Boarding the Bus of Positivity (for 24 months of travels!)

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

I hope things are OK with you. After working a lot of overtime, I may have some time to myself tomorrow. I need to do a decent supermarket shop because the fridge is empty and my body is craving something more nutritious than pre-packed sandwiches, crisps, biscuits and chocolate which has pretty much been my diet during the late night and weekend working.

I should try to dig out some things to put on Ebay at the weekend. There must be a few gems lying around!

Chocforever

You know my idea about spending as little as possible in February? It's not working .

Whilst having a sort out this weekend, I found two bills I should have paid last month. That was £100. Someone at work is going a sponsored event and it is in a great cause. The going rate seems to be £20.

I booked a three night break to Amsterdam for this spring. I have always wanted to see the bulb fields and the Rijkmuseum is reopening and it is part birthday celebration (not mine).

I was careful to plan this break when the cost was reasonable and pre-booked for the trips we are particularly interested in. Today I got an email from F!ybe saying that they have cancelled the outbound flight. The alternative given is 7am and the only way I could get there early enough to check in would be to stay in a hotel the night before which obviously adds to the cost and means the holiday starts with getting up very early. So I have booked with another airline. Which is more expensive and means travelling to a different airport :mad:Sometimes it doesn't pay to be organised.

Must try harder this week.

debtfreesomeday

Apologies for the radio silence lately, life has been rather busy, expensive and, to be honest, I have been struggling with the prospect of debt-busting a little, so haven't posted for a while.

Back on the diary wagon, and the debt has, unfortunately, gone up a little due to spends on the credit card. Some were essentials that we just didn't have the money for, others were things we probably could've done without, so need to re-focus.

Current total debt is now in my new signature below and with 9 months left of the loan, it should be reduced pretty quickly. It's just the evil credit cards to deal with then.

I have a few things to return which will knock the CC totals down a little, and any new income we can spare will be used to pay them off more quickly too.

It hasn't helped that we had a fraudulent transaction of over £200 taken out of our account this weekend. :mad: Thankfully, the bank have refunded it, so it should be back in the account by tomorrow.

The car MOT is this week, so am hoping it passes, although I have a suspicion some work might need to be done. Fingers crossed it isn't anything major though.

Hope you've had a cheaper week Chocs! x

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

So, today I've advertised two items for sale locally and on the local facebook selling site. If sold, they will bring in £150, but I have a feeling they may end up on ebay.

Last week I purchased a cheap white board to keep the list of food in our chest freezer up to date, so we can meal plan more easily. We've tried the pen and paper method which just doesn't work for us. I figured that we can wipe the lists off easily and update as we take stuff out/add stuff in. We shall try and get a current inventory list done tonight or tomorrow.

I have also got some equipment fixed that will enable me to start making my craft items again for sale. I will test it tonight and then re-advertise items again if it is all ok and working.

debtfreesomeday

I just updated our current debts on the snowball calculator and, with current payments, we should be debt free in 16 months. That's a bit of a blow from the 9 months we were aiming for, but I guess we have to be realistic. I can easily knock one month off there, as the last payment is showing as only £7-odd, so 15 months left. Will try and get ot down to the year and then I'll be happier :0)

Someone has also just enquired about one of our items for sale (albeit the cheaper one), but that'll be £50 in the pot if it sells.

debtfreesomeday

There's £150.52 in refunds going back on the credit cards this week, so that reduces the balance by a nice amount. Signature adjusted accordingly.

Unfortunately, one of the items I am selling broke yesterday. :mad: It is under warranty though, so have contacted the retailer to arrange a repair or hopefully a refund. I think it'll be a return now though as we've had it 8 months.

debtfreesomeday

Just had a message from an ebay buyer of an item I sold a few weeks ago simply saying "This should've been here days ago"...
The manners of some people never cease to amaze me. :mad:

I'm guessing, by that statement, they're saying they haven't received it yet, although, looking at their feedback, I have my suspicions... Will check the postage receipts tonight.

debtfreesomeday

I was naughty at lunch time and went and bought lunch. Didn't fancy my homemade soup I'd bought to work for the second day in a row.
BUT, I paid with my boots points so lunch cost me nothing.
I also purchased some makeup after using up every last shred of foundation in my old tube (I even cut the bottle in half to get the dregs out!). I don't wear much make up, so only go for the cheap stuff. Foundation, blusher and mascara was 3 for £5 on boots natural collection, so bought that as I needed all 3, with a token for 50 extra points printed out of the advantage card point too.

debtfreesomeday

Just received £3 payment from a survey.

debtfreesomeday

I've been a busy bee this morning before coming into work for my Friday afternoon shift....

Our bed has been stripped; 2 loads of washing washed and dried; toy 'amnesty' undertaken and two bundles of toys photographed for sale; 2 other bundles of baby items photographed; sorted DS's books out and put some aside for his nursery; cleared airing cupboard; found more things for charity shop bag; shredded old paperwork; phoned up to book boiler service and to get proof of no claims sent for new insurance; built exercise bike; emptied bins and recycling and put some summer toys away in the attic. Phew. If only every morning was so productive, my house would be a lot cleaner and clearer!

Lady coming to view item 1 for sale didn't show on Thursday, so waited in for nothing. :mad: Will chase her up and re-advertise if no longer interested.

Item 2 doing well on ebay, am waiting to hear on one offer which I will accept if they come back with a 'yes'.

Refund on items taken back to shop was £31 less than I anticipated as they would only exchange items sold for less than 50% off original price. :mad: But, decided to return something else I realised we don't need, so that will be another £20 back.

Received an order for some of my crafts for around £25 which i need to make this weekend.