What a difference a year makes...

newleaf

Good luck Lydia and Snaggles! If we had children we could never have come so far so fast, but we are old gimmers and well beyond reproducing now

southern_chick

well done newleaf what an amazing achievment. :T :T :T

this time last year i always dreaded getting my bank statement and was nearly always still overdrawn on payday, if by any miracle I was in credit on payday it would have only been by about £2, i had a loan that never seemed to go down, i think i was paying about £30 a month and about £20 - £25 a month of that was interest paymnet, i hate to think what the APR was, i was never brave enouigh to find out.

now a year later (and after finding this site) i am always in credit by about £150 the day before pay day, my store card and loan are paid off, i am paying an extra £100 a month off my mortgage and i've got savings of over £1000. omg reading that back i must have been really !!!!!! with money before i found MSE!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

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Snaggles

Lydia.42 wrote: »

Congrats Newleaf!!!!!

I second Snaggles. OH and i decided to have a baby, due this Friday!!! :eek: Gulp!

Snap - ours is due on Friday too!!! :T

Lydia.42

Wow - good luck Snaggles. Is it your first? I am terrified. And i thought having massive debts were bad at keeping me awake at night!!! :rotfl:

NL - the sensible part of me (before the pregnancy hormones fryed it) said we should wait until we had cleared our debts before trying for a baby, but at the time i couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel with such a massive debt, and figured that you can never afford to have children, you just find a way of coping.

To be honest, it's one of the best decisions we made as it has made us really focus on clearing as much debt defore bump arrives as possible.

Snaggles

It's my second Lydia.....I'm feeling 'the fear' a bit, but I always think worrying about something is far more scary than actually doing it, and I know I'll get through it one way or another. If you need anyone to chat to over the next few days though, I'll be online most of the time probably lol!

planbetter

Have found this thread quite an inspiration - how great to turn things round in a year. Congrats on the babies - how exciting. I started looking after my grandson regularly about nine months ago and went totally mad buying clothes (was obsessed by keeping him warm) but as I have got used to him being around all my effort is put into playing with him and we're both enjoying each other's company more. (he's the only person who still doesn't tell me to shut up when I start singing! - mind you he can't talk yet)

Lydia.42

Thanks Snaggles, i may take you up on the offer.

I am a real fidget and left going on maternity leave until the last minute, to keep myself busy and mind off things.

Having cleaned the house from top to bottom and freaked my OH out :rotfl: , i am now sorting final bits of paperwork like postponing my student loan, etc, and climbing the walls!!!! Deep breaths, calm thoughts.....

Snaggles

Lol, I've cleaned the windows, scrubbed the kitchen floor, redecorated the bedroom...... and I thought all that stuff was just a cliche! Good luck, hope yours is on time, nothing worse than waiting for something to happen!

Lydia.42

You too. Will keep my fingers crossed for you.
Take care during all the cleaning, and remember to put your feet up for a bit, whilst you decide on the next thing to polish/clean :rotfl:

chocaholic110

First things first, well done newleaf, brilliant going!

Secondly, this time last year I hadn't even had my proper lightbulb moment. Looking back in my "monthly money book" we owed £27,735 and were reducing it by £300-£400 a month. Goodness knows when the DFD would have been but not anytime I could forsee. We were stuck in our tiny house with no hope of ever being able to upgrade.

Fast forward to today, we had our lightbulb moment in August and currently owe about £8500 and are reducing the debt by around £1400 a month, hoping to be debt free by December 2007. Our house is up for sale and after we are debt free, even with a larger mortgage we should still be a lot better off and able to save some money. Over that time I have discovered Quidco, Pigsback, mystery shopping, ebay etc and lost the urge to spend. Cliched as it sounds, I feel like I am a completely different person to the one I was a year ago.

Oh, and been trying my best to copy snaggles for the past year, but that part of life isn't working out, ho hum!