The Ultimate Hard and Fast debt clearing mission

shrimpy_80

Hi all, Happy Birthday Archers! Hope you have a good day, don't work too hard! Have you brought cake in?

Glad the wedding went well Birdie, sounds like you all had a lovely time.

For all those who scoffed at the ear rubbing last week, I passed my driving test this morning so it must work after all!

poddle911

Happy birthday Archers!

Glad the wedding was fab, Birdie - such a lovely time to get married. I'm sure you'll start to feel Christmassy soon - it's always weird when you've got another big focus or deadline beforehand. We were the same when we were going on safari on 27th December - divided loyalties!
Now you can throw yourself into it Advent house - amazing! Would love to see a pic.

Ah Wendz, must be a lovely time of year to be at home with Poppy - I can't believe she's standing already. I know parents always say their babies grow so quickly - I hope you're taking lots of photos! Your cards sound sweet

Ruby, hope you've had a lovely engagement anniversary weekend - how romantic! Hope you hear about the job soon; I don't think you ever know how an interview has gone or all the other factors involved, so best not to analyse it too much. Easier said than done I know!

NIM - you're a machine! I can't believe you did 21 MS in one weekend, that's hard and fast for sure...

Dinah, look forward to seeing your updates - you seem to be cracking on, as usual

I think my December goals will be:
* lose 5lbs (probably a bit ambitious given Christmas )
* book wedding entertainment
* some sort of receipt filing system (thrilling I know)
* declutter under the bed
* Christmas!

Lara - good start with yours! Hope you have a good meet with the IFA. How was Taste of Christmas and dinner at Jamie's?

ETA: Yay Shrimpy, that's excellent news - well done! Glad the ear rubbing worked... lol

wendz86

Happy Birthday Archers - i missed that sorry!

Congratulations Shrimpy!

Poddle - they really do grow quickly. I try my hardest not to be an obsessive parent but you can't help but be amazed by everything they do. Loving the goals for December, especially the last one!

Lara44

It wasn't so great Poddle unfortunately, although we still had fun. Taste of Christmas was really just a trade fair, the classes and demos were all quite small, not nearly as impressive as the listings sounded. We didn't have any money to spend so we just hoovered up loads of free samples.

The Jamie dinner was a bit of bum deal. I felt a bit bad for my sister spending quite a lot of money. It was just some picnic tables with plastic tablecloths, you had to just slide in and sit squashed in beside people. The dinner was nice but the portions were absolutely minute. They brought over this lovely tapas platter which I thought was going to be lovely - except it was just one portion for 6 people! Cue lots of embarrassed sharing with our neighbours. I had to ask for extra bread as there wasn't even one slice each. One of our group was a baby and we still didn't feel like we got nearly enough. Most of it was cured meats which are nice, but don't exactly require a lot of skill. The dinner was roast pork which was nice but it was the size of one medallion of pork loin, with some carrots and a portion of dauphinoise the size of a single potato. I thought Paul was going to cry :rotfl: We did get a book each too but unfortunately both the same - Jamie's America.

I didn't even manage to finish my essay, so the weekend wasn't quite the deliriously happy one I had hoped for. Oh well, back to the grind. Sorry to be a grinch

ruby_eskimo

Happy Birthday Archers and Congratulations Shrimpy!

Had an amazing weekend, was definitely the best hotel I've ever stayed in! It was so luxurious, dinner was amazing and the breakfast...well just think of anything you could possibly want for breakfast in unlimited quantities and you're almost there! Plus there were 2 wedding's happening there and the 2 parties ended up fighting so there was this weird atmosphere at breakfast the next morning. They had one of those rainfall showers and OH is addicted to it now!

On a slightly bum note, OH's flatmate is being a *bleep*. If I get this new job then me and OH will be looking for a place of our own. The contract runs out on his current place at the end of January and his current flatmate was going to move in with his best friend (if I was in a position to move). The landlord has agreed to a six month contract but wants them to sign it this week. So I told OH to just sign and what's 6 months more apart if I get this job. But now his flatmate will only sign a contract if it's for another year. OH has explained the situation and that he wouldn't be homeless in 6 months because he was going to move in with his best mate anyway. But now he's changed his mind and wants to stay in the flat they are in at the moment because "it's nicer than Steve's house". Looks like another year of living apart. It's been almost 5 and a half years what does another one matter?

*sigh*

Sorry if this is rambling, just needed to rant a little bit.

Birdie85

Aww what a shame about the dinner Lara! Did you have to go to Maccy D's afterwards for more food?!

The christmas cards sound so cute Wendz!

Very well done on passing your test Shrimpy! :j

My goals are:
- Finish all home-made presents by the 16th
- Make at least one dish for our Christmas party from scratch (so it's not all from Morrison's party section! )
- Finish my book (seems to be taking forever!)
- Clean flat for Father Christmas (he doesn't leave presents to people with messy bedrooms, my Mum told me that!)
- Organise paperwork/receipts in a folder of some sort

I know it looks like I've stolen Poddle's idea there for the receipts but I was genuinely thinking about that this morning! Every time we need a receipt/account number etc we can't find it as they seem to be filed all over the place so I'm going to make a folder to keep it all in!

Sorry about the flatmate woes Ruby, so often people do dig their heels in and act like children when the other person has put a time limit on their living arangements, it's not fair at all. At least you had a lovely weekend together!

shrimpy_80

Thanks everyone! Am still in a bit of shock to be honest, only just regained the power of speech!

Ruby that sounds really out of order to me, I understand people wanting security but 6 months is long enough to figure out his next step especially if he has another potential roommate lined up. You say he has only agreed to sign if its a year, but hypothetically if your OH refuses what will he do then? Have to leave anyway?

Shame about your meal too Lara, I really hate it when food is a disappointment!

I think my goals for December will be to try and make some progress on my AAT finally, and aim to clear £350 on my remaining cc (the one in my sig). I want £700 paid off by the end of Jan, but will probably end up paying more next month than this I expect. Also I have a couple of homemade pressies to finish. Bit of a cop out but the debt is the main focus now.

Lara44

Weekend sounds lovely Ruby, sorry to hear about flatmate trauma. Breakfast sounds *great*. I once had a champagne breakfast and it was one of the best things ever!!

Birdie - we went to the chippy when we got home :rotfl:

Great goals Poddle and Birdie

Oooh HUGE CONGRATS Shrimpy, how did I miss that bit of good news???
:beer: :beer:

clearmydebts

Congrats on passing the driving test Shrimpy. How many lessons did you do?

Hi to everyone else.

Lara - sorry your weekend wasn't what you thought it would be

Birdie - the wedding sounded amazing. I am also jealous of their honeymoon!

Wendz - I reckon Poppy will be walking well before her first birthday. Max took 2 steps the week of his first birthday

Ruby - your OH's flatmate defo sounds like a right beep

Dinah - looking forward to your update

Hi Poddle!!!

I am busy busy as usual. Evie slept from 10pm to 8.30am this morning 2 days in a row so am well happy with that. I just want my evenings back and I will be sorted as I don't have much time.

Property update from me. We researched all avenues for a mortgage in Ireland and nothing was turning up so I approached my Dad's family about doing a rent to buy scheme with my great uncles old house. Turns out they are going for it so need to get it surveyed this week, then I need to cost out everything with my uncle (who is in the building trade). The money we pay in rent will come off the mortgage so we should have a relatively small mortgage by the time the 2 years is up.

Birdie85

That sounds like a great plan CMD! Will be lovely to get settled in your own place!

The wedding seriously was too good; an 'electric trio' (keyboard, violin and harp) played during and after the ceremony, one minute we were listening to Jingle Bells, the next they played Sweet Child of Mine! Awesome! They had a close-up magician to fill the gap after the meal who was excellent (albeit suspiciously sniffing all night...after OH had heard someone snorting loudly in the loos! :eek:), a Christmas tree with 'boxes of presents' underneath and the boxes were full of retro sweeties and there were even chocolates on the tree, a hot chocolate bar as people came in (which we didn't see since we were holed up in the bridal suite all morning, sulking that we weren't having hot choc with marshmallows!) and my brother had organised a 'Retro Hour' with the DJ where they broke out the glow sticks and played retro dance music for an hour, was mental! The DJ thanked my brother afterwards for the entertainment!