The 300k debt-free diary!!!

hypno06

Hi PP, I hope you managed to get everything done to your high standards before you leave! I am sure it all looks beautiful!

Have a fab time x

lunar

Hope you have had a great time away, just wanted to pop on and say happy birthday. really hope you have a great day.

:bdaycake: :bdaycake: :bdaycake:

Enjoy the meal out if thats what you decided to do in the end. got to go as there is glitter all over the house from my friends children, cant take my eyes off them for a second.

hypno06

Happy birthday x

danthemoneysavingman

Hello,
searched your thread and found no mention, and no idea if you could do it, but have you considered stoozing to get your debt down further, quicker?
You already have the credit card debt to stooze with, would require you getting another 0% BT card (each?). Sorry if this has been covered already, just trying to help...
DtMSM

lunar

Hi Panda

Hope everything is ok with you, I was just checking in to see if you were back from your break. hope you had a good time.

Lunar

pandapaws

Hi everyone!

Thanks so much for the birthday messages, and sorry I've disappeared off the face of the earth for the past age!

We DID manage to get the house clean (well, clean enough!), but it took until quite literally the last second, and we were on a mission to get it done! But it was lovely to come home to a clean house - shame it never stays that way for long!

Dublin was fantastic. Ate (but not drank for once!) far too much and spent far too much money, although I'm now not entirely sure what on? We went to the cinema, which we haven't done for about 8 years, not once, but twice! Due to our lack of interest in films generally, we hadn't heard of any of them, so took the cashier's advice - first night we saw a film about one man's struggle to escape a Vietnamese POW camp (Rescue Dawn - she described it as 'action/adventure'!), the second night we watched a film about an old folk's home (How About You - 'a feel good movie'!!!). So a bit bizarre, but really good fun! Hotel was a bit crap considering it was supposed to be luxury, but I've just reported this on Holiday Watchdog and earned my £2 through TCB, so a bit happier about that!

Parents arrived, stayed and departed safely despite GNER's best efforts. Think that might be the first and last time they visit on the train! Have since heard GNER have gone bust, but I'm almost certain that wasn't my mother's fault!

Then it was my B'day - had a really nice day but AGAIN spent too much. DH excelled himself by getting me the all-singing-all-dancing Dualit red enamel 6 slice toaster I've been coveting for about the past 4 years. I told him off as it was far too expensive, but it was the best thing he could have bought. Yeah, I know, I'm sad! He also bought me some nice face stuff, and parents/inlaws gave me some money, so I went out and treated myself to new boots (£25 in sale!) and a MASSIVE load of clothes from the Next Clearance shop, most reduced to £1 each - £17 bought 12 tops and a pair of maternity trousers! I normally hate Next, but I love their clearance shops when they've got stuff at those prices!

Had another viewer on our house the day after parents left, who loved it, but they've just put theirs on the market for half a million, so not expecting anything in a hurry from them. We went for a 2nd viewing on the house we want to buy, so my parents could come along for a nosey, and reaffirmed that we absolutely MUST get it! Slight reassurance that the viewing agent said he hasn't shown anyone else round it since we saw it last time, but I won't be happy until we've signed and got the keys - will it ever happen?! No interest at all in the fact that we've dropped our price (new viewers have a MUCH higher budget), which completely reaffirms me that it was never the price in the first place that was wrong.

Went to London for a family day out - DS's first time on a train! Had another really good but extremely expensive day out. Was a bit disappointed with Harrod's Santa. It was blatantly obvious that he's a real boyish-boy, trains, cars, planes, aminals, dinosaurs etc, but he gave him a Beauty & the Beast sticker book! DS wasn't impressed either - was rather traumatised by the experience!

My leave from work finishes this weekend and I'm back either Monday or Tues - I should really check when! DH is off work for another couple of weeks yet. He's disappeared today for a stag night, but it's more of a 'get-together' with his more civilized friends, so hopefully he'll be back at a reasonable time tomorrow without too much of a hangover!

I'm therefore having a quiet day at home, with (for the first time in about a fortnight!) nothing that I need to do, so going to spend a while catching up on everyone else's threads.

Going to also work out how naughty we've been with money over the past few weeks and whether or not there's any chance whatsoever of being sub-80k by Christmas - doubt it very much! All spending has gone on my charge card and has to be paid off in Jan - just need to work out how much and how to pay it back!

Hope everyone has had a good couple of weeks and not missed my over-opinionated rantings too much!!! See you all in your own diaries!

chocaholic110

Welcome back! sounds like you've had a good time, all things considered but Booo! to the rubbish Santa. You'd think Harrods should be able to do a better job than that!

pandapaws

Wow, that was long! But it did cover 2 weeks, so I'll let myself off this time!

I forgot to mention that we got hit with a bill for £515 yesterday for our 2nd car's MOT.:mad:

Not the car's fault really - £50 for the MOT test, £120 for major annual service, £200 for a new windscreen (DH got a huge stone chip that cracked badly a fortnight ago, so unavoidable but anoying!), so that's the vast majority of it. Things that needed mending were £100ish new exhaust (which we've known we needed for ages but been putting off), and the rest (about £40ish) was all it actually cost to rectify the few things that were the minor MOT failure problems - some sort of corroded suspension link, plus the usual new bulbs, windscreen wipers etc.

So the faithful old Mazda lives to see another year. Not bad, since we only paid £350 for it a year ago as a temp replacement 'Disposable Car' when our financed car broke down. When it was fixed, we sold the expensive one and kept the 200,000mile 1997 Mazda instead, but didn't expect to get another year out of it!

pandapaws

chocaholic110 wrote: »

Welcome back! sounds like you've had a good time, all things considered but Booo! to the rubbish Santa. You'd think Harrods should be able to do a better job than that!

I know! The grotto in Doncaster Frenchgate at least give out a wrapped pressie with a set of little cars in it (albeit crappy Poundland-style ones, but kids don't care!). AND despite booking we had to queue for ages in sweltering airless corridor, just to get a book and a badge, then pay £12 for some photos at the end of it!

Oi, Al Fayed! Sort it out!!!

themaccas

HI Pandapaws
Just read your diary and I can really sympathise with your situation. We too would like to move but there's not a chance of selling at the moment cos the market is sooo slow. We have kept our property on the EA's books 'discreet marketing', basically they have kept details but are not advertising, sending people round, no for sale board etc and we will try again in the Spring. We've done this to avoid paying for a HPI:o .

Good luck with your pregnancy and your debt-free journey, it's hard trying to devote as much money as possible to your debt while continuing to have a life especially at this time of year.