Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

mizmir

Oh no - how annoying. Hopefully S. will track it down and you'll get it back but in the meantime - :mad::mad::mad:

Can you borrow from a different pot to pay B.? You will at least know it is temporary and you can repay when the transaction turns up.

Don't beat yourself up - it is easily done - frightens the life out of me when I do BTs and things as I am always worried I get a number wrong. But at lease you realised before the deadline this month and have time to still get the payment to B.

maddiemay

Hi Steph,
I've been reading and running, seem to have had a busier week than usual:D

So frustrating about the Barclays payment, I have been Internet banking for quite a while, but I am still paranoid about getting it wrong when setting up a new payment, I check it so many times:( and then waited with breath held until I find that it has arrived in the correct place. Don't beat yourself up, it is so easily done, especially when distracted.

I have taken delivery of a shiny new pressure cooker this morning, so am looking forward to cooking more :money: recipes and not buying cans of cooked beans etc in the future. I have owned them in the past, but really looking forward to using the new less volatile type:rotfl: I once had rice pudding all over the ceiling when the weight got blown off the old cooker:eek:

I hope that you have been having a good week with the children off school, my SIL posted on FB this morning that the boys were ready to go back to school, but I think that he meant that he was ready for them to go back:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

MM xx

baglady1

Hi Steph, long time lurker, first time poster here (and I mean first time poster ) Just wanted to say I admire your new sense of positivity & determination as before Xmas you seemed very down & in a bit of turmoil. The YNAB thingy really seems to be working for you - hang in there. I use a vaguely similar system of virtual pots/online accounts for squirreling away money. It works really well for us - even my husband is on board! All the best bl1

StressedSteph

maddiemay wrote: »

Hi Steph,
I've been reading and running, seem to have had a busier week than usual:D

So frustrating about the Barclays payment, I have been Internet banking for quite a while, but I am still paranoid about getting it wrong when setting up a new payment, I check it so many times:( and then waited with breath held until I find that it has arrived in the correct place. Don't beat yourself up, it is so easily done, especially when distracted.

I have taken delivery of a shiny new pressure cooker this morning, so am looking forward to cooking more :money: recipes and not buying cans of cooked beans etc in the future. I have owned them in the past, but really looking forward to using the new less volatile type:rotfl: I once had rice pudding all over the ceiling when the weight got blown off the old cooker:eek:

I hope that you have been having a good week with the children off school, my SIL posted on FB this morning that the boys were ready to go back to school, but I think that he meant that he was ready for them to go back:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

MM xx

Hi MM

Oooh very jealous about the pressue cooker, although i can remember my nan having one when I was a child and they always scared me abit :eek:. Expect they have come on abit since then, think it was mum talking about them exploding!!! Funny about the rice pudding :rotfl:What will you cook in it?

Quite enjoyed half term, wish the weather would have been abit better, but i guess it is still February.

Hope you are having a good weekend. x

baglady1 wrote: »

Hi Steph, long time lurker, first time poster here (and I mean first time poster ) Just wanted to say I admire your new sense of positivity & determination as before Xmas you seemed very down & in a bit of turmoil. The YNAB thingy really seems to be working for you - hang in there. I use a vaguely similar system of virtual pots/online accounts for squirreling away money. It works really well for us - even my husband is on board! All the best bl1

Hi Baglady (love your name :rotfl:)

Thanks so much for coming out of lurkdom. I do feel alot more in control now, I have sunk to the bottom so many times, that I started this diary so that I can look back and remind myself that I don't EVER want to feel like that ever again.

Please come back and post again. Tasmania sounds lovely. xxx

StressedSteph

Morning diary,

Did'nt post yesterday as was quite a busy day. Spent the day clearing our weeds from the polytunnel. Managed to clear half of it, will try to tackle the other half sometime next week. Ready to start planting then :j. Balanced my bank against YNAB. Paid B#rclays another £50 because of my mess up.
Will see how I am financially when S#ntander find my £100 payment that has gone walk-about. I might try to afford to pay that to B#rclays again. So will have paid £150 off against overdraft during February which would be nice.

Put my first monthly £100 into my Heating oil fund so that we don't have any future panics when the oil needs re-filling. It is such a big bill, at least £300 for 500 litres, which does'nt last long. So will be nice to have a Heating fund just sat there ready to draw on. Think we have enough to last us until the Spring, so the next Oil order should hopefully not be until Setember/October. If I put in £100 per month then I should have a nice pot of £800 ish that will get about 1500 litres put in the tank that might get us through the winter, meanwhile £100 pm will keep going in to build up that pot again. yay.

Allocated money to all my direct debts coming out this week and put £60 in groceries and filled our fuel and Fun money pots.
Just got to wait for Children Tax Credit to pay in this week, so that I can pay the mortgage and then thats all of Februarys bills paid.

I know that does'nt sound very amazing, but for us it is . We have also paid large amounts against our debts and collected around £180 into different savings pots. Doing well. :T

Had three friends over for dinner on Friday night, and ended up having to spend £10 on extra bits of food. Annoying but I don't do it very often so have allowed for it in the food category.

Might try to see if maybe I can only spend £50 on food this week to claw that back.

I received my cheque from the Water board £193 :T. Will bank that tomorrow and as soon as it clears I will make my final payment to Arg#s. I owe £215 but think I will find the missing £22 just to get rid of it :T. Alot of my Eb#y auctions ended last night, have made £75, just waiting for everyone to pay up but will package everything up today ready to post tomorrow.

Will pay that £75 against my next debt, Which I think is Barclayc#rd. It is a free listing weekend again, so added all my childrens Skylanders on which they never play with, so hopefully they may make around £50 next weekend. Just got to keep finding new stuff to list to keep these extra amounts coming in.

Think thats me up to date. Hope you are all having a great weekend.
xxx

debtfreeoneday

You're doing great. and goodbye to another debt. well done!

mizmir

Wow - you're doing brilliantly - well done on clearly the first debt. Big respect! And what a turn around to have money put away in pots etc. It is a great feeling isn't it? Even though we have had some unexpected expenses I still feel in control of things - as well as overpaying on the debts too. And so much is down to these forums and the support of pals like you! So thank you. :beer:

Good luck with the eBay stuff. Is it an invitation only free listing weekend or a general one? Have some stuff to sell but TBH think will have to leave it as I need to photograph etc. and time is ticking by! But hope it goes really well and you bring in even more than you are hoping for!

Ammeretto

Hi

just wanted to say that i think the turnaround from the beginning of your diary to now is FAB.

Im more of a lurker and rarely post but just wanted to say well done.

I also wanted to say thank you for introducing me to YNAB.
I LOVE spreadsheets and have a forecast budget up to 2020 (yes really :eek:) and i have had this for a long while (3 years or so), but even so i am still in a lot of debt.
Despite budgeting (forecasting) my income it never seems to clear.

I have just sat through 4 of the live online classes (unfortunately i didn't win a free copy of the software ) and i think its fab - Cant wait until payday so that i can budget my money.

33 days to go in my free trial but i think i will def have to budget for the £29.99 software cost.

StressedSteph

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

You're doing great. and goodbye to another debt. well done!

Thank you DFOD


This is my first debt to clear and I really can't wait. Off to bank the Water refund cheque this morning. Soon as it clears I will pay off Arg#s. Then I can put the £50 pm that Arg#s were getting into paying off the next one :T. Only a small debt but it feels like I am getting somewhere. Hope all is ok with you. hopefully when children go back to school tomorrow I might have more time to check out diaries

mizmir wrote: »

Wow - you're doing brilliantly - well done on clearly the first debt. Big respect! And what a turn around to have money put away in pots etc. It is a great feeling isn't it? Even though we have had some unexpected expenses I still feel in control of things - as well as overpaying on the debts too. And so much is down to these forums and the support of pals like you! So thank you. :beer:

Good luck with the eBay stuff. Is it an invitation only free listing weekend or a general one? Have some stuff to sell but TBH think will have to leave it as I need to photograph etc. and time is ticking by! But hope it goes really well and you bring in even more than you are hoping for!

Hi Miz,


The Ebay free listing was open to everyone, it has been on for the last two weekends, so keep a look out this weekend, it might be the same again.


Have drawn £96 out of Paypal this morning, hopefully if I have got postage correct then that will be £20, leaving me with £76.80 :T. Will hopefully pay that against my Barclayc#rd but want to make sure my mortgage goes out first then will pay whatever is left over.


Will be over to your diary later hopefully xx

Ammeretto wrote: »

Hi

just wanted to say that i think the turnaround from the beginning of your diary to now is FAB.

Im more of a lurker and rarely post but just wanted to say well done.

I also wanted to say thank you for introducing me to YNAB.
I LOVE spreadsheets and have a forecast budget up to 2020 (yes really :eek:) and i have had this for a long while (3 years or so), but even so i am still in a lot of debt.
Despite budgeting (forecasting) my income it never seems to clear.

I have just sat through 4 of the live online classes (unfortunately i didn't win a free copy of the software ) and i think its fab - Cant wait until payday so that i can budget my money.

33 days to go in my free trial but i think i will def have to budget for the £29.99 software cost.

Hi Ammeretto,


Thanks for coming out of lurkdom.
Sooo glad someone else likes YNAB. I has really changed things for me. With the "Give every Dollar a Job" moto, you really feel like money is spent so you can't just look at your bank balance and freely think you have all of that to spend.
Make sure you allocate yourself some FUN/PLAY money though as I firmly believe that as soon as you start to feel too deprived your budget won't last long before you blow it.


Before you pay for YNAB have a good search around, there are often really good deals. Mizmir found me a good deal when it was time to buy, through the MAC website for £18.99. Was worried it wouldn't work as I have a PC not MAC but it was fine.


Loads of luck with it. If you start up a diary please let me know otherwise please come back to see me again. xxx

StressedSteph

Morning,


Not a massive amount to report today. As I said in my previous post, I have drawn out my Eb#ay sales money this morning £96.
Take off £20 (Hopefully) for postage, then I have £76 left for putting against my Barclayc#rd. Going to wait until the end of the week when I have paid my mortgage though, I always get abit scared when it comes up to mortgage payment time, once that is paid then I will know whats left to put against my debt.

Hoping the Skylanders that I listed over the weekend do well. I have put 24 on Eb#ay starting at .99. even if they all sell for that it would be fine, although I can't bear to think of how much each one cost me new (At least £7 each :eek::(). and the children hardly played with them...aaarrggghhhh

Popping into town this morning with kids in tow to bank my Water cheque and post Eb#y parcels. Really want to go to Book#rs Cash & Carry to buy Soap Powder and Dishwasher Tablets but not sure if I can afford it. Might have to get a small cheapy pack of dishwasher tablets in my Mr T delivery and not totally out of soap powder yet, so might stall that.
Annoying that when you are poor you can't afford to take advantage of bulk cheap products. Grrrrrrr


Not much else going on, have balanced bank account against YNAB all bills (except Mortgage) are covered and as soon as I get my Children Tax Credit on Wed/Thurs then mortgage will be paid also. Nice to see a fully filled out month in my YNAB budget. £249 in savings :j


Hope you all have a good a Monday as possible. xxxx