Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

StressedSteph

Thanks for your replies everyone.


The bad mood is slowly going in the Stressed household. Its amazing how financial issues can impact everyone's mood in the house. I realised this morning how my mindset has changed so much this year.

These job worries have just made me more determined to get debt free and abit more financial stable. But I am sure 10 months ago, it would have been enough for me to think "stuff it" and go back to my old spendy ways.

Nowadays, I almost feel protective about the progress I have made, and a blunt refusal to ruin it by going backwards.

If this job worry cropped up in 2016+, we would be debt free so less outgoings every month and we would hopefully have or be on the way to having 3-6 months of expenses saved as an emergency fund.

If this wobble happened when we were that set up, I am pretty sure it wouldn't affect our mood in the house so badly, safe in the knowledge that we could manage and still pay the bills.

Oh well......We will stumble by I am sure.

Hubby was home a little bit yesterday and one positive of him being home occasionally is he is finally getting on with finishing our extension. Last year we built a 4m x 4m rear extension which is grandly called the Boot Room. As we live on a small holding, we have copious amounts of mucky wellies and wet rain coats during the winter so walking straight into the kitchen from the outdoors was a disaster.

Our plan is to have a small toilet room in there and a massive rack for coats and boots and baskets above with all our gloves & scarves etc.

Well we got the roof late last year and then with our financial worries and hubby working all hours the work just stopped.

Well hubby has slowly stockpiled materials left over from other jobs this year and now has enough to be getting on with the inside of the boot room.

Floor insulation went down yesterday and like the rest of the house, hubby will be putting down under-floor heating pipes today (we bought these three years ago and bought enough for the boot room). Then he will put the flooring screed down and we will be ready for plastering etc.

Will be very nice to get that room finished for the winter. Hopefully we can find a very cheapy toilet & sink and get the room finished.

Not much else to report. Been a busy week so got to clean the house today, get under control again.

Only ended up with 1 reflexology treatment yesterday which was a disappointment, but hopefully I might get booked in for more tomorrow or early next week.

Hope you all have a nice weekend planned. Should be two NSD's this weekend

Verbatim

Boot room sounds like a great idea. Will help keep in kitchen heat too if that opens into it rather than directly to the outside.
GL with some more treatments from the spa. You're doing fabulously well.

dawnybabes

I'd love a boot room :-) one smelly long haired dog who's walked in the local woods twice a day isn't conducive to a clean house ....

Ciaerda

Hi Steph, how lovely to have a boot room and a hubby to do it - mine gets frightened when I mention any DIY comes out in hives -

I hope he gets some work soon - my sisters hubby is a s/e painter and decorator and I know that this time of year can be really hard the weather and the costly thought of Christmas I think makes people not have anything done, I have my fingers crossed that something turns up soon.

You have done so well this year and the fact that you realise that you might have a shortfall shows how far you have come, so well done you.

Enjoy your holiday next week, relax and forget about all this for a few days you have done so much you are allowed a bit of me time and I am sure that you will come back refreshed and ready to face round 2 xx

StressedSteph

Verbatim wrote: »

Boot room sounds like a great idea. Will help keep in kitchen heat too if that opens into it rather than directly to the outside.
GL with some more treatments from the spa. You're doing fabulously well.

Hi Verbatim


Yes it will be so nice to get it done, think it has been nearly two years in the making. Builders are never that keen to do more of the same in their own home
Hoping I may get a text tonight about a treatment or two tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed. x

dawnybabes wrote: »

I'd love a boot room :-) one smelly long haired dog who's walked in the local woods twice a day isn't conducive to a clean house ....

Hi Dawn,


Yes we have a mucky dog too, although not very big (Border Terrier) so will be nice to have her in there to dry off.


I haven't forgotten the sloe's, I will get a decent sized bag picked soon and get them in the post.


Hope your recovery is going well.


xxx

Ciaerda wrote: »

Hi Steph, how lovely to have a boot room and a hubby to do it - mine gets frightened when I mention any DIY comes out in hives -

I hope he gets some work soon - my sisters hubby is a s/e painter and decorator and I know that this time of year can be really hard the weather and the costly thought of Christmas I think makes people not have anything done, I have my fingers crossed that something turns up soon.

You have done so well this year and the fact that you realise that you might have a shortfall shows how far you have come, so well done you.

Enjoy your holiday next week, relax and forget about all this for a few days you have done so much you are allowed a bit of me time and I am sure that you will come back refreshed and ready to face round 2 xx

Hi Ciaerda,


I was only thinking the other morning about how, every year we have this same problem with work insecurity around December / January, but WHY am I so worried about it this year, when we are in the least amount of debt that we have ever had. Again I think it is down to a big change in attitude about debt.
I think in the past I was so resigned to the fact that this 20k was like another member of the family and impossible to shift that I just blocked it out of my mind.


I have no clue how I coped mentally in previous years, I am struggling to stay positive and we only have 11k- ish of debt.


Annoyingly it looks like rain may be forecast for Portugal next week, Just my luck . Oh well, will make the best of it.


Hubby has a couple of jobs to go and look at next week, both are abit further away than we normally like to go, but as beggars can't to choosers, we have decided that we must at least quote for these jobs as we can't afford to be picky.


Take care xxx

dawnybabes

I'm back to fighting fit - Ty. Just need the swelling to go down a bit (but he warned could take months). Not liking the hot flushes at all :-(

StressedSteph

Afternoon all,


Just got back from doing another treatment. That's £160 they owe me now :j.

I am half expecting another treatment to do today. The lady I worked on this morning was looking for something else today and I mentioned that I also did Reflexology and she seemed really keen. Not had a txt yet though, but fingers crossed.

Hubby is being a real star and yesterday laid the under floor heating pipes in the new extension and today is putting to concrete floor down on top of them. He is such a worker, bless him. I did offer to mix up the cement for him, but he is such a perfectionist/control freak he reckoned I wouldn't be able to get the mix right . I can bake cakes, surely its similar!!.

I have tonnes to get done in the house so not a bad thing that he doesn't need me.

Kitchen looks like a bomb landed as all the shoes and bits from extension are in the kitchen.

Just renewed my car insurance which has worked out at £3 per month more expensive than last year, but it was the cheapest of the bunch. Could have been worse I suppose.

Not much else to report, starting to feel the beginning of panic about getting everything sorted for Portugal next Thursday morning. So much to sort out.....Food shop tomorrow, so will get the list made up today, got extra bits to get this week as hubby doesn't want the hassle of making homemade bread etc so will have to buy some loaves.

Hope you are having a nice sunday xxx

misstara

Hope you get another treatment today Steph. Are the spa paying you the £160 before you go off to Portugal?

How's your meal planning/shopping list going? Managing to stick to it well here for the time being

StressedSteph

misstara wrote: »

Hope you get another treatment today Steph. Are the spa paying you the £160 before you go off to Portugal?

How's your meal planning/shopping list going? Managing to stick to it well here for the time being

Morning all and Miss T


No extra treatment got booked yesterday, but I do have another booked in today at 10am. they now owe me £190 so will ask if he could possibly pay me this week as don't like the amount to mount up too much as he seems abit forgetful. I always make a note of the names of the ladies I have treated so I can prove what I have done.


Could do with the money because hubby has a couple of slow payers and money is abit tight this week.


I have also decided to make a slight change to the way I pay my bills through YNAB. I probably should have been doing this all along, especially with us being self-employed, but I am going to do the Dave Ramsey style of bill paying where you prioritise your food, lights and mortgage first and then work out.


So I am ALWAYS going to make sure the next weeks Direct Debits are covered. then Food, fuel and the mortgage.
AFTER that I will then pay debts and FUN / Savings monies.


I have gotten into a slightly bad habit of paying debts before the mortgage, which in these un certain times, I feel is a little dangerous. I am worried one month I may get to the end of the month and not have enough for the mortgage, so debts are going to have to wait till last.


I have also decided that after I have managed to pay off my last two small debts (L1ttlewoods & Co-op). My next target will be the Mr T credit card. They are still avidly charging me interest and also smack a £12 late payment fee on if I don't pay by what feels like the 1st of the month. B2rclays and V1rgin have been amazing and have frozen all interest and charges, V1rgin even wrote to me the other day and said that even though I am still in arrears, they are going to take the default off my credit report because I have been regularly paying the agreed amount. So nice.


Mr T needs to go as a priority, after these last two annoying little ones have gone.


After my treatment this morning, I have to go and do my Lidl shop. I have a full list of everything we need. Hoping it will come within £60 again, but I am having to spend a little more this week on easier to cook meals for hubby while I am away


Going to be a mad three days before I go away, hubby looked horrified when I said he would need to set the washing machine going over the weekend to wash the childrens school clothes. I have now worked out that I will wash their dirty school clothes on Wednesday and pack a set away so they will be sorted for next Monday morning (I will not get home until 1am ish Monday). I am too kind to my hubby, think I make it far too easy for him.


Will also start trying to pack my miniscule suitcase tonight. Really tricky as it is forecast rain on Thursday & Friday and sunny on the weekend. I am rubbish at packing, that's why I normally end up with a suitcase the size of a house. .


Starting to get excited already, but also starting to desperately miss my children before I have even left . I know I am silly.


Anyway, I had better go get changed for this treatment. Speak later xx

lhead123

just wrote a reply and it's dissappeared.

All I can see is !!d !!!sa!!!!!!s!!!d!!!! A!!! !!!s for the whole page

I'll come back later and hopefully be able to catch up! xx