Take it to the Mattresses!

Grand_Benders

:hello:

Not much changed over the last half a year, but the tribunal just finished this week (settled, for a tiny amount, but at least I can put it behind me now).

Will try and get back soon with a full update. Here's the potted version:

DMP still ongoing but massively dropped our monthly payment after my employment circumstances changed, so no noticeable movement on the overall amount.

Still shopping frugally, but getting better at it. Discovered Approved Food and now have a bit of a store cupboard built up. Just need to find recipes to make use of things. Aldi is my main supermarket of choice.

House isn't on the market yet as it was too much to deal with alongside the tribunal, but we're going to get back to it now, so we can move on. We did find our dream home, perfect price for our (mortgage-free) budget, perfect location and lots of space for the pottery, but it's just gone under offer after nearly two years on the market. Oh well. Something else will turn up.

Not got back to the walking yet, as now spending full time hours at my part time job, but using the extra time for training. Applied for a bursary to cover some of the travel costs of the training, but won't hear about that till around Easter, so taking the hit on it for now.

Just banked £150 of loose change from our pennies savings jars (20p and £2 coins mostly and loose smash) into a cash ISA. Easy to pay into, a pain to withdraw, so more likely to keep savings untouched, giving us a proper Emergency Fund.

Back again soon to report progress on the house etc.

x

Grand_Benders

Yikes, one year and one day since my last update!

Both now working part time and working on building our own pottery business.

Still haven't got the house on the market (whoops). Still trying to finish all the wee jobs and get rid of some of our ridiculous amount of STUFF, but we're making slow progress.

DMP still ticking along at £70 a month, with a debt free date of December 2072!!! Hopefully we can blitz it when the house is sold.

Will try and get back into the habit of posting on here again. Managing lots of no-spend days (easy when you just have no money!!) but not actually tracking them, so will get back to that.

Life is actually a lot more relaxed these days. It's a year since the employment tribunal, and we're both pretty much settled in our jobs. Working hard at building up the business and we've taken on a studio to allow us to do more.

Will update again soon. I doubt anyone is still following/reading, but just in case :hello:

grannyx2

Hello honey, lovely to hear from you. Happy New Year to you both, hope 2015 is a good year x

Grand_Benders

Peeking in.

Hello

After finally getting our house on the market Jan 2016, we JUST completed and moved on Tuesday this week! EIGHTEEN months to get an offer. :mad:

But this does mean we are now - officially - Mortgage-Freeeeeee! :j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:T:T:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j


We decided to squirrel away the remaining equity from the house and are renting in a village that we currently can't afford to buy in but we really wanted to live here. It feels kinda nice not to be a homeowner for a while. This will suit us for the year we have committed to, and may be extending another year while our new landlord is gallivanting around Canada. It works perfectly; he covers his mortgage while he is away, and gets very responsible *ahem* mature tenants who will treat the property with care, and make improvements, and we get to live in the village we love in a very nice two-level flat with no worries about having to pay for major property repairs, etc.

So, Mortgage chapter closed, now on to the debt.

Sending out CCA requests to our creditors this week, then starting the negotiations for Full and Finals. We've already had one (Lowells, on an original LTSB CC) write randomly to us offering a 70% discount to settle, but if I can chop this down with an unenforceable result from the CCA Request, it leaves more investment/retirement/ house-buying money for us.

Currently very happy bunnies.

Eager_Elephant

Excellent news Grand Benders :dance::dance:_party__party_

Quickly read the whole diary again - what a rollercoaster you have been on.
:
This new chapter of your life sounds fabulous:j:j

Grand_Benders

Quick update.

Nothing much changed from the last update, but I just got the CCA Request letters sent out with £1 Postal Orders.

Had one reply so far saying that they will look at my request, and returned the PO as they don't charge for CCA requests. Great, but still cost me 50p to buy the PO

Will do a proper update with balances, CCA responses, offers, etc shortly.