10 months in and 90 left to go ... the reality is starting to kick in :)

elantan

hey all ... well i have managed to pay another bit off of the debt and have managed to also put some savings by ...

the visa bill is still there but i have managed to pay a bit off of that as well ... i have also decided that i will be buying diesel etc on it this month and pay the money straight away to the bill .. that way it will cut down on some of the interest i have to pay ... i'm also say putting £25 in in diesel and paying £30 towards the visa ... i understand it will take ages to pay it off and i will continue to pay it off as fast as i can ( £200 this month ...plus all the wee bits more that i pay here and there) ..

hubby got an extra £135 in his wages which we have no idea where it came from ... we have decided to put it into a seperate account and if by May we havnt figured out where it shouldve came from we will use it towards our holiday to Rome ( thinking maybe £600 spending money for 4 days ... we are staying 40 mins to 1 hr outside of Rome) i have also decided that half of the extra that i will have done in overtime will go towards spending money and half towards debt repayment

the plan is still to transfer the visa's in March and once they are sorted we will open b.o.s accounts for the £5 a month payout ...

i'm still looking for a job but havnt found anything that i want ... i am still determined not to apply for anything i dont fancy as i really need to get out of where i am but dont want to jump from the frying pan into the fire so to speak

we have sent away the letter to the airline giving the details of the inlaws so that they can use the flights ... we are gutted that we cant use them ... but we really can't afford to spend money on anything but essentials

talking of essentials ... as i am sure a few of you are aware that our car has been a nightmare for a few years now, we know we need a new one ( thats what the savings are currently for) but we dont have enough money saved... at the weekend mr El had to go to the hospital to get a 24 hr blood pressure montior fitted , on the way back we popped into a car place and saw a kia proceed ecodynamic for £11k ... if we had put a £4k deposit down ( they were giving us £1k for our car and we wouldve borrowed £3k from inlaws) then it wouldve came in at £194 a month (it was on 0% finance) we were tempted as we have been trying to save £150 towards a car a month ... but the truth is we dont have that money... we cant afford the debt .... so we have decided that a) we will not buy a car using finance unless it is one that we both love ( the kia proceed was ok ... but it was more of a it would do rather than a i really want ) and b) if our car bites the dust before we can afford the finance ( we aint taking any out till our debt is way down ... way way down) then we only will buy with what we have saved

this means that basically we need to save for a new car , the more we can save the better a car we can get when the time comes, i think we agreed the finance option purely as a fantasy idea ... we both know we cant afford finance and we wont get it unless we can afford it ... the likelyhood of which is very small

so thats what weve been up to ... nothing much lol

hope your all good

elantan

well paid a wee bit more off of the debt today via ddm so have adjusted my figures somewhat ... just got another payment to make at the end of the month ... i had a quidco payout ... quidco said it would be £35 but i only got £27 but to be honest i wasnt expecting anything so ...

so ultimately what i have started doing is ... anytime we have got/saved money from places other than work i am filtering it to another account ... i think it was lemon tree that spoke about this years ago ( not sure though)

an example

i had bought a load of coffee not that long ago saving £3 on each jar ... so everytime i take a jar to use i am going to put £3 into this other account ... everytime i go to asda and save money (say buy two for £3 ) on the bottom of my reciept it will say today you have save £x i will transfer that x over to another account ...

i think the reason i will be doing this is going to be for holidays ... we enjoy our holidays but previously ie for florida etc we have used a 0% visa and transferred money into an account for use on holiday ... we did this for Florida, London etc ...basically the debt we have which isnt from the mortgage,student loan or hubby being off last year is holiday debt ... yes its on 0% but life would be so much better if we had money for a holiday without having to get into debt in the first place

were gonna try it and see how it goes anyway ... not sure whether to put that in my sig or not though

elantan

i just got a letter through the mail from the company that i get certain skin care products from ... due to price increases in ingredients they regret to inform me that they will have to increase their prices on certain products

if i want to take advantage of the cheaper prices i have to order by feb 29th ... oh dear i will need to look for cheaper products then ... think i may even try making them myself ... porridge and oil springs to mind

taxi73

think it's great that you've decided to save for a car in future as with debt it just goes around in circles.

elantan

it does taxi ... and before you know it the 100 month plan becomes a 200 month plan or i would have to up my payments to say £800 a month (which i cant afford) ... i'm glad that we have seen the error of our ways before we wouldve came out with a new car and then worried about how we were going to pay for it ...

it's not just about paying off debt ... it's about changing thought patterns

taxi73

I definitely know that one ..don't know what we're going to do when it comes time to replace our taxi as we aren't taking enough to put away towards a new one..am hoping that I pass my ECDL course and manage to get a job so that I can put money away

elantan

How is the ecdl course going taxi? i imagine the current downturn will be hitting taxi drivers hard at this time ... cant be good

elantan

Anyone got any good ideas for a 40th birthday present? just thought i would throw that out there lol

taxi73

elantan wrote: »

How is the ecdl course going taxi? i imagine the current downturn will be hitting taxi drivers hard at this time ... cant be good

To be fair not done much last couple of weeks due to pain and one thing and another...but am going to get back in to it this week.
It is quieter on the cabs and it doesn't help that I'm not earning at all either

elantan

i dont know about you , but i've always found it hard to concentrate when i am in pain ... the pain just takes over and can be so annoying ... hope the pain has eased up for you ... i would love to be able to do spreadsheets they just confuse me totally ... i get the idea behind them but i forget all the code things that you have to put in

sorry to hear the cabs arnt bringing money in either, it's the last thing you need right now to add to your stress ... hope it picks up soon ... spring is on the way so fingers crossed more people will venture out

well our car ... where do i start with that one ...AAARRRGGGGHHHHH is probably the most politest thing i can say about it tbh

the injectors have went again five injectors £200 each to replace plus labour ... so we are going to get it fixed up as best as we can and get rid of it ... we cant keep going like this it is a money pit ...

we are going to be going for a new car but we will only use our savings ( the little that there is of them) plus we will possibly borrow from the bank of mum and dad ... i think if we scrape everything together ... selling everything (including a kidney it feels like ) i think we can get our hands on £1500 but that is everything being liquidated ... all assets ( apart from our home) its not a good position to be in but one that we knew was coming up so we cant pretend otherwise ... we will have to do our best

still trying to think of a cheap 40th birthday present as well ... gonna need to be even cheaper now