It's kind of fun to do the impossible

PaddyPaws

Hi Sholly
just found your diary so stopped by to say "Hi!" from a fellow mini convertible owner (mine doesn't leak either:D)

Will follow your diary with interest as it sounds like you're doing a great job

PP

kirstypark

Hi Sholley, wow, your diary is busy, looks like you struck a chord with a few folk here! I work in Healthcare at the moment, so fancy doing something with that when I get free. My freind goes to Sierra Leone every year for a month to help some american volunteer surgeons repair childbirth damage in young girls and it sounds very worthwhile.

Alternatively I may just sit in the spanish sun (and pull the odd pint to finance my scaled down life!). Like you, I had planned to see the world, but 2 kids before I was 21 put paid to that! Making up for it now though..been to some amazing places over the past 4 years, including visiting my daughter who works abroad a lot - think the travel bug has filtered down a generation...

Btw, I am another convertible fan, my last one had an indoor swimming pool when it rained, my newer one keeps me dry, but it is 13 years old so the seals wont last forever. Love driving topless!

Sholly

Evening all,

Half way through the week :j you're all good and January is treating you well I've had a bit of a mixed day but I shall fill you in on that shortly.

First, hi Lola!

LolaLemon wrote: »

I dont have aplan as such yet, i have 13ish years lefton my mortgage. Im aiming to be completely mortgage free - or at least completely own one home outright, by the time im 40, so thats 10 years, but in my head i am only giving myself 7 years to pay this one off.. now my problems are - just started a new full time job, 3rd month now, so effectively i can start applying for new deals, BUT i live in a wooden house (yep, all wooden! scandinavian pine to be exact.) and i no longer know who lends on these types of houses. I am currently with NRAM, the part Virgin didnt want to take on from Northern Rock. I also have the small matter of insurance claims for being off sick/made redundant and the insurance not paying out to pay my credit card, me not paying whilst disputting (didnt have a penny spare to give them ) so my credit file wont look too good just now. I have started paying the CC when i got the job.... so a looong upward climb i have in front of me.

This year i am going to clear the cc and loan to my dad (that can go longer, but i'm hoping to have paid completely in 18 months, he has said i only need to pay as and when i can.) After that, i will then pay max overpayments into mortgage, and hopefully be with a different company.

This is going tobe my first month with the pension taken off, i've guestimated that i have £100 to play with every month after all bills have been paid and some money put in savings (so i can take son away for a caravan holiday, or buy something of neccessity)

LolaLemon wrote: »

What sort of things do you do with your four year old? My 5 year old loves to make play doh, just befor echristmas we made cinnamon playdoh and he took it into his school on the last day, all the kids in his class loved it! We had been playing with it for about a month before he took it in. it lasts ages if stored correctly. i wrap ours in some cling film and then put in a tupperware box.

A wooden house sounds very exciting!! Did you build it yourself? I'd love to build my own house one day, definitely not at the minute though, I'll pay this one off first so I've got somewhere to go when the house I build falls to the ground :rotfl: are you a townie or a country gal? A long climb just like mine but we'll get there and imagine how proud we will be when we do! Aww you're Dad sounds great! My budget leaves me with about £50 after all bills, petrol, food, son's swimming and football and I've also allocated some of my monthly budget to car insurance, tax, MOT etc so that it's not a big shock when it all comes round. I know that my spends are tiny but the bills include my credit card which I use for food spends so the more strict I am with meal planning and getting deals, the more spends I have so there's my incentive to being strict. The holiday sounds lovely, it's important to treat yourself when you're being so restrained most of the time - I think it stops you from falling off the wagon. We've got a holiday booked for May but it's all paid for - only thing we need to sort out when we're there is petrol, food and spending money but I save £10 per week into the fund so hopefully there should be enough come HOLIDAY TIME!! Ooo, please can I have the instructions (recipe?) for cinnamon Playdoh - that sounds like something my littlie would love. We live close to the beach so we go there when the weather is a bit better, he loves the museum that we have near us, we glue and paint and stick and go splodging in the mud. Really, as long as it's messy, he's happy! Boys!!


Wow that's a long message!!xx

Sholly

PaddyPaws wrote: »

Hi Sholly
just found your diary so stopped by to say "Hi!" from a fellow mini convertible owner (mine doesn't leak either:D)

Will follow your diary with interest as it sounds like you're doing a great job

PP

Hi there, PaddyPaws!

Thank you for your message. Tell me more about the Mini! I love Minis. I had a Mini One first, I LOVED him (there was a definite period of mourning after he....went!). He was called Bertie, light green, just beautiful!! The new Mini is a Cooper with some Cooper S bits on, he's a dark blue, sparkly! His official colour is 'Lightening Blue' and my son's favourite film character is Lightening McQueen, so this one is called Lightening. He's a lot heavier than Bertie so not as nippy but I still love him even if he is a little, erm, cuddly!! Suppose I should add something to make it seem like I know something important about cars...brakehorse power or something...ah, who am I trying to kid!

Thank you, I hope it'll all be worth it in the end

xx

Sholly

kirstypark wrote: »

Hi Sholley, wow, your diary is busy, looks like you struck a chord with a few folk here! I work in Healthcare at the moment, so fancy doing something with that when I get free. My freind goes to Sierra Leone every year for a month to help some american volunteer surgeons repair childbirth damage in young girls and it sounds very worthwhile.

Alternatively I may just sit in the spanish sun (and pull the odd pint to finance my scaled down life!). Like you, I had planned to see the world, but 2 kids before I was 21 put paid to that! Making up for it now though..been to some amazing places over the past 4 years, including visiting my daughter who works abroad a lot - think the travel bug has filtered down a generation...

Btw, I am another convertible fan, my last one had an indoor swimming pool when it rained, my newer one keeps me dry, but it is 13 years old so the seals wont last forever. Love driving topless!

A swimming pool in your car!! How very pooosh! :rotfl: Hahahaha, I love driving topless too!! :whistle:

It is busy, I feel really supported It makes saving and looking after the purse so much easier! Your friend sounds amazing :T it's great that people do things like that, it's so admirable. I think it's important to give something back, it helps us to appreciate what we've got and although we will of course struggle from time to time and come across barriers, it is important to remember those who's whole lives have been a struggle just to survive. The Spanish sun sounds lovely, you sound like you'll definitely have earnt it!

Can I have your daughters job please!? Or can I just tag along with you?

xx

Sholly

So my day, good and bad.

Let's start with the good so that I can close my laptop in a huff when I've written the bad!!

I managed to get my debt under the £6k mark!! :j I'm really pleased! And I've found boxes big enough to send my DVDs to Music Magpie (one box is a Surf washing powder box!!! Hope they don't mind, at least the DVDs will smell delicious when they arrive!! :rotfl:). I also found some Tesco receipts and price checked them, had an email this morning saying I had a voucher for £3.01 so I've worked out how I can make curry for £3.02 - I don't mind spending a penny! Lastly, I'm trying to achieve 25 no spend days this month, I'm on NSD number 7. Total spends for the month so far: £45.29 which includes petrol, food etc.

Just a quick question - credit cards: I have three credit cards at the min - CC1 was used to pay my car off on a 0% deal until December this year), CC2 is a Tesco card which I use to buy all of my food shopping and petrol as I get extra points which equals free meals out etc (seriously, what is better than free food!?) and CC3 is well, just there! I used it for my eBay purchases as it's linked to Paypal. I don't spend lots on Paypal but I've bought things for the house with Christmas money which has gone on there. As soon as I buy anything, I pay it off straight away and it's on whole bill direct debit. I should cancel this card but it's got a HUGE limit so I've been keeping it 'just in case', is this a good idea?

So, onto the 'not so good': work. I was told today that we need to lose two people from a team of 8. 'Lose' hopefully doesn't mean that I won't have a job as they will try and find alternative roles for those that do go but I can't help but feel worried. I will be the one to go, I'm not thinking negatively, I'm just being realistic. The only thing that might 'save' me is that I have different hours to the rest of the team due to childcare which I think they will have to honour. As long as I have a job and get paid at the end of the month, I don't care what I do but the worry of being put in a job in a skilled job (when I've got no skills related to that job) scares me. I know I need to look on the bright side though, and they've said we'll all have jobs so I need to trust them. Humpf!

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day....ooo, just found another receipt! (I keep telling myself that it's he little things!!)

xx

Sholly

Sholly wrote: »

ooo, just found another receipt!

It's over 28 days old...add that to my bad list for today!!

HeadAboveWater

Well done on your debt under £6k and on sorting your vouchers! Not so well done on the 'over 28 days old' one though!

Sorry to hear about your work. Things are a bit like that with us at the minute, but we don't know how many or when or anything. It's just being talked about and we were all sent a letter stating 'possible redundancies' a week before christmas. Worst case I lose my job. Best case I stay as I am. I'll even settle for an in between reduction in hours if I have to. It's the not knowing thats kinda bugging me!!! Watch this space I guess!

LauraJo

Great, thanks for the advice LauraJo, will give them a ring.
WOW well done!!!! Your target is so close!!!! If you don't mind me asking, how have you done it? Have you been a hermit for a few years or have you managed all of this and been able to have a life too?

Cheers! Its been a real combination of work and a lot of luck. I had a massive mortgage on a really high interest rate, we saved the best part of a grand a month when the rates went down. Since we were used to being skint we thought we would carry on and put that in the mortgage. I then negotiated a 10% payrise at work and that went it. We got a lodger & changed energy bills. I get a bonus most years that pays for a holiday but that now goes in. I had some shares at work that did really well so they are all going in. Extra work when we can, no presents really and scrimping here and there!! Its amazing how much money we used to waste!

I'm lucky because all this means the end is in sight and then I can start to party again (all because people said I couldn't do it!!!)

HeadAboveWater

Great to hear your story LauraJo! Nothing is impossible when you put your mind to it, huh?!