Over the Rainbow and Happy Ever After

beanielou

Bah is all.

LittleMissKitty

Hi Castle, you're living my dream! We plan to move to Ireland and build our own property once our debt is cleared! I shall be following this with interest and wish you all the luck in the world! Kitty x

castlelough

Hi LittleMissKaty!

Thanks for visiting!
Best of luck with your debt-busting and your plans!
What kind of house are you planning to build?
The best advice I can give you at this stage is to plan, plan, plan!

Find out exactly what kind of a house you want to build/live in - Pinterest is absolutely fab for this! I just joined it recently and I have made a board for every room/area in the house, garden etc etc.

Myself and DH weren't even engaged when we went to visit our engineer (I would recommend an architect over an engineer - our house lacks any form of originality and doesn't make use of the views from particular sides of the house.... ) and had genuinely done NO thinking as regards the kind of house we would like to live in. We sat there tussling over basics like how many bedrooms we wanted!!! (He said 3 - I said at least 4 > you get the picture!)

Anyway if I could do it all over again I would build quite a different house, and that is depressing to say as we haven't managed to get a loan to finish this one off yet, never mind go chopping and changing it!!! I tease DH about 'Phase 2' from time to time!!!

So LittleMissKaty....have fun researching everything now! It will distract you from your debt-free journey!!!

LittleMissKitty

Thank you for all the advice! It really is wonderful to hear from someone who's gone/is going through it already.

The initial plan is to move over and rent to get used to whatever area we end up in (it'll depend on where DH can get a job) - if we end up Belfast way I know it fairly well already as I grew up around Downpatrick but if we go South I don't really know my way around. Then it's a toss up between land and buying a derelict as to which kind of house we go for. To be honest we've had our eye on http://www.formerglory.ie/property-castlecurious.html for a while so we're praying he get's a job commutable to Cork!

I've spent faaaaaaaaaaaar too long planning this house.... I'd bore you if I went into detail!

Hope things are going well for you xxx

castlelough

Hi LittleMissKitty!
I clicked on your link there, and wow! But also :eek::eek::eek:! I wouldn't even know where to begin planning a house from those ruins! I bet you would get that property for a LOT less than the asking price. Most property here is selling for less than the asking price, and I imagine that a property like that might sell for the first offer placed on it - even if it was well below the asking price. That property would cost an awful lot to renovate!!! Which would deter most people! Good for you! I would love to hear what you would do with it!

Had a lovely day/night away with the girls on Saturday night. I probably did go a bit over budget, though. On the plus side, I seem to have done well with my Aldi shop. It was supposed to last us up until Thursday (when I get paid :j) but I think we will get a couple of extra dinners out of it . And my petrol budget has lasted better than I had hoped for, so hopefully that has covered the overspend at the weekend!

I've a bit of good news :j:j:j
I'm pregnant! (only just!) And we are thrilled!
I miscarried last summer and again at Christmas, so I am really hoping for the very best with this pregnancy. Please God, it will be a healthy one.
Financially, it would work out well too. Baby would be due in January, which means I can continue with my plan to clear the credit card and small loan and save towards the deposit. We will hopefully secure the mortgage by November and then it will be full throttle ahead with Operation Finish House and Operation Baby!
All going well, that is - fingers crossed!
It certainly is a good motivation for staying on track with the financial and debt-free plans though!
I am so much more relaxed in myself this time around, due to having so much less debt owing. It definitely makes a difference to me.

Looking forward to payday and chipping a bit more off the debts! Goodnight everyone!

beanielou

Great news for you :j

Newyorkdreams

Many congratulations to you Castlelough!!! I am thrilled for you. I hope and pray that all will be ok.

Love NYD xxx

castlelough

Well happy June everyone! :j

The sun has just peeped out from behind the clouds, and hopefully it will be a nice day. We've had woeful weather here for months and months. Please, please let summer be here [STRIKE]or at least Spring[/STRIKE]!

I haven't updated for a while, which is great, because payday is just around the corner again (I get paid fortnightly) and it feels like I am making progress!

I transferred a little of my credit union savings across to my Credit Card and put a bit more with it on the last payday so my balance has reduced by €350 more.

Another €100 cheque posted off to the photographer too. I can't wait for this debt to be clear, as it will free up another €200 per month.

Now it is time to sit down and decide which photos to put into our wedding album! We have a day off work on Tuesday (it is a bank holiday weekend here) so I'm going to distract myself with that project on Tuesday. Wednesday is my first scan for this pregnancy @ 7 weeks, and I've been doing my best not to worry about it, but it is HARD!

Hope everyone is going well with their debtfree journeys!
xxx Castle

castlelough

Well it has been an eventful week!

Unfortunately I have miscarried again, my third miscarriage in a row - August 2012, Dec 2012 and now June 2013. It hasn't been an easy week, and I've been in and out of hospital since Wednesday. I'm very grateful to have a job where I get paid when I'm sick, so I'm just trying to count my blessings.

I'm back into hospital again tomorrow to meet a specialist, as now that I have had three I am eligible for various testing etc to try to find some reasons for my miscarrying. I'm delighted to be seeing somebody so soon, although tomorrow is just a chat, and I'll find out when she will see me to start consultations. I'm going to get whatever help I can on the public system, for free, but this is important and I'm 34 so I am prepared to spend money to see whoever is the very best out there and whoever can help me. I want a family so much.....

On a brighter note the weather has been just fabulous. DH and I went to the beach today with another couple - this is a first for us!!! We lived in Australia for two and a half years and I never managed to get him to the beach! It was such a lovely drive there and afterwards we went for dinner and stopped for icecream - not very MSE: really we should have had a little picnic with us, or a portable bbq like so many other people we saw at the beach today!

Right! Down to the financial update!
DH gave me a lovely surprise when he bumped up the cheque for the wedding photographer from my €100 contribution to the full amount of €300 that is outstanding! I'm so happy about this, as it frees up €200 extra in my budgets for the coming month! (I might just invest in a portable bbq and some new shoes for an upcoming wedding and have my highlights done - I really need some pampering!)

So that means that another debt has been cleared!
And I paid €400 off my credit card to bring it down to €1025!!!!!!
This is amazing for me! I'm almost at the end of that long, dark tunnel that I have been crawling through for almost a year!!!

Today I was just wondering what on earth I used to do with my money before I began to slash it off the credit card debt!!!!

One other lovely development for me! A friend has asked me if I'd like to ride out a horse with her for the summer, as a favour to the owner. I'm so excited to be getting back in the saddle on a regular basis again! Starting tomorrow evening! I just can't afford to pay to go riding at the moment, so even though it will most likely be fairly quiet - walking and trotting, on lovely quiet country roads - I just can't wait!!!!
Going to dig out my riding gear now!
Hope everyone is going well on their debtfree journeys!
Lots of love,
Castle

beanielou

Sorry to hear our news.
I hope that they can get to the bottom of it & you can move forward.