22 months to work, dig, tidy and declutter my way to debt freedom

brizzledfw

Weyhey..she IS back

Yes do keep posting..we like posts

Hope the gardening was good....missed it this weekend but planning to go for it next...but not visit a garden centre that's not on the YNAB plan.. :rotfl:

peaceandfreedom

brizzledfw wrote: »

Weyhey..she IS back

Yes do keep posting..we like posts

Hope the gardening was good....missed it this weekend but planning to go for it next...but not visit a garden centre that's not on the YNAB plan.. :rotfl:

Hey, thanks for dropping in Brizzle :j.

The gardening largely involved some tidying-up - I must say the place looks rather grim and dismal out there, so a tidy-up was much needed. Also, the greenhouse suffered some damage over the winter, need to fix that up.

I went to a garden centre last week, just to look around. Unfortunately, it's one of those ones that used to be quite nice but now it's been taken over by Wyedale, so you have to wade through sections of 'gifts' and other tat before you reach the actual gardening bit. This is much reduced - the seed section used to be massive and all together, now there's far fewer seeds and they are all scattered about in different racks here and there. The plants are vastly over-priced.

So naturally, I bought nothing. I just looked at the seed packets and then came home and ordered them from amazon at a much lower cost. I have some amazon vouchers as well . I've also bought some seeds from Lidl and The Range, which served me well last year. I have some Lidl cucumber seeds that cost a mere 29p. I intend to keep more detailed records this year of what seeds I bought, how I went about sowing them, and the success rate.

Thing is - these days, I can afford to pay 2.99 for a pack of seeds but unless they are unusual / hard to come by, I can't justify it when you can pick them up for 1/10 of the price.

I bought a HUGE number of flower seeds in The Range, 99p per pack and they were also 2-for-1. The garden is going to be soooo lush this summer .

in_need_of_direction

Hellooo, you still out there? How's things?

jwil

Yes, I miss you

peaceandfreedom

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Hellooo, you still out there? How's things?

jwil wrote: »

Yes, I miss you

Hi ladies - that's spooky because just this very evening I decided to have a quick peek at MSE and find that the very same day you two have posted messages - surely a good omen .

Things are going quite well with me, much the same as normal. Money-wise I've had another modest payrise due to kick in from 1st July. I am now on good money but I would like to be on much better money. I am in the process of mapping out a one-year plan which will put me in a good position to change jobs and earn loads more.

Debt wise, I only have 800 quid left of credit card debt - this will be paid off by the end of August. The remaining 6K is to a relative. However, I am considering repaying that in one go and sticking the 6K on a zero-percent credit card. The relative lives abroad and it will be easier to send them the money all in one go. They have also patiently waited a long time for the money to be repaid. Sounds madness to put an off-the-record debt onto a credit card but it will allow me to repay extra as I can afford to, and it will be more convenient. It will also be cheaper because constantly sending money overseas is costly.

I haven't been as quick to repay debt as I wanted to in the first six months of this year. I haven't slowed down but I actually wanted to speed up and I haven't achieved this. At the current rate of progress, I will no way achieve my aim of repaying everything by the end of 2016. The first half of this year has been very expensive for lots of reasons and I am pleased I could meet all these costs as well as continuing to pay down the debt. The second half of 2016 is also going to be very expensive, so unless I find a substantial second source of income, debt repayment is not going to speed up any - in fact it is going to get put back a bit . I have changed my sig accordingly.

It goes without saying that there will be no holidays or any other luxury spending this year, nor next probably - but you know, I'm used to that by now and I've bigger things to be worrying about, let's face it :cool:.

Health-wise things are improving. I posted a few times about having very low moods and I finally realised this was hormonal - I am post-menopause now and thought that I was past the worst but I was mistaken. Worse symptoms can kick two or three years into it - I tell you, us women get dealt a raw deal in life physically. Anyway, I have decided to give HRT a go and although it's early days, I think things are getting better.

The garden is doing well, I have lots of things growing and am already enjoying a couple of early crops, including strawberries, yum! It needs lots more work though, and some of it will cost money. The house, as always, is a bit of a tip and needs lots of work which will also cost money. Need to decide whether to add on to the mortgage to fund the more essential works.

Having been feeling very down-in-the-dumps and lethargic and generally apathetic for months and months, I can feel my energy returning a bit now. I've started decluttering and generally tidying-up again. Hopefully, HRT will work its magic and I will continue to get stuff done about the place as well as put my one-year-plan into action .

Off now to catch up on what everyone else has been up to .

peaceandfreedom

PS I've missed all you as well, it feels good be back already :j.

brizzledfw

Thanks for posting Great to have you back..and glad youre glad to be back iyswim!!

All sounding good. Think the interest free CC to clear a debt to a family member is a good idea, and all your plans to earn more sound v exciting xx

peaceandfreedom

Thanks Brizzle. I am working on my one-year plan, need to then actually put it into action .

Today I had some welcome news at work - my recent little payrise is being back-dated to April and will appear in my next pay cheque - awesome :j. It's not a lot of money but it does mean that the final pesky 800 quid of CC debt will be repaid by the end of July instead of August - hip hip hooray!

I know that I will then be sticking another 6K on the cards (though will probably leave this until September-ish) but I consider that stoozing because I am not actually increasing credit, just moving it around a bit.

I have some financial jobs to do - renewing my insurance and changing energy provider. The insurance is the more pressing concern, need to get on with that before the end of the month.

Also have a few things I could possibly flog either on ebay or locally, need to get on with that as well as the extra cash would come in useful. I'm no Jwil though, I'm a bit feeble at selling things.

Today was fairly uneventful. Bit disappointed at the England football performance though God knows we should all be used to it by now. God help us when we come up against some decent opposition :eek:

Offski to bed now, bit knackered.

peaceandfreedom

Hi all ,

I am feeling a bit under-the-weather this morning. Overweight, feeling very anxious (hormones again), generally out of sorts. I've already put in place my plans to do something about these things but it doesn't feel good when most of your work clothes make you look like a sausage .

Be back later, when hopefully I will be feeling a lot better .

Have a good day everyone, think we might get a bit of sunshine today here in the West Country.

x

SpekySquarehead

Hi there,

I thought I'd stop by as your thread as struck a chord with me and I know things aint going as smooth as you like, but just as I said to a colleague of mine, "smooth seas never made a skillful sailor". Those of us who go through tough times and come out at the other end are better and stronger for it and reading through your posts I've every confidence that you'll do just that.

Your description of your married life sounds scarily similair to that of my mum and dads. My mum eventually had enough and filed for divorce. I was 4 at the time and was clueless really to what was going on but listening to stories now it was the most difficult thing in her life. She's now re-married, lives very comfortably and is truly loving life. Her and my Dad have put things to bed and have both moved on, for the better. The sunshine always comes after the rain.

Another reason I've subscribed to your thread is your use of YNAB. As someone who's been using it for 2 months to help me get debt free, the benefits you've gained have been made clear to see and give me huge encouragement to stick with it.

You've done an astounding job so far. One thing I've realised is that this is a marathon and not a sprint. You say it in your sig, your 64.2% of the way there - amazing! Keep up the amazing work and keep the chin high. We're all here to help in anyway we can.