Getting Down to Brass Razoos

AuctionFever

Tuesday Afternoon 22 April 2014
Dear Diary,

First post ever! Have decided to do a 'debt free diary' to help tackle the quite nasty load of credit card and personal loan debt that has 'happened' to us.

I need to do a bit of scary investigating and paperwork-finding before I can report back and lay out the situation.

Beyond that, I want to put a budget in place and also begin to plan a move of house... possibly to Northern France!

My motivation comes from wanting my now 9yo son to experience having a home with a large and beautiful garden. My own parents bought a weekend home like this when I was his age, and the memories and magic of that place are some of my lifetime favorites. It was a half-acre block in the Dandenongs, in Victoria, Australia. It had been landscaped in the 1930s with winding pathways and a tiny Swiss chalet to stay in. There were mature camelias, rhododendrons, azaleas, waratahs, japanese maples, bamboo, bulbs, little red and white polka-dot mushrooms, ivies, & gum trees in the bush surrounding it. Miss dreadfully... no garden at all here (top floor flat).

I can't imagine moving back to Australia in the near future, OR affording anything like that here in the UK, but looking at properties in France, it suddenly seems MAYBE possible, and a sense of urgency is rising to effect this change in our lives sooner than later.

FIRST though I gotta lotta work to do.

Off to do the school run... then must put the house in order a little to make finding all these statements and things remotely likely.

tatafornow

Igamogam

I will read with interest. Good luck!

AuctionFever

Wednesday Morning, 23 April 2014
Dear Diary,

Gathered together all debt totals last night, and even found a lever-arch file with dividers to organise statements:A

SO... here goes, the situation as it stands:
Credit card A: £2551.44
Credit card B: £1301.29
Credit card C: £8740.87
Personal Loan: £18055.73
Family Loan: £5000.00
Total: £35649.33 :eek:

CC 'A' is at a horrible interest rate, so that will be my first priority. May have to think about a transfer, but half feel the motivation of getting that one done and dusted with some FAST ACTION will be a boost to my energy levels. The PL was actually 15K, but I've included the interest. Paying off early has no penalty, so if we can, that can be significantly less... also motivating. The family loan is not urgent currently, but as I read somewhere, it is these that charge the most 'emotional interest'. I think a good way to approach the latter might be to put aside amounts into a separate account that can double as an emergency fund, but hopefully build up to the full 5K alongside everything else.

It is something of a relief to have looked the amounts in the eye, and made the decision to 'do this thing'. The total is not as alarming to me as the short space of time it accrued in... it was only about a year... some of it sensible spending and much of it probably not. Well... if I can succeed with this, I'll know the French property will definitely be possible... heck that it is quite a good deposit if it was in the black not the red!!

So today I'm going to do the usual house tidy-up and then begin some 'real work'... which for me is selling antiques and vintiques online. I have a nice piece photographed and ready to go, which I'll hopefully finish by school-run time. MSE-wise, my next step is the budget planner. Scary. It has been great to begin to read some of the other diaries on here, really glad to have taken the plunge too.

tatafornow

AuctionFever

Thursday afternoon, 24 April 2014
Dear Diary,
Well finally got auction finished, scheduled to begin tonight. Should fetch at least £100, hopefully a little more School term time always seems to slow down my listings for a week or two... I think it is to do with recovering from the holidays! Next week I need to get back to my usual 21-or-so lots.
Have begun keeping grocery shopping receipts... I know this is our worst area for overspending. We're both guilty of it. My OH does sneaky drop-ins to the supermarket most afternoons after work, I think partly to be the hunter-gatherer and partly because he is always starving at that time of day! I am partial to dine-in deals and we both ADORE red wine.
I know getting to our debt-free target will have to be a mixture of me working more AND frugality, and I've noticed I've been making better choices since joining here. We found a 2 for £7 steak deal for tonight which will do all three of us, and we had most of the things already in the fridge for a creamy peppercorn mushroom sauce, and a nice green salad. YUMMY yum. Also, have found a VERY drinkable shiraz at £4. Am realising how fortunate I am to have one of the now best low price supermarkets near my school run. I don't drive, but this is within walking (and occasional taxi) distance.
9yo has to dress-up as a Greek this week... found a jersey white sheet at £!D£s this morning for £3 for toga... will spray-paint an old pair of sandals to make them more antique-looking, and have a leaf hair band that is going to top off the outfit beautifully as a 'laurel' wreath :T Even have an old wooden discus somewhere which might make a good kind of clutch prop.

tatafornow