Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

StressedSteph

Thanks for your posts everyone, sorry I missed yours last week Lhead, I don't know how I missed it .


Just a quick update. Hubby has gone off to the hospital for his pre-op checks this afternoon and I am waiting in for a small £50 Tesco delivery bringing the bare essentials.


I have a TOTAL freeze on any un-budgeted spending atm. I do need to go through our direct debits as I can cancelling off Spotify that hubby activated a month or two ago and I think Netflix can go also as we never seem to use it. That will save £16.99 per month.


Trying to come up with lots of free ideas for summer holidays, still hoping on the odd camping trip as we only live off tinned food when we camp, if we stay fairly local fuel will be cheap and some of the sites I have looked at only want around £15 per night, so maybe in August we may afford a little trip.


Hubby is currently working out about 3-4 quotes for people so at least the enquiries are coming in. Not really anything for this week, but as I said in my previous post. I have worked out that as long as a few people hubby has done jobs for pay up soon and we freeze any new spending then there should be enough money to pay all our bills for July. Hoping that once we get to August, hubby will be all recovered and some of these quotes might start coming back with "yes's".
(Ever the optimist ).


Been struggling with my inner demons again this week as its THAT time of the month again. It truly is an ugly place inside my head. It makes me so judgemental and glass-half-empty. It is really ugly.


I have had an invite over to my most cherished friends house this Thursday and even though I have a million other things I should be doing, I have said yes. I love her dearly and she is the only person who I feel is on my level and I can talk openly with. Think I really a coffee with her this week .


REALLY REALLY REALLY cannot wait to get this week over with. I know it sounds silly but I just hate the school gates and me having to transport the other child in the village and just cannot wait for it all to be done.


I have a good feeling about September.


No car sharing :T
Two families that are really horrible will have left :j
Ds & Dd both in the same class so I will have less trips up to school events.


All quite petty things but I can't wait all the same.


We worked long and hard on Saturday to get the in-laws moved into their new home. FIL's girlfriend drove me nuts trying to get us to move furniture around rooms three times until she found the correct spot, thought hubby was going to blow up at one point but we managed to hold it together.
I was so exhausted Sunday, every muscle ached.


So all that is left now is the bomb site that is their old rental. It is full of clutter and trash that they most definitely won't fit in their new flat, so I will go over there tomorrow to help FIL bag it all up into three piles (Keep - Sell - ditch). hoping that the ditch pile is the biggest. Trouble with the sell pile is that FIL & his girlfriend are in too ill health to actually sell any of it themselves so it would fall to me. I am generous with my time but not ridiculously so, and I really do not have the time to car boot or Ebay millions of other peoples items, I just have to find a way to tell them that nicely .


Heavens this post is HUGE. I had better go sorry to have babbled for so long xxxx

maddiemay

StressedSteph wrote: »

Thanks for your posts everyone, sorry I missed yours last week Lhead, I don't know how I missed it .


Just a quick update. Hubby has gone off to the hospital for his pre-op checks this afternoon and I am waiting in for a small £50 Tesco delivery bringing the bare essentials.


I have a TOTAL freeze on any un-budgeted spending atm. I do need to go through our direct debits as I can cancelling off Spotify that hubby activated a month or two ago and I think Netflix can go also as we never seem to use it. That will save £16.99 per month.


Trying to come up with lots of free ideas for summer holidays, still hoping on the odd camping trip as we only live off tinned food when we camp, if we stay fairly local fuel will be cheap and some of the sites I have looked at only want around £15 per night, so maybe in August we may afford a little trip.


Hubby is currently working out about 3-4 quotes for people so at least the enquiries are coming in. Not really anything for this week, but as I said in my previous post. I have worked out that as long as a few people hubby has done jobs for pay up soon and we freeze any new spending then there should be enough money to pay all our bills for July. Hoping that once we get to August, hubby will be all recovered and some of these quotes might start coming back with "yes's".
(Ever the optimist ).


Been struggling with my inner demons again this week as its THAT time of the month again. It truly is an ugly place inside my head. It makes me so judgemental and glass-half-empty. It is really ugly.


I have had an invite over to my most cherished friends house this Thursday and even though I have a million other things I should be doing, I have said yes. I love her dearly and she is the only person who I feel is on my level and I can talk openly with. Think I really a coffee with her this week .


REALLY REALLY REALLY cannot wait to get this week over with. I know it sounds silly but I just hate the school gates and me having to transport the other child in the village and just cannot wait for it all to be done.


I have a good feeling about September.


No car sharing :T
Two families that are really horrible will have left :j
Ds & Dd both in the same class so I will have less trips up to school events.


All quite petty things but I can't wait all the same.


We worked long and hard on Saturday to get the in-laws moved into their new home. FIL's girlfriend drove me nuts trying to get us to move furniture around rooms three times until she found the correct spot, thought hubby was going to blow up at one point but we managed to hold it together.
I was so exhausted Sunday, every muscle ached.


So all that is left now is the bomb site that is their old rental. It is full of clutter and trash that they most definitely won't fit in their new flat, so I will go over there tomorrow to help FIL bag it all up into three piles (Keep - Sell - ditch). hoping that the ditch pile is the biggest. Trouble with the sell pile is that FIL & his girlfriend are in too ill health to actually sell any of it themselves so it would fall to me. I am generous with my time but not ridiculously so, and I really do not have the time to car boot or Ebay millions of other peoples items, I just have to find a way to tell them that nicely .


Heavens this post is HUGE. I had better go sorry to have babbled for so long xxxx

Hi Steph, you must be shattered, but well done to you and OH for getting the out laws moved.

Perhaps you could do a mock listing and a photo of something and time how long it takes to post each item on bay of e, then when you and she have sorted some of the items you could point to say 20 things and say "do you realise that it will take me a minimum of xx hours to do that lot, plus answering queries, packing and taking to the PO" (assuming that you will be lumbered with that too) and tell her that you would have to give up x hours of paid work in order to fit it in to house work, feeding family, shopping and all the outside work, you might offend, but at least it would give you a bit of peace for a while:)

Take care, hope that OH's pred-meds go well.

MM
xxx

misstara

Morning Steph

Hope hubby got on ok yesterday with his pre-op checks. When does he go in for the operation?

Camping sounds like a fab idea, I have great memories of camping when I was younger and still enjoy it now. Me and OH went camping at the weekend - went a nature reserve and camped beside a loch so no fees to pay (however I guess it depends on your thoughts about having to go to the loo outside). It was lovely and also very cheap

Are you still taking the agnus castus (or whatever it was called) for that time of the month? I seem to remember it helping a bit.

Coffee with your friend sounds great - definitely worth making the time for even if you have other things to do.

Hope you're feeling ok this morning and fingers crossed that those enquiries turn into jobs.

StressedSteph

maddiemay wrote: »

Hi Steph, you must be shattered, but well done to you and OH for getting the out laws moved.

Perhaps you could do a mock listing and a photo of something and time how long it takes to post each item on bay of e, then when you and she have sorted some of the items you could point to say 20 things and say "do you realise that it will take me a minimum of xx hours to do that lot, plus answering queries, packing and taking to the PO" (assuming that you will be lumbered with that too) and tell her that you would have to give up x hours of paid work in order to fit it in to house work, feeding family, shopping and all the outside work, you might offend, but at least it would give you a bit of peace for a while:)

Take care, hope that OH's pred-meds go well.

MM
xxx

Hi MM


Thanks for posting. We have moved the inlaws, just got this weekend to do as they have hired a van again to move large unwanted items into our barn .


After that it is just clearing tonnes of clutter and trying to clean the place up ready to hand over the keys. So we will be there Saturday and I will try to help a couple of days next week, then it should hopefully be all over with. Phew!


I told FIL today that I wasn't prepared to do any car boots as I just don't have the spare time, but I was willing to advertise some items at my own speed and until then they are welcome to store them in our barn. During the winter life is a lot quieter for me as we never have many farm animals to over winter and the garden stops growing. Maybe then I could list some items for them. That's about the best I can offer. He seemed happy with that


Hope all is well in your world xxx

misstara wrote: »

Morning Steph

Hope hubby got on ok yesterday with his pre-op checks. When does he go in for the operation?

Camping sounds like a fab idea, I have great memories of camping when I was younger and still enjoy it now. Me and OH went camping at the weekend - went a nature reserve and camped beside a loch so no fees to pay (however I guess it depends on your thoughts about having to go to the loo outside). It was lovely and also very cheap

Are you still taking the agnus castus (or whatever it was called) for that time of the month? I seem to remember it helping a bit.

Coffee with your friend sounds great - definitely worth making the time for even if you have other things to do.

Hope you're feeling ok this morning and fingers crossed that those enquiries turn into jobs.

Hubby got the all clear for his pre-op but came home quite despondent as they reckon he needs FOUR WEEKS off work :eek:. I was factoring two off at worst. Fingers crossed hubby bounces back as quickly as he did last time, otherwise things are going to get interesting


Oooh I didn't realise you could camp outside of proper camp sites? I might be too scared to do that on my own with the children though. . We have a portaloo in our tent so I only really need a field near a beach and we are all set


I stopped taking the Agnus Castus as I felt to effects stopped working after a while. I have been taking them this week though as I have felt pretty unbalanced. I feel a little better today, just need to keep my head down and avoid people as much as possible.


Thanksfor posting MissT xcxxxx

misstara

StressedSteph wrote: »

Oooh I didn't realise you could camp outside of proper camp sites? I might be too scared to do that on my own with the children though. . We have a portaloo in our tent so I only really need a field near a beach and we are all set

It's certainly fine in Scotland but England might be a different story. Ooh a portaloo in the tent - so jealous!

dawnybabes

Have you tried taking magnesium ? Me and my friend swear by it for less pmt/stress/desire to murder DHs

StressedSteph

Morning all,


Feeling super paranoid and anxious again this morning, will definitely try some Magnesium Dawn when I can afford it. I am willing to try anything to avoid having to approach the Dr for some Anti-depressants again. They cause as many side effects as the problems they solve so really don't want to have to go down that route again.


Got my two hour cleaning job today and another Spa treatment tomorrow and then another two hour cleaning job on Friday so bringing in as much money as I can this week. (£115)

Still waiting on three payers for jobs hubby has done but hopefully they come in soon.


Hubby has a little job that he started yesterday morning and is finishing today so hopefully that will bring in another £200 or so.

Not much else to report, will try to check in again with a proper update later. xx

Verbatim

Can your husband not opt for laser or 'key hole' surgery? The recovery time for that is days rather than weeks. My oh had his hernia repaired by laser about 3 years ago and only had one day off work, plus weekend. Aneighbour had his hernia done the old way and way convalescing for weeks.

mfmaybe

Hi Steph,

Not been spending much time on here lately, sorry things have been so tough for you. It's hard to keep motivated when the knocks keep coming, but remember you have not let that debt go up at all, even when things have been so tight.

With your OH off work, is he entitled to any benefits? I'm afraid I'm no expert but if you can't physically work and are self employed, you would think something would be available? Just a thought.

Will keep cheering you on from the sidelines. You are still making it go in the right direction, that is a HUGE thing to be proud of. :A Oh and a very belated happy birthday!

StressedSteph

Verbatim wrote: »

Can your husband not opt for laser or 'key hole' surgery? The recovery time for that is days rather than weeks. My oh had his hernia repaired by laser about 3 years ago and only had one day off work, plus weekend. Aneighbour had his hernia done the old way and way convalescing for weeks.

Morning Verbatim


Hubby has apparently been told that he could only have keyhole if they were repairing an already repaired hernia , so as its a new one where they have to get the gauze in it is not an option . Probably not that sophisticated at our rubbishy country hospital


He recovered after 1 week when he had it done on the other side 6 years ago so lets hope he bounces back as well this time.


xxx

mfmaybe wrote: »

Hi Steph,

Not been spending much time on here lately, sorry things have been so tough for you. It's hard to keep motivated when the knocks keep coming, but remember you have not let that debt go up at all, even when things have been so tight.

With your OH off work, is he entitled to any benefits? I'm afraid I'm no expert but if you can't physically work and are self employed, you would think something would be available? Just a thought.

Will keep cheering you on from the sidelines. You are still making it go in the right direction, that is a HUGE thing to be proud of. :A Oh and a very belated happy birthday!

Hi mfmaybe


Good to hear from you xx.


We do have health insurance for hubby being sick off work but it has a lead time of four weeks, so more than likely he will be back to work before it could come into effect .


You are right though, that even though there hasn't been a lot of progress at least I have managed to stop us from adding even a penny onto the debt total.


Hopefully I can make a dent in it in the 2nd half of the year. Fingers Crossed. xxx