MrsTUS is going to be debt free. FACT.

MrsTUS

Ok, so I havent posted on my diary for a while so it's time for an update...

Firstly, I am ashamed to say, but I have been smoking for the past 4 months - after quitting successfully for 6 months, a week ebfore I was due to be married to TUS, I started again... So now as it stand, my habit has crept up from 10 a day to 20 a day, so from this moment on I am officially quitting - I've already transferred my £7 daily spend on fags into a e-saver so I can tally up what I'm spending - £7 a day is a massive amount really, considering the debts we owe.... I'm ashamed, but going to suck it up and deal with it... I think half the reason I started smoking again as well was because I started to pile on the weight, but I guess that's up to me to work on as well, so I think I'm going to be starting some sort of diary - not neccessarily weight loss, as I'm not fat by any means, but just for general fitness - as I am SUPER unfit... and any resultant weightloss/inch loss will merely be a bonus...

SO far we have both cleared out Next accounts - I had a balance of nearly £350 and TUS had a balance of nearly £150 - both gone and both completely closed down and gone forever.

Out next port of call is snowballing those payments and the surplus I have onto my credit card with the smallest balance - £486 ish, plus the minimum payment from the credit card itself... I think we'll have this cleared by Christmas, with any luck.

All those payments will then go to start chipping away at one of TUS's creditcards which has a balance of £2.5k :eek: TUS then has a large loan finishing around Feb/Mar of next year and we will REALLY begin to see the benefits of snowballing - I guess it's all a matter of remaining patient; maintaining and equilibrum until something is fully paid off and then just going witht he momentum it produces from overpaying on one debt at a time...

I'm trying to remain motivated but I do confess that I find it difficult... I should find it a motivation when I see posts on the DFW board about how someone has become debt free in that given month, and I guess I do a little bit, but mostly I just feel very very envious and jealous - one of less attractive personality traits. Hmmm, I really need to work on being happy with MY situation as opposed to concentrating too much on OTHER peoples situations...

I'm going to be quite busy from here on in, in my personal life.. As well as being a stay-at-home-mother to my 3 LittleTUSs, I'm also starting the beginnings of a part-time social work degree with the Open University and I'm also about to start training for a volunteer programme I'm interested in, which is somewhat relevant to career aspirations in the future. If anything, it's just to show, when I do return to the workplace, that I didn't just sit on my !!!! for 5 years...

I've also started doing a few paid photography sessions of newborns/babies/children.. I'm really interested in pursuing this as a career however, I know not to put all my eggs in to one basket.. Maybe I'll post the link to my website some day, once it's up and running... Just from word of mouth alone though, I've made £150 and also someone is paying me £300 to photograph their wedding in June next year, so I'm looking forward to that... I won't be paying debts off with the money though, I'll be re-investing this in photography books, new kit/hire of kit and also, I'd like to do a proper training course in child portraiture - afterall, the better I am at this, the higher ££ I can command... That and the fact I want to be the best I can at this and give people quality images for their ££..

I think that's all from me for the time being...

MrsTUS

... aside from having your LBM, getting out of debt and teaching yourself a very valuable lesson in the process... but that is that we'll all, most likely, raise our children to be responsible when they're adults themselves.

Even if our kids do subsequently do get into a pickle, we've equipped ourselves with another skill-set to be able to help them out before it becomes too much for them and they start to put things at risk..

When I was a young(er) adult - I'm only 27 now - my mum and dad always paid the bills and have never been in horrendous debt, but they never passed on those lessons to me. They never sat me down and went through a list of priority bills to pay or how to work out a budget.

Subsequently, when I was 17 - my parents had split up a year prior and moved to different countys - I was pregnant, not even legally able to earn minimum wage and I moved into a flat (had no choice) that was cheap, but still way beyond my means of living comfortably. I had no clue about what benefits I could or could not claim and I had nobody to help me and point me in the right direction of the resources available that would help me find those things out.

As a result, I got into debt and bad habits and now I'm paying the price, albeit, only for another 3 1/2 years. My children are paying the price by my bad choices.

I simply cannot wait until they are old enough to understand and take on board the benefit of my experience. I can't wait to break the cycle. I am determined to equip my children with the skills and knowledge necessary to get through life on even the smallest of incomes...