Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around....

Luvliss

My journey on the road to a stress free life. My goal is to be debt free of £10000 by 12.12.12

Will contain several ways I will make money in order to be debt free quicker.
Will include:

* Homemade Crafts Sales.
* Extra income from Surveys and Mystery Shopping adventures.
* Boot Sales & Ebay
* ...and anything else I can get my mind working on.

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'Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around...'

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Wow, what a line!

It hit me like a bolt of lightening. I don't know why. It's a pretty obvious to anyone that you can change something at any point in time, or at least start to... but I think it was the moment I woke up from the fog of depression I've been in for well over a decade...

Hard to believe I heard it for the first time two days ago. It's also hard to believe it's affected me so much since variations of the same kind of sentence ('You can do anything you put your mind to') always failed to motivate me. I knew what I had to do, but it was hard to. This goes for other 'problems' I have created, not just monetary, but mental and physical health too.

This is my chance to make the life I want for my family, the life I yearn for so that for one single day - the first day - I can feel comfortable, just....relaxing. Just feeling comfortable, literally, in my own skin. I really don't want anything fancy out of life.

I'm sure many of you know what I mean by wanting to relax... Maybe you've felt it too. I cannot even sit and watch television without getting an absolutely sick feeling in my gut that I don't have the right to relax when there's so many problems I have to deal with RIGHT NOW - so I don't relax, I never watch television and get back to rewriting the household budget, and doing massive clearouts and deep cleans, trying to relieve the tension in me. All the while knowing full well none of it is helping my situation. I feel this almost every passing moment that isn't occupied with complicated work. Every other minute was a constant reminder that everything that I regard as wrong with my life, is completely my fault and I am the only one that can change it...

...but I don't.



So here I sat and heard that sentence and it hit me - I CAN do this. Many people have, why can't I? I can sort our life out. I must sort this life out before it's too late and I've spent the whole thing worrying about when it's going to get easier.

I'm going to use this space, like many others, as a place to share how I plan to sort this mess that I've created, so that we can all be Happy. I then hope, in turn, I can help others. I truely mean that.

My goals by 12/12/12 -

• Lose Debt - £10000
• Lose Weight - (undisclosed for now )
• Learn to Drive - (I'm the best back seat driver you ever did see!)
  
• Learn to be more organised.
  
• Smile more.

With all of these things, I can gain freedom and become a happier and better Mum/Partner/Human Being. Do you think so?

Thank you for reading, I hope my little spot on this board isn't a complete waste of space or annoyance to others, and that I haven't droned on for too long, but I think it's a little late for that now...

Luvliss

A little about me:

I'm 27, recently engaged to my partner of 12 1/2 years. We have two beautiful children, a son (10) and a daughter (3). When I say beautiful, I mean - How on EARTH did I create them?? - beautiful. I guess it's something I'll put down to genes passing down through the family, and all that stuff - and 'his side', of course.

I'm what you would call a jack of all trades, I do a bit of everything and try to be as self sufficient as possible. (We changed our own brake pads last week, very proud moment!) If I can find a way to do it myself, I will. If I can save money, I will (....yet i'm on this board and in a bind!...).

I love designing and I wouldn't say I'm too bad at it - what I'm terrible at is sticking to it without getting too bored and moving on to the next design based hobby before it all comes around in circles again. I'm currently on hold with my small business whilst I try and sort things from the bottom up, starting with me...

Emzilla

Hi Luvliss

Just posting to say hello and subscribe. Congratulations on becoming engaged and massive well done on changing those brake pads!! :T

Emz xx

needingaccountability

Hi Luvliss, your fog off depression hit a chord with me,come out of a similar period myself this year, wish you well on all you have to sort out and hope you reach the comfort zone soon. I've a long way to go in house/garden before I get there but manage to achieve it totally when I can escape in my tent

A thought that really helped me was a quote from Dale Carnegie -

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

So trying to enjoy the moment instead of waiting till everything is 'sorted'.

Have fun while your here x

Luvliss

Thank you Emz! Hope I don't end up boring you to tears. x Thanks for the kind words about the brake pads. lol I'm really chuffed about it because I didn't have any money to get them changed professionally and the car is due for a service, so desperate times called for a visit to Youtube!

Youtube is an MSE's friend. You can learn how to do everything yourself there. Figured I'd save around £150 doing the things to the car we were able to ourselves. This was a real life saver, in more ways than one!

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NeedingAccountability, thank you for sharing another touching quote that really means something to me, and puts into better words than I ever could, the realisation I came to when I 'woke up'. You are right, I should be enjoying the now and doing it now before it slips away!

The fog of depression is the best way I could describe it because I don't necessarily find myself unable to function like others experience, instead I find myself not realising life is passing by at all...until one day I'll wonder where the last few years went and where I've been. It's like I'm in a constant daze

I'm ready for fun here! Hmmm...I wonder if the sombre tone of the first post was a good idea, as it might turn people off, but maybe others felt the same way and can follow me in my quest for a bit of 'normality' I too hope you find complete happiness with your surroundings!

Luvliss

Weekly payday. Sweet relief for a moment or two! Please bear with my while I write my to-do list for today, regarding money, I feel if I write it here I will be held accountable if I somehow stray off with any money into the nearest fun stuff shop!

Plan for today -

• Head to the nearest cash point, withdraw some money, try and walk past Sainsburys, Greggs, Costa, Thorntons, KFC, Starbucks, and Pizza Express...uhhh...because my daughter...yeah, that's it! - my daughter will want something... and pay a loan payment into the bank. DONE
  
• Telephone Npower and pay off a quarter of the outstanding balance. They are wanting half in order to set up a payment plan. A whole £400. Today I can pay half of that. DONE
  
• Make a payment towards the Council Tax. DONE
  
• Chase up my suspended LHA & Council Tax Claim, without it I cannot pay this months rent. I hope they get a move on, it took 8 weeks of chasing to get the last one sorted. DONE ALL SORTED
  
• Print all of the DMP paperwork and send it off.

That's not too bad, I just need to make sure we both eat lunch in the house before we go - no temptation! Edit: managed to do it over the phone so all will be sorted in about 30 minutes, meaning no trip to the town centre and zero temptation! - Phew!

Any significant plans for today? x

needingaccountability

Well it didn't put me off

I've been poorly past couple of days and reading some books by an author called Jennifer Worth she was a midwife in 1950's London. The fist one was called Call the Midwife and now I'm on Shadows of the Workhouse. Boy does it put what we think of as problems today into perspective :eek: I've been having a right good cry at some points! So that is all I have planned for today, carry on resting up and reading. :rotfl:

Hopefully feeling better to get up to something more productive soon

good luck with your list, my high street has no such distractions, just a load of charity shops to get past, strangely the kids arn't interested in them :rotfl:

Luvliss

Oh, I do hope you feel better soon! Enjoy the rest!

Reading books - now there's something I don't do very often (ever) - that is, until a week ago when I was able to read the popular Twilight book in large print. I figured I should start with something easy to read, I also wanted to know if it was true when they say 'the book is better than the film'. No comment, lol!

Now I wish I had more time to read, it was fun, especially when it moves you like your current read does!

Luvliss

I'm on my way! I figure that if I am to be debt free by 12/12/12, I need to make an extra £240 a month. Then, paying my normal payments will mean I can pay the amount off in 16 months time? Maths - not my strong point!

Therefore, I am going to join in the £10 a day thread.

I have already signed up to GAPBuster mystery shopping today and completed the required information.

I've also researched the freelance jobs websites and think I may have skills to offer, but I'm lacking confidence - so that is a 'wait and see' option.

We are also going to do a boot sale on Saturday morning.

I'm feeling positive! :j

Luvliss

Ok, this is just crazy, I was just getting into the swing of trying to make a few extra bucks, when I happened upon a potential job which I believe I may be suitable for. I have just finished applying online and I have a good feeling about this.

It's all very scary because I have only been a student/worked for myself for the past 10 years, Other than a short factory job in my teens back then, I haven't worked for an employer.

The job is for an Product, Packaging Designer. I figure this will give me the boost I need in order to sort myself out, weight-wise, and learning to drive! Here's hoping!

Different_Corner

Luvliss, coming out of lurkdom to thank you for that quote, it does strike a chord.
Need to harness the energy that thought provokes....