The Ultimate Hard and Fast debt clearing mission

RoseRed

I've not read all your diary but have just flicked through, well done for getting back into the debt clearance mode!

Just an idea as when you did your SOA it was mentioned as to your high petrol costs. I can understand what you mean about needing a 4 by 4 to get you about in the winter, but there is a solution! I live in the rural North East and our winters are pretty vicious. I drive an ancient ford, I do around 250 miles a week which sets me back £40-£50 a week petrol, insurance and repairs are both dirt cheap. I don't have any problems in the snow as I invested £55 in a pair of snow socks for my drive wheels, they're brilliant. Easy to put on and off and I don't even need to dig my car out of deep snow, I just clear enough to allow me to drive forward 1/2 a turn of the wheels and then the snow socks do the rest. They've got me out over a foot of banked snow. So it could be an option to move to a cheaper car, even if temporarily to help get that debt figure down.

Just an idea for you which may help.

Rose

wendz86

Yes please Tink if you could refer me that would be great. The sites that i mainly use are valued opinions, my survey, global test market, vivatic, panelbase, pure profile, one poll, opinion world. Let me know if you aren't on any of them and will see if there are any referrel things.

Poolie - well done on helping out on the problems, hope they remember it! Exciting about moving too. Haven't been to Wimbledon but have heard is very nice.

I am a very proud Mummy this weekend as Poppy has learnt to crawl! She is a little wobbly still so is so cute watching her crawl around. Getting worried about the safety of my stuff though.

Had my mum and sister visit yesterday which was nice. Hope everyone else is having a nice weekend.

starnac

wendz86 wrote: »

I am a very proud Mummy this weekend as Poppy has learnt to crawl! She is a little wobbly still so is so cute watching her crawl around. Getting worried about the safety of my stuff though.

That's it now wendz nothing is safe!!! Well done Poppy though. Clever girl. :T

Cinny91

Good luck with your move, Poolie! Sounds very hectic, wish I could comment on the pension part and sound all grown up but that went right over my noodle.

Go Poppy!! :j She'll be in everything now I bet Glad you had a nice time with your Mum and Sister, I used to love it when mine would just pop around together for a cuppa!

My weekend's going well, family meal last night was lovely. Have my Parents' over today for dinner then we're going to OH's Mums for tea. And to talk about pupppiiieeessss! Got the heating on atm as it's all overcast outside and I want my jeans to dry We already have it coming on in the morning and evening though, was just to take the chill off but with the new windows we're all toasty!

starnac

we have our heating on in the morning and evenings too Cinny but only for an hour each time. In the morning it's to warm DD's uniform so that it's nice and toasty for her to put on and in the evening it's to warm her bedroom as she tends to wake in the night if her room is cold

Lara44

Hey all

Am doing DIY with a hangover which is not recommended. On the upside am also eating Giant (chocolate) Buttons for breakfast. Had a nice night out with a friend, we went to the Tate, then for dinner, then to a 'Live Cinema' night. He has had a huge bonus at work so paid for dinner. So a pretty cheap weekend really. Today more dreaded sanding... and reading.

Aww that's so cute about Poppy Wendz

Cinny91

starnac wrote: »

we have our heating on in the morning and evenings too Cinny but only for an hour each time. In the morning it's to warm DD's uniform so that it's nice and toasty for her to put on and in the evening it's to warm her bedroom as she tends to wake in the night if her room is cold

We're on an hour each time too, although when it's colder my Brother said it's better to have it on constantly but just turn the thermostat down very low on the hours you'd turn it off, so we're going to be trying that in a few weeks no doubt!

Do you have any flannelette sheets you could put on your daughters bed? We have one on under the duvet and there's been a huge difference in bed-toastiness since we put it on.

Good luck with the hungover DIY, Lara! I'd just go back to bed with a book and the chocolate buttons if that was me. But that's kind of what I did yesterday afternoon only minus the hangover. Started reading Game of Thrones and it's addictive!

Dinah93

[STRIKE]20. Finally sort out trapped bingo money[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]39. Put in Medicash claim[/STRIKE]
*42. Book in for a new tyre
57. Question past tax codes for both of us see if we're due anything back
*61. Get NIM to call car garages re fixing the scratches from the egit who keyed the car
*66. Do driving licence renewal
*78. Get passport photos
[STRIKE]86. Do Quidco freebies list[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]88. Get designs off webby and email to printer[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]89. Send documents to Santander[/STRIKE]
*100. Activate o2 sim
[STRIKE]102. Apply to Co-op for £200 bank account[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]103. Do ESA reports.[/STRIKE]

Happy enough with that. Can't find enough past payslips right now to question tax codes.

This means that this week I can get onto more money focused things - probably mostly listing on ebay and amazon.

Have also done a lot of batch cooking this weekend to use up lots of eggs NIM and I have gotten from the mystery shops. Have started my Christmas pudding too, will finish it later today when NIM gets back as he's picking me up some more sugar. Think I'll have to steam it another day though, as it takes 6 hours! Still battling a head cold too, so have resisted the urge to curl up in bed and am proud I've actually got on with things. Even took a bit of time off last night to watch a film (Kung Fu Panda ) with NIM.

I redid my payday spreadsheet today too, no big changes to the contents more the format, arranging things by which account its in rather than a very outdated order based on which day it goes out. This will make it easier if we get the Coop or Santander £200 cashback account to use for bills, as I'll know exactly how much to send each month and then hopefully won't need to keep checking it during the month as it will just take care of itself.

RoseRed wrote: »

I've not read all your diary but have just flicked through, well done for getting back into the debt clearance mode!

Just an idea as when you did your SOA it was mentioned as to your high petrol costs. I can understand what you mean about needing a 4 by 4 to get you about in the winter, but there is a solution! I live in the rural North East and our winters are pretty vicious. I drive an ancient ford, I do around 250 miles a week which sets me back £40-£50 a week petrol, insurance and repairs are both dirt cheap. I don't have any problems in the snow as I invested £55 in a pair of snow socks for my drive wheels, they're brilliant. Easy to put on and off and I don't even need to dig my car out of deep snow, I just clear enough to allow me to drive forward 1/2 a turn of the wheels and then the snow socks do the rest. They've got me out over a foot of banked snow. So it could be an option to move to a cheaper car, even if temporarily to help get that debt figure down.

Just an idea for you which may help.

Rose

Thanks for posting Rose, we did consider this, but three things stopped us. Firstly I get mileage from work, which is only paid on cars under 12 years old. Secondly I'll admit I'm a bit anal about safety and picked this car as it's 5* NCAP and I don't feel I could get that on an older car, and finally we have no cash - if we sell the current truck we may have higher maintenance bills which we can't afford to meet, and also we don't have any actual money to buy another car - our current agreement with my work is that if I sell the car I have to repay what we owe - I think we'd owe a similar amount to what is left to pay so nothing left over. So while its an idea we keep returning to, we keep leaving it again!

tinkerbel

wow poppy's learnt to crawl! will you have a busy time baby-proofing things this week then? (i dont really know how it works!)

I'm glad you enjoyed your date night Cinny, thanks for the tip about clubcard vouchers orange wednesdays are good though and we can go for £3 on mondays because we have sky so its more like finding the time really! (on the right day!)

I'm having a very lazy sunday and loving it heehee! I want to set up a savings spreadsheet too to try and kick me into gear with it but I can't work out how I want it to work/look i think my brain has been scrambled!

Anyhoo I think I should go and hang out the washing!

wendz86

Doing pretty good on your list Dinah! Exciting about doing your christmas pudding, hope its going well.

Sounds like a nice chilled sunday Tink.

We need to save som money up before my maternity pay runs out for poppys first month of nursery in march. Once we have paid out for car insurance/aa will work out where we are .