Stop being so hard on yourself.....and smell the roses

o2bfree

I have had 2 previous diaries on here and both have been abandoned.
I have found that I was putting so much pressure on myself to get the debts paid off ASAP that I wasn't stopping and smelling the roses.

Well, I have achieved quite a lot of debt reduction and I am pleased with that. Much more than I would ever have achieved if I hadn't found MSE.
I have a few people on here to thank....Flyin_Fresian, Lula-Hula, Debtfree by 2012, Pennywise, Benbenandme and Jwil for the 'Pay off as much as you can in 2011' thread.

I have decided to 'smell the roses' and stop being so hard on myself...I made this debt and I will get rid of it but I also want to enjoy life.

So this is going to be my journey of getting Debtfree and having fabulous fun too.

So here I go....today is day1 of the rest of my life

o2bfree

So what have I done today....
Bought my Mum a lovely jacket reduced from £39.99 to £12.99 for Christmas.
Been to Tesc* to pick up 3 x £15 iTunes cards for £35 instead of £45 so that's another 3 Christmas presents and used £30 of Clubcard vouchers so only cost £5
So that is the MSE part of my day.

My smell the roses part of my day was spending quality girly time with my DD this morning. We just mooched around the shops not buying but window shopping and then sitting people watching....and chatting.
Really enjoyed it as they aren't children for long and there will come a day when she is too busy doing her own thing to want to spend time with her 'old' Mum.

Lula-Hula

Hello,

just popping by to wish you lots of luck with your debt busting. It's important to enjoy life & I'm glad to hear that you plan to get the right balance.

xx

o2bfree

Day 2.

I have had a day at home today.
Washing and ironing is all up to date (must stay on top of this during the week as out all of next weekend and don't want to get behind)
Cooked a lovely roast and did baking with DD although she lost interest once the bowl had been licked

School photos needed paying for today and I had enough in my change pot for this :money:

Off to change my signature to reflect my new Diary.

o2bfree

Well 5 days since my last entry in my diary (and I promised myself I would keep this one regularly up dated )

Well what has been happening this week.

The Bad:
OH accidently left the fridge open so everything in it got cooked.:mad:
Had to replace all that was in it as I had only just had a shopping delivery 2 days before.

The Good:
All Christmas presents are wrapped and only 3 left to buy:T
It's Pay Day today and there was money left in my account:T
This money I have put into another account to cover the last 3 presents I have to buy and a few extra Christmas foodie bits.

I long ago discovered that Christmas is just another day food-wise and always just do a normal food shop but with an extra roast dinner and a few nice sweets and a nice dessert (we are not keen on Christmas Pud).

Once those bits are done, I shall put a little money aside for the sales and the rest to the debts.

I am challenging my self to be debt free by Christmas 2012.
That is going to be very tough but I am determined to do it and smell the roses along the way

mummychicken

Hi, i think you are doing really well with clearing your debts. Reading your diary hit a chorde in me as i too need to smell the roses !! I have had a black cloud looming for months and feeling so miserable over my money worries. You are an inspiration and i too am aimimg to be debt free by Christmas 2012 (my original target was March 2013, but i like the sound of Christmas 2012 far better )

o2bfree

Thank you, mummychicken for your lovely post.
So Tuesday and where am I.

Well this weekend was a busy one as it was my birthday. Had a fabulous time with the family watching Christmas lights being switched on.

Finished the Christmas present shopping with the exception of one small gift which I intend to get today.
I shall then complete the wrapping and I can get back to the important matter of debt busting.

Debt busting has taken a bit of a back seat over the last couple of months due to the winter festivities. I have still made over payments but not as large as they could be but I haven't added to the debt so all good really.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would like to be debt free by Christmas 2012.
This is going to be a huge task but I will give it a good go.

I have a large amount of ebayable items so I shall start on them......my house needs a massive declutter anyway.

I am going to work out all my outstanding debt and put it in my signature and then divide it into chunks either monthly or weekly and these are going to be my targets.

Hopefully with a lot of determination and possibly some luck I'll get there.

Well another work day so best get a wriggle on

Erme

this is such a cool thread o2b. Just found it and going to subscribe

So often we can get so hung up on debt busting we almost set ourselves up for failure and fall off x,y and z challenge then wonder if it's all worth it? I know I've done that more than once the past few years...and often rebelled when I've fallen off a challenge and gotten myself in more debt...

I'm currently working on my snowball. It's going to be really hard this month as I have no £10 whoopsies per week due to other stuff...which is not positive. But still. It's only for 1 month then back to 'normal' - so embracing the challenge.

Feeling quite cocooned with my £40 grocery and whoopsie allowance a week. Often groceries come to much less but still. Never know when I'm going to need that sandwich from Mr S or that sausage roll or doughnut from the bakers :j

So yeah....that's me. Not prepared to go lower than £40 a week budget cos like when I was on a DMP briefly about 3 years ago the budget for groceries alone was £35 and then like £10 for treats. So with current food prices I know I'm doing okay..

E

LAM2011

I agree O2b - I felt that this year has been a huge obsession with debt busting - which dont get me wrong can be a good thing - I have paid off far more debt and am far more aware of my money than I was last year (100% thanks to this site and its members on here) but next year I would like to breathe a bit too. I have split my remaining debt over 3 years which should be 5 years and will snowball some more if I can but I want to try and enjoy life along the way too.

o2bfree

So nice to have Erme and LAM2011 along for the journey.

Well it's a school strike day here.....luckily a very kind friend has offered to have DD round to play so that I can still go to work
I could have taken the day off but I would prefer to save taking time off to see my DD in her Christmas play rather than due to the strike action.

Last present was bought yesterday and food shopping came in under budget so a lovely MSE day.
Not much 'smelling of roses' yesterday but I did get a craft kit from Tesc* so me and DD can sew Christmas Decs at the weekend, so something to look forward to.

Happy hump day everyone.

mooomin

Happy hump day