£37k to £0 in a (determined to make them wonderful) few years!

Ladybird.

Ooooh thanks for that! Have dug out a few bits, will get the camera out once the kids are in bed!

Ladybird.

Cheap and cheerful pancakes for breakfast this morning, always a nice low cost treat, my kids go completely nuts for them!

Despite a nice breakfast I have that horrible tight chested stressed out feeling today. Everything feels manageable on the debt frontier at the moment, time is passing, we are chipping away, the amount is coming down... but this whole house move is another matter.

We have found somewhere to live in the new area we need to move to (job has forced move), it's small and cosy, the rent is low and it should be perfect... BUT we have to rent out our current house because we can't afford to sell it (about £25k of negative equity) Once it does (fingers crossed) let we will be in a stronger position because the rent will pay for most of the mortgage and our new house is much cheaper, but until then, if we end up having to pay for both houses at the same time we will be stretched to the point of having to wrack up more debt just to eat. Thanks to some relocation money we have until Christmas ish to find tenants before we hit trouble, so a bit of breathing space, but the uncertainty of it all is really weighing on my mind.

Wish I had a crystal ball.

Just trying to plod on, keep budgeting, keep trying to make little overpayments here and there... the more we can chip off the CCs the more spare cash we have each month to pay for everything else... onwards and upwards.

TotallyInzane

Hi Ladybird,

I have been subscribed to your dairy since the begining & it has inspired me on those days where I needed a kick start

I am in a similiar situation where I am renting where we live, while letting my property out, which pays for itself while tenanted but is a struggle when empty.

The best piece of advice I can give is look into making the money you will get from it work hard for you ie. expenses your allowed to offset against tax on income/profit from property - interest paid on the mortgage is tax deductable, if property is let unfurnished (no bed/sofa - can't remember about white goods) your are entitled to reduced/not liable for council tax (Each council is slightly different so best to phone them to clarify exact details). etc.

At the end of the day you have to look at it like a business & not your home any more, which is difficult to start with but you get used to.

I know it's not going to help put £'s in the bank when the property is vacant but it will help you keep as many of the £'s you can when you have tennants

Ladybird.

Thank you SO much TotallyInzane, you know what- we haven't a clue about any of the tax implications or how to make the best of the situation in that way so that is utterly brilliant advice. Thank you, it's all new to us, I shall start educating myself!

Nice to hear from someone who can empathise on the house front, I expect in the current climate there are a fair few in the same shoes. Not a great situation to be in but not the worst either I suppose if we can sit it out.

Feeling a bit more chipper this evening after a talking to from my husband (he's the positive one, I'm the born worrier) and a lovely afternoon in the sunshine with the children, our friends, and their horses. Just the smell of horses is therapy enough for me, looking forward to being debt free and being able to afford my own again one day. It will come!

Managed to resist the urge to buy a bottle of wine to have this evening, feeling tired after a busy day so I think a hot chocolate and curling up in bed with my Kindle might be the way forward. Wild Saturday night eh :cool:!

Thanks again TotallyInzane

TotallyInzane

Ladybird. wrote: »

Thank you SO much TotallyInzane, you know what- we haven't a clue about any of the tax implications or how to make the best of the situation in that way so that is utterly brilliant advice. Thank you, it's all new to us, I shall start educating myself!

Your very welcome, like I said it unfortunately it won't help put £'s in your account at the moment but hopefully it'll prevent you learning the hard way like I did with a couple of unexpected bills showing up on my doorstep!

The other tip I would suggest would be thoroughly researching the rental market in your area, to gauge what you can expect to receive in terms of monthly rent & if you do decided to use a management company, if they are being realistic.

I don't claim to be an expert myself but always happy to give any helpful tips I've picked up on the way

Ladybird.

We have decided to go with a management company, mainly because we will be living too far away to deal with it ourselves. Not the cheapest option but hopefully they will look after us.

Off to the bank today to sort out changes of address so decided to pay in the contents of our sealed jar. It hasn't been very sealed since we changed the jar so we have ended up regularly pinching money for parking or a loaf of bread, but still £28 in there which will be better off our priciest CC than sat in a jar. I'm sure the cashier will be thrilled to see my heavy bag of bagged up coppers and silvers! I will glue the lid on the jar later, it's new empty look should get us potting again!

We have plenty of food in the house so hoping for a low spend week with no naughty mid-week wine purchases! Planning lovely big roast dinner tonight, perfect treat in this horrible weather! Have had to cave and start using the heating but at least warm radiators mean less tumble drier loads...

Have a great Monday everyone!

Ladybird.

Nice productive and organised day today; putting the house stuff out of my mind for now as fretting about it doesn't help or change anything :cool:

Just managed to claim another £5 Amazon voucher from Swagbucks, glad I am back into the habit of using it as a few vouchers saved up between now and Christmas will be a big help come December. Vouchers earned also mean I have a few pounds to buy the odd Kindle book now and then; I'm finding my Kindle a great way to unwind in the evenings, so much cheaper and healthier than cracking open a bottle of vino That said, looking forward to a glass of something nice at the weekend, will enjoy it all the more having been good all week :A

Finally pulled my finger out and got one item listed on eBay via my phone, plan to put the other few things I have put aside for it on tonight if I remember!

Managed to fleece OH for some of the change in his pockets for the empty looking sealed jar this morning

There seems to be a break in the rain so I best go walk the dogs while the going is good! Hope you are all warm and dry, autumn is definitely here! :undecided

Ladybird.

I have just been naughty and ordered a pair of £120 winter boots online. Sat here feeling a bit guilty... BUT I spent the same on my last pair and they lasted me three winters of daily wear so hopefully these will prove to be an equally good investment. I am not really a shoe kinda girl, I live in boots all winter and sandals all summer. I only have sandals and wellies to wear at the moment as my last boots finally fell to bits in the end!! Wishing I had taken them to be repaired before I chucked them, will do next time.

Having a good week I think All meals have been from stores, trying to use up the last of everything before we move (have lovely tagine aroma currently wafting through the house from the slow cooker, looking forward to eating it with some homemade wedges later, yum!). Been using cheap but tasty meats like turkey thigh, and bulking out mince based meals like chilli and spaghetti bolognese with chopped onion and extra beans/veg. Been trying to have at least a couple of vegetarian meals a week, our favourite is a really simple pasta dish with fresh pan fried veg like courgettes, mushrooms, red onion, and tomatoes stirred through; very cheap and very tasty, especially with a warming pinch of chilli stirred through. Been very good on the not drinking wine midweek front too!

The sun made an appearance this morning so I got some washing out on the line for the first time in ages.

Move all planned for this weekend now so gradually filling boxes delivered to us this week. Thankfully the company are paying for a moving service so just a case of boxing up anything we want to pack ourselves and they take care of the rest. There is no way on earth we could afford removal men ourselves, I am thanking my lucky stars it is being provided for us! This house will go on the rental market in early October, once it has been well cleaned- fingers tightly crossed.

Ladybird.

Good Morning all! :wave:

Move done, stressful but relatively painless. Despite clearing out so much furniture and stuff before we went we still have far too much to fit in our cosy new home, more rigorous round of clearing out boxes and eBaying needed as a couple of our bedrooms are just wall to wall unpacked boxes with nowhere to go!

Anyway, beginning of a fresh new week and month so thought I'd try and be organised and try and set myself some tasks and goals to focus on

• 1. Going to try and make October a completely alcohol-free month! We have been limiting drinking to weekends mostly but even still, a couple of bottles a week really adds up over the month. Will save lots of money and give my health a nice boost too.
  
• 2. Clear out! I must must must crack on with all these unpacked boxes, we simply have more stuff than space, time to be ruthless and hopefully make a few ££ while I'm at it.
  
• 3. Work hard to try and earn more money through my self employed work. I'll have a bit more time now we have moved as the children will be starting school/nursery, I need to make the time productive and try to get some work done once they are in bed too.
  
• 4. Be super frugal with food. We did a big Lidl shop to get started in new kitchen, now aiming not to shop at all (bar milk/bread) until next weekend.
  
• 5. Aim to hit the daily Swagbucks target every day to try and raise a bit of an Amazon Christmas fund.
  
• 6. Make the most of cheap/free days out in a new area- we have a whole new place to explore, parks to visit and walks to go on
  
• 7. Get hang of new central heating system and try to work out ways of keeping useage down. Also on a water meter so will be careful not to waste water too.

I think that is enough to be getting on with! Still haven't banked that big bag of coins that I bagged up, might do that later as it would bring the total debt under the £29k mark :T

Have a great week everyone

Ladybird.

Winter boots arrived, they are horrible, and going back! :A

Sneaked under the £29k mark courtesy of CC bill being lower than I thought due to overpayment my husband must have made :T

It's 6 months since our LBM and we have paid off about 22% of the debt so far by my calculations... time has flown!

On with the housework...:cool: