5 year plan for debt and mortgage freedom

Deeperblue

Mar 2

"Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt."
Benjamin Franklin

Been doing 12 hour shifts at work all week so haven't had much time or energy for updates I'm afraid. At least when your at work all day you don't have much time to spend anything :laugh:

So... not really much debt busting stuff going on for me at the moment I'm afraid I've got a few payments due (car tax refund, over time for me and OH, payment from OH's work for the computer) which will be great when they come through, but nothing on Ebay. I'll have to rectify this.

With food shopping, I'm hoping I can go all this month without having to buy meat as I have so much in the freezer, so that'll keep the budget down

On the baby making Just got to wait till my monthly visitor in the next couple of weeks and then it's down to the baby dance :jI'm so excited! I want to start thinking about baby names already!

Oh, I've just heard that a someone whose just started working with us is due a baby in the next few days so I would LOVE to be able to give him a knitted cardi for his little one Taking me ages though!

Hope everyone's doing well. I love hearing what your all up to

~ D.B. ~

katali_d

12 hour shifts sound awful, I struggle with 8 hour days! :eek:

I've just done all the debt busting I can do for the month, which felt great at the time, but now leaves me with 30-odd days before I can do anymore

I went to the doctor's today and had my implant removed, so apparently its 3-5 days for that to all be out of my system and we can try as hard as we like!! I'm quite excited, but my arm is a little sore, it was tricky to get out and the doctor was trying for ages. She says I'm going to be quite bruised. I'm glad my DH is first aid trained, cos when I got home we discovered the pressure bandage was on so tight, my arm had gone blue! And I'm a little stupid about such things and probably wouldn't have changed it. I've spent the rest of the day researching types of nappies (real or disposable) and...baby names! :rotfl:

Your knitting is so good, I'm still doing my second square, wouldn't dare try an actual piece of clothing. Good luck with it

Deeperblue

Mar 4

Katali, I'm the same with my big payments! They all come just after payday and the rest of the month is just a case of surviving off whats left. Congrats on getting the implant out!!! How exciting! And it's nice to know I'm not on my own in thinking about names already Plus, I'm glad your arm is still attached!




We've got the cheque through from the car tax - £184 :T and I got a cheque from music magpie for £29 :j So all good.

I still need to email work to see what I can get back on expenses, if anything, so this'll be my job for the weekend, along with trying to make some more headway on the knitting!

Speaking about knitting... I've about finished the back peice of the cardigan but the instructions for the next bit say "Dec row K2, [skpo, yf, k2tog, k1] to end. 58 sts."..... what the hell does that mean??! :rotfl:

I think the middle bit is "slip 1 knit 1 pass slipped stitch over, yarn forward, knit 2 together, knit 1" but I have no idea how to actually do any of that :rotfl: Plus I still don't know what the "Decrease row knit 2" means or the "58 stitches"... is that the number I should end up with?.... *sigh*.... I guess I'll be spending the night googling this and watching youtube videos!

I can't wait for the day I can just knock up a cardigan in a day

Bad news is LO is really constipated today We eat so healthily! Nothing processed... loads of fruit and veg....loads of exercise.... though she does drink a lot of milk, which I think is where the problem is. She's not been for 4 days now and has been straining and crying today I think she'd got to the point of being scared to poo because it hurts her. I've read about getting her to drink water and fruit juice etc, and eating fibre, but that doesn't solve the immediate problem. We'll walk up to mum's when she wakes up, maybe she has some good ideas, plus we can get in the bath there... see if the warm water makes things easier for her.

Sorry for talking about poo.... hope no-ones eating!

I forgot to mention, last weekend we spent £20 on two little ikea tables for LO to keep her new dolls house on, and yesterday I spent £11 of her £20 birthday money from a friend on some paints for her.

Oh, and I went out for a meal yesterday for the first time in aaaaages, and spent £22 all in, which will come from my pocket money.

~ D.B. ~

saorsie

Deeperblue wrote: »

Mar 4


Speaking about knitting... I've about finished the back peice of the cardigan but the instructions for the next bit say "Dec row K2, [skpo, yf, k2tog, k1] to end. 58 sts."..... what the hell does that mean??! :rotfl:

I think the middle bit is "slip 1 knit 1 pass slipped stitch over, yarn forward, knit 2 together, knit 1" but I have no idea how to actually do any of that :rotfl: Plus I still don't know what the "Decrease row knit 2" means or the "58 stitches"... is that the number I should end up with?.... *sigh*.... I guess I'll be spending the night googling this and watching youtube videos!

~ D.B. ~

ok I can't advise on constipated small children (bless) or share your TTC adventures but I can assist with knitting!

Soooooo Dec row K2, [skpo, yf, k2tog, k1] to end. 58 sts.

This means this is your decrease row (Dec) ~ at the start of your row knit 2 stitches ~ then repeat the bit in brackets until you get to the end, you should then have 58 stitches.

The bit in brackets means as follows:

skpo: slip one stitch from your left needle to right, knit the next stitch on your left needle then from the right needle lift the slipped stitch over the one you have just knitted and off the end of your needle :eek:

yf: yarn forward ~ just bring your wool to the front of your work as though you were going to purl the stitch.

K2tog: knit 2 together ~instead of knitting just one stitch, put your right needle into the next 2 stitches and knit as if one.

Let me know how you get on

-s-

Deeperblue

Mar 4 cont.

Thanks Saorsie, your a life saver. I've read your post a couple of times very slowly and I think I understand most of it, but the 'yarn forward' still confuses me... I guess because I don't know what 'purling' is

Going to knit like crazy tonight so I can get to the complicated bit and give it a go. I'm nervous cause the bit I've done so far looks lovely (even though it is just a small square of wool :rotfl:) and I don't want to wreck it by fluffing up the next bit!

The constipated child is sorted, at least for today :T Followed a tip I read about putting olive oil around their bum to help 'it' slip out a bit easier (sorry TMI ) and it worked! Still a lot of pushing but no crying... never been so happy to see a poo-y nappy.

~ D.B. ~

saorsie

Deeperblue wrote: »

Mar 4 cont.

Thanks Saorsie, your a life saver. I've read your post a couple of times very slowly and I think I understand most of it, but the 'yarn forward' still confuses me... I guess because I don't know what 'purling' is

~ D.B. ~

Yeah to the ~ err positive outcome :T :eek:

Ok yarn forward ~ when you knit a stitch, your wool will be hanging at the back of your work on your right needle, so before you knit your next stitch (or in this case before you knit your next 2 stitches together) just bring your wool forward between the needles until it hangs at the front of your knitting then just knit as usual. You'll find that the wool sort of just loops over the right hand needle and when you knit the next row, (and knit that loop as though it was a proper stitch) it leaves a small sort of decorative hole, don't worry ~ it's quite normal!

-s-

debtfreewannabe321

lol i'm glad you sorted your daughter's bowel movements out my poor son was the same ALL the time! from the time we began weaning to around 1 yr he was constantly constipated and we ate healthily and he had juice etc - I used to use the same trick you did but with vaseline, was so upsetting him go for a week without being able to go though ...it turned out he had allergies and as soon as we cut the food out (all dairy-although he seems to have outgrown it now yay!) he was much better! Could she perhaps be teething? as sometimes mine will have runny nappys (sorry tmi) which is the norm...but sometimes they go the other way too anc can't go at all! Kids eh, constant worried lol, good job we love them

Deeperblue

Mar 6

I'm glad it's not just me with kid with the awkward bowels DFW!


Anyway, important things first.... knitting is going well I've got the tricky bit (at least the trickiest so far!) out of the way and I've just got to do another couple of lines and then the back of the cardi is finished! :jThanks for the tips/advice Soarsie :beer:

I went shopping yesterday and spent about £20 on food for the week. It doesn't sound much but I already have loads and tinned stuff and meat and veg in the freezer. That £20 also includes a new house phone! :eek: The last one died completely so we couldn't even answer it any more so I got a cheap and cheerful one from ASDA for £3.80 :T Out of the £20 I also got some staples like scouring pads, beef gravy (for some reason OH complains when he has to use chicken gravy on beef *shurgs* I can't tell the difference) and loooooads of baguettes that had been reduced to 12p each! They are going a bit hard though so will have to use 'em tomorrow/Tuesday or freeze them.

I'm not going to post shopping list any more cause I'm too busy knitting stuff at the moment

I've had a old skool day today.... made lamb and potato pie for lunch, making the pastry ALL BY MYSELF (didn't realise how easy shortcrust was) and corned beef hash for tea, both very scrummy, and when LO had her nap I sat and knitted by the woodburner :rotfl:I felt like something out of a Dickens novel.

In other news, OH and I are now officially not-trying-not-preventing :j I did say I was going to wait until my next cycle, but I'm due to start it in the next 3-4 days so we figured 'what the hell' as the chances are pretty low.

Think I may go through the accounts tonight and see where I stand. Will post when I'm done.

x

~ D.B. ~

Deeperblue

Mar 6 cont.

Financial state as of........01-01-11...05-02-11...23-02-11...Current:
HSBC OD..................................1650...........705. 69......942.25........300.00
Santandar OD............................2000...........1796.96......1823.33......1925.33
Natwest Loan.............................7900...........7661.88.. ...7661.88......7309.30
Santandar CC.............................4020...........3988.00......3988.00......3948.00
Virgin CC..................................4230............4210. 11.....4210.11......4210.11
Parents Loan.............................4000............4000.00. ....4000.00......4000.00
HSBC CC..................................140.............0...............0..............0
Natwest OD...............................0................1432.50......1540.02......900.00

Totals................................£23,940.00...£23,7 95.14...£24,165.59...£22592.74

Rock. And. Roll. :cool:

This is where I currently stand after I've accounted for and taken out all of this months direct debits, food bills, train fare, petrol etc... so this is were I should be at the end of the month if there are no unforeseen expenses.... PLUS this doesn't take into account the money from the computer we've sold (£250 odd when it finally goes in), or any over time pay for me or OH (could be £120 for me and £100+ for OH) or any expenses that I may get back from the London meeting.

I'm going to work really hard to get us out of the HSBC overdraft before we get paid again, that way, when we do get our March pay I'll be able to use it all for the NatWest OD and that'll be another two '0's to add to the list.:T

I'm feeling positive about this month

*wonders what horrible thing is lurking around the corner ready to p*** all over everything*

~ D.B. ~

rachelww1

I'm feeling positive about this month

So you should be. That's excellent how much you've managed to reduce your HSBC OD by :T