oh my life...... Light Bulb moment.

ScarlettMcCain

MiMi, what awful news about your fridge!! I haven't posted on here before but just wanted to send a hug. I hope you manage to find a cheap alternative soon - have you tried searching Facebook? I've joined lots of cheap/ free groups in my local area that way and have got a few useful bits!

Sellurgranny

Sorry to hear about your fridge packing up Mimi, as Rubyslippers mentioned, why not have a look around for something 2nd hand? have you tried freecycle? You might get lucky.

Hope you get something sorted (cheaply) as soon as possible. It couldnt happen at a worse time could it. x:mad:

MiMi66

Well one fridge located! But not being delivered til Tuesday - just so bizarre that I should be fridgeless for a week in this weather - have to grin and bear it though. I've had no luck locating a second hand one of the right size, so have gone for a new one - mid range price, but most importantly - it fits! Gorenje brand, which I have never heard of but trying to find a larder fridge that is 145cm tall has been tricky. Thanks for the kind messages about it - I have to admit to having just gone into a denial mode about the cost - at least it isn't as expensive as I first thought.

So the weather is gorgeous - kids off doing lovely things with mates, and I am home alone.....hmmmm....sat outside for a bit - really relaxing, might wander into town now - house needs attention but it is too nice to focus on that. It's times like this I miss having a partner to knock aobut with but there you go - not meant to be I guess. I separated and divorced for 10 years, bit of dating in the first 5 years, but nothing since then - now feel that I am a bit of a disaster are due to finances and to my slightly (a lot) dishevelled home keeping skills - am a clutter junkie - really need to tackle that. Enough of that or else I shall dip into the doldrums and not be able to crawl out again.

Financilly what a disasterous month....pay day in 2 weeks time and now face with usign CC to get through - am determined next month willbe different - Debt should be down to £20 350, and the month after that I shll try for the magic under £20000! I live to get to that point!!!:-)

Missmarple

Hi MiMi66.
I just picked up what you were saying about clutter.
I got this book and it has been amazing my house is organised at last. I know you really should not be spending right now but if you invested in it all that clutter can go on ebay and you will most certainly be quids in.
Read it and you will be inspired.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003WQAP04/ref=oh_d__o00_details_o00__i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Sorry that is the kindle edition, but I am sure there is a hard copy.

julie2710

MiMi66 I've just read your last post and there are even more similarities. I decided a little while ago to start decluttering. I sorted some of my clothes and put them in a black sack to take to the charity shop. It's been sat in the hall for over a month and the other day I went through it and rescued two dresses which are back in the wardrobe and about 3 items which I thought I could eBay. Haven't got round to ebaying them yet and the sack is still in the hall

Then I sorted out some other bits and bobs. Did eBay some stuff and got good prices for things but the stuff I didn't get round to ebaying yet is still sat under my dining room table. I still have DS2s pushchair which I really must sell. It's been "stored" in the conservatory since he was 2 and a half. Likewise the travel cot has been "stored" under my bed since he was 2:eek:

On top of that I'd forgotten about my home insurance this month and had to put it on my cc too

Oh and as far as ever finding a suitable man goes I think I'll still be looking when I join the Darby & Jones club at this rate

MiMi66

Thanks Miss Marple, I shall look at that. I have a kindle so it might be cheaper that way too? I do really like the idea of streamlining my life:-) especially would like to stream line my finances!! And Julie, we are sympatico aren't we!! I am always reacuing things back thinking I might fit into it it wear it or make it into a cushion (the last time I made a cushion I was at High school! So hardly likely:-)
Ouch about home insurance, disappointing to be hit with something isn't it. I'm direct debit monthly payment super woman. Everything is paid that way, then it's just those insignificant items to sustain is.... Food.


The new fridge is due tomorrow - bang goes half my savings. And a friend who offered to build me a bike has come forward today - lovely old vintage frame on eBay - arghhhh. I have wanted a vintage bike done up for many many years - bang goes the other half of savings. Hello baked beans. If it wasn't so grim it would be hilarious. How many people out there are living pay day to pay day I wonder? And not even making it to payday??? I am a squeezed middle person, no benefits, no child tax credit and now the lovely government is going to give MARRIED people a tax break????? Why????? They have two incomes coming into a house - they are hardly the ones who need the tax break.


Facing the summer holidays without a cash kitty for fun is grim. I will have food and petrol money plus about £300. Need cheap options or even better free ones for those long weeks. Sadly my son is haemorrhaging money as do many mid teens. Going to get him working I think. Paper round here he comes.


Obviously a stressed money night ... Look at the time I am writing this. Even had those grim dark thoughts a bit tonight, but shoving it away. Reassuring myself that even if I lose the house, get nasty red letters (never had one of those) or can't see the wood for the trees, people do not starve in England! Yay!!


Gosh better sleep before I go really off piste.
Hope everyone reading is fairing ok.

lesley_rod

Hi MiMi66,

Been reading your thread with interest and hope it's ok if I offer some advice - another single mum here, youngest now 16 which means I've been on my own for 16 years :eek: I get the dating challenges too!
My debt at worst was just under £35k, should go under the £5k mark this month! Taken 7 years and yes it could have been quicker but I didn't want my kids to remember their childhood as just Mum saying no.

Budget budget budget - I have a monthly budget plus I save for ALL the essential costs every month. eg my son has a clothes/shoes budget, if he wants something he asks if there is money in the budget! If it's not in the budget it doesn't happen!

This was HARD at first as it meant my overall debt had to rise for a couple of months BUT once done I was in control!

Once you have control you can stop feeling guilty!

Since then I have 3 rules:
1. Debt can't increase
2. If it's not in the budget....
3. You only get one life

Honestly once I got control most of the dark clouds lifted, yes they came back occasionally but nothing like those first few months. After a few years we went back to overseas holidays (budgeted for of course). Other will disagree with me, as is their right, but I was in for the long haul. I made the financial mistakes not my kids.

Life throws curve balls - my daughter went off to Uni then came home sick 6 months later, 18 months it took to get her well and it wasn't cheap BUT she's well again and back being self sufficient :T - meant debt hardly went down for 2 years but it didn't rise either.

Things do get much easier and I've found ways to get what I want without borrowing from anyone, for example I funded a week's holiday for 4 to the Canary Islands to celebrate my daughter's 21st by borrowing from my budget!

Have you listened to the US guy, Dave Ramsey? I don't agree with his politics or religion BUT his underlying message is very motivational. You can download his podcasts, free of course, from iTunes.

You can do this!
Good luck
Lesley

MiMi66

Thanks Lesley-rod ... that is very inspiring. How youo managed to repay £30 000 in 7 years....wow....I am struggling to pay back £2K a year. I am tryign to do the budgeting tasks - very hard when there is not enough money to give a reasonable budget to all things - clothes and shoes are the hardest to fund....

I have now got the new fridge...and realise how dire my old one was befroe it stopped altogether - while it was a pain to have to replace, I did pay for it with cash, and the old one was taken away. The new one is lovely, so I am on the way to forgiving the cost outlay....

I've had a letter from the Child bennefit agency - my daughter child benefit is stopping this month - Bye bye another £52. That plus having to pay a excess on car insurance after someone ran into me in a car park - fortunately with the lease car throough work I have been able to negotiate paying £25 a month for 6 months.

House insurance has gone up £5 a month.

Rude words.......

And my garage is falling down - had a friend pop ove rot tell me if it is terminal or repairable today - he says it is terminal.... demolition costs and purchasing a large shed (can't afford a rebuild at all) are the next thing to save up for. That plus a bike that a friend is restoring for me to save on some travel costs and to have a hobby that is relatively cost free and get fit! My two projects for the coming year.

However -kids need clothes and shoes, I need new glasses (everything a bit blurry when reading now), and general wear and tear on the house - gosh it is never ending isn't.

Can't help but wish for a knight in shining armour to come along with romanace, a tool box and a desire to rescue me:-) Wonder what my chances of that are hey.....

I've advertised a trampoline on Gumtree and my son's too small bike - I can add that to the kitty for one or other of the most pressing needs - kids bits really. I think I shall tackle looking at odds and ends to sell - clothes etc - I am off work this week so have some time.

My Mum's birthday tomorrow - so I have to head into town - present time.... gosh I feel bad that I can't spend what I would like to on her....

I do wonder if selling my home is the answer and renting. At the moment I am more use to my children in a box in the ground - great pension death benefits for the kids (black humour to a great extent - so don't panic reading this please), but really - isn't that grim - worth more dead than alive. :A

I've paid this months immediate payments to CC's - others are on DD through the month - but I am back down near touching to £20000 again - next month should be the one!!

sistafromanothermista

Hey Mimi i've found you again and have now subscribed

You are doing so well, don't be despondent. You will get there in the end (look at me! and still struggling) about the fridge but needs must eh?
I too have 2 teenagers and they are always wanting something....new trainers.....money for cinema....gym.,.... you name it.
I'm thinking of pimping one out tbh (that was a joke don't call social services.....)

We'll get there in the end, we're in it for the long haul that's all

MiMi66

Ah thanks Sista! Nice to be found again!
Am just blue with an enormous wish list and no money....I tired to get another 0% CC this month to shift one of the ones comuing to end on to - got refused.... So have had to move it to Nationswide at 7.9% - grim about this as every bit of interest means less paid off the overall amount.

So wish I could add it to the mortgage but the bank said no earlier this year and I am too scared to ask again for fear of too many black marks on my credit rating (not that it is worth anything.....) My credit rating was green and high, but over this year I have been refused a loan, a mortgage increase and two credit cards, all attempts to manage the debt in a different way - so I am sure my credit rating must be a bit battered now. Still never defaulted or not paid anything.... small amount of pride left.

However my son, is desperate for some new clothes so I have said we can go for a shop later this week - new trousers and a shirt or two to tide him over to his birthday. I have squirreled away £40 so hopefully that will cover it. Crap bloody life being the squeezed middle.

But yes - long haul it is - I am heading in the right direction - £1300 paid back since light bulb moment - and about £2300 since worst debt - I can see it is going to take 7 years or so though - I'll be 55 by then - hopefully be able to have a bit of fun then - without getting into debt!!