Hypno's kick up the backside debt diary....

hypno06

A fab day out today but not too good on the old DFW front, but it could have been worse.

We went to Sacrewell Farm Centre near Peterborough with the childrens' godparents and although I was fully prepared to pay, they paid for us all to get in, plus ice creams and coffees etc so all I paid for was £1.50 each for the children for an Easter Hunt, so very good there and we all had a fab time.

Then it was suggested we had fish and chips for dinner - not too bad cash wise I thought, but it was in a sit down place that wasn't that cheap and it cost me £25 for fish and chips for me and two children!!!!!

Still, we had a fantastic day out, and I had expected to pay the entrance money into the farm centre so it could have been worse. I will just have to make the shopping budget stretch that bit further this week :rolleyes:

DH has managed to cut his mobile phone contract down to £15 a month with more inclusive minutes, so that will hopefully save us £15 a month or so. My contract is also up and I am tempted to try one of these cashback tarrifs so that it costs me next to nothing over the course of the year. I feel that I should at least give it a go.

The weather tomorrow is supposed to be good too, I think we may take the children roller skating in the park. Someone had better pre-warn A&E!!!

hypno06

A bit of a mixed day today, but generally not too bad DFW wise.

The sun was shining so we all went for a picnic in the park and the children went roller blading around so a really nice relaxing few hours for just the cost of an ice cream, as the picnic stuff was all from the storecupboard - made some flapjacks, took fruit and sarnies, etc.

I have loaded my car full of stuff for a car boot sale tomorrow. I am doing one of the "late start" ones, and it is one that I have not been to before so taking a bit of a chance there - I am hoping to make £50 to pay directly off OH egg card.

When sorting through the car boot stuff (most of which is leftovers from Dad's house) I discovered about 30 bottles of beer and a dozen bottles of wine.

Result :beer:

My ex-boss, who I worked with for many years is 60 this week and he was always very generous with birthday and Christmas presents and so I was worrying about what to get him that looks expensive but is absolutely within my meagre budget. Lo and behold, in the bottles of wine etc that we sorted through, is a fab bottle of vintage port. Looked it up on t'internet and it retails for £60 a bottle.

Another result :beer: Birthday present all sorted DFW stylee!

We have house guests this weekend and OH did suggest we went out for dinner with them and I had to resist the temptation really hard! I would so love to go out for a nice meal, but instead I said that I had planned a chicken dish at home, and so would stick to that :A

I tried to get back into my matched betting today, as I need to make £50 a week if I am to pay off my egg card this year. Unfortunately, my wireless signal was weak and I couldn't keep switching between pages, so gave up before I got cross and made a silly, expensive mistake!

Oh well, tomorrow's another day!

Seaxwyn

Hypno what a find! You lucky thing! How kind of your dad to hide them away for you!

hypno06

Perhaps I should gather them all together and toddle along to the Saturday Night DFW party!!

Hic

chocaholic110

Decided to toddle over here and have a read after your post on my diary and Wow! you are doing great!! Looks like you are going to hit your 2007 target easily!

I'm with you on the evil Egg card...though my interest rate got put down to 6.4% they have messed up my loan payments over and over again. It's my final payment next month and only due to be around half the normal payment but I would bet almost anything that they take the full amount!

Talking of betting, I'm very envious of your matched betting successes. I did have a brief skim of that board a while ago but it made my head spin and nothing much sunk in. Maybe you have to be smarter than me to understand (the whole business of phone / mobile / internet tariffs scares me too!)

Anyway, keep it up and good luck at the car boot sale!

hypno06

Hi Chocoholic, I too, would put money on Egg messing up that last loan payment - we both have egg cards and egg loans so have had plenty of experience of their inefficiencies, although on the brightside you can over pay the egg loan without any penalty which many providers won't allow, so we have to be grateful for that!!

I did the car boot sale today - had set myself a target of £50 profit, and came away with a fantastic £110 after pitch fee and a sneaky bag of hot donuts.....;)

Also, I caught the sun a bit so feel as though I have had a bit of a summer holiday (ok, I can try and kid myself about the holiday feeling, but I do have a bit of colour to my arms instead of "off white").

I seemed to bring back as much in my car as I went with, although I know that is not the case, so will have plenty to do another boot sale in a few weeks.

£110 to go off the egg card then. Woo hoo :j

Happy Easter Everyone

:EasterBun

hypno06

Well, I paid the car boot money straight off the egg card, and great satisfaction it gave me too!

I did some playing around with the snowball calculator over the weekend too, and may just be pushing myself too far.....

We currently pay around £1350 a month off our debts on the snowball and this means that we can be debt free (apart from the mortgage of course) in January 2011. We started the year with a DFD of December 2011 so have done really well to knock it back that far.

However, I put in the scenario of paying an additional £400 a month off, which would bring the DFD forward to November 2009 which suddenly became a very attractive date indeed!

However, that means finding an additional £400 a month. Hmmm.

But my brain was in overdrive, and I was thinking about it "only" being £100 a week, or the equivalent of a permanent Olympic Challenge, with OH second job income, ebaying, matched betting, amazon, mystery shopping, car boots etc and wondered if this would be sustainable.

Of course, I really want to give it a go, but am wondering if I am just building myself up for a big fall.

If I get my bank charges back from Barclays, that will be £4000 off the debt, so that would count towards the snowball, taking the pressure of a little, but ..........

A DFD of 2009 does seem SOOOOO tempting.

ZTD

hypno06 wrote: »

A DFD of 2009 does seem SOOOOO tempting.

But on the other hand, is the "downside of failure" worth the hassle of going with such a target?

I mean this thread is the "Hypno's kick up the backside debt diary..." - why do you need a kick up the backside? Because you fell off the wagon? If so, why did you fall off the wagon? Because you were too hard with yourself so spent as a reaction to that? Do you see where I am going with this?

Why don't you keep your old target, then see what you can shave off your budget over the next few months, and how it makes you feel, and then come to some sort of compromise?

hypno06

Oh you talk such sense.....

Not really fallen off the wagon before but just need to keep the momentum going, and I thought perhaps if the light at the tunnel was nearer, it might be even more of an incentive to keep focussed.

Perhaps I can negotiate with myself and meet me half way

ZTD

hypno06 wrote: »

Oh you talk such sense.....

Someone else who has never met me....

hypno06 wrote: »

Not really fallen off the wagon before but just need to keep the momentum going, and I thought perhaps if the light at the tunnel was nearer, it might be even more of an incentive to keep focussed.

But turning the deprivation screws tighter might be more of an incentive to give up... That's the danger.

hypno06 wrote: »

Perhaps I can negotiate with myself and meet me half way

Yep - that would be ideal. It's walking the tightrope between too much and not enough.