Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

misstara

Hi Steph, £400 for a wee holiday away seems reasonable, especially if you can keep the costs down by not drinking too much alcohol. Can't mind if it is a villa or apartment complex that you are staying at but if it had a BBQ area, that would possibly mean one night of not eating out and save a bit more:)

StressedSteph

wantabetterlife wrote: »

I got that email too steph...laughable really! Try not to panic too much about the spa..I am sure it will work out. Is the spa a place where you stay overnight?...maybe she was one of those types that just complains to get out of paying!

Hi Wantabetterlife,




Haha glad I wasn't the only one with the NEXT email, I thought it was maybe because I was close to paying off the debt, but 1% isn't going to help me unfortunately.


Yes the Spa is a Weekend retreat, so am trying to think that they wouldn't leave without paying a £300+ bill just because of not liking my treatment, surely she would just refuse to pay for that. Its just that its been so quiet, it has made me paranoid.



Hopefully it is just paranoia

misstara wrote: »

Hi Steph, £400 for a wee holiday away seems reasonable, especially if you can keep the costs down by not drinking too much alcohol. Can't mind if it is a villa or apartment complex that you are staying at but if it had a BBQ area, that would possibly mean one night of not eating out and save a bit more:)

Hi MissTara,


What a good idea, yes they definitely have an outside space because it has a pool and sun-loungers. Not that it will probably be warm enough for major sunbathing, but there might be a BBQ. Everyone seemed quite intent on keeping it low-key as we are close to a lot of family birthdays and Christmas not that far away.


Almost getting a little excited

StressedSteph

Hi all


I have some amazing news.


Hubby quote to do a three week painting job. His father who is semi-retired and doesn't really need the money, was going to help him, but I have been slightly loading on the pressure to hubby lately, that if it isn't a heavy lifting job then could he not do the work on his own so that we get to keep more of the money. I managed to talk him into it on this job as hubby never called his father. Well somehow hubby is getting through the work quicker than he thought and we will now be getting an extra £1000 above hubby usual wage, this week and next week :T:j.


I am so thrilled. I am trying to think of the most sensible thing to do with this windfall of money we weren't expecting.


Dave Ramsey always states you should start with
Baby Step 1 - £1000 Emergency Fund.


We currently have £700 saved, but it isn't all the emergency fund, it is made up of Birthday, Christmas, Car fund as well as the emergency savings.


So I thought maybe this weeks £1000 should go towards topping up the Emergency fund to £1000. Hubby being self-employed is very scary sometimes and having not even a tiny safety net can be very stressful sometimes if work dries up or people are slow to pay. So this emergency fund would be a big help.


Hubby also has a small hernia and at some point in the next 6-12 month will next a week off work for that operation. I have been stalling the poor man to hopefully get debt free first, but this could maybe cover that if it gets worse.


Then next weeks £1000 I was going to pay off the debt. This would pay off the £491 left of Next and then pay half of the Littlewoods debt off. Wow oh Wow, I am so excited.


Do you think that is the most sensible thing to do with this £2000.???


My first impulse is to pay the whole £2000 off against debt, but as I have vowed never to EVER add anything onto my debt again, once that money is gone, we still have no safety net for any emergencies.


So I thought splitting it between the two is the most practical choice.


Please let me know if you think I am missing something.


xxxx

maddiemay

Fantastic news:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

Def. belt and braces for me, as much as you can to emergency fund and as you said, balance to kill Next and take a chunk off Littlewoods, just think very soon you will be rolling the usual next payment over to Littlewoods and so on.......

A healthy emergency fund will take so much strain off you both and particularly OH, as the hernia presumably could worsen if he was unlucky:(

Messy week here, but surviving, we go on holiday on Sunday (14th) and OH noticed on Wednesday that MOT on motorhome expired on 15th:(, it is quite a big/tall vehicle and cannot fit into most workshops, but luckily our favoured company had a gap and did it that afternoon:), better still it passed. Then yesterday evening my washing machine died:( It is very old so a new one being delivered tomorrow from company around the corner, probably not as :money: as it could have been, but considering we live almost 30 miles from a town and we have no time we are happy enough with it.

abba1772

I think what you've decided to do is the most sensible thing xx just think how pleased you'll be when you next balance reads zero xx

mfmaybe

Seems like that is absolutely the best plan of action.

And then what you should do, assuming your friends agree, is book your flights to Portugal :rotfl: I see this as good Karma for you thinking it all through so carefully and refusing to spend it if you couldn't afford it.

What I also think you should do, given this windfall, is snowball a little bit less of the N*xt payment (because you've already knocked an extra £500 off Littlewoods) and put that extra into the emergency fund. You have worked so bloody hard at this, and you need to be able to stop worrying. Just squirrel away an extra £30 a month or whatever you decide. It won't knock your DFD back because of the extra £1k you've already put against the debt.

So happy for you, your OH sounds like a bit of a lovely man. We need some work done, do you fancy a "holiday" in Scotland

wantabetterlife

Fantastic news steph!!! I agree with MM..put as much as you can into saving pots and emergency fund and then whats left off the debt. Christmas can be stressful trying to cover everythjng and at least that would give you a bit of breathing space:j

StressedSteph

maddiemay wrote: »

Fantastic news:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

Def. belt and braces for me, as much as you can to emergency fund and as you said, balance to kill Next and take a chunk off Littlewoods, just think very soon you will be rolling the usual next payment over to Littlewoods and so on.......

A healthy emergency fund will take so much strain off you both and particularly OH, as the hernia presumably could worsen if he was unlucky:(

Messy week here, but surviving, we go on holiday on Sunday (14th) and OH noticed on Wednesday that MOT on motorhome expired on 15th:(, it is quite a big/tall vehicle and cannot fit into most workshops, but luckily our favoured company had a gap and did it that afternoon:), better still it passed. Then yesterday evening my washing machine died:( It is very old so a new one being delivered tomorrow from company around the corner, probably not as :money: as it could have been, but considering we live almost 30 miles from a town and we have no time we are happy enough with it.

Hi MM


Thanks for your help and advice, I really appreciate it.


Lucky you realised the van MOT was out, thank heavens it passed.


Lucky you had the cash to get the washing machine sorted. Can't wait to be debt free and be able to take a break down like that in my stride without going into complete meltdown panic as we have no money.


Have a lovely holiday xxx

abba1772 wrote: »

I think what you've decided to do is the most sensible thing xx just think how pleased you'll be when you next balance reads zero xx

Thanks abba. Just paid it now

mfmaybe wrote: »

Seems like that is absolutely the best plan of action.

And then what you should do, assuming your friends agree, is book your flights to Portugal :rotfl: I see this as good Karma for you thinking it all through so carefully and refusing to spend it if you couldn't afford it.

What I also think you should do, given this windfall, is snowball a little bit less of the N*xt payment (because you've already knocked an extra £500 off Littlewoods) and put that extra into the emergency fund. You have worked so bloody hard at this, and you need to be able to stop worrying. Just squirrel away an extra £30 a month or whatever you decide. It won't knock your DFD back because of the extra £1k you've already put against the debt.

So happy for you, your OH sounds like a bit of a lovely man. We need some work done, do you fancy a "holiday" in Scotland

Hi mfmaybe,


Thanks for such kind words. Good ideas above, but I am going to try my hardest to snowball the whole £120 from NEXT onto the £184 payment to Littlewoods, which means a now minimum payment of £304 :eek:.


Once NEXT is gone then my Snowball will just start gaining momentum, I should only have two payment on Littlewoods and it will be gone :T.


Its hard at the moment because I was relying on my Spa treatment as extra income, but just don't know what's happening at the moment.


thanks hun xxx

dawnybabes

Can you not ring them ? It would be better to know rather than worrying yourself senseless ? I hardly slept last weekend as I'd screwed up big style, I fretted all weekend and dreaded Monday but I'd made it 2000 times worse In my head. no one else was the slightest bothered.

Holiday looks and sounds fantastic, if you all buy booze at duty free that would bring the costs down too.

baglady1

Agree with Dawny above - ring them at the spa & check. Great news with the extra cash & good idea to split it. Your signature's looking so good. Can feel the snowball momentum increase..