Amatheya's 2012 Debt Diary

Amatheya81

Hello All,

I've decided to start a new debt diary for 2012.

In last years diary I decided that I wanted to pay of £4k of debt. I will end the year with closer to £5k paid :j so in 2012 I'm going to aim a little higher.

This year I figure that if I managed £5k in 2011 I should streatch myself a little further in 2012.

I've set myself 3 new years resolutions.

1) Pay off my loan. I've got just over £4.5k left to pay and will need to pay about £800 extra in order to achieve this.
Edit: I have now changed this goal to paying off £7k of total debt.

2) Get my weight in check. Not a money saving goal but a valid one all the same. I injured my knee in 2011 and as a result of not going to the gym put on just under 1stone :eek: All in all I would like to lose 2stone in 2012 so I will be joining Weight Watchers in January.

3) Put a professional portfolio together. I've been playing at art for a couple of years now and I'm ready to start hitting it properly but first I need a consistent portfolio with lots of good. I'll need to complete about 25 paintings of high quality for this and that will take time as I'm working in between my day job and being a part time carer for my mother. On the bright side I can sell prints of my work to earn a few extra £'s while I concentrate on this.

Obviously as far as this blog is concerned the debt is the main concern and I will be doing my best to earn extra money by and will be using the following methods.

eBaying stuff for myself and a couple of friends who don't have the time to do it themselves but are happy to give me a few quid to do it for them. I'll have another blitz of my flat although as I did this last year I'm not holding out much hope of finding any more jems. I may conssider selling some old furniture that I was planning to replace once I paid off my debt. I'll also think about buying things at bootsales to sell on ebay again as I made a few quid doing this last year.
Hopefully I'll also be able to sell some prints to make addional money.
I will continue doing questionairs to earn money as I've earned around £50 this year.
I will re-asses my expenses and look for places that these can be reduced. I will also look into switching my gas, electric and internet to cheaper services and recycle my old phone.
I will also need to switch credit cards to a new 0% ballance transfer in the middle of this year so hopefully I will make some cash back on that.

So, that's my plan for the year. With any luck by this time next year I will be looking forward making my last loan payment and spending 2013 with slightly fuller pockets! :T

Amatheya81

I'm looking forward to starting this diary properly in 3 weeks.

I need to update my figures tonight as I've now made my last 2011 loan payment which has brought me down to about £4,800 on my loan :T For some reason haveing less than £5k to pay makes it sound like very little money. I know it isn't but it feels like it.

I was going through my debt file last weekend and I realised that I only have a few months left on my 0% credit card so it's time to start looking for another one of those. When I move to a new credit card this time I will try to put my OD on it too as the cost of running that has gone up in the past few months and it would be nice to have all my debt in one managable place once I've paid my loan.

I should also have my first finished portfolio peice ready for jan to kick start me. I'm then going to have to create 2 paintings per month in order to hit goal. There are a few professional forums around that run monthly challenges that are looked at by professionals so I think I will take part in those as part of my portfolio creation as it will not only help me get used to working to a brief but it will also get my work seen by art directors. (If you would like to see my art you can search the web for Amatheya)

bramble1

You've done so well this year! Good luck for 2012!

Amatheya81

Thanks bramble. Good luck with your 2012 targets too.

Only two weeks until Christmas. It's all very exciting but I'm dreading the new year. The Christmas bills are not going to be good and I've been eating waaaaaay more chocolate than it sensible but as I'm going on a diet on Jan first I may as well enjoy the chocolate while I can.

I've done my last loan check of the year and it's at £4790 If I just pay it off as normal I will have 14 months left. I'm looking foward to Feb when I can officially say that no matter what I have less than a year to go before it's gone for good. I'm already stressing a little and trying to figure out where those two additional payments are going to come from if I want to pay off in full by 2012. It would be very nice if I got a bonus in April to help me on my way but if last year is anything to go buy I'll have to be really lucky to get away with that. I guess I'll just have to concentrate on selling stuff and comming up with cunning plans rout... I really wish I was better at comming up with cunning plans!!

Anyway, I'm trying not to think about that too much until the new year.

I was a little naughty today. One of my friends has been a little down recently and while I was out shopping I saw a baby hamster that I knew she would love. We often joke that she is the hamster whisperer as she loves them but she hasn't had one for about a year, since her old one passed away. So I bought the little chap, brought him home and then called her to tell her (not to kill me) to come pick up. She left with the stroppy little furball who is now called Bear and a grin from ear to ear Hamster therapy achieved

Right, I'm off to feed Peanut who is busy informing me that I'm late with his dinner (Peanut is a stroppy old fancy rat) my next post will probably be in January to Merry Xmas everyone

[Deleted User]

Hi Amatheya,

Happy new diary and good luck for 2012.

Tea
x

Amatheya81

Thanks Purplemomof2.

Only 9 days of work before X-mas!!!

So much for no more posts before 2012. Never mind.

Today I need to;
Order my moms shopping,
Order a Christmas hamper for my aunt,
Order Christmas flowers for my sister,
Clean my flat ready for my Christmas party on Saturday,
Check my Valued Oppinion account,
Do my daily scratch cards,
Put together a couple of craft X-mas pressets.

I've been looking at my financess for Jan and like most people I think I will be having a very quiet January after all the rubish I've spent money on this month. There's no point eBaying in Jan as most people will be broke so I'm just going to have to cut back. The plan at the moment is to cook lots of pasta or potato bakes (probably turkey lol) as a cheap food option and try to have a very low spend month.

I've been playing with the calculator again and worked out that I will need to pay an extra £60 per month into my loan in order to reach my goal which seems difficult but achievable. I'll have a root around to manage it in January but if I sell a old phone I have hanging around and cash in the pennies in my piggy bank I should manage it. Febuary I should be able to start ebaying again and March & April I don't need to pay council tax so I'll have an extra £70 hanging around. So that's the first 4 months of the year planned. I hope that for once things go to plan so I can manage to pull this off with relatively little pain!

Amatheya81

One week left until Christmas :j:T:beer:

Very excited. Last weekend was a little expensive but a lot of fun. I went to a burleasque night, had my Christmas party and went to a vintage fair where I bought a gorgiouse black satin vintage hat which I can't wait to wear I'm going to another vintage/burlesque event tomorrow and then that's it for parties until new year.

I'm now really geared up for the begining of my challenges. I've decided that I'll sign up to weight watchers the day after Christmas and get started early. I'm also planning to count out my piggy bank which should be about £40 to £50 and pay that amount off my loan straight away. and I'm planning a no spending month for January. I'll only spend on essentials even when it comes to food. It will be a month of pasta bakes and turkey stew but that will be all the better for my diet and it will hopefully mean that I'll be on track for the start of Fabuary.

The vintage fair (that is held around the corner from my house) also gave me the idea that if I put together some Burlesque/Pin-up prints I could have my own stall and hopefully make a few pennies. It's certainly something I intend to look into and the style is something that I know I enjoy painting too :j The next fair is in Febuary which is a bit close but if I worked really hard I could possibly have enough work to justify going and if I miss out there is always the next one which will probably be June ish. It's all very exciting as I was hoping to do some sort of fair over the summer but didn't want to do the normal craft fair type thing as there would be too much competition. At the vintage fair there were only two other artists and their styles were very different to mine.

Hope you're all prepared for Christmas

Amatheya81

Well, Christmas is over. I hope you all had a good time and that Santa brought everything you asked for.

For me it's back to the day job tomorrow and it was back to the evening job yesterday... Although with a very slow start.

I'm really looking forward to new year, not becaus of the parties (I don't think I'm going to bother this year) but because I can close down last years finances and start the shiny new ones for 2012 (I am sooooo sad). I've already det myself my first mini goal for January. I want to pay an extra £200 towards my Loan and I've got a bit of a head start as I'm selling my old phone for about £20, I got a shiny new phone unexpectedly for Christmas so I'll be selling my new/old phone on ebay. It looks like I'll get between £100 & £150 and I've bagged up £41 from my piggy bank which brings me up to between £161 & £211 already I shall sort things out and get the old/new phone on ebay next week when everyone gets over the Christmas holidays.

I've also gone another step towards selling art at the local vintage fair. I'm found out when the Febuary one will be and I've emailed the organiser to find out how much a stall will cost. A artist friend of mine had agreed to join in and we will be running a joint stall so that should reduce our overheads (and make it much more fun!) She had also advised me that she has some contacts who work in the big sci-fi convention circuit that she can put me in contact with when I'm ready Very exciting but scary too and I need to draw 10 designs in 7 weeks which is a scary prospect. I've not had to work to a deadline like that since I was in college!

I'm not even going to think about my diet until next week. I'm pretty sure I weigh 20 stone by now!!!!!

Amatheya81

Only one more day until the new year :j

I'm very excited about the start of the year. I've applied for a new credit card which I hope will allow me to do a 0% ballance transfer from my loan saving me all that interest and rescueing me from scary crippling payments. My goal will still be to pay it off by the end of the year but if the application is accepted I may not have to be quite so terrified of my bank ballance all the time!

I'm planning to sign up to weight watchers tomorrow night. I've found a willing reipient for all my left over chocolate and junk food and am now looking forward to a healthy new year as all this rich food is making me feel a little ill now

I got a brilliant surprise Christmas gift in the post today. A shiny new iphone from my sister :eek: I need to get a new sim card and make sure I can use the thing but it means that I should be able to sell my new/old phone and my ipod. Both of wich should be worth a bit of money towards my debt as they are reasonable new and imaculate. I will miss my current phone though as it's purple and shiny and very me but I'm sure I will love my iphone just as much once I've bought it a spotty case I've seen

My final bit of end of year news is that I have booked a table at the Febuary vintage fair. I'm now slightly bricking it as I need to have some art to sell so instead of going out for new years I will be putting the Christmas tree away and working on some paintings. All of which will be posted on my Blog (Amatheya's Studio) very soon

Right, well, happy new year all! I wish you all a lovely debt free year :money:

Amatheya81

Woohoo!!! Welcome to 2012 everyone. (or 1012 as I accidentally posted on Facebook last night lol)

I've hopefully started the year as I mean to go on by signing up to weight watchers (I miss food already!), doing my accounts, shifting some cc debt to a 0% deal and listing my HTC Wildfire S on eBay (that one hurt) I'm going to test out my iphones ipod before I decide whether to sell my proper ipod... mainly because my ipod is purple and I like purple a lot!

I'm hoping to get £100 for my HTC, wish me luck!!

I was planning on doing some drawing tonight but I've spent most of the day cleaning and now I have a headache... unrelated I'm sure! So I'm going to take some pills and watch Sherlock. Hopefully I'll feel like drawing after that. I must make myself be more dedicated, I'm on a deadline after all!!

Amatheya81

I've just realised that I should be able to half my remaining debt this year. WooHoo!!!