Ultimate Challenge. 457 days / £16600!!!

his_missus

Hello all!

27??? I can't remember that far back anymore:rotfl: It is sad to say that my life seemed to truly begin at 29 when I met my now Husband, soppy moo I know. Mind you, at 27 I was debt free...

I must say that until recently I thought I looked quite youthful. People were always surprised by how old I actually was, thinking I was much younger I used to joke that I was just immature:p. Now though when I look in the mirror, I do indeed look like I'm approaching the 40 I almost am (on rough days I'd say approaching 50:eek:)

Still I'm not afraid of turning 40 as it will be the start of a new chapter in my life - I will be debt free and working hard to become mortgage free and financially secure so I can hopefully retire early. I see myself in years to come as a carer for my family on both sides so that's the motivation.

Also Kat, we have a big holiday planned for our milestone birthday, it's gotta be done

Siouxsie32

Just wanted to check in and say buon compleanno to our lovely kat :bdaycake: Hope you're having a fab time in Venice and not giving any of us a second thought

Looking forward to all your tales when you return xx

liltdiddylilt

Awwwh hope you had an epic 30th Kat...

Thinking of you as you have your lovely jaunt. Hopefully you're not going too MSE on us & are having a truly good carefree time. You deserve it!!

NinjaSavingKat

This is day 170.
There are 287 days left.
£33 a day.

I have been embedded, absorbed and distracted by my challenges. I share too much on there sometimes without listening to the successes and achievements of my chickadees - so whether you the reader want to hear my witterings, wonder my mental state (I'm normal I promise), or attach yourself to my personal journey - I will be updating for you every two days minimum. :T

My mind wanders on a daily basis to what I can do / should be doing or planning and whether something will work in order to pay all my debts back by the end of the year.

I have plans, schemes and desires to get more money in the door and to stop spending as much as possible - to which I think I am winning yet I am still a little anxious that my self imposed date will be missed. I'll have let myself down, failed if you will.:(:wall:

Since starting this challenge I can honestly say my life has taken a turn for the better. No-one has come along to pay off my debts for me, no knight in shining armour has swept me off my feet but my mental state of determination and "can do" attitude has steeled itself to deal with every eventuality. I am almost sure that whatever comes my way I can deal with, manipulate and turn to my favour. I don't manipulate as you may see being devious....

For example. My recent birthday holiday was so bad and such a waste of money it will be a very long time until I want another. This negates any Auntumn time pull to be "somewhere else" before winter which was a massive gathering of all my friends. I am not going. This might seem to you all a little obvious since I am in such dire straits with my money and debt repayment - but sometimes things linger in your head so much you kinda wish SOMETHING would shove it out so you wouldn't have to "um and ah" about missing something epic.

Another example. I bought an expensive £155 vintage dress for a party that was rubbish, and having returned the vintage dress for a credit note due to guilt I have realised that until I am debt free I cannot justify the vintage life as I want it. I am not going to an annual gathering at Goodwood. This would have amassed the £50 entrance fee, a different outfit and accessories to last year, a train fare of £30 and food at the venue which is supremely expensive.

So May and June will see the end of my Student Loan and my Bike Loan. I intend to hit the bike loan with a whopper overpayment this month as June will see no overtime being paid.

And to think the amount (£1300) that I had set aside for my 30th birthday celebrations would have paid off my entire bike loan by now is a very very hard pill to swallow:doh:. That getting my friends to a little restaurant for a £20 TasteCard dinner would have been a WHOLE lot cheaper than organising and personally funding my celebrations. And less stressful especially when come people cancelled. ( I didn't spend all that £1300 by the way but had I spend any more than I did on basics like food and travelling I'd have been even more upset with myself)...

I wonder if I would have regretted not going somewhere or would the joy of being free of my bike loan have been gleeful enough for me? Guess you live and learn - and I learned the hard way.

So I have ways of punishing myself. Sorry but I do.I have booked 40 hours of overtime for May - this amounts to 80 hours in total. Should boil down to around £400-£500 more than I would expect on a basic wage. I have done this amount of hours in March and will recieve it on payday this month so will see what this kind of exertion results in.

I am moving house on the 29th April. This weekend having not scored any overtime at all I will be eBaying more items that I no longer wear - including beautiful shoes that are doing my right knee more harm than good - all for £9.99, transferring music onto a hard drive from cd's so I can chuck them all out, same with Dvd's where possible and again getting even MORE ruthless with sending books to Amazon.

So May and June are sorted with extra payments to my bike and by default the student loan will get paid off as well. This will free up a minimum of £100 on basic pay to what is £180 on overtime months .. plus the basic £133.23 each month that would have went to the bike repayments. So I am saying an even £250 from this - plus £297.42 in basic repayments leaves me having to locate a further £878 in order to pay everything back by my own personal DFD - WITHOUT using the last payday of the year as this is technically January's pay....

So I just have to reign it in even more than usual. I have £240 in my bank account - and £140 ready for my brother turning up next week. I think I will be okay...just....

I am sorry for the length of this post - but this will be my outlet now more often with shorter and sharper updates regarding progress...promise...

For now..

Onwards and Upwards!!

NinjaSavingKat

And with the last of my credit on Amazon I have purchased a Moleskine Pocket diary that will take me up until December 2014. Time to plan plan plan.

I will be working for myself by the end of next year. I just don't know what I will be doing...:rotfl:

NinjaSavingKat

Good Morning to anyone watching, viewing, contemplating and lurking...:T:T:T

Right so it's Monday again. I have had a superb weekend scheming with a girlfriend. Both she and I want to be working for ourselves - me specifically by the end of next year. Where as she has a contract running out for her consultancy business in August and she would like to not bother renewing it....

We have been making lists about where our time and money can go. We recognise the fallacy that working for ourselves and with each other will be a walk in the park. But since we are both working our butts off for other people, me sometimes up to 7 days a week, we feel it may be a better investment to work to our own rules....

My brother once said it to me..."if you are willing to work these hours for someone else why not do it for yourself"... so I think I will before I am too old and regret it.

So scheming and planning and listing and thinking and more scheming is needed. I have many an interest but tying my life down to one or two will be a monumentous decision.. however as you can see from the title of my diary once I have my NSK heart set on something this is what I will achieve come hell or high water.... the determination is not an issue, it's what to invest it in that's making me wonder..

But as time progresses and as my debt reduces I will have more ideas manifest.....it will just be interesting to see where it is coming from...:T..and whether or not this debt busting one will succeed.

Only time will tell.

Onwards and Upwards!!!

ecodude

Hey NSK been lurking on all your threads and hope to join in May. i've worked with people starting their own businesses the hardest part is knowing what you want to do. What do you want to do ? and do you have the skills already ? just being nosey Cheers keep up great support work

Ecodude

liltdiddylilt

Evening pretty ladies. Sorry, I haven't really been around on here much. My weeks seem to be flying by considering I only work 3 days... I have no idea what happens to my time.

I sit here with a headache from trying to puzzle out just why precisely this years tax credits are £144 more per 28 days than I expected from looking online. They have calculated my payments, based on the salary for the year to come as it has increased, and somehow it is more!??! How is this possible? I am tempted to rant regarding the state of our country and something for nothing blah blah... but, more, for working more... That's actually the right way around.

Anyway I am so sorry to hear your birthday was a bust Kat. Keep it fresh in your mind and learn from it. Onwards & upwards as you always say. Look forward to hearing that the loan is GONE!!

Take care x

his_missus

Hi Kat,

Don't be too hard on yourself. You may feel you wasted money on your birthday but if you had done nothing, you may have regretted that too one day.

I must agree with you though. We were thinking of a joint 40th this summer but to be honest I wasn't sure I wanted to "waste" money on entertaining and feeding our family and friends and Hubby agreed completely (I thought he wouldn't) People may think we're being party poopers but actually I don't care!

We're thinking of booking the function room at the local carvery. Need to look into it but at £4.19 for a meal and £2-£3 for a drink no-one can say they can't afford it and if you're not prepared to save up a few quid to spend time with me, you're not much of a friend in my opinion. Does that sound too harsh?

Need to double check the finances tonight but I think between us we can afford to pay £1,000 off the CC this month. This would take it down to just over £700, an easy target to pay off next payday even with our holiday to Wales in May.

I've never had an urge to be self-employed though I would like to take early retirement, maybe when I'm 55 as I think by then my role may actually be one of carer for our parents (who by then would be in their 70s) or for Hubby's two sisters who both have Down Syndrome. We hope by 55, we'll have the mortgage paid off and would be able to live comfortably off one wage. Just a dream at the moment though.

All in all I'm feeling rather positive.

NinjaSavingKat

Good Morning all... feeling a little blah today but pushing through nonetheless...

However - I am currently thinking of money (whats new), how to make, how to save it and how to never spend it again. Although some of this is impossible I am turning up the ruthless notches in line with thinking SO much about my DFD and how much I don't want to start 2014 with ANY debt.

I have realised that should I get rid of my bike loan and student loan by June - I will have precisely 6 months to rid myself of £7048. Treats.:cool:..should I add I'd have been two months ahead of myself if i hadn't gone on holiday??..:D

I am running out of things to eBay - the new house will be further from the post office. I have used some Amazon credit in the last few days for an 18 months diary so I can REALLY plan ahead and have sent another £16 worth of books to Amazon having realised the more books I have the less I actually go and do the things I am reading about - because I haven't read the book yet...Ha!

So I am desperatly awaiting the arrival of payday or at least the updating of my online payslip so I know where I am. This won't be online until Tuesday I suspect..

His_Missus = If it is your joint birthday your friends and family should be paying for you. There is no point is having a massive party as you said and feeding other people. So I think your idea of sorting a room with cheap food and drink would be easily acceptable to everyone!

Lilt = nice to see you back here. I am sure you are busy with the little one anyway!

Right.. getting busy today! More soon...

Onwards and Upwards!!!