Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

mizmir

Go Steph! You are doing so well! Don't let yourself be disheartened by BC or any of the small set backs - your trajectory is set and those debts are coming down! :T

StressedSteph

Thanks guys. I persevered with Barcl#ys and finally got it resolved. amazing what difference it makes having a helpful person on the end of the line. Its such pot luck though.
So finally I can put that paperwork away and not worry about forgetting to chase it up.


Thanks for the tip MM, wish I had thought about that because I was on the line for exactly 1 hour in the end :mad:. Will be interesting to see how much that costs me. All my fault really though, so can't kick up too much of a stink.


Feel much better now the children have new trainers. Of course I got home and Ds informs me that his wellies have a hole in them :mad:, so will have to factor in new ones for him next time I am in town.


Thanks for words of encouragement, it really felt quite enlightening to ACTUALLY go in a shop and find a bargain deal for something we need, rather than being soooo broke that the catalogue is the only option and spend probably £45 on a pair of trainers :eek:. It might cost me more NOW but saves me so much in the long run.


Such a steep learning curve to get off the credit impulses, but feel like I am winning xx

Shelski_2

Hi, have just spent time reading your diary through from the beginning and its been fab to see the change in your mindset. May have to look up this YNAB for myself. Have subscribed

StressedSteph

Shelski wrote: »

Hi, have just spent time reading your diary through from the beginning and its been fab to see the change in your mindset. May have to look up this YNAB for myself. Have subscribed

Hi Shelski

Thank you so much for taking the time to read all my diary. I must find the time to look back to the beginning, because I feel so much more in control and optimistic than I know I felt in the beginning.
Think I just could'nt beleive that I was back at rock bottom, yet again.

I'm not one to usually advocate having to pay for something to help you save money, But YNAB has been a REAL life changer for me. totally changed the way I deal with our money and its the first time I have actually managed to save at the same time as debt busting and i am sure that this will be the big difference for us this time round. We have never managed to build up a savings pot before.

I am just waiting now for "sods Law" to come into play, this will probably happen when our two vehicles need MOT'ing in July. I have already decided that I will actively manage without the car until we save the money to fix it if it needs alot of work. Even though it will mean walking the children 2 miles to school, it will be the summer so not too bad. I will NOT destroy our birthday and Christmas savings pots for ANYTHING.

Anyway, enough babble from me, do you have a diary Shelski? Let me know if you do.

xxxx

StressedSteph

Morning Dear Diary.


Had a stroke of luck last night. I had a request for a Buy it Now option on a Pair of John Deere Overalls that Ds had grown out of. Most went for around £10 so requested that and sold them :T.

Posted them this morning, but paid for postage out of some cash I had in my purse, so when I got home, I immediately paid another £13 off my Barclayc#rd. Total is now £644.

Going to stalk round the house today looking for more to sell.

Abit annoyed at the Ebay fees that sneak up on you. I should really have left that £13 in the bank to cover those costs, but REALLY wanted to make another payment so will have to fit the fees in somewhere.

Not much to report today, got sewing commitments to complete but also REALLY want to be out in the polytunnel sowing seeds.
Also got a friend coming over at 11 which I don't really have time for, but she is having a hard time at the moment so don't have the heart to put her off. She is quite good though and only stays for about 1 hour.

Hope you all manange to soak up abit of sunshine at some point today, we need to grab it while we can

maddiemay

Good morning Steph

Great news on the overalls (my brother sells JD machinery - so niece and 2 nephews as well as other brother are always kitted out in their stuff):D

I have never fathomed out selling on *bay, but am sure that I read on a post here the other day that someone worked out their charges from an on-site calculator and then transferred the excess to their bank account, might be worth a look.

Would your friend be up for taking a couple of chairs and the coffee into the PT and chatting while you worked?, she might even offer to help:) Whichever, it is great that she has you for support, can't beat friendship, my bestie has stuck with me for about 40 years no matter what troubles I have had (and me for her too of course).

MM xx

mfmaybe

Steph, the fees are often quite simple to work out. PayPal gives you the balance net of their fees so ignore that. Then any normal auctions are just 10% of the final value INCLUDING postage. So if you sell for £5 plus £2 p+p the fee will be 70p. I've set up a quick spreadsheet to keep track, the only complexity is buy-it-now/fixed price listings but I've been trying to use free listings. I'm trying to use FB first though, as no fees at all, but of course a smaller audience.

Well done on the Barclaycard, these small debts are falling away fast and the snowball will really start to kick in soon.

StressedSteph

maddiemay wrote: »

Good morning Steph

Great news on the overalls (my brother sells JD machinery - so niece and 2 nephews as well as other brother are always kitted out in their stuff):D

I have never fathomed out selling on *bay, but am sure that I read on a post here the other day that someone worked out their charges from an on-site calculator and then transferred the excess to their bank account, might be worth a look.

Would your friend be up for taking a couple of chairs and the coffee into the PT and chatting while you worked?, she might even offer to help:) Whichever, it is great that she has you for support, can't beat friendship, my bestie has stuck with me for about 40 years no matter what troubles I have had (and me for her too of course).

MM xx

Hi MM


I have a love / hate relationship with @bay, Its nice while it is going well, but get one bad buyer or a parcel going missing and then it gets REALLY annoying. Especially when you have paid that money against a debt, and then you have to find the money again to re-pay someone :mad:. Not happened yet, so hopefully I am doing ok.


Its such a tonic to have a close friend that you can talk frankly to. I have two friends, this one that visited today and 1 other that I can talk about my money problems completely honestly, no holds barred. It is really nice to be able to talk about it and them also admit to struggling. doesn't solve any problems but it shares the burden.


She did help me out abit though. I have my household insurance tied up with my smallholding public liability etc. She advised me that it is ALOT cheap the do a comparison website search and just insure the house. And then get a separate smallholding insurance for the building and animals.


Will look into this. Not sure when my current super expensive NFU insurance runs out. But will definitely put this on my TO DO list.

mfmaybe wrote: »

Steph, the fees are often quite simple to work out. PayPal gives you the balance net of their fees so ignore that. Then any normal auctions are just 10% of the final value INCLUDING postage. So if you sell for £5 plus £2 p+p the fee will be 70p. I've set up a quick spreadsheet to keep track, the only complexity is buy-it-now/fixed price listings but I've been trying to use free listings. I'm trying to use FB first though, as no fees at all, but of course a smaller audience.

Well done on the Barclaycard, these small debts are falling away fast and the snowball will really start to kick in soon.

Hi mfmaybe


Thanks loads for your help with the @bay fees. I think I will start a spread sheet for this, as even though I am throwing all the profits to the debts, I am short changing my bank account abit when the fees come out .


I can't wait for the [EMAIL="Barclayc@rd"]Barclayc@rd[/EMAIL] debt to go.


My next debt will be my Co-op Credit card. My Balance on that with be around £1500.


Snowballing though will be this:-


Arg#s payment £50
Barclayc#rd Payment £192
Co-op min Payment £100.00


So that will be a monthly payment of at least £340. :T
That equals out to 4.5 months to pay it off. That's without all the extra bits I will pay off against it


Feeling really positive about it all. I have never had this much success at debt busting.


I am currently knocking 1k per month off the debt, if I can keep this up then I will be well under 10k outstanding debt by the end of the year :j.


that would feel amazing and make killing of the rest in 2014 a real possibility.


xxxx

Shelski_2

Mine is called debt free by 40, believe it or not , lol but I didn't reach it! However I am still 40 and hope to have more paid off by the time 41 comes around. It didn't help that we have had to pay for dd braces to time of £3000. Have managed to pay at 0% but had to commit to clearing it in 12 months or they would have charged interest so that's another £250. Not too bad as I paid off a £400 a month loan as this one started, but I really wanted that money for snowballing. Have managed to transfer 3.5 ccs onto a 0% card though. Just waiting for dh car loan to finish next month and I can start to snowball that instead about £350.
Hope you enjoy the sunshine , it's beautiful here

Chrysalis1976

Hi Steph, going great with all the sales - not sure if you are aware but in your seller account on eb*y it adds up your fees as things are sold therefore you will automatically know how much you need to either keep in your paypal pot or pay off when the statement is ready.

It should always be up to date so no nasty surprises.

C x