a wriggle on with the next lot

DedicatedDFW

Might have got a little carried away there but it means lots got done :T:T:T Am currently in the process of gathering together all my paperwork thats not filed away anywhere, popping it in a pile and then working through the pile shredding / binning, writing action plans and generally feeling everything is being dealt with or has an action noted so it does get dealt with :T:T:T Now have been getting 1 pile together and working through that instead of getting everything together at once otherwise it may avalanche on me!

So far have done 2nd lot, 3rd lot and started 4th and 5th lot (these are in different rooms - hence me getting carried away :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

One of the projects was me finishing knitting a scarf - this has taken me months Mostly because the wool i used (bought very cheap some time ago) was ridiculously knotted - obviously didn't realise this until i started knitting :eek::eek::eek: Then the wool also kept getting in knots even after being unravelled - its a bobbly bitty wool - and the second ball of wool was just the same :eek::eek::eek: But am pleased to report all done now :T:T:T and it looks fab Packed in a bag ready to leave the house so its another item decluttered And i have got needles and wool ready to start next one - possibly on the commute to work :cool:

Best shut the curtains in a mo. it has gone very dark - the sky was a lovely colour over the field with the sun going down so i thought i'd leave the curtains open to make the most of it

Better start the 4th lot - OH due home any time and i'd like all my papers out of the way by then :cool:

DedicatedDFW

*yawn and stretch* Lot 4 done - lot 5 gathered at the side of me :eek: has anyone noticed the time :eek::eek::eek: oh well - will put me in a better position for next actions tomorrow - also lot 5 was strewn all over the bed so don't think i'd have been very popular when OH gets in :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Just poured me a nice chilled glass of wine :beer: - it is the weekend after all

My project / action plan list has grown massively but i can see it all in one place and prioritise as necessary so feel more in control so all is good there :T:T:T

One thing making the living room untidy is a the pile of photo albums - may need to move these upstairs until we can move somewhere bigger - although OH has taken over the spare room somewhat so not quite sure where they'll go :think: i do love photo albums by the way enjoy taking pics, capturing the moment and perusing through them - ofen thinking yikes was that really 5years ago where's the time gone?! :eek: :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Alarm is set for extra early but a busy and hopefully good day tomorrow