Debt free in 10 years, this time I mean business!

Merlot1975

Desperate_to_be_debt_free wrote: »

Hi Merlot1975, have loved reading your diary and hope to see more updates. Like you I also have massive debt to clear but don't seem to be getting very far. I have managed to agree £1 monthly repayments to all my creditors and so far have managed to keep the arrangement. I know it's a struggle and I feel your pain. Keep posting and good luck x

Thank you for your comments so much, it really helps coming on here and finding that other people completely understand what it feels like to be in this situation. Keep your chin up, we will both get there in the end. I'm glad you have an arrangement in place and are managing to keep to it, that's something I'm trying to work on at the moment (ie actually agreeing the arrangement, then the hard part will be making sure I stick to it). Good luck to you too and I hope you pop on to this diary again x

Merlot1975

Well my no-spend outdoor activities in the park had to be postponed yesterday as I finally got around to getting the adorable child to try out the new outfit purchased for the family do and it didn't fit! So after 3 calls to marks & sparks to discuss how to do this, we ended up just going into one of the shops, trying on loads of different sizes and eventually settled on one that fitted perfectly and which was the same price as the original, so they did a straight swap for us which was great as there was loads of ominous talk from the online team about online discounts not being valid instore and having to pay the difference etc etc. It all worked out in the end and the adorable child does indeed look adorable in the outfit

Afterwards we spent time with my family who stay not that far away from us but far enough to have to watch how often we go due to petrol costs etc. It was lovely to catch up and my lovely mum cooked for us which was great.

I also nipped into sainsbugs and picked up a £10 bottle of wine which was on sale for £4.99 and paid for it plus a bottle of juice with Nectar points (I have loads and will get 500 credited this week for the adpoints stuff). I must say I greatly enjoyed my tenner bottle of wine which was free, and I still have some left for a wee glass each with dinner tonight :beer:

So my lovely OH and the adorable child are off out having fun in the sun and I am stuck in here as I stupidly forgot about clothes I needed to get washed and dried for the child and put the tumble drier on to dry them (I hardly ever use it except for towels and sheets). I put it on, then suddenly the sun came out, glorious sunshine splitting the skies so the decision was made to go out. But I won't leave the tumble drier on while we're out and if I stop it mid-cycle, it starts back at the beginning when you re-start it, grrrr. So I was sensible and stayed in with it, and I will catch up with them as soon as it's done :sad:

Other than that, not much happening, but I am very happy to have survived the weekend (nearly) without spending. Feels good to have had a good time without having to lay out money to do so

Desperate_to_be_debt_free

Congratulations on the cheap weekend. I've not been so lucky. Took my grand-daughter to a 1st birthday party yesterday and bought a couple of cans of pop whilst I was there and went out with OH today and paid £4 entry into a country fayre. A whole weekend for less than £10.

Hope you enjoy the bank holiday tomorrow and manage a cheap if not free day.

Merlot1975

A whole weekend for under £10 is great

Here's hoping the weather stays nice for the bank holiday. I keep forgetting we are off, actually thinking on it, I could have abandoned all the washing etc till tomorrow since I have an extra day in the house Ah well, tis done now and out of the way.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend and the holiday.

shinner

Well done you wine always tastes better free lol.
Going to subscribe

Merlot1975

Thanks shinner, and yes, free wine is always the best wine :beer:

Merlot1975

Today is going to be an extremely quiet bank holiday Monday for us. I have already completed my adpoints for the week so I am feeling good about that, and I checked and my 500 points were credited to my account this morning so I'm chuffed with that.

We have absolutely no money until the end of the week but the house does have food in it, so I am going to do some batch cooking today. I love cooking and cook almost everything from scratch (well, I'm only human and the lure of the Chinese takeaway does get too much for me at times ).

I've also been mulling over our situation and thinking about how we got here. I know how I got into debt in the first place but since my original LBM things have gotten worse. I've thought about it and realised that every time things have gone wrong, it hasn't been because we have rashly decided we wanted a holiday or a night out or new clothes, but because expenses have cropped up that we had no savings to cover. Such as in the past month, £60 for a new tyre, £300 extra than expected earlier in the year for the MOT, etc etc. I've read a lot about whether people with debt should have savings or whether it should all be thrown at the debt. I can see both sides but have decided I need to start using one of my empty savings accounts for an emergency fund. It will take an agonisingly long time to build up since it will be pennies going into it at a time but everyone has to start somewhere. To that end, I logged on to my internet banking having decided to move the pennies left in my account to my savings account. Unfortunately the minimum transfer amount is a pound! So my first transfer will have to wait until Friday. Even if there is hardly anything in it, I will feel a little better about moving over small amounts, one day it will have mounted up to something which can be used in genuine emergency situations, I hope

Desperate_to_be_debt_free

Fabulous idea Merlot1975. I don't have any savings and like you when I have an emergency it's a real emergency because I can never afford to sort it out. Thank god for mum.....

Merlot1975

Thanks desperate. My mum is also a godsend at times but when it's a really big amount I can't ask as I know she doesn't have that, so my little fund will hopefully be there in future for us

Merlot1975

It's a quiet day on the MSE front today. I am going to do some surveys and the credit card has phoned me twice already, for what purpose I am not sure. They want me to increase the amount agreed, I want to stick to our agreement and review it in January. Ho hum.

On the plus side, I made my OH very happy this morning by pre-ordering him some daft xBox game he wants that is out next month. I paid for it with vouchers from surveys. It doesn't affect my plan for £200 in vouchers saved for Christmas as I had budgeted for the game - he's been dropping not so subtle hints about it for what feels like a year or so lol. I can't really grumble about the xBox, it makes him very happy, he always buys second hand games and trades old ones in and we got the xBox itself for £8 (a pre-owned one that we traded in years' worth of loyalty points against). That was one of my finest MSE moments to get that for £8, I was extremely proud that day

I have a spreadsheet for my debts (it's been in place for years now) and all my monthly outgoings but in July I started one tracking all my vouchers and freebies. Since the start of July we've had £195 worth of vouchers. I've bought Christmas presents already with it, several birthday presents, food shopping, the outfit for the adorable child and treats for both of us. When I need perked up a bit I have a wee look at it and my plans for Christmas, makes me feel more positive. I had a look this morning after buying the daft game and felt a lot happier - my debts are going down (albeit painstakingly slowly) and I've managed to get us a few wee treats without spending any dosh, there's something to be happy about in amongst all the creditor emails/calls/letters

Another NSD for me today, woo! (tho it is thro necessity lol).