The "Pay ALL your debt off by Xmas 2012" challenge

idristhedragon

mf0u1098 wrote: »

Right, I think we're fully updated now...phew! Can you please let me know if I've missed anything xxx

Hiya mf0u1098- I think mine are a bit out cos I havent added my usual payments that go- the DDs etc. I will do some maths and gove you a total. Thank you so much for doing this for us all when I know you are so so busy and stressed. Cheers from us all :beer:

Miss_Information

Hi idris, you mustn't feel like a failure as a parent. I am a teacher (11-16) so I overhear an awful lot of what they get up to at weekends, and it really does scare me! I haven't got children yet, but I have no idea how I'll cope when this sort of situation arises (and it will!!). In my opinion, the fact it has come up is positive. You know she is starting to think about things like that, and you can talk to her about it. Looking at the kids I teach, the most dangerous thing is when kids' parents have no idea and think their children are angels - they are most likely to get in to difficulties with alcohol. At least you are aware and can monitor things. As I say, I have no personal experience at all, and I can only imagine how hard it must be to parent a teen! Good luck, and keep communication open and positive. xx

Miss_Information

lancashirelassie wrote: »

Hello everyone,

loving the link.

I cant believe how many of us are in the same boat. It seems weight gain comes with debt!!! oh dear and this country has a lot of obese people..I too am on that magic 3 stone loss required along with the debts. Been reading on here for a while and been inspired by comments and tips and been making use of them, thanks.
I have just cleared a Halifax card in December and feel epic as i was incurring charges I am on a roll to get the others sorted.:jI will be snow balling the debts. Need to register with 365 Days thread also and am going to my son and his gf on this also.
£1300 (0%)to Nwide 0 by May 2012. snowball payments plus 2 free council tax months will have it sorted;)
£3200(0%) to Virgin in 2 parts May and July 2012 will have to move this onto another 0% though. Minimum plus £10 snowball payment.
DH £150 on Barclays till July 12 this is £30 pm(0%) till paid off!!;)
Need to find a sealed pot in a charity shop and will take that challenge on
DH £2400 Virgin (0% till March 2012 - needs moving in Feb)

Good luck everyone

I am doing the sealed pot thing too - I'm just using a 2L Coke bottle sellotaped around the cap, with a slot cut in the top. Might get a nice box later, but at least I have made a start. You could do the same and then transfer the cash when you find soemthing pretty!

Pixie_Fairydust

Hi all

I have a sainsbury's loan which is about £6000 and £200 on my credit card, so a total of £6200to be paid off in 2012.

:xmastree:Debt free by Christmas 2012, now wouldn't that be lovely!

Happy New Year to you all

Pixie

rictus123

Home after another days grafting through my holidays...Looking forward to my next payment, hopefully i can manage high 3 figure!! I took this debt on by choice to help draw extra income from it...just think i will have to pay it off asap to see some rewards from the risk over 2012. My SOA shows i could well be debt free by my 21st birthday in July. Well done to all paying more than once a week, how do you do it!

Aaarghusername

Hello everyone,

I would like to join this challenge please!

My starting debt was £5312.74, but so far this month I have paid off £467.57 and cleared 3 of my debts (2 catalogues (cringe) and a personal loan) completely.

Total debt currently stands at £4845.17.

I set myself a target to pay off £4.5K this month before I made my payments, but I'm going to push myself and pay off that last 300-odd quid as well.

idristhedragon

right I have been maths-ing nd have paid

#60 paid £444.78 / £2321.54

I am KILLING this debt :j

rubywhatashmoo

Hello newbies (and oldies )

Awww Idris you mustn't blame yourself about your DD behaving like that - me & my sister are about 18 months apart (I'm the eldest!) and when she was that age she was always out with groups of "undesirables" sneaking booze and staying out late and what have you - our parents also had booze around the house, we had a right liquor cabinet when we were growing up because they both got boozy xmas/birthday presents and never drank it!! But anyway, she was like that and I was a goody-two shoes (mostly) - I think kids just sometimes need to push it to see how much they can get away with if nothing else and it's no way a reflection on you as a parent!! If you didn't care when you found out that would be completely different but trying to make her realise why you're upset about it so hopefully next time she'll think about it and instead of showing off in front of her mates she'll think of her mum and not bother!!

Anyway BIG hugs and do NOT go spending!! Get a nice long bath and forget about your kids for an hour - free and will make you feel better :A

skaps

Debt is now down to £5985.74

sharronej

idristhedragon wrote: »

Hi all. I am currently RAGING with anger and upset so I hope you dont mind me ranting here. My 14 year old DD went off to a sleepover last night and while she was there she posted a picture on FB of her "overnight kit" which consisted of two cans of coke (I gave her) a hairdye (i bought her and said her friend could dye her hair) and a flask. I immediately went on FB and asked what the flask was for but deleted it as I had an inkling..........fast forward to her coming home and immediately asking f she could go to the park to meet some "friends" dunno about where yoy are but here in the South West it is peeing down and FREEZING. I said n and who are you meeting and it was "boys- friends of friends" we said no she cant go so shes in full sulk when I asked why she'd taken the babys flask out for the night. She flew out of the room, grabbed her back and legged it upstairs. Husband gave chase, got the flask off her and BINGO. RUM. RUM!!!!!!!!!! OUR RUM that she has STOLEN aged 14. She shot off and locked self in bathroom and we made her come down and face us. She swears blind they didnt drink it and I THINK she was just trying to big herself up to her friends. I am totally devestated and in a purely selfish manner I feel like it reflects really badly on me as a parent. I think Ive screwed up totally and it just brings home the fact that I really dont feel old enough to be parenting a teen. I am 35 BTW. I also split up with her biological dad when she was TINY (a matter of months old) and shes had very little contact with him her whole life. No financial support at all. My husband has bought her up since we got together when she was just 2 and is 100% a father to her- in fact our other kids (8,6 &3) dont even KNOW she has a different biological dad- its just not relevant. Earlier this year she threw "Youre not my dad" at husband in a row but to be honest that had been expected and we were surprised it took as long as it did.
Anyway I feel bad cos we are drinkers- not stupidly so - but we regularly have wine with meals/of an evening, we have friends coming for NYE and Ive been stockpiling Cava etc. Have we normalised it too much? She has a friend whos mum regualrly allows them an alcopop at her house and we have actually stopped her going there recently becuase of this drinking suddenly semmingly acceptable in her peer group
Sorry Im rambling now but I didnt know where to turn- I dont want to tell my mum as she is VERY opinionated (undertstatement) and I feel like she would just rile me too much! ANy ideas/advice? Im sorry its completely off topic but it is slightly relevant because all I want to do now is go to the sales and spend the pain away........

Hi Idris,

Hugs, been there, experienced that and have a very threadbare tee-shirt I have three children (21, 19 and 15). You have done nothing wrong, it does not reflect on your parenting skills at all - your daughter is a teenager and it's her job to learn how to be an adult, invariably at times they get it wrong! I read once that it is a teenagers job not to like you and to make anything simple very complicated :rotfl: They are fantastic at making life hard for everyone involved.

There's no need for you to tell your Mum, it sounds like she'll only make the situation worse as for shouting at your husband well teenagers are no different to us and when you're mad at someone it's easy to use words as a weapon - how does she normally act with him? Do they have a good relationship normally? If so then she was just giving vent using words that are aimed to make you feel bad and I'm sure even if she doesn't admit it that she regrets these arguments.

Peer pressure is huge and my daughter used to get upset when I would say to her I'm not your friend I'm your mum and I have a job to do - she couldn't understand what I meant but now she does :T

I would say keep you boundaries strong and consistent, personally I don't think you've gone the wrong way with the alcohol (we've always been the same as yourself) but I thought that would mean my children would never go into the park and get blind drunk :rotfl: hahaha how wrong I was! However, on a more serious note my children have been able to get used to the effect various amounts of alcohol have on them and whilst the older two do occasionally get drunk it's rare they really drink too much so I do think it's a good way to educate your children re alcohol. I've always been concerned about my 15yr old because from being very small he would pick up and drink the last of people's drinks if we weren't quick enough to move them and he has always loved the taste of alcohol. The Boxing Day I forgot to watch how much he was drinking (I normally set a limit) anyway he didn't seem bad so I didn't make a fuss but apparently he was sick in the night - I'm not thrilled but I feel it's better that he was home with his family than sneaking off with it and when the time comes and he's going out on his own with mates then I would hope that the experience would be a safer one than if he'd never seen alcohol before.

If you know the other family well then you could chat with them about the alcohol and maybe set a limit for your daughter when she is there - we had to stop our son stopping at one of his friends when he was 11 because she gave them cider and then let them watch American Pie! I was so upset as I'm sure you can imagine!

One last point if I may, teenagers have more hormones running round their bodies than toddlers - you wouldn't try and talk to a toddler when they are going full throttle and it's the same with teenagers, let things settle and even if she's slamming and banging the best thing is to pretend to ignore it until the temper has worked it's way out.

You sound like a good mum, keep calm (or pretend to be) and keep your boundaries strong and it'll come good.....it gets better when they leave home :rotfl:......mainly because you are completely unaware of all the near misses and only find out if there's a real problem!

Hugs again, pm me if you want to talk

Sharron
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