This debt must go

OrangeFairy

Hi Starnac,

Wow you are so close to being DF! Well done you.

How long to clear his OD do you think?

OF x

starnac

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Mr Cheery's fancy design idea... When they first moved in 26 years ago, there we two attic rooms. One is still there, nice big room with window and skylight Other was tiny storage space with a door into it but no window. So he (and a builder!) took out half of the floor of that room to turn it into a mezzanine platform thingy sitting over the main bedroom, and put a giant skylight over it, and that's where we sleep, staring up at the stars and gloriously oblivious of the mess below they put insulation and plasterboard on the ceiling (which had just been the roof before, but for some baffling reason relationships broke down with the builder and the plastering never got done...

It looks a right old mess, and didn't make for a brilliant view from the bed... :rotfl: but as I say, never felt like a priority. Today of course the damn roof is leaking agin so we've spent several hours trying to dry the boards out so they can plaster over them, and figure out how the water is getting in.

I'd show you but I've never yet managed to take a photo showing what it actually looks like! :rotfl:

Anyway, sorry, waffling on your thread GREAT news about only having DH's overdraft left (of COURSE the mortgge doesn't count!) :j :j :j

Ahhhh! I always wondered how you slept on a mezzanine. That makes sense now and is a pretty good design feature I think....although I'm not sure I would want to climb into bed after a few drinks :rotfl:

starnac

OrangeFairy wrote: »

Hi Starnac,

Wow you are so close to being DF! Well done you.

How long to clear his OD do you think?

OF x

Hi OF yes we are so close. All our bills are out for the first half of the month now and we are still in the black in our joint account. Nothing else comes out til after DH gets paid on the 15th which means if we are careful then we have definately paid off the second overdraft :j

As for DH's overdraft I am hoping to have it paid off by the end of the year. It would be amazing if we could hit Christmas with no debts.

Then we have to work out what to do next. Do we pay down the mortgage or save to move? We can't decide whether we want to stay here or not. Personally it's not my idea of a forever home and the plan was only to stay here 5 years (6 years ago :rotfl:) but everyone seems happy enough here so I'm not sure if it's worth all the hassle. It's something we need to think about I think

Cheery_Daff

Nice to have the luxury of thinking about it without the debt hanging over you though Fingers crossed for the overdraft being over this month! :j :j :j

starnac

Morning all.

I am loving this no overdraft thing. It's really weird. Technically I have more money now than I did before as we were living in minus figures but I am being so much more careful now. It's like, because I can see exactly how much we have in the bank I don't want to fritter it away. £10 (for example) seems a lot more money to spend on say a takeaway when you only have £40 in the bank than when you are already in your overdraft by £1000. Does that make sense? It kind of does in my head. Anyway, I am watching money a lot more closely now than I ever have. I am budgeting for shopping much better than I used to and told DH off for "popping to the shop" as he didn't consult me before he went and doubled up on both bread and milk!! :eek:

I'm also watching food waste a lot more carefully. It's like I can see the money being wasted with each portion of over estimated pasta/chips/chicken nuggets. I think my next step is to meal plan. I've never really got the hang of to before but maybe now it's easier for me to keep track of money then it will be easier. Who knows?

Today I am having a sewing day. Kiddies have gone to breakfast club. They love it although I am at a complete loss as to how the school makes toast and jam better than I do :think: :rotfl: DD needs a white t shirt to take into school tomorrow to "decorate/design" She never wears white, always brightly coloured. The only white t shirt she has is her PE kit which she obviously can't take. I do however have a lot of white jersey in the attic so I'm planning to make her one today. Shouldn't take long.

It's now past 9am and I said I would start working then so I best be off. If anyone has any hints and tips for me re food waste, meal planning I would be grateful to hear it.

Greying_Pilgrim

starnac wrote: »

It's like, because I can see exactly how much we have in the bank I don't want to fritter it away. £10 (for example) seems a lot more money to spend on say a takeaway when you only have £40 in the bank than when you are already in your overdraft by £1000. Does that make sense?

Yes star - perfect sense. And well done you!

Have you got recipes that 'mimic' whatever your favourite takeaway food is? That you could call upon when tempted? Or that can reside in the freezer to be whipped out? Easier said than done, I know. And it all depends on your freezer space - we have virtually none, so it's a challenge to know whether to keep components, ie frozen veg, veggie sausages or hm burgers or ready meals ie a curry, a stew or whatever and shop for the components. I must admit, having found some 'acceptable' oven chips, I'm not craving a 'chippy tea' anymore. Whilst oven chips are no match for decent chippy chips, they are far preferable to awful chippy chips

With meal planning, would it help to start 'vague' ie take a week (or even a couple of days) and say, right, we'll have something 'meaty', something 'cheesy', something 'fish', something 'curry' and something 'picky/cold' and then weave in dishes to suit those headings if you see what I mean. I would also keep the days flexible, because you know that the day that you pick to have rib-sticking stew, we will have a heatwave, and the day that you chose to make beef pho, there will be a school trip planned and the bus will be home late and everyone wants a chippy tea!

Food waste - Pippi is yer guru there. I'm no good with it, as I rarely have it, I really don't. It broke my heart to throw away food at the weekend, but everyone had had their fill, the parentals had been palmed off with as much of the 'meaty' as they could muster, and the unused was fridged or frozen for use another day. But it still rankled - because as you say, you see it as £'s being thrown in the bin, and you think how many hours were worked to get those £'s in the first place.......

Sewing jersey fabric - respect! Beyond my capabilities!

Have a great day

Greying X

starnac

:hello: Greying. Thank you so much for your fabulous reply. Our freezer always used to be stocked with home made ready meals when the kiddies were babies. Not entirely sure why that slipped. Will have to get back to doing that.

I love your way of meal planning. That may the way forward with us. We are not big meat eaters here. Well to be honest I'm not a meat eater and tend not to cook it as I don't eat it. I'm sure DH would have meat more often if he had the choice

T shirt for DD was completed within 2 hours, which also included a trip into the attic (where all my sewing supplies are kept) to find my double needle. She was quite impressed with the result when she saw it this morning and even DH thought I had bought it. I did make a bit of a mistake on the neck and to me it's majorly obvious but I'm quite critical of my own work so maybe it's not.

More sewing needs doing to afternoon so best get a wiggle on as apparently DH is taking some TOIL today so will be home earlier than normal :j

starnac

Morning all. Lots of sewing going on here at the moment as again I am making dance costumes. Only 20 this time so it's not as bad as it has been :rotfl:

As seems to be the norm now both kiddies are at breakfast club. DS, who hates getting out of bed normally, is straight up when I ask him if he wants to go to breakfast club.

Apparently today is Den Day for Save the Children so they are supposed to be building dens at school today. Shame it's raining We were asked to send in £2 (isn't it normally £1 or is that inflation at its best?) for the charity and bits and pieces to make dens. I had a trip into the attic and found 4 very large bits of fabric that I have had longer than DD :eek: :rotfl: so they were promptly bagged up and sent to school for them to use. That's 4 less bits of clutter in my house :T

DH gets paid tomorrow. I think he's due some overtime so that will go towards his overdraft. We also are in desperate need of a new kettle. Ours died weeks ago and we have been boiling water in a saucepan but enough's enough now. We'll treat ourself to a new kettle.

Right best get a wiggle on. Got quite a bit to do today. See you later x

starnac

Pay day today. Lots of overtime paid too by the looks of things. That's always a bonus. DH is currently in Mr A buying the kettle we seen yesterday on offer. That's a big thing for us as normally we would have said "oh well payday is tomorrow what difference does a day make?" But this time that day would have meant going back into our overdraft so we left it and DH is picking it up now on his way home from work. Go us :T

So that's one thing bought. We also need to pay the balance on our weekend away camping. We owe £43 which includes all food. We go with a group from another church and the pastors wife charges us all a little more than what the weekend actually costs then does online shopping and gets the food delivered to the campsite. Another lady then cooks for us twice a day with breakfast being a bit of a free for all. It's fab and well worth the money. It's a completely closed site and every adult onsite has to hold a current DBS check so I feel a lot more relaxed there.

We also need to do a shop as we are running low on a few things like toilet roll and fresh fridge-y type things. My car was filled up with petrol and I think DH was planning to do his on his way to work.

Even with all that in mind we still have quite a bit "spare". DH has promised to get me an accurate overdraft figure and then we'll know where we stand. I'm not sure if the overtime will pay his off completely once everything else has been accounted for but I'm hoping it'll be pretty close which will be a HUUUUUGE sigh of relief for me (and DH obviously but he tends to be a bit more laid back about things) :cool:

Hopefully if he can check for me tonight then I can have a bit of a clearer picture of exactly where we are. I'm in a bit of a state of disbelief that we are actually so close to being debt free. I think the last time we were debt free was before DD was born over 8 years ago!

PurpleFairy26

Wow starnac so close, hope you can get to pay it off asap. :T and on the new kettle times change for all of us and it does change your thinking of things, for the better hopefully.