6 grand in 6 months - my personal challenge!

cottage_retreatist

thanks Hok3y!!! I definitely do love a challenge and to get stuck into something!!!!!!

but one thing i don't like is forgetting that I agreed to work for a couple extra hours tonight! arrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad::mad::mad:

which means I finished work at 3.00pm (love an early start!) then have to go back to work for 7pm for an hour and a half - why did I agree to do this? Maybe because of the money? I've got to do the same again on Wednesday but it's about another 100 quid for next month's pay packet so I can't really grumble!!!

Blech! It just means that I'm hanging around in no-man's land for the next three hours before I leave the house to return to work.

I'll be home by about 8.45 hopefully so it completely cuts through supper too - looks like it'll be a late supper - if I eat before I go out again I'll just fall asleep!

Well, today was my penultimate spending day of the month and I now have 7 quid left from my allocated spends to go towards food! but i still have quite a few onions and loads of pasta and tinned tomatoes so if i just get some cheese I think we can do some 'preppers suppers' for the rest of the week. OH has a box of Pino grigio so he' sorted! :rotfl:

I'm hoping the DCA come back to me before the end of the month so I can bash my 1 grand target for September - the money to pay them is squirreled away safely in a separate account so no fear of spending it on something rash!!!!

I've never actually wanted a letter from a debt collection agency before!!! But now - come on!!!!!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

cottage_retreatist

OK well the return to work was fine - hardly had to do any work - I was supposed to oversee something but it didn't matter because a man thought he could do it better so I got pushed to the side and they just carried on without me - which makes me pretty p!ssed off to tell the truth!!!! :mad::mad::mad: but seeing as I still get paid and it's Monday night I'm going to let it slide!!!

Which meant I left 20 minute earlier than expected and came home and made our stuffed pepper soup with some soured cream (not home made I'm afraid!). Yum

and we have enough for tomorrow as well - will add a leek to it tomorrow to bulk it up so the portion sizes are large enough. The OH is going to be crying with the amount of tomato-based sauces I have planned for the rest of this week :rotfl::rotfl:

Tomorrow will be a SFD - need to pick up my dry cleaning which I didn't pick up today due to the return to work so have the money in my purse ready to pay and put aside so think that still counts as a SFD?

I'm just a bit down - not necessarily the old SAD but I tried on a pair of trousers and oh wow!!! Did the trousers up and the top half balloooooooooned!!!! Muffin top extravaganza!! :rotfl:

I need an action plan and it may include the cost of a gym membership. Can I justify a minimum of 400 per year on my physique? This will require some serious thought but my weight is my final bridge to conquer:

1. get debt-busting under control - check!! DFD due August 2014
2. get smoking under control - check! e-liquids in the post!!!! - saving minimum 40-60 quid per month
3. get budgeting under control - almost there!!! Need to double check at end of the September Step Up challenge.
4. get belly under control - OH HELL NO!!!!!!!! :eek:

Apologies for the long post!!! Almost as long as my belly is wide :rotfl:

HOK3Y

Could really give you a hug right now because I am in the same place and know how you feel. I used to run half marathon distances, now I would need a wide load warning on my bum! It's not nice and it does get me down.

I do think though that with the darker nights rolling in, it does lead to a bit of the blahs. I bet we're not the only ones feeling it. And I'm the first to day that I love autumn the most. But I've definitely felt a downturn in my disposition lately.

On a brighter note, I've just caught sight of the conductor on this train and he's utterly, utterly gorgeous!!!!! Do I need to buy another ticket???? Lol!

cottage_retreatist

HOK3Y wrote: »

Could really give you a hug right now because I am in the same place and know how you feel. I used to run half marathon distances, now I would need a wide load warning on my bum! It's not nice and it does get me down.

I do think though that with the darker nights rolling in, it does lead to a bit of the blahs. I bet we're not the only ones feeling it. And I'm the first to day that I love autumn the most. But I've definitely felt a downturn in my disposition lately.

On a brighter note, I've just caught sight of the conductor on this train and he's utterly, utterly gorgeous!!!!! Do I need to buy another ticket???? Lol!

hey HOK3Y! thank you! hugs for you too! :grouphug:

Yeah - I do love autumn - a chance to dress in lots of wool, wrap up in fleeces and big socks at home and eat comfort food!!!! but i think I need to start looking after my body as well - did some gyms research (at work!!!) and going to do some more and maybe treat myself with the money I used to spend on fags on a gym membership.

but nice conductors? mmmm, I like the sound of that! I walked home and got to check out some soldiers running circuits - you've got to love a man in uniform! So that perked up my walk home!!! :happyhear

ended up being a spending day today - forgot the milk when I shopped yesterday d'oh! and of course went in for the milk and came out with more!!! Definitely no more shopping the rest of the week - got nothing left anyway!! So fingers crossed for loads of NSDs to come!! :j

and finally got my boots back from the dry cleaners - they did a great job so very happy they're back in business now I just need London to get all rainy so I have an excuse to wear them!

Oh and I was talking a while back about being annoyed about my halifax cc and the 40 quid a month interest well - it may not be much but the statement came today and the interest has already gone down to 38 pounds - I've set up a standing order to now pay off 150 per month instead of 80 so hoping before long the interest will be dropping down like nothing!!! whoop! 1 small step for (wo)man . . . .

hope everyone else is having a good day despite the dark days? x

cottage_retreatist

well - I wanted to write an update but I haven't really got one - it's a NSD! Getting some overtime tonight as well!

But I'm annoyed because I am WAITING- I hate waiting on other people!!!! Just want to pay my debts off right now but no - have to wait til people send me letters or til I get paid!!!!

Monday cannot come quickly enough!

cottage_retreatist

ok - so my plans for the next few months were:

Debts:
- increase minimum payments on credit cards each month - double the payments from 45 to 90 and from 80 to 160 etc. to help tackle some of the stupid interest on them
- repay the small c-cards I had paid off then spent on
-the one we are keeping - pay off but make sure if we do use it for nights out we repay in full at then end of each month to help bolster OH's credit
- focus on PDLoans until January 2014 then start to snowball credit cards - the PDLs are the major defaults on our credit files so best to knock them off first so they're the first to drop off at 6 years! bl**dy PDLoans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So far I have achieved:
- minimum payments have now been increased and as noted in a previous post - I am already seeing the interest drop as the balance reduces! Yay!!! :j

- slowly repaying the small c-cards, one of them gets minimum and the others get between 50-100 each p/m - they all have 400 or 500 limits so should have them all bashed soon! and because they're chopped OH can't re-spend like last time!

- PDLoans - now this is the tricky one and may need to be re-jigged. As you might know we're in communication with one DCA about one of them which should be paid off in the next week! whoop!

OH's wonga loan has listed as 2 defaults on his credit report: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4776372 so although I wanted to do a F&F with them the first step is getting them to sort this out. Any advice please let me know!

and . . . good old motormile finance!!!!! The final PDLoan which is with a DCA - well we sent them the prove it letter so if they don't respond after the fixed time are we correct in thinking they can't chase us for the debt? Once communication takes place via royal mail we will pay this one off! But it may take a few months for this.

So . . . .
this means we may have some money before the end of the year that we can't throw immediately at debts so I am thinking of paying off OH's student loan debt instead and try an F&F with my final credit card i didn't contact since the default in 2012.

I've got to go home and crunch some numbers but could be some scope to knock some things back a bit earlier than expected! Nice! (I think!)

Gosh - is it Friday yet?!!!! gargh!

ps - NSD today! Whoop!!!!!
Made a lovely preppers meal last night - tuna tomato pasta sauce with red peppers, wholewheat pasta and LOTS of cheese!!! mmmm!!

xx

debtfreewannabe321

Hi C-R just popping in to say hi, good news about the debts, it's always good to keep an eye on them and re-jig so you can pay things off quicker I hope it's good news on the F&F's and that you hear soon! It took over a month for some of ours to reply though they really do like to take their time!

cottage_retreatist

Hi DFW321

You are welcome to drop in whenever you like!!! :beer:

well my next F&F goes off on the 1st October (trying to have SFDs til then!!!). And the letter I have drafted for wonga re. the double default for the same account on OH's credit file will also go on the 1st October as well (hold off on their F&F til this is sorted).

I love drafting these types of letters to companies! It's the phrasing of them I like the best!!!! The barely veiled threats written in such delicate professional English that you just can't match when writing standard emails etc!!! :rotfl:

So I now know I'll be getting a little bit more money on Monday due to some overtime which is nice so think i'll do a not-too-excessive online shop - even got 7.50 off via email voucher and my normal clubcard vouchers I can use to drop the cost a bit more. Might try and work from home on collection day as well to get the lowest delivery cost possible!!!

I was feeling really down about it yesterday but after 10 hours sleep last night and a productive day at work I feel ready to get back on it! I even took the money back out of OH's account that he didn't spend at the dentists to make sure we didn't fritter it away on silly spends!!! :rotfl:

Yeah - you know who wears the trouser in our relationship!!!! :cool: :rotfl::rotfl:

he's been taken out for drinks by his (male) boss this evening but somehow he never seems to spend any money when he goes for drinks so I'm happy!!!

Our prepper's meal - It's going to be wholewheat pasta, cheese and a tomato based sauce again tonight - with a cucumber and tomato salad.

Only three more nights til payday! :j

cottage_retreatist

well - today's supper was a bit of a failure! It has led to OH going to bed early because he got miffed with there being no food in the house (my second NSD in a row!!).

I forget sometimes that he's not always a willing participant in our debt-busting battle and he is being dragged through this journey.

May need better planning next month for our spending allowance.
Don't want him to start fighting against our debt busting as that could destroy our DFD aim.

sorry - bit of a downer post this one!

x

HOK3Y

cottage_retreatist wrote: »

well - today's supper was a bit of a failure! It has led to OH going to bed early because he got miffed with there being no food in the house (my second NSD in a row!!).

I forget sometimes that he's not always a willing participant in our debt-busting battle and he is being dragged through this journey.

May need better planning next month for our spending allowance.
Don't want him to start fighting against our debt busting as that could destroy our DFD aim.

sorry - bit of a downer post this one!

x

Not a downer, C-R. I think this is a good post, because it shows you have awareness of the situation not only from your own perspective but from that of your OH. Not everyone can say that and your awareness will allow you to compromise to prevent calamity. You got this!! :T

You have made some extra money and you have plans already to knock out your smaller CCs. I read somewhere that money is never stagnant. It is constantly in motion. If you don't give your money a purpose that works in your favour, it will move away from you. And that is exactly what you are doing! I think you have a fantastic attitude towards your debt and I know you will see the end of it soon. Don't lose belief in yourself to get through it - I'm really impressed at your understanding of your OH and his take on it all. That insight is a gift. X