Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

elfy1807

StressedSteph wrote: »

Hi Elfy,


Yes I have spread it over 12 months. Saves me £40 per month, although of course life in its wisdom hs just sent me an Email from my electricity supplier saying that I am £300 in Debit and they are upping my monthly Electricity Direct Debit by another £40. lol Typical. Save £40 then lose £40. Love it!!!


(Note to self - Must keep reminding kids to turn off lights...ggrrr)


I would really recommend a Facebook page. That is where I make all my sales. There is a paper crafter I have liked, who makes beach scenes out of paper with cute seagulls and beach huts etc. She frames them and sells them. Seems to always be busy.
I have no clue what Project Life is, will google that later.


Get crafting xxx

Hey hey.
Sorry I've not posted for a few days - weekends go out the window for me.

I had a feeling you might say Facebook.
I'm not a big fan of Facebook.
I deleted my account about 3 years ago because I was spending far too much time on there (although have since replaced that with spending too much time on twitter, and now too much time on forums haha) and I worry that if I have a facebook page for selling, I'll end up falling back into bad habits and sitting on there all day and night again =/

Absolutely typical about the £40 energy increase... but as someone else said - at least it's not £40 extra to be forking out each month.

I hope the craft fair goes well and that you've got a nice little pile of stock sorted for it... you have haven't you?? Hehe
And how are the DS games going on eb@y??

You're doing fantastic with your debt busting... B@rclays are getting a right kicking in the derriere and you will be done with them in no time.
Keep it up!!

StressedSteph

maddiemay wrote: »

Hi Steph

I hope that you have the sewing machine whirring away:D

Frosty and sunny start here this morning, need to get on and do some housework or gardening but not really in the mood for either:eek: This morning's post brought a summons for Jury service in May, whilst I accept the need to do my civic duty and I have done Coroners Jury when in Dorset, it is an absolute pain to get to, (over 50 miles return trip) so I am not a very happy bunny this morning:(

Feel as sick as a dog this morning too, so that doesn't help my mood. (Administers swift kick at own rear and goes off to get motivated)

I hope that you have a productive day.

MM xx

Hi MM


Yes the sewing machine HAS been whirring away this week, if only to avoid the embarrassment of having no stock to sell come Saturday, still only achieved 5 items so far haha. but got three others nearly finished so that's 8. I never have a big table so should be ok.


I always fancied doing jury service, especially if it was a juicy case. Is that just me being weird??.


Hope you are feeling better now.
xxx

chanie wrote: »

Steph, you have had such a super March, well done.

Hi chanie,
Sorry I haven't been over to FMG's thread recently. Promise to look in after I have gotten past this crazy week.
Thanks for the kind words about my March debt battling. If every month turns out this good then I will be happy x

elfy1807 wrote: »

Hey hey.
Sorry I've not posted for a few days - weekends go out the window for me.

I had a feeling you might say Facebook.
I'm not a big fan of Facebook.
I deleted my account about 3 years ago because I was spending far too much time on there (although have since replaced that with spending too much time on twitter, and now too much time on forums haha) and I worry that if I have a facebook page for selling, I'll end up falling back into bad habits and sitting on there all day and night again =/

Absolutely typical about the £40 energy increase... but as someone else said - at least it's not £40 extra to be forking out each month.

I hope the craft fair goes well and that you've got a nice little pile of stock sorted for it... you have haven't you?? Hehe
And how are the DS games going on eb@y??

You're doing fantastic with your debt busting... B@rclays are getting a right kicking in the derriere and you will be done with them in no time.
Keep it up!!

Hi Elfy,


I know FB can be evil, but you can't beat its usefulness when trying to sell things. I also cancelled my old account as I got addicted, but somehow this time round I haven't been so bad. Not sure why though.


Hehe I have got some stock, not masses but then each item ranges from £9.50 - £20, so if I can sell even 5 items them I will class that as a success.


Anything I don't sell can go down to the shop that stocks my items.


My debt busting has been abit boring these last couple of weeks in March, but hopeful that the DS games that finish this Saturday might provide me something to pay against Barclayc#rd. It WILL be gone in April fingers crossed


xxxx

StressedSteph

Morning Debt busters,


Sorry been abit quiet on here, I have so much going on in my life at the moment that I am barely holding it together.


Here's my list :-


Frantically sewing/making crafts for Saturday Craft Fair
Vice chairing school PTFA, making up tonnes of flyers etc for school events.
Managing polytunnel / Veg plot (watering / planting seeds etc)
Helping set up a village Ladies club (abit like a W.I.)
Trying to keep on top of housework / washing etc etc
Looking after the farm
Husbands clerical work as he is self employed


Phew it doesn't read like much, but my poor house is in a state that it hasn't been in for a long time and I just don't seem to ever catch up with it.


I enjoy being busy, but this is silly.


No debt busting news to report. Balanced bank against YNAB this morning and all is fine, just a couple of budgeted direct debits come out and that's all.


I might ring the mortgage company in a minute to see if I can sort out a Direct Debit date with them. That is one big outstanding financial problem I haven't tackled yet.
I paid them a couple of days ago, so they should have my March payment now so feel I can call them and they won't moan too much at me hehe.


I have to go into my childrens school at 1.15pm to help them with some DT work. They are making cardboard forms of transport in school, and all parents have been asked to come in and help their childrens decorate and test their models. Not really what I need on an incredibly busy week but I can't let them down. So only half a day today. Feel like I may be tidying or craft making into the night


That's about all for today. Lots of Fleabay items finishing the weekend, so Hopeful that I can get my Barclayc#rd debt into the £200 before the end of March. Will make killing it off a lot easier in April as want to start on Next before they get on my case again.


Hope you are all well.
Speak soon xx

StressedSteph

Ok just spoken to Santand#r my mortgage company and it didn't go as simply as I would have liked .


My old direct Debit used to be the 1st of every month.


That got cancelled due to my inability to pay on time . So currently I have been just making the payment at some point during the month, which always ends up being the last week. Thankfully not incurring any charges or defaults as long as they receive it before the new months starts.


I was hoping that they could just change my direct debit date to the 28th of every month, and accepting that that would probably add abit of extra interest to my account but at least I would get it sorted.:).


Well the man on the phone said that to change my date I would have to pay £701.34 on the 1st April, and then pay £701.34 again on the 28th April to start the new Direct Debit date.


Not a chance that I can afford to pay my mortgage twice in one month!!! So apparently I can go on as I am until I can afford to meet my 1st of the month payment and then I can change the date, which is ridiculous, because If I could afford the 1st of every month, then I wouldn't need to change the date .


I guess in effect I was asking for a month off and mortgage companies are not keen on that.


Oh well. I suppose I could stop debt busting for 1 month and that would help me catch up, but I REALLY don't want to do that.


I will have to go away and have a think. Never simple is it!!

debtfreewannabe321

Oh pants! What rubbish news, but it's not the end of the world, perhaps you could put off debt busting just for one month to sort all of the household things out (Mortgage!) and then pick up where you left off? I think that's what I'd be tempted to do and try and make extra sales in that awkward change over month with crafts and send DH out to do extra jobs and use that extra income to put towards the debts? Hope you can work round it xx

maddiemay

Oh that is a blow, but I think I am with DFW321 on this. I know it upsets the plans that you have made, but it will be one less pressure on you once the mortgage is back in line again and you are not worrying about perhaps missing the payment.

Keep plodding on, even if you do have to re-schedule slightly, with your present determination I am sure you will find a way of catching back:D

misstara

Morning Steph, just been catching up with your diary and I'm inclined to agree with DFW321 and maddiemay. Although I know you don't want to put debt-busting on hold, it might be worth it just for a month to get the mortgage sorted out. It also means you would then get the cashback from being on a direct debit

StressedSteph

Thank you for replying DFW, MM & MissTara,


Must admit to not wanting to see you agreeing with putting the debt busting on hold . I will have to wait a while anyway as I still have to make my minimum payments which add up to about £800 pm, so I am only really over-paying around £300 pm.
It will be a while before I can afford to pay the mortgage on the1st. .


super annoyed this morning about something else, and even more annoying is that it is all my fault :mad:.


I got my Mobile phone Direct Debit this morning and it was £48!!!.


It is usually about £30 per month, so I logged on to see why it was so expensive.


You might remember that in February I made a mistake paying Barlc#ys online and my £100 went missing. Well I had to spend a long time on an 0845 number to them to try and sort it out. Well stupidly it looks like I called them from my mobile, Probably not realising that I would be stuck on the phone for nearly 1 hour. That call cost me £18 :eek:.
I am so mad at myself for not thinking of looking for a cheaper way to call them ,or even maybe using the home phone which as bound to be cheaper than the mobile. Grrrrrrrrr


Not much else to report today. Lots of bids going on my Ebay items so hopefully I might be able to make a debt payment this weekend. I hope so as it won't be until at least the 2-3rd week in April before I can afford to start paying debts again.


Bad day

debtfreewannabe321

:grouphug:Big hugs sounds like you need some, hope things pick up for you xx

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Hugs from me too!

We're all entitled to bad days. Don't beat yourself up about the phone bill hun - it's certainly not the end of the world. Annoying that you need to find an unexpected £18 - but it could have been a LOT worse. I'm sure we've all been there at some point or another. Stupid companies and their stupid expensive phone lines!!

I hope you manage to come to some kind of agreement with the mortgage.

Just keep reminding yourself of how amazingly well you're doing. £1120 paid off in a month?! That is INCREDIBLE. You deserve major props for that.

And good luck with the ebay sales - hopefully you get a decent revenue from the ending items. I'm not having much luck with ebay lately!

Try and keep your chin up. Big hugs! xx