The march to financial freedom

Ali-OK

Hi all,

Here I am again after getting debt free through the wonderful inspiration of MSE and many posters back in 2007, but life has thrown too many curved balls and I'm back. I hope you'll have me

I still do lots of DFW things and I'll add those as I go along, importantly I've kept up my spreadsheets of budgets and spends, shopping around and sure I'm now OCD with it. :rotfl: Online bank account checks when I fall out of bed, a 'x' against my spreadsheet when a DD goes out...sure you get the picture.

So, here's where I am at:

Left work back in 2009, health/stress issues and single parenting pressures all took its toll holding down a senior job. Started up my own business which has been going reasonably well for over 3 years now, but income fluctuates.

Here's what I'm tackling:

CC 1 - £1470 - 0% until March 14. On target to pay off by March
CC 2 - £6250 - 0% until July 14.
Loan - £6527.67 - 0% til April 14, then either use MBNA CC bank transfer (4% fee to 0% CC) or bank loan for the remaining £5800. This is for my car (long story for another post).

Total £14,246.67.

There's an urgency too. I moved my mortgage to interest only when I left work as £9 a quarter Income Support didn't really stretch very far :rotfl: and that sits at £133,444 with 14 years left. I want to get big overpayments onto that as soon as possible.

So I'm marching onwards and upwards and hope to pick up lots of hints and tips as the little money earners and savers are what are going to make the big difference I think.

First DFW thing that I'd not done before is even though I've got energy saving lightbulbs in our lounge, there are 2 lights each with 3 bulbs. So I took one out of each.

Then I had a lightbulb moment and switched the lights off and had candles on for the evening - genius - temperature on our smart meter went up 2C and usage went down.

I should say I also have a just-turned teenage son as well. I told him girls love candles - got a grunt response. I'll turn him into a romantic one day

Will write again soon with some of the little things I'm doing and will be avidly reading others diaries and the boards to keep motivated and inspired. I need to write down what I achieve or I slip away from doing the small things and that's not good!

Please pop in and say hi
Ali x

mooomin

Hello

I'm a former-DFW who has returned to the fold to be kept on the straight and narrow too I'll be tuning in to your updates with interest.

Ali-OK

Hi moomin :wave:

Thanks for posting and great to know I'm not the only returner to the fold! I shall pop onto your diary too.

Today has been a good work day so not much free time at all. DS travels by school transport so I walk to meet him (he has some SEN). It's near a shop so my purse stays at home.

Tonight I am taking a rare trip to Sainsburys to get the Xmas turkey for the chest freezer. I have £47 in points and I think they are £32 for the big size (it will be feeding 19). I'm not sure how I've accrued that many points, as my weekly shop is in Aldi. I do go to SB for Basics teabags and tomato sauce though... we must get through alot of that then! :rotfl:

I'm in the midst of a declutter/clothes sort through. I decided to take them to the clothes4cash place we have up the road at 60p per kilo. Came away last Friday with £9.78 that I rounded up to £10 and paid off CC1 on Saturday. I've got 2 more bags (@ 10kgs) ready to go and yet to finish my wardrobe, shoes and DS's clothes.

Have kept the heating off again today, bar first thing this morning and one of the dogs (we have 2) thinks it's a cat, so he will keep me warm curled up on my lap tonight. At 25kg and medium sized I am pinned to the chair so no putting the kettle on every 5 mins and using unnecessary electric

Usual checks made on bank account and everything is fine there. It does contain an emergency fund of sorts, just in case I have a bad work month and need to draw on that to pay bills. I have an overdraft facility but haven't used that since ooh about 2002.

Haven't sorted out tea yet and I do need to get back to meal planning. Job for this week.

I also joined Nectar Adpoints this week after an invitation email landed - 300 point bonus plus racked up the maximum 250 between paperwork and phone calls on Friday. Must check for new ads today.

Hope everyone else is having a good day.

Ali-OK

Almost forgot that I also put aside change and bank as I go along and then pay off CC1 by a bank transfer.

Last Friday, I finally got to £10 in 20ps and somehow £10 in 50ps so I banked that on Friday and £20 was transferred off CC1 today.

It's included in my opening post so nothing extra to come off the balance sadly.

I was given a bottle of wine and nice box of choccies by a customer last week, would it be bad form to recycle into the Christmas present box?

mooomin

Ali-OK wrote: »

I was given a bottle of wine and nice box of choccies by a customer last week, would it be bad form to recycle into the Christmas present box?

Absolutely not I rarely drink in the house so any wine I get as work rewards goes directly to other people for birthdays/Christmas. Your customer has saved you money

Also, thanks for the reminder about Adpoints, I need to start using that again!

Ali-OK

That's 2 more presents in the box then, I shall not feel bad about it!

XL Turkey now in the freezer to feed the 19, also picked up a specific Xmas pudding as my mum can't have one with nuts (that's for Xmas Day though when I cook for only 4 of us).

Two more boxes of Basics teabags and 2 tomato sauce - total spend 54p cash, £30 in Nectar points, £2 off voucher and 100 points voucher added for the Xmas Pud purchase.

Not quite a NSD. Should have one of those tomorrow.

The next big moneysaver - to stop smoking. I've given up before and I shall do it again. I finally bought an E-cig kit on Saturday and started on it today. It's pretty good, though quite technical for me with batteries, atomisers, cartridges and buds. I do like simple!

Using candle light again tonight - it's lovely.

Chicken curry taken out of the freezer - one from a batch cook, so we'll have that tomorrow night with rice and Naan bread.

AdPoints clocked up today - 117.

Emmala

Good luck!! I like your comment about the lights.....last year, before DH lost his job and we could afford it, we replaced the lights in our dining room. The centre light went from a five arm to a three arm, and the three side lights went from doubles to singles. All helps. This winter, DH has no job and things are very different but I'm looking on ebay for a coffee table for our living room so we can have a load of candles on it, but also use it for playing board games with the children and stay in one room more.

Emmala

BTW, if ever you want it, I have a FAB recipe for xmas pud.....no nuts!!! Takes a while to cook, but it's the best pud I've ever had, and you have the advantage of being able to adjust the recipe to suit your taste.....I don't like figs, for example, so I don't put them in! (I do like the brandy though.......but you could leave this out......I couldn't.....but you could!!!)

Ali-OK

Hi MM

How funny we cross posted on each others diaries!

Absolutely agree on the lights - the bulbs started out at 60w each, moved onto 30% energy saving ones at 26w each I think - now to none at all! There must have been a time when it seemed like a good idea to have fancy lights instead of a single flex and shade!

Luckily I have an electrician friend who is coming over next week to remove my 5 x 50w halogen mega-burning dining room light for a flex and rose. I'll be putting up an old lampshade that has sat in the garage for some years - it never sold at any of the car boots I've done. But I still quite like it. Does that say something about my taste

A great idea to get a coffee table - or I see lots of the Ikea Malm Ottoman/storage boxes on eBay, that'd make a great coffee table plus with the sliding top, good storage for board games and magazines.

Would love the Xmas pud recipe - yes please! My Mum can't have nuts, alcohol and alot of other stuff, so I like the idea of being able to make quite a basic one and put in the few things she can have. And maybe a different one with yummy things (and alcohol) in for me!

ragstoricheswannabe

My hubby whinges if I buy candles, gonna show him this thread and he may just change his mind

Good luck on your debt busting!

Emmala

ragstoricheswannabe wrote: »

My hubby whinges if I buy candles, gonna show him this thread and he may just change his mind

Good luck on your debt busting!

My husband always gets 'ideas' when I light candles........:eek: I have to point out that it's too cold for all that if the heating's not on!! :rotfl::rotfl: