Betti's debt free diary

betti911

Thinks were doing fine in my trying to get debt free world until last night. I was planning a night in in front of the TV with my boyfriend when I came home to find a letter from one of my former neighbours who has recently started to let her property out.

She owns the top floor flat and she says that there is a crack in her bathroom ceiling. She continues that the crack appeared to be caused by water coming in from the roof so she had a roofing contractor (who I have heard through the grapevine is married to her sister). He said that the roof seal is broken in many places and that this is causing a crack down the side of the building!

There are 8 of us in the block and apparently she has agreement from 3 of the flat owners to go ahead with this work which will cost us just shy of £700 each!

I'm going to insist in getting 3 other quotes to get this work done but its just so frustrating! This will mean that I'll have to pay this bill through my ISA (which was meant to be saved towards my debt and will mean that my debt free date might be put fwd 2 months.

My dad said to check my building insurance (which I will do but I'm sure it doesn't cover things like this )

Sorry to moan! I'm just so upset/ disappointed/ angry!

betti911

Have had a strange time these past few weeks.

I got a second quote for my roof last weekend which was substantially cheaper than the first quote. Only problem is I got terrible food poisioning at my boyfriends sister in laws party on Sat night and have been too ill to distribute it amongst my neighbours. I'm going to do it at the weekend and see what the agreed quote is. I have the money all put aside for it anyway and am being really careful.

The second thing which has been a feature is my sister's wedding. Its the talk of the whole family at the moment. O can't help but feel a wee bit left out. My sister lives in England and she's coming up next weekend. Shs's spending a LOT of money on her wedding (my parents money). Her fiancee isn't well and I can understand why but from my own, rather selfish point of view I'm feeling rather out of it.

My boyfriend and I haven't been getting on very well either partly because of my money saving partly to do with my sisters wedding. I want us to move on to the next stage and he said he does too but just gives me different excuses every time we talk about it. For example he's worried about his parents dealing with running the home without him financially or he's worried about my debt. I really don't think he understands how hard is to moneysave all the time. I also don't think he realises my worth or my feelings. He's going away on a stag weekend (another of his friends getting married) tomorrow and we're going to talk about it tonight. Its making me really miserable tho and I want to get it resolved before my sister and her boyfriend make an appearence next weekend.

Apart from that money saving wise its going okay. I'd love to be able to get my hair done, or buy new clothes just to make myself feel better but these are just luxuries that I won't be able to afford till next yr

4littleone

Hi Betti.

I'm sorry to hear you're feeling down today, i'm kind of in the same boat as you really with a partner who doesn't get the whole wanting to be debt free idea.
Although, most of my money problems come from him and his rubbish attitude to money. His take on it is that when he gets paid he just goes to the cash point and draws money out until it's all gone :eek:

At least you're not quite in that situation. I agree it is hard to not have treats and at times it does really bring you down, but just think... this time next year it will all have been worth it. You will have a truly fabulous life when you are debt free because not only will you be better off month to month, you will also have learnt loads of lessons about managing your money to take you forward in life. :T

I don't know what you can do about the other half's lack of commitment at the moment, perhaps he feels a little pressured because of all the excitement about your sister wedding? Could you give yourself a mental time limit to shelve the idea of moving on to the next step to give you both a little breathing space? Say 6 months where you just enjoy each other and then you can see how you feel after that.
I hope it all works out for you. You're doing so very well so far. :j

4littleone

Sorry forgot to mention, have you tried your local college for haircuts? They normally offer very cheap hair dos as they are done by their students. Don't worry they are supervised!

betti911

An unexpected opportunity has come my way. My uncle has bought a new car and has offered me his old one for free. All I have to do is MOT it. I'm going to take it to the garage to have it looked at but my uncles says its still running okay. Its only a year or so older than mine plus has less miles on the clock.

My car is less than three years old and nearing its time for its 1st MOT so I'd have to pay for an MOT this yr anyway. I'm going to sell it and use the money to pay off my debt. Not sure how much I'll get for it but it will make my DFD closer :j :j

I have distributed the 2nd quote I got for my roof amongst my neightbours. Noone seems particuarly interested in getting the roof fixed anymore it seems noone else has bothered to get another quote which annoys me greatly as various people were meant to get other quotes for the work not just me :mad: I hope we go for my quote though cause its a LOT cheaper!

My boyfriend has gone away to his stag do thing but we are no closer to sorting things out about the commitment thing. You are right 4littleone I'm going to forget about it all for a while (difficult with my sister coming tho) and try to focus my attention on getting debt free.

I'm going to look at colleges and stuff for getting my haircut I think too but it the meantime (after seeing I was a bit down) my mum booked me an appointment at her hairdresser and said she'd pay which was really nice of her.

I'm going out for a pretheatre meal with my friends tonight which I'm excited about(£11 for two courses and a glass of wine). I've saved from my budget from last week for it so I'm really looking fwd to it

electro_girl

Hi ,electro girl here, have been keeping up to date with your progress and your doing great :beer: All this responsibility we have to get out of the mess we made is so hard,money is easy to spend:mad: now like you we need to work our butts off to save,but stay strong and focused and much love :smileyhea

Tustastic

Ooh, exciting news about the free car, Betti. Have you checked how much you might get for selling your car? Then you could snowball on www.whatsthecost.com to see what your new DFD is. Minus the cost of a nice pressie to thank your uncle, of course.

betti911

My uncle has told me I can collect the car at any point this week which is good Only thing is that its been sorned off the rd so I'll need to get that sorted out.

I spent the weekend with my sister as she was home doing wedding stuff (for the WHOLE weekend) so I didn't have time to see about my car. Thats a job assigned for next Saturday when I will take it round all the local garages.

My great aunt left me £250 in her will. I was going to put it directly towards my debts but have decided that I will put it aside to pay for the MOT etc for my uncles car. Any extra of course will be put towards my debts.

I'm desperate to do a snowball calculation as soon as I get a price for my own car. It will be very exciting.

Am still taking in my lunch and trying to keep to my weekly budget, doing pigsback and quidco etc. Am looking fwd to being paid next week so I can pay a wee chunk more of my debt off.

Still not heard anything more about my roof. Its seems that my neighbours have still not made up their minds what quote they want to accept. My dad says not to push them as its not my property which is being affected but I would rather get the roof problem sorted sooner rather than later, just so I know how much I have to pay!

betti911

Have had no luck so far in selling my car. My uncle's car hasn't moved for a while and so doesn't appear to be working I have also priced how much I would get for my own car and resounding answer seems to be not a lot cause of the credit crunch impact on second hand cars so looks like I've come to a dead end there :mad:

Still not heard anything about my roof. I'm starting to get a bit cross with my neighbours. Its not affecting my flat though and I've already provided a quote to fix the problem so there's not much more I can do about it. It's annoying though that the roof problems are still looming over me.

Am still on track with my debt repayments. It looks like it'll be well into next year before I'm debt free though but I'll just have to keep going.

Am going to try to find the best possible deal at the moment on my car insurance this month by looking at all the cashback website and Martin's article.

Will just keep plodding along I suppose ........

betti911

Have renewed my car insurance with direct line. Am paying it off in interest free monthly installments. Am keeping the money I saved up to pay for my roof. Its going to cost aprox £680. Its not the cheapest quote but its the one everyone seems to want to go for. Have saved £380 got the rest from my money I was going to put towards my debt this month.

I'm delaying things by asking for a copy of the insurances for the work from the builder, not intentionally but I know from experiences that these type of things are important when selling, not that I plan to do this any time soon but the guarantee is for 25 yrs!

Not going to get away on holiday this yr cause of the roof like I hoped but will go on a fab holiday next yr when I'm debt free or near to being so.

I tried Martin's credit check and was alarmed to find that I was just average, after all my work this year esp as last year on Experian when I started this process I was 998 out of 1000. Not great when I am renewing my mortgage shortly!! I think its cause it doesn't take account of your income. Also I thought if you didn't pay off your full balance then you were a better risk to the companies as you'll be making them money. I know people who have been declined because they pay off the full balance. I suppose its just meant as a guide though.

My sister has been wanting us to buy really expensive presents recently for my parents. We managed to get a bargain for one of them tho. Sis wants to buy parents a photo session for their anniversary. Sis and I negotiated it from £80 to £60 for a full album of snaps! V proud