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

peaceandfreedom

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

What could you do to up the enjoyment factor?

It's a good question, INOD. I am not sure really. More time doing stuff I enjoy rather than always doing some kind of work? That would be a good start.

Less time fretting, more time living life. Easy to say, not so easy to do but I am trying to retrain my brain .

peaceandfreedom

Moneywhizz wrote: »

Maybe you are feeling a bit lethargic because you don't have any clear idea of what your plans are. Could you make some goals for the different areas. You obviously have your plans to be debt free but what then financially. Of course that may be tied up in what you want to do about your marriage. From reading your diary, it seems that is the area that is bringing you the greatest unhappiness. Maybe if you can work out what you would really like to happen in this area, it would help you overall. Why not envisage your ideal picture of your future and then look at ways that you can take steps to move in that direction. It's not an easy decision to make but you can't live the rest of your life in an unhappy marriage if you have the means to do something about it. if you feel that you are going to remain in the marriage, then you should put other things in place that make it more bearable and put your happiness as a priority. Wishing you all the best. X

Moneywhizz, I know you are right, but I seem to be a bit paralysed at the moment. And because I am feeling rather low, I am cautious of making any massive decisions that I may subsequently regret.

It is a great idea though to properly picture my ideal future. I do often picture my ideal home, which in fact seems to always be a small place where I live on my own. Which probably says a lot.

For now, I am trying to concentrate on making the home I have rather better, it's a mess. I sometimes look around and feel it reflects our internal lives .

I need to change this, to start taking action and sorting out the house seems to be the best approach at the moment.

peaceandfreedom

jwil wrote: »

Hey lovely,

so nice to see you back again! I'm rubbish at posting at the moment, seem to have more time to do so when I'm at work

Well done with the debt busting, you are doing really well, and congrats to your girls for getting good results! Woo hoo to payrises too!

Sorry to hear you are feeling down, hope you start feeling better soon. If you are unhappy in your marriage then it must have a huge bearing on things generally, so I hope you can prioritise time for yourself doing stuff that you love.

Hey Jwil - I am rubbish at posting as well . But it's very lovely of you to drop in, I will pop around to yours now .

peaceandfreedom

Sooooo - in the interests of not being such a quivering useless lump, I have come up with some entirely random goals for the remaining week in July:

1. Declutter 100 items from the house
2. Tidy up the garage and actually make some room in there
3. Tidy up our main bedroom
4. Clear out and move a large storage chest

OK, so not a hugely ambitious programme of work but it's a start. I will think about more far-reaching goals for August .

peaceandfreedom

Brief update - it's a lovely day and I've got a day off. Got SOME stuff done yesterday:

1. Declutter 100 items from the house: 7/100
2. Tidy up the garage and actually make some room in there
3. [STRIKE]Tidy up our main bedroom[/STRIKE]
4. Clear out and move a large storage chest

Today I am off out for a nice potter about the shops and to return some items I bought 'just in case' for an event but then didn't need .

This morning I have already put some washing on the line, cooled down and put into the freezer some delicious chicken stock that was brewing all night in the slow cooker, and done some boring admin tasks. Oh yes, and some flaxseed and banana pancakes for breakfast with home-grown blueberries and raspberries .

Have a nice day everyone.

peaceandfreedom

Evening all

Two items returned today - one was quite expensive so that nicely tops up my bank account. Payday later on this week but these days I always have plenty of money to see me until the end of the month (thanks to YNAB and me finally seeing sense in my old age).

Emergency Fund is sitting at £1000 at the moment and I intend to add a good bit more to that in August. Also have to stash away funds for DD2's stuff for university and to pay the excess accommodation fees - the student loan is nowhere near enough to meet the costs . She will also need money every week to live on. Have factored all that in to YNAB though and all will be well. The pay rises over the past year are coming in very handy .

The fact that I am no longer sending £500 pcm to a credit card should ease the pain a bit - I will leave off tackling the remaining 6K debt until October. Makes me realise how much easier life will be when I no longer owe any money to anyone - I am sooooo looking forward to it and intend to redouble my efforts to get the 6K cleared as soon as humanly possible.

Things to be happy about today:

• My lovely lovely friend who gives me pep talks all the time and says such nice things to me.
• Courgette soup from home-grown courgettes - yummilicious!
• Cute pressies bought in the sales for my little niece's birthday.
• The first tomatoes are ripening up and almost ready to eat.
• I can see teensy tiny runner beans appearing (planted them a bit late).
• Lots of raspberries coming through now and the second blueberry bush is now producing lush berries.
• My lovely new leather wallet which I bought to celebrate the end of my credit-card debt life :j.

Time for bed, work tomorrow which is busy, busy, busy.

peaceandfreedom

Another quick update:

1. Declutter 100 items from the house: 13/100
2. Tidy up the garage and actually make some room in there
3. [STRIKE]Tidy up our main bedroom[/STRIKE]
4. Clear out and move a large storage chest

Have had a very excellently productive evening, did work in the garden and more in the house. Didn't actually make any more headway with the jobs above though .

Still, tomorrow is another day .

peaceandfreedom

Hello to anyone kind enough to read my ramblings .

Had a productive evening as well as a good day at work. Popped round to see my poorly neighbour, went out for a nice walk, did a couple of jobs rounds the garden, watched the sunset.

Breakfast and lunch is made ready for taking into work tomorrow. Feeling pretty good. Only 4 days until the end of the month. I should stay nicely within budget this month and in any case I have built up a nice sturdy buffer within YNAB so I can always reduce that slightly if I overspend a little. Have no plans to do so though . Have rather splashed out too much on coffee-shop spending this month, which I am usually very strict about - I put it down to shopping trips with the DDs :coffee::D.

I plan to join one of the raise-X-amount-in-August challenges which I hope will kick-start a bit of ebaying. Stuff needs to be shifted from the house and a bit of spare cash is always welcome

in_need_of_direction

We're being kind to us by reading your ramblings. I'm always given a reality check by your diary that reminds me to look around and appreciate what I have. Thank you.

peaceandfreedom

Thanks INOD - I try to concentrate on enjoying the little things - to be honest, little things are all I have at the moment . But there are a tremendous amount of little things to to be enjoyed, many at little or no cost .