Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

StressedSteph

oooh One other thing...


The friend I went to the cinema with last night is one of my oldest and dearest friends. We are very open and honest with each other, and she is about the ONLY person that I opening admit our financial situation to.

I have been spouting on about YNAB and our budgeting to her over the last few weeks. While we were watching the opening adverts on the cinema. The S#ntander 123 advert came on. I told her that I had switched accounts to them, and told her about the cashback what with having a mortgage with them as well.

She asked me what I did about my overdraft with B#rclays and I explain how I left it with them and have just started paying it off bit by bit like a Credit card and how B#rclays were really good about it and just agreed a payment plan etc.

She then told me that they live in their overdraft and had been tempted to do the same. I thought she was pretty well off, but it just goes to show how many of us are secretly struggling.

Nearly directed her to here, but wasn't sure if I could cope with her reading my diary. It would be nice in a way but its always abit of worry about friends finding out who I am... For all I know they could already know

debtfreewannabe321

Oh I laughed and also when I read about you not directing your friend to here when in financial trouble as I have done this so many times! I've got friends who have seen how we've got no debt any more, everything is paid for and we're finally making it to the end of the month with money (albeit only £1 last month, and most other months :rotfl:) and i've told them how i've done it but always left out MSE forums :o:rotfl:. I would die if they read my diary as they are probably mentioned in it a fair few times knowing me .

I've neglected my spreadsheets for the last few days I must get back on to it! I always start off well with spending diaries then falter half way through when that elusive mojo disappears :cool:.

So glad your DD loved the uniform :T I'm thinking of sending my DD to the local brownies, but keep putting off finding out about it. Will put it on my to-do list! My ds1 plays on the ps3 and has wanted games like COD & GTA and I have always said no. Then he went off to boarding school (of all places huh) and I found out that the house master had let them all play it when they were only 11. I and a few other parents complained and it was stopped but by then I felt he had already seen it all and was quite annoyed. I let him buy the game when he was 13 but limited time on it. And now at 15 he's outgrown it thankfully and never done anything awful to anyone. BUT when he plays on his PS3 it leaves him so angry, I don't understand it? Why spend your spare time on something that makes you angry, annoyed at other people and upset. He's had it taken away so many times i've lost count. I will not be making this mistake with my younger two. They won't be getting a ps3 or xbox until they buy it themselves!!

mizmir

Has anyone else lost the "Thanks" buttons? Wonder if it is just me!
Anyway - can really understand not wanting to direct friends here - it is daft really. I have friends from here that I am now connected to on FB - but the other way around...yikes?!

Why is it that we are so concerned about people knowing about financial problems? Our family doesn't even know!

StressedSteph

Hi DFW & Mizmir,


On the Xbox worries, there has been sooo many arguments since buying that blasted thing. No amount of time on it is ever enough for Ds and it always ends with me being the bad guy insisting that it is turned off. At the moment he is allowed to play on it until Dinnertime, then it is off and its homework and chilling out time before bed. Although hubby said that while I was at the cinema last night, he didn't put them to bed until 8.30pm because they were playing on the Xbox :mad:. Wish I had never bought it!.


A lot of my friends know we are budgeting, to afford the extensions we need on the house etc, that helps explain why we say no to expensive weekends away and meals out etc, but they don't know about the level of debt we have. Too embarrassing really.

Hope you get your mojo back DFW, keep it going. I am soo scared of stopping posting on here, because falling off my money saving usually follows after I leave here. I must keep going. I usually last about 3-4 months on here, or until I have my first BIG set back. I am now entering month 4 since my LBM and I am saving hard to try to lessen the impact of any disasters. REALLY hoping that I can stick to it this time. I am such a quitter, but I can't afford to be a quitter with this. Its too important for our family xxx


P.s Miz - I still have my Thanks button. Don't know where yours has gone??

mizmir

StressedSteph wrote: »

Hi DFW & Mizmir,


P.s Miz - I still have my Thanks button. Don't know where yours has gone??

It's back - a blip!

maddiemay

Hi Steph

You won't quit this time, if you go quiet on us we will all be hammering on your virtual door shouting "get out here and play with us":rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

A thought about the fun money, if you are finding it enough to do some things you enjoy, would it be worth taking a few quid "off the top" and putting it in a Saving for something really nice for me fund. Like if you see a nice top or some other item of clothing, or more yarn for the crochet blanket then you have a little fund available.:D

Puzzcat

Hi ss,


Your doing better than me with the one friend that knows your situation.. None of mine do, neither do my family and although OH know's i'm in debt he doesn't know how much for..... Its all my little secret.. well mine and all the mse'ers...


Glad your budgeting is going well and your still enjoying your lovely new bank account. I log in to mine everyday just to admire the fact that there is no overdraft....!!! I'm not a spreadsheet person, I log all my daily spends in a notebook and then transfer that into my online spending diary. My monthly spends all go in another book which I balance against my bank account. very old fashioned I know...!! My debts are all logged into yet another book so I can track them.. going down....




As for Brownies, its a bit of a mixed bag around where I am, my dd went to a fantastic one, the 'Brown Owl' was so enthuastic and they did loads of trips/theatre/London/camping etc, always something going on.. Other packs were not as entertaining.. My dd went from rainbows to brownies to guides and only left when she was 15 as it isn't cool to be a brownie..!


Nearly the weekend, hope its not too soggy where you are..


Love Puzz. x

StressedSteph

maddiemay wrote: »

Hi Steph

You won't quit this time, if you go quiet on us we will all be hammering on your virtual door shouting "get out here and play with us":rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

A thought about the fun money, if you are finding it enough to do some things you enjoy, would it be worth taking a few quid "off the top" and putting it in a Saving for something really nice for me fund. Like if you see a nice top or some other item of clothing, or more yarn for the crochet blanket then you have a little fund available.:D

:rotfl:Thank you MM, Please promise to pm me if I disappear for more than a couple of days. I would be REALLY grateful for that. No fear of it happening at the moment though thankfully.


Good idea about the syphoning off some FUN money. I do have a clothes budget category but so far it is empty as there is a million other more important pots that need filling first. I could really do with buying the odd item of clothing. I tend to leave it until EVERYTHING I own is washed to death and then feel the pressure to have to spend £500 on a whole new wardrobe, usually on credit :mad:. Think I could move £5 per week over quite easily. Thanks for the good idea xxx

Puzzcat wrote: »

Hi ss,


Your doing better than me with the one friend that knows your situation.. None of mine do, neither do my family and although OH know's i'm in debt he doesn't know how much for..... Its all my little secret.. well mine and all the mse'ers..

Glad your budgeting is going well and your still enjoying your lovely new bank account. I log in to mine everyday just to admire the fact that there is no overdraft....!!! I'm not a spreadsheet person, I log all my daily spends in a notebook and then transfer that into my online spending diary. My monthly spends all go in another book which I balance against my bank account. very old fashioned I know...!! My debts are all logged into yet another book so I can track them.. going down....

As for Brownies, its a bit of a mixed bag around where I am, my dd went to a fantastic one, the 'Brown Owl' was so enthuastic and they did loads of trips/theatre/London/camping etc, always something going on.. Other packs were not as entertaining.. My dd went from rainbows to brownies to guides and only left when she was 15 as it isn't cool to be a brownie..!
Nearly the weekend, hope its not too soggy where you are..

Love Puzz. x

It's hard to tell people isn't it, feels like such a failure. It is nice to have 1 friend you can trust with 90% of the truth, like I said she doesn't know the total amount but there's no need to go too far . My hubby knowing is a VERY new thing for me, and one I have found incredibly tough to deal with.
I am the one that has ALWAYS been in charge of the money, even though hubby is the main wage earner. I feel terrible to have gotten us into this situation with HIS money . Its not like I spent it all on myself mind you, it was just my inability to say NO to things and budget.

With this new YNAB budget I have told hubby that we will sit down every month and talk through our progress, I am trying to be more transparent, and also know that he will see every penny that has been spent, makes me be more mindful of misc spending as I know he will see it at the end of the month :eek:.

If you are earning your own money and the debt is all yours, then I suppose there is no need to tell him the exact situation. But if your set up is like mine then as painful as it is, it is really helping that this LBM I have decided to be honest about it. Think it might be the difference between success and failure for us. Stronger together I think xxx

On the Brownies, I am a little nervous, because of lack of volunteers, an old Brown Owl has come out of retirement to run their club. She seems abit bitter about it, and is very vocal on how she doesn't really want to be there . I have filled in the online volunteering form and I am very tempted to train to be a leader, so that I could maybe take over from when she very likely quits again, or even open a more local Brownies near where we live. Food for thought xx

StressedSteph

Evening,

Wow what a weekend. Spent all day from 8am till 7.30pm butchering our four pigs and three lambs. We collected them from the abbatoir Friday afternoon so we were ready to get going first thing Saturday morning.

We sectioned them all up into joints. Made lamb mince, sausages, chorizo, hams for curing in brine. Also have 2 sides of pork to send to the butchers to make bacon for us.

Was absolutely exhausted and went to bed at 9.30pm last night.

Today, we put 5 hams in the the wet cure solution and they will stay there for 7 days. I then spent the rest of the day catching up with everything that did'nt get done yesterday. Clothes washing, tidying, roast cooking, cake baking etc.

Very busy weekend but all NSD's. :T. The whole butchery process has probably cost us £200 but we now have two chest freezers and 1 upright freezer bursting at the seems.

VERY nearly went for a takeway indian last night when we got home at 7.30pm tired and starving. But with the help of hubby we cooked up some just made sausages with beans and egg.

Woke up this morning, so grateful that we did'nt give in to temptation with the takeway. Would have felt very guilty this morning.

Not much else to report really. Updated my YNAB budget this morning so all up to date.

Hope you all have a good weekend. xxx

maddiemay

Lots of hard graft for you both, but all that beautiful meat from animals that were well cared for and not subjected to journeys of hundreds of miles by lorry to a slaughter house umpteen counties away. Well done.

How rewarding to have managed without the very tempting takeaway too:T:T

Do you get one of these this evening:beer: (substitute wine glass):D

MM xx