StressedStephs Fight against debt..Again!

Fae

Hi Steph,

Good to see you back on here, I've just caught up on your posts so far, and its great to hear you sounding so much more postive.
I fell of the DFW wagon too, so you're not the only one, so please don't beat yourself up about it. You will get there.

Hope the craft fair went well for you of to subscribe now so I can keep up with how you are getting on.

Fae

out_of_debt_at_last

Hi Steph, Good luck with the stall, will keep all my fingers and toes crossed for you, I used to make felt items to sell, and sold them in a shop I worked in, I never admitted to the customers they were mine in case they said something mean, I just told people they were made locally by a craftswomen lol! so I get your anxiety about displaying your items.

StressedSteph

Fae wrote: »

Hi Steph,

Good to see you back on here, I've just caught up on your posts so far, and its great to hear you sounding so much more postive.
I fell of the DFW wagon too, so you're not the only one, so please don't beat yourself up about it. You will get there.

Hope the craft fair went well for you of to subscribe now so I can keep up with how you are getting on.

Fae

Hi Fae,

I'm sorry you fell of the DFW wagon as well, but its quite nice to hear I am not the only one that has struggled with willpower

Thanks for subscribing xx

out_of_debt_at_last wrote: »

Hi Steph, Good luck with the stall, will keep all my fingers and toes crossed for you, I used to make felt items to sell, and sold them in a shop I worked in, I never admitted to the customers they were mine in case they said something mean, I just told people they were made locally by a craftswomen lol! so I get your anxiety about displaying your items.

Hi Out of debt at last,

Funny to hear you not telling people the crafts were yours. I definitely feel quite exposed standing behind my table of handmade items.

Did pretty well yesterday, Made £60 in two hours and also had orders worth £30.

This craft business is helping in two ways really. It is helping make some money towards our household and also giving me a much needed boost. I have spent 90% of 2013 on and off meds for anxiety and although I find the craft fairs quite nerve wracking, it is a fantastic feeling hearing people say nice things and then spending their own hard earned money on my items.
Its good for the soul. .

Have been sewing all day again. Got orders to catch up with and also got another small craft fair next Saturday that I need more stock for.

Hubby has been a star helping make up a load of fabric pin boards which bumps up my stock very nicely.

Off to do more sewing xxxxxx

Antwerpen

StressedSteph wrote: »

Hi Fae,

I'm sorry you fell of the DFW wagon as well, but its quite nice to hear I am not the only one that has struggled with willpower

Thanks for subscribing xx



Hi Out of debt at last,

Funny to hear you not telling people the crafts were yours. I definitely feel quite exposed standing behind my table of handmade items.

Did pretty well yesterday, Made £60 in two hours and also had orders worth £30.

This craft business is helping in two ways really. It is helping make some money towards our household and also giving me a much needed boost. I have spent 90% of 2013 on and off meds for anxiety and although I find the craft fairs quite nerve wracking, it is a fantastic feeling hearing people say nice things and then spending their own hard earned money on my items.
Its good for the soul. .

Have been sewing all day again. Got orders to catch up with and also got another small craft fair next Saturday that I need more stock for.

Hubby has been a star helping make up a load of fabric pin boards which bumps up my stock very nicely.

Off to do more sewing xxxxxx

Hello Steph . Wow that is an amazing taking from the fair . I don't have Facebook, are you able to link some pics or email me some (i can pm you my email). Would love to see your bits xx

maddiemay

Hi Steph
So pleased that you had a good day yesterday, great sales and more orders is fantastic. Yay for hubby helping out too, that must feel good, a real team effort. Also great that you "felt the fear and did it anyway" - have you read Feel the Fear and do it anyway by Susan Jeffers?, that book did me so much good some years ago, when even getting into the car and being able to go out socially was a real struggle (going to work was OK, funnily enough I could cope with that familiarity and being valued there I suppose).

debtfreewannabe321

Fantastic result from the craft fair am really pleased for you! I liked your FB page and absolutely love your bits! I would love some bunting and have been meaning to make my own for 2 years now can you believe it It looks easy enough but i'm pretty new to the sewing machine so it's still scaring me off doing it

I hope you get many more orders and make lots of money! People are always on the look out for handmade goodies before xmas so I really hope people buy yours A few xmas's ago I also made things to sell and it practically paid for Xmas that year so it can be done (mainly sock monkeys )

StressedSteph

Morning all,

Been to the local fabric wholesaler this morning and scarily spent £89 :eek:. It is all fabric and ribbons that are for items that are either already ordered or a small amount of stock for the craft fairs I have coming up. Should hopefully make that money back easily. .

Hubby decided to bring up the issue of the amount of debt we are in again last night. He wants to see the credit card statements to see where all the money has gone :eek:.
I will have to dig around as most of the cards haven't been spent on for well over a year, They are mostly the totals that they are from only paying the minimum amounts off every month and sky high interest .

He wasn't happy when I told him that I didn't think it was a good idea to take the consolidation loan. I explained about the risk of turning unsecured debt into Secured debt and the higher risk of losing our home if he is out of work for a long time.
Also added on that the debt would be over 12 years and we would end up paying over double the amount of debt we have now because of the crummy interest rate.

He seemed to accept that, but doesn't seem to think we can ever pay it off. I think he feels that we have a tight enough budget already and we are struggling so how on earth will we ever pay off 18k . Did'nt know what to say to him really .

Have done a Snowball calculator again today and have transferred the calculations into my spreadsheet for the rest of this year and the whole of next.

If I can stick to it by December 2014 we should have paid off 10k and be well on our way to kicking the debt.

I just have to make sure I stop spending on the incidentals as they are what REALLY gets us into trouble.

Going to keep making my crafts and plough any money made from them into paying extra off on the debts.

Going to keep the snowball printout in my purse and cross off each month as it goes. Might help me with my motivation. xx

maddiemay

Hopefully as OH knows the worst about the money situation he will be able to understand the reasoning for the cut backs that you will have to make to reach your goal.

Keeping the snowball thingy with you should help with the spending on odds and ends. My suggestion is meal plans, stock lists, shopping lists for food/animal supplies and lists and schedules for buying everything else like fuel, clothes, if it is not on a list for that day don't buy it (unless it is a very real bargain for something that will be used in the near future). I seem to remember that you do lots of baking and can you gradually increase the amount of veggies and bulking up of meals so that your hollow legged men don't notice that after a while they are getting less meat etc. and more yorkies, dumplings, filling cheap puds?

Have you a plan to get the best advantage of snowballing, I know it helps some people to skew this slightly by paying off some of the smaller balances asap for a moral boost. It seems that many get a kick from every penny saved and paid off once they get going, no amount is too small, it all adds up.

Hang on in there, you have support here and hopefully will build up your craft business by word of mouth, so keep plodding, and like dieting don't give up if you have a slip-up, just start again tomorrow. xx

Chrysalis1976

I absolutely love your bunting especially the xmas tree and gingerbread men, and I think the sock monkeys are so cute.

I've liked your page and am really glad that you're getting loads of orders as they're brilliant.

C x

StressedSteph

maddiemay wrote: »

Hopefully as OH knows the worst about the money situation he will be able to understand the reasoning for the cut backs that you will have to make to reach your goal.

Keeping the snowball thingy with you should help with the spending on odds and ends. My suggestion is meal plans, stock lists, shopping lists for food/animal supplies and lists and schedules for buying everything else like fuel, clothes, if it is not on a list for that day don't buy it (unless it is a very real bargain for something that will be used in the near future). I seem to remember that you do lots of baking and can you gradually increase the amount of veggies and bulking up of meals so that your hollow legged men don't notice that after a while they are getting less meat etc. and more yorkies, dumplings, filling cheap puds?

Have you a plan to get the best advantage of snowballing, I know it helps some people to skew this slightly by paying off some of the smaller balances asap for a moral boost. It seems that many get a kick from every penny saved and paid off once they get going, no amount is too small, it all adds up.

Hang on in there, you have support here and hopefully will build up your craft business by word of mouth, so keep plodding, and like dieting don't give up if you have a slip-up, just start again tomorrow. xx

Hi MaddieMay

I think that OH knowing the level of debt we have will definitely help. I still don't think he is particularly interested in getting involved with the finances but like you said, at least this time he actually knows we have debt and that will help him be careful with the pennies also.

During my last LBM I was still hiding it from my OH and it was very difficult to say no to outings etc when he was pushing us to do it.

As far as snowballing, thankfully my first two debts with the highest interest are also the lowest amounts so will work out well for me.

I seem to be getting an order almost everyday for crafts. I have been asked to make a draught excluder yesterday and a pin board today so if this carries on, I will have a nice steady income coming in, which I will keep throwing at the debts.

This month I have had to use any earning to pay for petrol etc as the bank situation is so dire. January onwards I should be able to start making small extra payments to the debts with my earnings :T

Thanks for all your support xxx

Chrysalis1976 wrote: »

I absolutely love your bunting especially the xmas tree and gingerbread men, and I think the sock monkeys are so cute.

I've liked your page and am really glad that you're getting loads of orders as they're brilliant.

x

Thanks Chrysalis.
Its really nice to hear positive feedback, thank you so much
xxx