Back filling the big hole I dug with my credit card

AllThatStuffIsJustStuff

Hi Lily - thanks for stopping by. We realise that we are luckier than many on here that out debts didn't get as big as others have. At their peak at the start of this year we had about 13k unsecured debts and it is now just shy of 7k (we also have about 6 months remaining payments on our bathroom but for whatever reason we haven't ever counted this in the debt). This is a real achievement for us as our collective debt has previously only grown in the five years we have been together. A lot of that growth was for good reason - buying things for our house etc - but we should have made a better effort to pay it off a lot sooner.

Do get as much stuff as you can on eBay - decluttering is great but if you can get some money back in the process it's all the better. I have also read your diary and you are doing really well - I will post a fuller response there in a bit.

My actually diary update now - Today has been a great success. First day in over two weeks when I have been both well and had good outdoor work weather. I've finished building and lining the raised bed so I'm feeling very pleased. Not a lot else to report as it's taken up most of the day. Oh except I forgot to mention before that I'm pretty sure the interview yesterday went rubbish. Will know for certain on monday but I don't hold out much hope...

PiggyBankShaker

Thanks for dropping by Lilykins and for your really thoughtful and encouraging comments. I know that AllThatStuff has found your diary inspirational, we have chatted about it. I find the MSE diaries so good for keeping on the straight and narrow - we have found a community that is doing the same thing we are in a way that no one we know in 'real life' is.

My post earlier ended much more abruptly than I had planned, DD was on my knee and wanted to type - nothing would distract her so I just gave up in the end... I didn't actually have anything interesting to add though, so no loss.

I've been browsing other people's diaries and I noticed they include a lot more about their everyday life but AllThatStuff and I are really just focussed on the MONEY money MONEY!! That's not to say that there's not other pressing stuff going on in our lives, and that we're not rounded people, its just that this thing - the need to clear the debt and get on a financial even keel - is so all consuming at the moment.

It's also the only area, I think, that this kind of interaction with others in similar positions is beneficial. I could write diary posts about how ill my mother is and how worried I am about her but this isn't a message forum for people with sickly mothers so I don't know if anyone would really understand. I do know though that so many here do understand about shopping / spending compulsions and the simple pride of having a NSD or listing 5 bits of tat on ebay.

I was so ashamed a few months ago about being so broke (all due to my own stupid making) that we couldn't afford £3 a week to take DD to a gym class - all of my money was was already spoken for even before it hit my bank account. It is now too, but in a voluntary overpayment way, not in a 'barely covering the minimum payment' way. I am proud we are dealing with our debts, and finding the time / inclination to do the ebay selling too.

For too long the state of the house really depressed me too but I knew we couldn't afford to do anything to change that. If someone had said to me 6 months ago that my debts would be as low as they are now (relatively speaking) and we would have more than £1200 to spend on home improvements - like the fabled stove! - I would have thought it was because we had won it - not because we made it happen ourselves though changes in our lifestyle that have, frankly, been really easy.

Anyway, enough introversion. Things are going okay, even including the roof disater. We're on the right track and our positivity is making good things happen. Long may it continue

PiggyBankShaker

Ebay going very very slowly... a few items going for 99p and a couple for 50p (desperate or what) Most of them are on their 5 relist, but they are selling, which shows that most things - no matter how naff - will go eventually. Settled on some higher value items that we'll list when there's a free listing weekend, things that'll signal a break with our old lifestyle. THings like our HD Video Camera, hands-free set and an iPod. They don't seem to have a place in our current way of living. If by selling them it means we can get our stove finally installed then all the better.

On the topic of the stove, we got a date for the installation - 12th September - and whilst we don't currently have the money we do now have a target amount and a date by which we need to raise it. I'm hoping this will really spur us on with project Everything Must Go! I listed another item this morning and will aim to do 5 more while DD is in nursery this afternoon.

AllThatStuff is off in a van today collecting the parquet flooring, a bed for DD and a trainset that we have bought for her birthday (all bargains off eBay) I've also spied some quality bedding on eBay for the bed that due to being collection only and rubbish photos I'm hoping we can get for 99p

I have to be careful as at teh moment we are spending more than we are making on eBay, and that's not a habit I want to get into!

chevalier

Well done on forging ahead with paying down the debt. It must seem like a real weight off your mind. I hope you were able to treat your daughter to those classes as well. I bet she was made up with that
chev

PiggyBankShaker

As always, thanks for the encouragement Chevalier - how is your journey going?

PiggyBankShaker

I'm writing this entry hoping that I'll feel better afterwards. I am so stressed and upset. My anxiety levels havn't been this high for ages and I just don't know what to do. All morning the baby has cried every time I have put him down, DD has not been listening to me and everything, the simplest thing, has taken so long to do. There were ants on the kitchen work top this morning and now there are 3 bluebottles in the house buzzing around. The only two things me and AllThatStuff argue about is housework and his mother. We've rowed and rowed about housework so many times that there is no point anymore because I just feel we end up saying the exact same thing every time. It goes through me when there are flies in the house because it says to me that there is dirt for them to eat and breed in. AllThatStuff is not bothered really, he'll kill then and carry on as normal - but this is just treating the sympton not the problem. We are meant to be on an MSE mission, something AllThatStuff wanted for a long time before my LBM. But I don't understand how when we are trying ti be frugal, he can leave the butter and cheese out on teh worktop all night to go bad and the associated cost with that.

Then lunchtime I noticed the corner of the kitchen ceiling bowing - under the bath. I have been concerned for a little while about that corner as I notice the wallpaper on teh wall lifting away in a long straight line down from the ceiling. I put it down to steam from cooking, as that is where the cooker is. But what I noticed today is different entirely. I am really concerned that the bath is leaking. I know I have to ring B&Q, we are lucky that it should still be under guarantee with them. But this second in time I can't face it. The first roofer hasn't come back with his quote yet (he said today at the latest) and everything is just such chaos. The though of teh bathroom, kitchen, back bedroom, roof and back yard all needing urgent work at the same time is just too much for me to cope with.

I'm going to ring B&Q right now, whilst I have energy, because I was an ostritch abou the backroom ceiling for too long and we can't afford the same thing to happen again.

PiggyBankShaker

Okay. Have got a cup of tea. Much better. B&Q were excellent, fair play. They are sending someone at 8 tomorrow morning and said to pierce the kitchen ceiling to allow any water to drip out so as not to put a strain on the ceiling from the weight of the water. Did that and low and behold the drip started straight away.

Rand the second roofer and asked him for his quote £700 more expensive! So no competition there really. Only problem is the other guys can't come for 2-3 weeks! Please don't rain!!

PiggyBankShaker

Sorry for the mega rant yesterday - and sorry to AllThatStuff in particular. Sometimes things all get get on top of me and I feel very anxiuos, often far more than the situation dictates.

The B&Q guy came today and now we have a 2ftx2ft hole in our kitchen ceiling, the plug is fixed and he is coming back on Thursday to make good the ceiling. We will have to add wallpapering it (or plastering or whatever) to next year's kitchen project to do list, but I wasn't all that fussed on the wallpaper that's up there now so no worries I guess.

I haven't gotten back to the roofers as basically I have been ill in bed all day with a sickness bug I need to ring them tomorrow and confirm the job. It'll cost about £1,500 in total, and I'm just grateful that we have the m,oney in teh emergency fund to pay for it.

We need to pull out all the stops on raising as much cash as possible between now and Setember when the stove os being installed as we currently have £100 or the £1200 needed!

That's all for now, I need to lie down again

AllThatStuffIsJustStuff

It's been a mere three days since my last post but I have no idea where to start. PBS has covered an absurd amount of utterly disconnected ideas in that time that it would be far more than I am up to right now to respond to them all.

I will just briefly touch on the notion that PBS mentioned about things that aren't relevant to the diary, because actually there are a lot of things that we haven't mentioned that are relevant and give context.

The one that is relevant here is that after DD was born, for the first 12-15 months or so, PBS suffered from post natal depression and anxiety. This was a pretty awful time for us and we were both very concerned about it happening again after DS was born. Although it hasn't been perfect, there hasn't been anything even remotely approaching what happened before. I think our goal of a decluttered and less pressured lifestyle stems a lot from this bad experience.

Yesterday when I was off fetching flooring, PBS called me very stressed (around the same time as the rant on here I guess). I was worried because when she would get like that after DD was born, it could take literally weeks for her to get back on an even keel. Yesterday she did it in a matter of hours and I was phenominally proud as I know how difficult it can be for her. I just think it shows how far we've come as a unit and how it motivates me for the future.

As PBS said, she's not been well today so I've been mostly holding the fort. DS is teething and DD was knackered after school and I found trying to tend to the three of them a bit knackering. Thankfully PBS took the two of them up to her parents so I had some time on my own which I set to being all manly by breaking up a pallet.

Anyway, yesterday was good. The parquet flooring is great - although there is a vast quantity of it. The living room is going to be a little overrun with it until we can get it laid. We did get an absolute bargain on it though. We paid £175 for 50m2. Although it cost me almost that much again to fetch it, that still works out at around £6-£7 a square metre to the door - barely more expensive than the cheapest rubbish laminate flooring. Laying it will be a bit tougher mind but I'm certain it will be worth it.

That'll do for tonight as I'm knackered. I have a lot more things to write about. I was thinking in the van yesterday about all the stupid things we used to spend money on - I'll put them in a post when I have time. Though right now I'm thinking of something that I've banned myself from buying till DFD - Scotch. I'm a bit of a snob on the spirits front and I can't be doing with the cheap stuff. So I decided that until I could buy a bottle of decent single malt with a clear conscience I would go without. But I would really really love to have a nice tumbler of an oaky Islay right now... Still, that glass on DFD will taste the best ever I've no doubt.

Aesop

AllThatStuffIsJustStuff wrote: »

But I would really really love to have a nice tumbler of an oaky Islay right now... Still, that glass on DFD will taste the best ever I've no doubt.

wow, you have great taste in Scotch! Not that I am much of a scotch drinker but still recognise a good Scotch when I read one!

Well I know it will taste sooooooooooooooo good when you get your first sip.

I am having laptop problems, fan broke on laptop, hoping IT guy at work can fix it asap. Just hope he doesn't sit on it for weeks, I need it for surveys, etc. Anyhow, wanted to say I will be reading, but not necessarily posting because of this.