Time to stop pretending it will be ok!

julie2710

Well I had to drop my boys off at their dad's on Wednesday. So it's a quiet house until Sunday tea time! Then back to school for them.

I did work Wednesday night and managed to earn a bit extra but I'm keeping it to one side for now as I have just found out that the sales bonus was late being signed off and I now won't get it paid until the end of March :mad: It's so annoying when that happens as I was really hoping to get an extra bit paid towards the school fees this month to release the pressure for the coming months! Oh well never mind.

I did mange to sell a few DVDs on eBay so I took some of the money out of my PayPal account and made an extra £20 payment this week.

Had a bit of a discussion with the inland revenue this morning over registering for SA now the child benefit thing has changed. What really annoyed me was that in order for them to collect it through PAYE they wanted me to give them an estimate of my earnings for the coming year! Considering I am changing my company car this year so that value will change, plus my sales bonus could be anywhere between £0 and £12k + I think that's a bit of an impossible task! It will either mean they take too much leaving me short or they don't take enough leaving me with a bill! What a stupid system! Talk about complicating things! The bonus I get will make all the difference between me being under the £50k or not! Almost makes it not worth earning too much! I wonder if my manager would appreciate that?

Really must mow the lawn tomorrow! Also need to get some shopping done! I'm feeling a bit peckish now so best go and see what I have lurking in the cupboards I can make use of!

julie2710

I'm not very good at writing this diary am I? Right need to update on what's been going on! Firstly I did get the lawn cut. It's a job I don't particularly enjoy but once it's done I'm always really pleased I did.

The boys came back from their dad's Sunday afternoon and it would seem they have been a nightmare for him all weekend! Oh well, I have to put up with bad behaviour sometimes so it's not going to kill him and much as though I'm ashamed to admit it, their tales of what they got up to did make me smile a little bit, especially when I said "well you wouldn't do that at our house" and my youngest said "no way! You're really strict!"

Well the debt is coming down, all be it slowly! I've just sat down with my payslip, balanced my bank account and paid all the bills, well apart for the Easter holiday clubs for the two boys which will be £200 :eek: I'm hoping I get some extra work this weekend as otherwise I have just £347.78 left to last me the month plus the child benefit when it arrives and that includes the £200 and I will need to cover petrol even though I get it back the following month

I am constantly nagging my company, as is everyone else, for them to give us fuel cards! Oh well, anytime I don't spend working this weekend I'll be eBaying. I'm going to have to bite the bullet I think and put the iPhone up for sale. I'm petrified it will go wrong and I'll end up out of pocket but I need to take the chance I guess.

Right back to some work, then need to get the boys stuff packed for the weekend.

Note to self (update more often )

LannieDuck

Maybe ask on the ebay board for advice about selling iPhones? I would guess that there are pitfalls to avoid, but I don't know what they are.

money_honey

Hi Julie, just a quick one to say I've read through all your posts on this thread today, just what I needed to read! I was getting discouraged about paying my debt off but your post has motivated me to keep going. Good luck to you!

suburbanwifey

julie2710 wrote: »

I'm not very good at writing this diary am I? Right need to update on what's been going on! Firstly I did get the lawn cut. It's a job I don't particularly enjoy but once it's done I'm always really pleased I did.

The boys came back from their dad's Sunday afternoon and it would seem they have been a nightmare for him all weekend! Oh well, I have to put up with bad behaviour sometimes so it's not going to kill him and much as though I'm ashamed to admit it, their tales of what they got up to did make me smile a little bit, especially when I said "well you wouldn't do that at our house" and my youngest said "no way! You're really strict!"

Well the debt is coming down, all be it slowly! I've just sat down with my payslip, balanced my bank account and paid all the bills, well apart for the Easter holiday clubs for the two boys which will be £200 :eek: I'm hoping I get some extra work this weekend as otherwise I have just £347.78 left to last me the month plus the child benefit when it arrives and that includes the £200 and I will need to cover petrol even though I get it back the following month

I am constantly nagging my company, as is everyone else, for them to give us fuel cards! Oh well, anytime I don't spend working this weekend I'll be eBaying. I'm going to have to bite the bullet I think and put the iPhone up for sale. I'm petrified it will go wrong and I'll end up out of pocket but I need to take the chance I guess.

Right back to some work, then need to get the boys stuff packed for the weekend.

Note to self (update more often )

To be honest I would not advise you to sell your iPhone on eBay. iPhones attract scammers of the highest order (I've been a seller/buyer on eBay a long time, over 16 years since it started) you will get a similar price selling your iPhone to O2. I sold my year old iPhone 4s to them 2 months ago when I bought the new iPhone 5 and I got more from O2 than I would have gotten from any eBay buyer. Its fraught with danger selling an iPhone, don't do it! Sell to a reputable company who will give you a price quote prior to selling. Then send Registered (insured) Post and you will have your money within a few days.

money_honey

suburbanwifey wrote: »

To be honest I would not advise you to sell your iPhone on eBay. iPhones attract scammers of the highest order (I've been a seller/buyer on eBay a long time, over 16 years since it started) you will get a similar price selling your iPhone to O2. I sold my year old iPhone 4s to them 2 months ago when I bought the new iPhone 5 and I got more from O2 than I would have gotten from any eBay buyer. Its fraught with danger selling an iPhone, don't do it! Sell to a reputable company who will give you a price quote prior to selling. Then send Registered (insured) Post and you will have your money within a few days.

I would agree - try the mobile phone recycling sites as you may be surprised by how much you can get. I sold my last phone and got £90, and it was only a Blackberry, not even an iPhone.

suburbanwifey

money_honey wrote: »

I would agree - try the mobile phone recycling sites as you may be surprised by how much you can get. I sold my last phone and got £90, and it was only a Blackberry, not even an iPhone.

I got just under 300 for my year old iPhone 4s, it almost paid for my new iPhone 5. I sell my old iPhone on to O2 every year, without fail. Pays for itself and I get latest model every year. The one thing I would never sell on eBay is an iPhone and I've sold virtually everything else on there

julie2710

Thank you for the advice about the iPhone. I hadn't thought about selling it to O2. I'd heard some not very good reports about some of the recycling site and have been so nervous of the eBay pitfalls I've put it off and put it off. I'm off to the O2 website now

Money_Honey, I know how you feel sometimes. You seem to have had a similar level of debt to me and some days it's just hard to stay motivated as everything just seems like a drop in the ocean and you almost feel as though what is the point? I long for the day when I actually have spare cash. One of the biggest motivators I get each month (although depressing at the same time as I know a lot of it is my own fault) is when I look at how much I am paying every month on credit card repayments. £925 this month :eek::eek: That was just the minimum repayments rounded up to the nearest £ Ok I'm trying to make extra payments each week but its just so slow. Then I think if I had that extra money in my pocket every month how well off would I be! I'm sort of thinking about it in terms of the "Squash and a Squeeze" book! If you have loads but think its not much so you get less you then realise how much you had in the first place!

money_honey

I totally get where you're coming from, that's exactly how I feel some days too. I love the 'Squash and a Squeeze' analogy - one of my daughter's favourite books!
I have a spreadsheet which I started when our debt was at its highest, and every month I go through it and update, and it is encouraging to see the debt coming down slowly. But totally agree how depressing it is when you see how much your repayments our - we're also paying around £900-£1000 monthly on repayments. When I think what else the money could be going on it makes me sick, and angry at myself!
Still, all we can do is keep pushing on and know that one day we'll be debt free

suburbanwifey

Here is the direct link for you

o2 Recycle