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

thrifty_fifty

Yay £2 paid off. Ha, Ha! Bet you weren't expecting that, Virgin Card!

I also just did the 'how tight are you?' questionnaire on here. Apparently i'm 55% tight. Sounds like a good balance to me, I'm frugal without being mean or making not spending cash consume my every waking minute.

Right, now for that bath.

thrifty_fifty

And another £2 paid. Probably ruffling a few feathers at Virgin with these teeny tiny payments, but who cares hey? They've been under my wings for too long now.

It gets quite addictive this payment a day thing. A little boost each day as the spreadsheet total falls a little further, and you are doing something positive each day, which improves the mood no end.

On day 7 of feeling carp with this cold. Was annoyed that it made me feel rubbish for my anniversary trip, which I'd been looking forward to all year, but hey ho. I just hope it is gone for Christmas day. The house is still a tip, didn't get any of that done, but finally had the energy to wrap some presents yesterday.

I even had to ask the surprised lady at the till whether what I had in my basket, constituted a hamper because I just couldn't think straight.

thrifty_fifty

You know this site is really amazing, it makes you realise with help and support how far you can come.

Reading one of the posts on here made me realise what I have come from, and makes me very grateful for what I have. At my bleakest point in 2005 I remember having £5 to spend on the weekly shop for two, and that week I had to get washing powder too. Even buying the supermarkets most budget items my dinners consisted of the cheapest tinned mixed beans, and some 10p going off stirfry and stew bags (in some cases the cauliflower was actually brown, but I ate it anyway) .I remember now why I drink hot water, don't get me wrong I actually like it now, but the original reason was because even the budget teabags became a luxury, Crikey that puts it into perspective. And I'm still here to tell the tale.

thrifty_fifty

The cold has almost gone, which is nice, and today starts the frantic last minute delivery of gifts, getting in any foody items. Hope the shops are not too crazy.

Popped onto credit card site to check yesterdays £2 addition has come off and so it has. Looking forward to a spot of turkey and some booze on Christmas day

lionheartedgirl

Merry Christmas thrifty, can't remember if I have posted on here under this username or my old one I'm really chuffed you are so close to being debt free, it will be a big change for you hope you have a good one!

thrifty_fifty

Merry Christmas everyone.

Will be popping off to enjoy the festivities shortly, but wanted to a brief moment of reflection. I have really changed. Had a look at the sales this morning, and wasn't tempted. I'm not breaking my plan of getting debt free by 23 March, no way. Next Christmas I can afford to treat myself. For today I'm looking forward to some nice food, spending time with friends and family, all those things that Christmas should be about.I honestly couldn't be happier than I am right now.

Bliss.



xx

thrifty_fifty

Just needed to pop back and remind myself of the above post, as I was having a good day until I went to see the folks yesterday.

Autistic brother went completely ape yesterday as someone decided to buy him a music gift and no batteries, so he was in foulest of moods. We ended up staying in the conservatory and letting him eat his dinner in the other room, just to keep him sweet. Bless him.

Then mother decides to drop into conversation the fact that previous old best friend is having a baby in february. For some reason she feels the need to keep me abreast of all situations concerning what I term 'my previous life', pertaining to all those people I previously associated with when going out with my ex. I know I shouldn't judge but to be fair, when this person is mentioned it just has the effect of making me feel carp. They are sensible, good with money, nice house, new car, was never stupid enough to get into debt and mess their relationship up, a la moi, and now is clearly reaping the benefits by being able to afford to have a baby. I'm the only one left out of all my school friends either to not be married and / have a baby. Clearly I'm failing, or so mother would believe.

As if the first piece of news wasn't like a dagger through the heart, she then starts to ask when she is going to have her 6 grandchildren, and are we buying a house yet?

On top of that this Christmas she told us before opening that one of the gifts would make us laugh. As I unwrapped the gifts I realised that the one that was supposed to make us laugh was the allotment handbook, because ours had failed last year.

We also received a toy landrover defender from OHs parents, which would do until we could afford our own.

Now am I being overly sensitive here, but are our parents mocking the life that we want to live? Seriously!!!

Well just wait until we are feeding them christmas dinner with the veg from our silly little allotment and the turkey that has spent it's life in our back yard and not a battery farm. Grrr.

So after coming home feeling utterly !!!!! about myself yesterday, today I am determined to embrace the positive. I have paid another £20 off the credit card this morning, and if I really squeeze the budget I should be able to make some more payments to it before pay day, bringing at total paid off this month of £1000. Nothing to be sniffed at.

Today is declutter day, and as part of the new me I am throwing out loads of old makeup, as although this is still serviceable it was bought as part of the old me, along with lots of other carp.

And the title for the new diary? New year, New me is here.

I need to get into the mindset of the new me, and not just see it as some far away thing. I am booking 23 March-my debt free date, off from work.

Next year I will be mostly going veggy-just to force myself to get more creative with the cooking and lose some weight-still love my meat, don't get me wrong.

I've also discovered over the festive season that I'm rapidly going off alcohol. I makes me feel like carp, you wake up the next day, dehydrated, headache, and I just don't want to do that to myself. I had already cut down to one bottle of red a week, but I have had around 4 alcoholic drinks over the last three days and not really enjoyed any of them.

So improving my health by losing the weight and eating more healthily, is a big thing next year.

Another big thing that I need to work on is my mental health too. This year I have been way too stressed, unhappy and just generally down. I realised that a big cause of all this is my job. I'm not a highly paid high flyer, but the job is just killing my enthusiasm, killing my dreams and after nearly having a panic attack yesterday at the thought of having to go back, something seriously needs to change. Off to create the new diary now.

thrifty_fifty

Hello, It's me again.

This is a venting one, so sorry, please bare with me.

Every time I wake up, those words are the first thing to go through my head 'she's having a baby in february'. Maybe I'm acutely aware that I really have perhaps the next four years to get my backside into gear in regards to sorting a house, getting married and having a small person, and man is that going to take some cash. I never thought I'd be bothered, but I'm all too aware that I'm a grown up now, and I want to start making some progress in life.

I think the big thing here is, I'm coming towards being out of debt, I'm itching to get it paid off and at the same time kicking myself for having wasted so many years of my life being in debt and putting my life on hold.

I was at least a teeny bit sensible today and bought a new iron with the free supermarket vouchers we received by switching to a new broadband provider, so no more using the leaky travel iron. Yay.

Seriously though, why is the thought of this person being due to give birth soon, really consuming all my thoughts. Where is the switch off button for you brain sometimes? I don't want my holiday to all about this.

thrifty_fifty

Sorry, me again. I don't know why I'm an emotional gibbering mess. It seems the closer I get to being debt free, I almost can't believe it. I'm literally sat here waiting for the next bad thing to happen. I've been in debt for the last 7 years and it's almost become a part of my identity and a stick I use to beat myself with. I don't know who a debt free me is. I can't believe that anything good is going to happen, and I've convinced myself that as soon as I get out of debt next year, I'll lose my job which will plunge me into the whole mess again. I don't know whether this is some kind of post traumatic stress or what. I just can't seem to look forward to the future because it just seems bleak.

thrifty_fifty

Ok we're a bit more cheery this morning. Random outburst which seems to happen from time to time. Paid another £100 off the cc this morning and I think I can squeeze another £100 before next payday.

Decided that today we're going to get out of the house and go to the local garden centre to have a look at the chickens and ducks. Find this always helps when we're a bit down, because we know we can live that life very soon. The hard slog to pay off OHs debts start in the new year at £1000/month with me contributing £700 of that. I'm only giving my contribution until May as I feel that OH needs to pay the last £5000 of his credit card on his own. I certainly haven't had someone throwing their hard earned at me to bail me out, so although it seems cruel to be kind. I think he needs to feel some of the struggle and put effort into raising extra cash to clear this last bit.

Then in 2013 we can start saving for our house in earnest.

I've started as I mean to go on in 2012 and have already allocated some unwanted christmas items to the gift cupboard. I still feel a little awkward doing this, but I'm not really in the position to go throwing the cash around. To be fair I spent a total of £28 on gifts this christmas by using a combination of buying things on offer, using my birthday vouchers to buy gifts and also regifting.

Everyone got nice things that they seemed super chuffed with, and it didn't break the bank!

Niece is moving into private rented housing with uni next september so my birthday gift will be some of our re-homed kitchen items with some foody treats thrown in.

Bit disappointed to see my cc balance hadn't updated this morning, hopefully they'll have it sorted by tomorrow!