Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

StressedSteph

Morning Diary,

Been slightly hit with idiot Ebayers again this morning. the person I sold 5 kitchen chairs to for £20 has paid via Paypal :mad:, even after I sent a message giving them my address and reminding them NOT to pay via paypal and to bring the cash with them.:mad:. Not had any reply from them so now waiting for an idiotic request to post them :shocked:, really fed up with the caliber of people that buy my items . Oh well wait and see.

I am embarrassed to say I dipped out of my cleaning job this morning, I thought I could face going in and coping with any moaning that she would throw at me but I just couldn't. I rang her up with the excuse that hubby was too rough to leave on his own and I will put together a resignation letter to post through her door over the weekend. I know i should be able to roll with the punches better and being moaned at is part of working life, but for £20 per week I really could afford to not put up with it.

Weirdly my old friend that works on feet that I sent a txt to hasn't replied. Not sure where to take it now, maybe I was being too cheeky texting her out of the blue. Who knows....

So this morning I cleaned my own house instead, kitchen cleaned, house hoovered, mopped and dusted. Really need to carry on Konmarie'ing my house but not sure where to start. I thought I had done paperwork but the office desk looks a dis organised bombsite again so I obviously didn't do a good enough job.

Think that is probably a job for when the children are back in school.

Ds is still not back from his sleepover, I txt the mum to say call when she wants him picking up. I do sometimes fret that Ds is somewhere and wants to come home but can't say anything. I did offer him an old mobile phone to take but he didn't want it. guess I am being a wuss.

Pouring with rain here so not sure what to do with the rest of my day. If it dries up I will do some more weeding in the veg plot otherwise guess i will just potter around at home.

Thats all for now xxx

lhead123

If you are going to the air show, I would NOT recommend driving there.....It will be nigh-on impossible to find a parking space within 2 miles of the seafront, and if you do it will probably cost you £20 for the day....

Have a look into the park and ride (the car park is near creekmoor/fleetsbridge in poole) I'm not sure how much it will cost and annoyingly there's an illegal travellers camp next door....there's also only a few hundred spaces, so you might have to book in advance rather than just turn up.

Also the weekday(s) will be slightly quieter than the weekend, though not by much.

If you can, I'd recommend getting a train into Bournemouth and then walking to the sea front.

Also don't stray too far from public toilets, and be prepared for a 45 min-1 hour queue for them, and no toilet roll!!

I am escaping the air show this year by going to visit family. The previous few years I've either been away or I've been working (1 year in a lady's 11th floor flat on the cliff top! I was watching the planes on her balcony while she was having a nap!) It's madness with the amount of people...great for tourists, but not if you live round here! If I was going to go, I'd get the train and walk, or get the bus halfway and walk the rest. Trying to drive in bournemouth on an air show weekend is madness! so many roads are closed or reserved for disabled parking etc. I know the area quite well, and even I can't find parking spaces for work because of the sheer volume of cars! I end up parking across people's driveways etc, leaving a note to call me if i'm in the way!

xx

StressedSteph

Hi Lhead,

Thanks loads for your advice about the Air Show. I was undecided and then I read your post and decided against it. I really don't want the stress of driving round and around Bournemouth trying to find a parking space, not only that buy I have quite a large 4x4 so I often cannot fit it into single spaces and need to find the perfect spot to squeeze it in. Not good when parking spaces will be hard to find.

Thanks for the tip off xx

StressedSteph

Afternoon Diary

Well I did my 3 hour cleaning job this morning, its such an easy straight forward job, cleaning two holiday lets. It really just highlights how awful my Wednesday cleaning job is. I will write up a letter to post to her over the weekend to resign. Just can't face it anymore.

Hubby has finally been paid, so I paid the mortgage and all our debts. No overpayments unfortunately, but September onwards I should be able to start squirrelling away some extra money again finally.

I have managed to save up £115 in my little cash savings pot in the kitchen, the guy who has bought the old motorbike is coming tomorrow afternoon and will pay £107 so that takes me to £222.

I am hoping to save up our emergency fund in cash sales at home. I just can't seem to do it in the bank account for some reason, but when I see the cold hard cash in my hand I desperately don't want to spend it.

Think this tells me that I should attempt to do the envelope system as I really don't like to spend the money if I can see the notes, but when it is just a bank card it doesn't seem so REAL!.

Now I have a tidy little sum collecting up, I desperately want to find some extra things to sell - might spend the day tomorrow searching for items

I love Jamdowns idea about round up payments in YNAB to gradually get a months buffer in each category. I am going to give that a go and not clear out all the categories at the end of each month like I usually do.

Not totally got my head around the dividing bills up over 52 weeks instead of working monthly. Its abit confusing for me, so need to spend abit more time on that one. Might do abit of research on the YNAB website.

Not much else to report, I'm happy all bills for August are paid and covered. Should be ok to cover the first week or so of September and by then hopefully hubby will be getting back to work and paid again.

Have a great weekend xx

kelpie35

Well done on the savings pot.

So pleased that you have managed to pay all your bills for this month.

I so wish that the next few months will become a bit easier for you. No matter what is thrown at you, you are a survivor.

You are an inspiration to many people. Please take a big pat on the back for all your hard work.

Hope you have a lovely weekend with your family.

maddiemay

Hi Steph
Not been able to comment for a while, but I have been catching up every few days. So pleased that hubby has had the op and is recovering. I am sure that cleaning for that miserable person is not worth the effort and stress, I guess that that amount of time spent on growing food and baking etc will be more productive and profitable for you.

I am of the old school when it comes to children being bored, if we 5 dared to say in front of mother that we were bored, we were firmly told to find something to do or she would allocate something to do, I am sure that you don't need 3 guesses about our decision:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

You have done so well on your savings pot, I have never got around to selling on e-bay and recently a family member has needed a bit of support, so we have found lots of things for them to sell on fb or car boot, need to take another batch this weekend. It works well, as I cannot really afford to give them cash, but for a bit of effort they can raise some funds:)

The air show sounds to be a great event, but a nightmare, the yearly one in this county results in total gridlock for miles, around:eek: we were lucky enough to see a great display by the Red Arrows from a car boot field while on holiday near Minehead last week and totally free of charge:D
Take care, you are doing a great job.
MM xxx

supersaver1000

Hi Steph. Just delurking to say I hope the fleabay transaction went through ? I had something similar recently but it turned out that they had friends close by who collected. You can easily do a refund though.

I tend to use preloved and gumtree now for non-portables - no fees and advertised locally. Xx

StressedSteph

kelpie35 wrote: »

Well done on the savings pot.

So pleased that you have managed to pay all your bills for this month.

I so wish that the next few months will become a bit easier for you. No matter what is thrown at you, you are a survivor.

You are an inspiration to many people. Please take a big pat on the back for all your hard work.

Hope you have a lovely weekend with your family.

Hi Kelpie,

Thanks so much for your reply, To be honest I will just be glad for normal service to resume. Me scrimping all month and then any spare money left over goes to the debt. I REALLY hate having to put money elsewhere rather than against the debt, I really won't rest until it has all gone. That's why I am trying to save my 1k Emergency fund in cash sales. Maybe once I get to 1k then I will pop it into a savings account but until then I feel better keeping it separate.

Ds's birthday is in September and he wants a laptop :eek:. so will have to find that from nowhere. Was quite encouraged to see you could pick up laptops for around £200 now which is better than I thought.

Thanks for the kind good luck wishes. I could do with a quiet 2nd half of 2015 the first half was abit of a wash out. xxx

maddiemay wrote: »

Hi Steph
Not been able to comment for a while, but I have been catching up every few days. So pleased that hubby has had the op and is recovering. I am sure that cleaning for that miserable person is not worth the effort and stress, I guess that that amount of time spent on growing food and baking etc will be more productive and profitable for you.

I am of the old school when it comes to children being bored, if we 5 dared to say in front of mother that we were bored, we were firmly told to find something to do or she would allocate something to do, I am sure that you don't need 3 guesses about our decision:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

You have done so well on your savings pot, I have never got around to selling on e-bay and recently a family member has needed a bit of support, so we have found lots of things for them to sell on fb or car boot, need to take another batch this weekend. It works well, as I cannot really afford to give them cash, but for a bit of effort they can raise some funds:)

The air show sounds to be a great event, but a nightmare, the yearly one in this county results in total gridlock for miles, around:eek: we were lucky enough to see a great display by the Red Arrows from a car boot field while on holiday near Minehead last week and totally free of charge:D
Take care, you are doing a great job.
MM xxx

Hi MM

Great to hear from you, Its lovely that you are donating items to a friend who will then sell them, perfect for both of you. I wish our inlaws would do that with the amount of stuff they have parked in our barn. I know they will never do anything with it, so it would make much more sense to allow us to sell it all now before it rusts and deteriorates in the barn. oh well.

Great that you got to see the Red Arrows, its been years since I have seen them and I get so emotional. Love them. x

xxx

supersaver1000 wrote: »

Hi Steph. Just delurking to say I hope the fleabay transaction went through ? I had something similar recently but it turned out that they had friends close by who collected. You can easily do a refund though.

I tend to use preloved and gumtree now for non-portables - no fees and advertised locally. Xx

Hi Supersaver.

The sale of the motorbike seems to be going through ok, the guy has been in touch and is supposed to be collecting late afternoon today so fingers crossed.

Don't know about preloved but I know gumtree is abit useless in the deep countryside round here, when I last looked there were two items for sale locally . I do sell stuff on the Facebook buy and sell pages which seems to work well.

will keep searching for more to sell

StressedSteph

Morning Diary

Beautiful morning here in Dorset, definitely feeling a little autumnal though, but that's fine as Autumn is my favourite time of year.

Kitchen tidied and dishwasher on, washing machine on, washing on the line, animals all fed.

Dd is riding on a friends pony at lunchtime, but other than that I don't have much planned.

I need to do some more weeding in the veg plot, and finish the Mr T order for delivery tomorrow. I want to do a solid meal plan as this last week was abit disorganised.

I desperately need to get control of the food shopping as I don't even dare tell you how much My August Food bill totalled up to :eek:. It was well over £100 per week!!.

Trying to keep Ds eating healthy and slightly less. He is slightly into the over weight zone on the NHS BMI calculator and want to keep it under control so we don't wake up one day and he is fat.

Its hard to think up healthy snacks, recently he has been having bread sticks with humous, Rice cakes, lowfat natural yoghurt with honey. trouble is I think he is getting a little fed up of those selections so need to switch it up abit.
He gets hungry between meals, so I thought instead of denying him anything I need to have super healthy selections for him to have in moderation. If anyone has any brilliant ideas please let me know.

Ok off to get menu planning, have a lovely day xx

Jamdown1

StressedSteph wrote: »

Afternoon Diary

Not totally got my head around the dividing bills up over 52 weeks instead of working monthly. Its abit confusing for me, so need to spend abit more time on that one. Might do abit of research on the YNAB website.

xx

Hi Steph,

I think the easiest thing to do, particularly if you are doing an annual review of all your expenses on YNAB is to just add up all you paid out for each category for the past year. Then divide each category total by 52 which will give the weekly figure for each.

I think beginning September is the best time to do a review of the year from 1st September 2014 to 31st August 2015. That is, just before the run up to Christmas and holiday plus back to school expenses fresh in the mind .

You can also do this for your joint income too. As I type, I think you should really do this as both your incomes go up and down with the seasons. So adding up every self-employed penny from you and hubby that has come in for the last year and converting to weekly will give a better like for like comparison of what comes in on average weekly and what goes out on average weekly and what you must put aside as a minimum to cover bills.

I am rabbiting on a bit again, but I suppose it's like converting everything to the same currency.

JD