Keen to be debt free's diary

Keentobedebtfree

Woke up this morning with a positive feeling - I'm so glad I'm facing all of this and I feel really motivated.

Was thinking how lackadaisical/reckless I used to be - paying for and not using Groupon vouchers and forgetting to pay my credit card bills and only doing so after they had called me which would cost £12 a time!!! No more.

I am being extremely careful with the pennies now but I also have to look at other ways to up my income, to make 'extra' money to put into the CC.

Had overpaid one CC I have now paid off and the money was transferred today into my bank. I've put it straight over to Virgin CC - £39.13.

Still doing surveys - hoping to buy a few of the Christmas presents with the vouchers.

Hope you're having a great day!

Skint_but_Optimistic

Good stuff, its all go!

Grocery shopping, I do a circuit of the cheaper supermarkets. Aldi Lidl etc, and top up at Mr T and Mr S on the things I cant get at the cheaper places. This has reduced my grocery spend by a fortune, particularly as we batch and scratch cook these days too!

Seaxwyn

Good luck K2b! Debt-busting can be quite addictive. Being self-employed adds a little extra spice! Don't forget to save money for tax. That has been my downfall - paying every penny I can off debts, then having to borrow more to pay tax bills.

I will follow your thread with interest

Keentobedebtfree

Thanks, Skint but Optimistic. I'm definitely going to try and find some cheaper alternatives in Lidl etc and will have to get into making bigger batches of everything.

Spent around £70 on food this week, which is quite a reduction from our usual!

I also had three no spend days and have controlled my latte addiction - (one this week, and that was on the remaining balance of my Starbucks card - think I have around £2.60 left - will keep it until a celebration is called for )

Kids really enjoyed the flapjacks I made from store cupboard stuff for their packed lunches and this weekend going to make homemade pizzas (lots of tins of tomatoes at home). I will make loads and freeze some.

Still thinking of going for the Lionbridge exam, although it all seems to be shrouded in mystery and I would love to know if it's worth all the effort for the amount you earn. Got to weigh it all up!

Having an expensive griddle pan - that I bought online (before MSE, I hasten to add) which arrived with a broken handle - collected by courier over the next couple of days and will be refunded the £46 :eek:. Going to look around for a cheaper alternative and put the rest into CC.

Also a lead for my computer that I bought on Ebay that exploded - (£8.25) but haven't heard back from the seller yet.

Anyway, that's me for now.

Hope you're all feeling happy and positive!!

Keentobedebtfree

Thanks, Seaxwyn - great to hear from you.

You are totally right re tax. In the past for me it has been a case of forgetting about it (but not really) until January, then a huge panic! I'm thinking of setting up the regular payments thing with the HMRC so I don't have that horrible feeling at the end of the year.

I haven't done this yet and am frankly a little afraid to confront it :undecided, but I will build up the courage to do it over the next couple of days.

Keentobedebtfree

Just a quick update.

Been very careful not to spend where possible:

Trying to have as many NSDs as I can.
Sent off PPI claim letters and stopped PPI on the card that still had it
Have things ready to list on Ebay this weekend - everything I make will go to CC - Virgin first!
A great discovery has been the website www.saynoto0870.com which gives the landline number as an alternative to the 0845/0870 numbers which are really expensive. So handy when phoning bank etc.

Still haven't done the SOA - am going to do this next week, so I can start to budget properly.

Rushing out but will post more this evening!

Keentobedebtfree

Going to do some Ebaying this weekend as today and tomorrow are free listing days and the proceeds will go straight to CCs.

debtfreewannabe321

ooh thanks for that! I never got an email from ebay and have a few items over 99p to list will do that this weekend then

Keentobedebtfree

Didn't get very far with my Ebay things today, debtfreewannabe321 - but have put everything aside ready to photograph. I also did lots of other jobs in the house, so quite a productive Saturday.

Felt like the kids could do with a bit of a treat on such a rainy afternoon, so we headed out to the cinema (with 40% off Odeon vouchers:j). It was great - we hadn't been for about 6 months!

Transferred another £20 to Virgin today.

silkglade

Hi:j

Great to see you all obsessed like me, I too am just starting with my dfw journey and am thinking about it every waking second..... so adictive.

Good luck and I will be following your progress too