Last few steps of my journey need somewhere to keep focused

Pollygarter

Yes I think it will take time. Its a grieving process same as losing anybody. If you share your life with a living personality for decades it would be unnatural not to feel the loss. I used to see my boy around the house in his favourite spots for months. Then when I looked again he wasn't there of course. It unnerved me initially and then it was a comfort and gradually it faded and now we can laugh about him in his prime. He trained my children and dogs to respect him utterly. It always makes the kids laugh to hear the story of his jaws being firmly clamped on Son no. 2s head when he was about three and being "tutored" in how to behave. Nobody was ever seriously hurt but you get the picture! Shocking cat, loved him. Be kind to yourself and don't brush away your feelings because it is "just" an animal. Your feelings are yours.

LastFewSteps

Thank you for your post Polly,
Your boy sounds like a real character !
Mine trained the dogs too, they learnt after a few swipes across the nose that it would never be playtime with a cat and I was trained to be her personal slave
funny little animals, they steal your heart

themarsbargirl

:hello: I read your diary last night but wanted to be a bit more awake to talk to you

You're doing really well with fighting your debt, I do have a couple questions though;

1) Do you 'snowball'? It reads as though you spread your extra payments over all the cards and if you snowball it may help you to clear debt quicker.
2) I hear you with the rural living and diesel...have you tried driving more fuel efficiently? I dropped to 60 on the dual carriageway going to work and started saving 1/4 of my petrol bill every week!

Have you thought about planting a tree or something in your cats memory?

Good luck hun!
xxxx

LastFewSteps

Hi marsbargirl,
I'm not sure what snowball means, I have read it on some of the diaries but haven't had a chance to look it up yet,
what I do is this, make the minimum payments or slightly more to each debt every month, I also have one debt that I'm focusing on at that time, so ive just cleared CC1, now next to be tackled are CC2 and catalogue 1, they both have the minimum payment paid and any extra money I get during the month is paid straight to catalogue 1, at the end of the month I will clear the balances on payday, then go straight to CC3, any "savings" I make after paying off each debt is put towards the next one, does that make sense ?

I've just had the enjine oil changed and I think that's also made a big difference to the fuel, I think the main problem is that the school run takes me through a couple of villages and then town so all the stop starts aren't good, I do drive alot slower though

I think I will definitely do something for my cat when we move, she used to love sitting on a chair in the garden when I was out there, she would never go into the garden without me, I was really looking forward to moving and getting a bigger garden and sitting out there with her again and seeing how she would like the grass (we didn't have grass at home) so while that upsets me when I think about it I still would like to do something so that she's with me in the garden when we move, if you know what I mean

Thanks for your suggestions

themarsbargirl

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Hey, this is the snowball calculator I use (and I think most others do).
The basic premise is to pay the highest interest rate first and then the next highest etc. It also tells you when your DFD is and if you redo it every month or so when you've made extra payments over what you tell it you put to debt you can see the DFD creeping closer and closer.

HTH

LastFewSteps

Oh right, so its kind of like what I do in my book just with pen and paper, I drive dh nuts because I'm not very technical and he does everything electronically
Thanks for that I will have a look at it, it may save me paper in my book

themarsbargirl

np, hope it's of some help to you

LastFewSteps

Good day today

No more payments made but tomorrow I should have enough SB points for my next £5
Dh car went to garage this morning, got to leave it there over weekend and hopefully it will be ready on Tuesday and not cost a fortune, cross everything tightly

took kids to indoor play place that allows teenagers after 5pm, well at least that's what the woman on the phone said ! We arrived at 5 to be told that they close at 5 for parties ! Little annoyed to say the least !! don't know why I bother phoning that's the second time now !

Out all day at sports tournament tomorrow and Monday taking a picnic and leaving my purse at home so no spends apart from the entrance fee

Need to list my next ebay lot at some point too

Film with the family tonight, kids choice

themarsbargirl

arrrgh that's so annoying!

I'm determined to get to £5 on swagbucks today as well, been doing SBTV all day cuz I ate all the surveys.

LastFewSteps

What a busy bank holiday, I am shattered
My boys had their sport tournament all weekend ! I would really like to have another bank holiday now so I can get over this one
Only spend Sunday was £3 entrance fee to the tournament, took a picnic so didn't need to buy anything

Earned another £5 on SB just waiting for it to arrive in my account so I can send it straight to catalogue 1
dh gave me £50 for savings, that is growing nicely, all going towards the house move next year
No work on this week as I will be head in books all week, lots of revision notes to make and filing and another assignment due next week :eek:

Should hear about the car tomorrow I really hope it doesn't cost a fortune
but at least my top up shop at aldi will cost hardly anything