New Year New Me, the journey continues.........

thrifty_fifty

Crikey! Just realised it was July last time I posted here. Have been plodding along with the DFD and thought I would have a bit of a reflection as it is nearing the end of the year. So by the 20 Dec I will have £1300 to go. Madly ebaying and hoping to have it cleared by march 2012. Won't that be nice? I have some emergency savings and am using £700 this month to pay of OH overdraft, as he starts his DFW journey in earnest next year. I am donating £700 each month to him until May, so we can finally pool resources and start saving for a house. Just to think that this time next year we should have £7000 saved towards our deposit. Who'd have thought it!

I'm very proud to say that in feb it will 2 years since I have touched a credit card, and this year I have been able to take OH out for a meal for his birthday and be able to pay for us to go to a nice hotel for our anniversary (we're not married, but I can't think of anything else to call it).

Have a nice day everyone.

xx

thrifty_fifty

Feeling quite cheery today. I have been getting quite low over the past few days, not sure if it is the realisation of a bad year and my Debt free journey almost coming to a close, but suppose I have been quite reflective of how I messed up and things I could have done better.

Anywho, we are looking at a new cottage to rent today, one with an extra bedroom and an actual living room (if you try to fit 4 people in ours at the moment, it gets close to someone having to sit in the fire). The lack of space has really got us down over the past year, so this is something we want to change. Some pets are allowed so we're hoping some chucks might be in order (fingers crossed).

thrifty_fifty

Bleugh!

I bid a not so fond farewell to today, it has been pants with a capital p!

Started off nice and relaxed, thought I would slowly cruise into work with the heating turned up nicely..... here's where it went wrong.

Woke up with a cold, then the car wouldn't start and the bonnet wouldn't open either. Resigned myself to the fact that I would have to bike into work, which would make me an hour late and leave me half an hour before I needed to attend a meeting. I hadn't expected to have to cycle into work until April, so had a manic dash to find all the parts, pumping up tyres and so on. The zip broke on my jacket, I couldn't find the rear light for my bike etc etc.

13 miles later and nearly had off my bike by two loose bounding dogs, arrived at work red faced and freezing, ate a tasteless weightwatchers soup for lunch and spent the rest of the day feeling rubbish.

But wait, this sorry story isn't finished yet. For the journey home i had the oh so difficult choice of either taking the route I had come in on, which would be partially lit and not have any traffic (bearing in mind I had no back light), or taking the way that was lit for most of the way but then had a busy unlit road of about 3 miles to my house.

I went with option 1, bad choice. The partially lit way was very partial indeed, and in a bid to feel a bit safer I tried to keep up with the two cyclists in front, they were quick and a quarter of the way into my journey I was worn out, then the lighting ended, and rather than take the last really dodgy part of the ride which was so dark I couldn't tell which was path and which was grass and if there were any lurkers lurking I wouldn't see them and no-one would hear or see me. I took a detour through an estate, didn't know where I was. Then found out where I was which was a good couple of miles out of my usual route. Cycled up to the next point and found that that was unlit too, and with fields either side of it I was way too spooked to continue. Turned round, and went the other way which was basically coming all the way round to the last leg of option 2. By this point I was tearful, hungry and tired and just wanted to be home. Came to the unlit road which goes up to my house and the light on my bike went. Had to turn around, go into the pub, call for a taxi and leave my bike by the bins there. 2 hours, 20 miles and a three mile taxi ride later I was home.

All there is, is to collect the bike tomorrow, cycle to mum and dads and then cycle home. That's if the bike is still there, as it is in the bin area of the pub and there was nothing to lock it to. I wanted to have a nice relaxed day tomorrow as it I had booked some leave for the day before my birthday. Sorry for the rant, feeling sorry for myself

thrifty_fifty

After having a lovely birthday yesterday, I'm really annoyed with OH. I'm rightly concerned about a house to rent that we went to look at, because we need to buy all the white goods and don't have any savings to do this, also the power is oil, and this is something generally when you say to people oil, and they take a sharp intake of breath. I don't see why we should increase our costs in a time of uncertainty, we should be seeking to reduce them. OH thinks I'm crazy of course.

thrifty_fifty

Morning All

Well We got over the phase above and have decided to stay put for another year, so that we can get ourselves into a sensible money position.

I gave OH my first contribution of £700 this month towards his debts, and although £500 of this went towards the car, it represents a significant shift in our overall money situation. A year ago that just wouldn't have been possible, and although the car has a further £500 of work that needs doing to it, we know that in another couple of months we can afford that too.

I have set my debt free date at 25 feb 2012. I could do it by the end of January, but I am keeping to my commitment to OH and am giving him a much needed boost by sending the £700 in his direction instead.

I'm really proud of my achievements this year, I have come to the last legs of my debt free journey, survived nearly being made redundant, and had offers of interviews for net a porter, oxford university and a couple of other good ones in between. We are still riding the storms, and looking forward to our future together.

So the targets for 2012 are to reach 25 feb and proclaim debt freedom, get some savings behind me, help OH to rid himself of his debt, and get some savings down for a house, to replace our worn out sofa with a nice second hand ebay purchase, so that after 3 years we can sit on a sofa and not in it (I'm sure that will be a strange feeling at first), I can replace my tired old rug, with its stains and burn holes from the fire, with a nice new sensibly coloured one. Oh how exciting.

And there may be a little room for a small treat to celebrate being debt free. http://www.alexmonroe.com/m1/Necklaces/p533/Watering-Can-Necklace/product_info.html

2013 will be saving for our house in earnest, getting ourselves some chickens at last-quite like the orpington ones as they are quite large and very inquisitive birds from my limited knowledge of visiting our local garden centre.
And purely for my viewing pleasure, some black east indian ducks http://www.flickr.com/photos/55681839@N07/5552651194/ and some pheasants.

And so to 2015 and beyond when we hope to buy our house, get married and start a little brood of small people

thrifty_fifty

Morning!

Really excited today as have finished work for Christmas, and have an evening away in a nice hotel tonight (most importantly paid for by me, with cash pennies, not credit ones. Now that's a first!)

Wondering what to call the new diary? Hmmm

Glad to hear that OH has decided to join here next year too, which is a very positive move.

Have a good weekend everyone.

xx

thrifty_fifty

Oh I'm so excited for tomorrow. It's pay day, the last debt busting day of the year and I'll be clearing £725.66 off my credit card, almost halving the bill and bringing it down to £899. Then just 4 weeks until it will be as per my target signature amount. Debt free in March. I cannot believe it. This is the first Christmas where I'm not dreading spending a little money and I have renewed hope for the new year instead of hoping it will be the one where I get debt free, but not sure. 2012 I will be debt free and also have savings and have paid most of OH's debt by June. Happy days.

thrifty_fifty

OK, so made the payment to CC this morning of £725.66. I had to double, even triple check that there was enough money in the pot to cover all the expenses this month, and I'm glad I did it. I'm leaving this year with a credit card bill in the hundreds, not the thousands. It has been a very long time indeed since I have been able to say that. It feels like I'm on the right track and life is starting again. I may be watching the pennies for the whole of christmas , instead of being able to splurge a bit, but it would have been a short term fix to have a splurge, and would have been outweighed by being disappointed with myself.

So there we have it. Three more months and I'll be debt free. I know I keep harping on about it, but it has been 7 years of my life on hold, being skint, stressed and unhappy, and it's coming to an end. Just another 4 years and I'll be able to own my own home again, and do it the right way this time, with a healthy deposit and money saved to replace the broken sofa, the worn out rug. This is such a good feeling.

thrifty_fifty

Got my earlier Christmas present in the form of looking at the updated figure owed on the credito cardo. It does get rather addictive though. I have £300 as my safety buffer, which is oh so tempting to pay another £200 off. Perhaps better leave it, just in case something comes up, as they invariably do when you don't have the funds for it.

No I'll leave it there for now. I feel like such a bah humbug. I'm actually looking forward to January pay day more than Christmas day at the moment, so I can halve the credit card bill again.

Thought I'd have a look at some houses to see what we could potentially buy in the nearish future. Looked at moneysupermarket for the amount of deposit needed-between 25 and 40%. It's going to take us forever to save that. Perhaps a barge might be a better option. At least I wouldn't be tempted to fill it with things.

thrifty_fifty

Boo, woke up really early again this morning, and just when I thought I'd broken the pattern of poor sleeping.

Will treat myself in a mo to a nice bath with some of the lovely Jo Malone nutmeg bath oil I bought with my birthday money.

Really tempted to go into town today with OH but I know it will just involve spending more money, so I think I'll stay at home and get some things done now I'm feeling a bit better. I'm determined not to break into my crisp £20 that I have stashed away too, because once you break it, the rest magically seems to disappear.

Instead of the £2 I would have spent on new christmas decorations and/lunch, I'm going to pay off the credit card bill this morning which will be much more satisfying.

Yesterday was nearly very costly when we skidding on the John Lewis car park and hit the car in front. Why did someone think it was a good idea to create a completely smooth surface, which when it is wet means that even at 5mph the car skids when you try to brake, it was like driving on ice. A couple of people slid whilst walking across it too. I'm not usually a complainer, but yesterday could have been very costly, so I think I will email them.

All in all I now have £40 spending money until 25 Jan, factor in £10 for my haircut, that should make things very interesting indeed. But I know I can do it, I'm not breaking into that £300.

And very much hoping for some more free listing days on ebay. I want to get this stuff shifted now-declutter and get some extra pennies coming in.

Today is shredding day, and finally clearing the kitchen table. After watching the programme about the obsessive hoarder, I realised that perhaps it was time to do something about my own situation.

Present wrapping today, and perhaps a wee break for a mince pie or two.