Debtfree by Sept 2009

weegie-dfw

Hi Seaxwyn,

It's so difficult to plan because when you do either it takes longer to get paid or another bill comes in that your not expecting. I'm hoping that over the next few months I'll get more full-time work (it's been hinted at for a long time:mad: ) I'll still keep my business running on the side but it will make getting the debt down so much easier to plan!

Thank you for your comments, it's good to know there are more self-employed dfw out there!

weegie-dfw

More progress today:j

I have just checked the actual balances of some of the debt, so found out that A and L Credit Card is down to just over £3400 which is great because I thought it was up at £3460:j

MBNA is up to £2997, but this is because I moved my website hosts and paid for three months up front which pays for hosting three websites (£28 for three months cheaper than the £9.97 I was paying each month per site!) So a saving in the long term :money:

I need to do a new SQA because mortgage has gone up, some minimum payments have gone down and income will change in the next month hopefully for the better :T I'm waiting on confirmation that I will be on a full-time contract until march 08, I should find that out in the next three weeks, fingers crossed.

Other good dfw deeds today - set up the payment transfer from my account to OH's credit card which means I can start contributing to get that down, also drafted up a letter for the same credit card to cancel the PPI insurance. Have also just noticed I pay PPI on one of my cards to going to look into cancelling that.

Feeling a bit more positive and it's only 10 days to pay day and I still have £50 in the bank, which is £5 per day to live on. I went shopping yesterday and spent £5 on fresh veg and then £6.38 on meat and essentials. I will have to use one of the cards for petrol but can pay that straight back once I have my travel expenses in :rolleyes:

weegie-dfw

Well I'm now another year older - it was my birthday yesterday and although the start of it wasn't the best for a birthday it turned out to be a lovely day/ evening.

OH left to go on a 5 week tour in the morning so that was rubbish plus he spent it on the phone to the bank trying to sort out a few things before he left.

The good news is I got a lot of birthday money! Woo Hoo! OH's parent's gave me a very generous cheque to do a course I've been talking about for a while - it's not for a few months so means I have money until my travel expenses etc come in! I also went shopping and got two lovely dresses, new earrings and some clips for £23 (I love H&M), I know I should have put this to my debt but needed cheering up. Then went into the office and got a lovely necklace and gin from my team, they took me for some drinks and food (completely unplanned and unexpected) and that was my day!!!

I'm also working this weekend so that's some more for the pot.

weegie-dfw

More good news on the work front, it looks like I'll have full-time work (on top of my freelance stuff) until the end of July - just waiting on confirmation!

Have just paid £410 towards my debt from my wages, and I'm still waiting on travel expenses which I filled in with the wrong mileage rate but I'd done it at 33p per mile instead of 35p per mile so that's up to £250 = which means I can clear my Next account and put the rest to the beneficial visa!

So back under the 30K mark and determinded never to be there again!

hypno06

Good news on the debt repayment this week :T

Keep on posting, there are loads of us self employed bods out here in DFW land who can empathise with you over the fluctuating income - I started off May by having £100 to last us the whole month inc food for 3 adults and 2 children plus a cat. Needless to say, with the fab support of these boards, I have survived May and the children are not starving......(much).

Here's to a profitable June :beer:

weegie-dfw

Cheers hypno 06 - I will keep my debt free diary up to date! I'm finding the board a great motivator.

weegie-dfw

I've decided to put in a few strategies to try and get rid of the debt a bit quicker and to keep up my motivation.

I've decided to set up a few systems that will pay directly into certain debts.

• The first is anything from sales on amazon is going straight into the Cahoot overdraft so far I have managed to get about £12 to it.
• I have set up a bill payment to OH's loyds tsb visa, and anytime I have a odd amount in my account i.e. that isn't either on the nearest £10 or £5 I put into my savings and once it's at £10 I transfer it to the visa (already paid £10into it)
• I've joined the 20p savers club which will go to my next account.
• I've joined the £2 savers club which will go to the A & L overdraft.

This is on top of the other payments we plan to make, so hopefully it will make a small dent in it. :money:

Had not a bad week, did go out on Wednesday and spend to much but hardly spent the rest of the week.

I took lunch in to work all week:j
Only spending £2.50 on three of the days for bus fares:money:
Last night I made some cream of chicken soup, so that will do lunch today, and for during the week, I made a cottage pie on Thursday which is for tonights dinner and the rest has been frozen for dinners on Monday and Thursday. Next week I don't need to cook on Tuesday or Wednesday - one night at mums and the other night is a work's treat :beer: then I'm away for work the next weekend which I can claim back what I spend. So no shopping this week - plenty in the fridge and cupboard to cover it.

I have had to buy some birthday presents but used quidco for them and made the cards!!! I will get some of this cash back from my family as we chip in for stuff.

Today I'm going to tidy the flat, do some more work on company and for office and then treat myself to some nice gin and tonic - just need to buy tonic as got some lovely gin for birthday.

So I think it's not been a bad week for the spending.

weegie-dfw

woo hoo have just found £3.80 worth of 20p lying around the house in different tubs - going to gut the flat and see what other treasures I can find.

Also found the box for some cordless phone's when we got our homehub and they didn't have the right phone for it - so ebay here they come - I think they are worth about £50? Will check out on net later.

This is turning into a good DF day - also planning to make some bread and cakes later - have loads of stuff in the store cupboard!

weegie-dfw

OK I failed to make the bread and cakes (later on today!), also gave in and bought some wine (3 for 2 though!).

But I'm sitting here looking at a grey Edinburgh sky wondering why I entered myself into the 5K race for life which I'm doing in about 2 hours! Haven't made it to the gym once last week - so not sure how I'm going to cope with this one! On the up side I've raised over £200 for Cancer Research.

I'll let you know how I get on!

hypno06

Good luck with the race for life. We'll be cheering you on in a virtual sort of way!

Your last few posts sound very positive - let that continue!!