LHG - the biggest adventure yet

lionheartedgirl

So much for popping back regularly!

Lots of news as ever.... mostly good!

Harp stuff - going really well. I made the decision to try some more wedding fairs this year and while they're not cheap to do, I have got enough work through them to cover the cost. A couple of things have come directly, a few things through FB and a few referrals via other harpists. Gradually things are moving along positively on that front and I feel a lot better about myself as a result.

Running stuff - going well, exhausted at the moment as I'm just coming to the end of the peak of my training for the next big event in a month's time. I have two monster training runs this weekend and then it's a case of rest up and keep things moving until the big race.

Day job stuff - going OK, I got another temp contract as a permanent job I took last August ended up being a total disaster even though it was somewhere I had worked before. I ended up not in a good place in Feb/March as I was doing stacks of overtime there and loads of harp stuff at weekends and not able to run as no time left over. Thankfully I am out of there now and much, much happier.

Home stuff - it's a bit of a mess at the mo but training/harping have meant there has been very little time to do anything else. It will come though, and I spent an afternoon making headway in the front garden yesterday. A couple of hours made a huge difference so I'm sure things will be shipshape again in no time. It's lovely not having any pressure to maintain showhome standards any more, but even I don't like things too messy.

Dog stuff - they are getting old. Still in good health but ageing noticeably. Boy hound is 10 this month, girl hound now 10 1/2. Boy hound's back is going but he is too stubborn to give in just yet. Girl hound is regressing to puppyhood I think, she has no idea how old she is until she has to walk uphill bless her.

Car stuff - old one was at death's door, and with so much more harp work in the diary I needed to make the call. I had enough work in the diary to replace it with something much newer, so borrowed some money on the dreaded 0% for a few months. It will be cleared by September, and I shouldn't need to replace the car for another 5 years. The exact model came up that I had wanted, newer than I thought I could afford but slightly higher mileage, however I don't drive much other than harp stuff so not an issue. Decent reasonably priced estate cars are like hens teeth so I decided to go for it.

Debt stands at just over £35k. £20k of that is harp and harp-car related, i.e. if I decided to sack off the harping I would sell both and clear that amount of debt. I enjoy the harping but am still unsure if it's a forever thing. I am clearing debt at a good rate and should be down to around £15k by the end of the year.

The nicest realisation came a few weeks ago - my birthday in September will be the last one that I spend in debt.

PS other nice thing is that I have a new man :-)

lionheartedgirl

Back again. In a bit of a dip as I did the big run last weekend. It was very long, very hard and very tiring. But I am thrilled I managed to finish. Now follows the inevitable and quite normal downer as life gets back to normal and the adrenaline and excitement of the event has passed.

I have a big musical project coming up (deliberately timed to coincide with the above-mentioned ending!) and am looking forward to seeing where that will take me.

Money is ticking along, just back from a few days away so the next few weeks will be pretty quiet as I get everything caught up and things settle back down. This year's budget has worked pretty well with just a little shuffling around, and I'm on track to have made a huge reduction in my debt by the end of the year.

Other things to focus on now are the state of the house (messy but not beyond help) and the garden (messy and desperately needing help).

My gran has been asking some questions about the state of the debt situation and I've 'fessed up after a long chat with my uncle. She has offered a little bit of money which has been very gratefully accepted. My cushion/savings account has had a bit of a hit lately with a couple of unexpected bills, but at least I had one, not so long ago I had nothing of the sort and would have had to borrow money to cover them. I've decided to keep the money she has given me as part of the cushion account as I now feel very vulnerable without it due to the temp nature of my job.

So still a long way to go, but many positives and I am feeling very optimistic about things overall despite the current state of short-term exhaustion and mehhh-ness :-)

lionheartedgirl

Quick update.... If I net off the savings pot that my gran has contributed to, I have just gone sub £30k which is marvellous. It feels so good. September is a big month for weddings so I'll carve a good chunk out of that soon. I will clear the low-rate-but-still-paying-interest-on credit card in about 6 weeks and this will be BRILLIANT!! I have 2 with no balance on, 2 with balances and I plan to keep one for dire emergencies once everything is clear.

Things are crazy hectic for the next couple of months. Mostly this is good, but I am going to need to get good at micro-breaks I think. It's all self-inflicted, in theory of course I can turn down work but I'm saying yes to the good stuff and hopefully this will be the last few months of needing to cram in the day job as well.

lionheartedgirl

Another quick update... sub £26k!

I'm now down to just one credit card with £15k on at 0%, and one I use each month and clear the balance off in full. I'll keep that as I get John Lewis vouchers with it which are good for presents and emergency pick-me-up treats.

I have three with zero or tiny credit balances on so time to get these tidied up now. I'll keep one for emergencies but the others will be closed.

The BT offer on the £15k card expires in August next year, and if I keep going, I might not need to get another one after that! I had promised myself this year's birthday would be the last one I spent in debt and I really hope I can stick to this.

I can't believe the other card is all clear. I'd had it almost fifteen years I think!

My temp contract at work has just been extended for another 6 months and hopefully after that finishes, I can look for something else that I enjoy much more and doesn't take so much out of me. Hopefully part time but I'll wait and see how the music stuff comes in for next year first.

RosaBernicia

Woop woop well done you! :j :T :j


Rosa xx

EssexHebridean

I've just realised you're still here - my apologies for missing this previously!

You've made SUCH an impact - and bearing in mind everything you've tackled on the way, that's quite something. I'm subscribing (why had I not previously?) so I can't mislay you again!

lionheartedgirl

Morning! Aaaand.... after all that, I wish I had held back a bit! Shortly after paying the card off using some savings to plug the short term gap (so I thought anyway) between some other money coming in and intending to put the money straight back into savings.

And then I had a couple of days off work, and as I'm a contractor I don't get paid if I'm not there. So things are a bit squeaky now. The savings was money from my gran that was meant to be used towards the debt but I felt more secure having it there to fall back on, and I guess in a roundabout way that is what it has done but I suddenly feel quite vulnerable without it being there.

Oh well. A little reminder that things are still a touch precarious and I can't take my eye off anything.

I also had a visit from the spendy elves in the week, me and the lovely guy called it quits this week - my choice but he was very understanding and lovely about it all because he is just so lovely. And I felt sad and ended up in my favourite expensive shop rather than my favourite cheap shop. I got plenty for my money, but of course, it was money I don't actually have. It is a fabulous early Christmas present though and now I must buckle back in and crack on.

Very old habits die very hard it seems!

RosaBernicia

Hello LHG

Sorry to hear about the lovely guy but that's an entirely reasonable excuse for a run in with the spendy elves, and you're doing so brilliantly it's only really a wibble - look at you already getting back on track!

Rosa xx

lionheartedgirl

Thank you Rosa, yes I thought so too. It involved one of those pesky beauty advent calendar things but it came 'free' with things I would have bought anyway. Well, maybe a couple more than what I would have bought normally, and the sort of money I'd normally spend over a year in that shop! :rotfl:

I had planned one of the advent calendars but a rather cheaper one. And I am really excited about it and it's all stuff I'll use.

I'm thinking hard about money today, well even harder than normal. An amazing part time job has come up, three days a week. However it's about 6-9 months too soon in terms of where my finances are. I'm going to have a frank and honest money review and see if I can make that sort of money work, as my long term hope was to only do 2.5-3 days of my current line of work and do some musical things on the side if and when they came up.

So many choices are coming into the present - I know I can't close my eyes forever but I've been so focused on reducing cards for such a long time, I've not really thought much further along. The truth is, I'm 40 in a couple of years, there is no one else but me to pay the bills and it's unlikely that will change any time soon so I really need to sort myself out and feel a bit more secure.

MistyMountainTop

I didn't realise how long ago you started this thread and was amazed at how fast it was all going! Now that I've checked the dates, it makes more sense.

Very impressed! Here to subscribe