DFW journey starts today

twiggy86

Just checked my bank and spotted that my £5 reward had gone in, so that's now been shuffled off to the CC. Inching closer to sub £3k!

twiggy86

Ok so I've had quite a big bombshell recently which I'm trying to get my head around, but I'm determined to not knock me off my MSE perch!

Short version - I'm adopted and been not very actively searching for my birth mother. Years ago I put my birth details on a contact register and recently someone sent me some information about my BM and now I actually have an address for her and have found her profile on FB so have seen a picture of her. All happened very fast and I don't know what to make of it yet. She can never find me as there's no paper trail between my birth name and the name I have now. So this means I can take things at my own pace and decide what I really want - you'd think I'd know as been "searching" for years but in reality I never thought I'd find her as up to now the trail goes cold at 2005. Ok not such a short version!

But anyway... received a HUGE £9.09 from Music Magpie so that's gone off the CC, along with another £30. So now only £39.98 away from being under £3k! Also added £10 to EF and £10 to house renovation pot. Just waiting on money from Zapper which will only be about £10, plus about £5ish from eBay sales so far.

twiggy86

Feels like I had a very productive weekend! Stripped the wallpaper in the living room and ripped out an old cupboard and the whole room feels so different already! We will plaster and paint white but no more than that for now as plan to extend off the living room once we have the money (hopefully next year), but it will freshen it up for now as it is where we spend the most time.

Lodger came back for the weekend. Paid me the £100 he owed and cooked us a lovely roast lamb yesterday, so there's loads left over and he gave me a £7.66 money off coupon for Mr T!

In addition to the extra £100, I helped a party yesterday so earnt an extra £25. So I need to decide how to allocate the money, but one thing is for certain I will be using it to take me under the £3k marker! Annoyingly the bits I relisted on eBay didn't sell, so will have to try again and may put them on FB. I also have to take a cake stand back to Mr T (only wanted it for my friends baby shower and don't really want it taking up space in the cupboards!) so that's another £10 to come back to me. Plus still waiting on the money from Zapper. One of my jobs today is to list some bits on eBay for my boss as she has said I can have 10% of whatever she makes, so fingers crossed they sell better than my bits!

So I feel quite positive at the moment as got quite a few extras at the moment!

twiggy86

Went to the bank at lunch so put the money in the bank. I used £75 towards the CC and £25 towards the house pot. I was naughty and decided to use £20 that I earnt yesterday to put £10 to my clothes pot and £10 to my holiday pot (couldn't pay the £5 in as it was in coins but I will pay it in at some point and not just spend it on something!)

I feel naughty using it towards myself but my reasoning was this - OH owes me money which means that he is paying back that debt rather than the CC debt, so why not use it on myself when its mainly me paying off the CC. I now feel the need to defend him - he does spend money out of his own pocket to pay towards the house renovation and puts in a lot of hard work, but the simple fact is that he is rubbish with money!

twiggy86

And how could I forget...

Total debts are now under the £3k mark!!! :j:j:j

twiggy86

My signature on 16(ish) September was:-
LBM 16.10.14 - CC - £6,652.68 - now £3,401.87
OD - £480.52 - now £0 Next - £436.48 - now £0
Beds - £1,667.00 - now £0 Parents - £626.96 - now £0
TOTAL - £9,863.64 - now £3,401.87 £1,000 EF #31 - £434.01/£1,000 Pay off by xmas 2015 #49 £4,886.05/£5,000 Mortgage overpayments £200

My signature as of today is:-
LBM 16.10.14 - CC - £6,652.68 - now £2,964.79
OD - £480.52 - now £0 :j Next - £436.48 - now £0 :j
Beds - £1,667.00 - now £0 :j Parents - £626.96 - now £0 :j
TOTAL - £9,863.64 - now £2,964.79 £1,000 EF #31 - £554.01/£1,000 Pay off by xmas 2015 #49 £5,323.13/£5,000 Mortgage overpayments £300

This means that in the last month I've paid off £437.08 and overpaid my mortgage by another £100!

However this also means that in a year I have cleared £6,898.85 worth of debt!:j In total I've paid off £7,254.91 once you take into account the interest and fees I've paid. I think that is pretty good going for someone who's never budgeted before! :j

I just can't wait to get this last bit (okay quite a big bit!) of debt gone!

monz

You are doing amazing!!!x

twiggy86

Thanks Monz!

We are decorating the living room at the moment meaning my whole house is a mess and dusty! Driving me mad but pleased we're getting on with things again as a lack of funds has really stalled progress! Plan is to extend the living room at some point so we're just plastering the walls and painting and will get a carpet cleaner to give the 20+ year old carpet a deep clean! Then it can stay as it is until we have funds to do the extension.

Exciting news - mum and dad are getting us a new washing machine as an early xmas present! Ours sounds like its going to take off and the neighbours have actually complained about me doing washing in the morning as they can hear it! Oops!

Had to have a chat with OH last night about money as I don't feel he's pulling his weight but its difficult as he does pay for building materials etc which I don't see. However I think I got through to him that he needs to pay me back what he owes me quicker as whilst he's paying me back, he's not paying off our debts.

I'm helping at a party on Saturday and Sunday so that will earn me an extra £50 which I've decided (in light of the above) to spend on myself! Well I'll probably put it into my pots for clothes or hen do, but something for me anyway.

There's also some surplus in the bills account which I need to decide what to do with - pay it off CC or move it into the house renovation account. No way I'll meet my target of £1,000 in the house fund by xmas as there's currently under £70 in there! :rotfl: Do I put it towards the CC to try to meet my target (still £964.79 to go!) or try and get the house done?! Arghggh - decisions, decisions!

AleMrsT

Hi Twiggy. Sorry I've not stopped by for a while, I wrote out a huge reply a few days ago then accidentally deleted it and then I got really annoyed and closed the whole page!
Anyway, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!! :beer: You've made such amazing progress in a year!! :T_party_ :dance:

For me the logical thing to do would be to put spare joint account money to the 'house' pot, as the joint bills are for the house, so this makes the most sense to me. But perhaps the most MSE thing to do is put it towards the debt, because once thats paid, you can put all of your spare money towards the house to get the renovations done.... hhmm. I'm sorry I've not really helped at all! :rotfl:

Good news about the washing machine, the last time I bought a washing machine I spent so long researching what kind to get, in the end I opted for the quietest with the largest drum size, as I lived in a flat with an open plan kitchen/living room. This was when I was with my ex, when we split up and sold the flat, my parents had the washing machine. Now I wish I'd kept my machine instead of the one we currently have that is my OH's from his old house, as its SOO loud! We now live in an open plan flat, and I really miss my quiet LG washing machine. Simple things and all that!

Bobarella

Hi Twiggy
Just catching up. That's big news about your birth mother. Have you come to any decisions on what you may do next?
Bob