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

[Deleted User]

Hi Ladybird,
Also followed you over from my diary. You have done so well. Look forward to reading about your progress.
GL

Ladybird.

Thanks GL! :wave:

Busy morning tidying up ready for landlord visit this afternoon, feel nice and organised sat in a clean fresh house!

Got a bit of a 'use everything up' cottage pie mix in the slow cooker to have for tea tonight. Mince, a load of mixed bean/pulses (dried, that I soaked overnight- they must have been sat in our cupboard for years!), chopped red pepper and onion, and an old shepherds pie mix. Smells good anyway! Trying to eek out the last of the weekly shop

The sun is out so a trip to the woods with youngest and a couple of the dogs might be in order before the school run.

Fae

Great news on the new date, I love the snowball caculator really does help to motivate. Your pie sounds very good

Fae

Ladybird.

Yep, the snowball calculator is just brilliant and does an amazing job of spelling out just how much debt is costing you.

Lazy morning here snuggling in bed with all my boys reading my Kindle. Want to try and get some more eBay listings done today and some of my own work too, perhaps I can convince my husband to take the kids out for a bit to give me some time.

Also pondering a bit of a moral type dilemma... I have been given a generous sum of John Lewis vouchers for my birthday by a family member (£120!). Whilst I would love to treat myself to something nice they could really help when it comes to buying Christmas presents for others. I know that my relative is giving them to me so that I can enjoy them and buy something special for myself but I feel like I can't afford to? I am sure said relative would be upset if I spent them on presents for others, but they don't have to know?? :undecided

What does everyone else do? Maybe I could treat myself to something with part of the money and then use the rest for Christmas?

Have squeezed another £14 out of my current account onto a CC to make my monthly total a nice round £200. Halfway there this month already, I can see this target is definitely making me focus!

[Deleted User]

Hi Ladybird, Know what you mean about the dilemma of the vouchers- think what you said about sharing it between yourself and Christmas pressies is a great idea- luckily its a good enough amount to be able to do that - say £50 for you and £70 for pressies- that'll make a good dent into Christmas.

I am definitely going to try the snowball calculator- can you tell me where to find it please?

Hope you managed to get some e-bay listings on- my e-bay isnt doing so well this week- about £18 so far, they finish tonight- but its £18 off the debt!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

GL x

NewLeaf_2

treat yourself to something and use the rest for pressies x

Ladybird.

Sounds a fair compromise doesn't it, and I feel better for knowing I have a bit extra to use for Christmas shopping!

Hope you had a last minute flurry of bidders GL! All those little payments count, just work out what that £18 represents long term... on our priciest CC it would equate to £33 once you have calculated interest that £18 would cost over 2 years if you hadn't paid it off! Small overpayments make big savings I think :T

My auctions end on Wednesday, and then another on Saturday. Doing ok so far, plenty of watchers so fingers crossed. Going to have a rummage in my wardrobe again this week and put anything branded on that I don't wear anymore. Been clinging on to fancy skirts and dresses for ages that realistically I am never going to wear again! Doubt half of them even fit anymore...

Finally got round to switching our gas and electric to a fixed tariff this morning, so we don't need to worry about the hikes until March 2014 at least.

On the subject of contracts we have a few coming to an end that will help us soon... my iPhone contract finally ends in December so will be swapping straight to GiffGaff and making big savings there. Also a sofa I bought on interest free credit is finally paid off in January so an extra £35 to chuck on the CCs each month.

On the downside we lose child benefit in the New Year. Fair enough I suppose given the state of the economy, we will miss it though.

Off to make my frugal weekly shopping list and head over to Lidl.

Have a good day all! :beer:

(oops, almost forgot to add the snowball calculator link! Here is the one I use GL, it is seriously the best debtbusting tool ever in my opinion! http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx)

Fae

Hi Ladybird

Fingers crossed on your auctions. Splitting the vochers sounds like a really good idea, that way you get the best of both

Fae

Ladybird.

Afternoon Fae! :wave:

Just back from Lidl, managed the weekly shop for just £45 (including a bottle of gin!) so pleased with that! Some lovely meals on the menu this week too

Ladybird.

Me again. Been stewing and fretting and spreadsheeting all day wondering what the consequences would be of us not renting our house out before the relocation money runs out. As luck would have it our mortgage interest rate drops considerably at roughly the same time as we would need to pay for both houses ourselves, but it is still not great.

Looks as though I'd need to bring in £230pm on top of my husband's salary for us to survive but that only allows £300 for food, clothes, everything beyond basic bills and car/travel costs. I think, if we are to prevent ourselves falling into more debt, I need to be bringing in at least £300.

On the one hand this is scary but on the other it IS quite doable, so I feel better for doing the maths and facing up to it. It is especially doable given our youngest will start his 15hrs funded preschool each week, 3 extra mornings for me to earn money.

On the other hand, if the house lets then we'll have plenty of extra money to throw at debts and will begin to reap the benefits of downsizing. Fingers crossed...

Please someone rent our beautiful house!