A Diary of Reinventing Ourselves

getmore4less

mumtoomany wrote: »

Disaster fun! Sounds like an oxymoron.

I must stop posting from my phone in bed first thing in the morning(fixed it "fund").

Forward_thinking

:D Ha ha. A couple of laughs here - great therapy. Disaster fun sounds absolutely brilliant and something which could make money in its own rights. Now as for the frying pan - let me put you out of your suspense. I am very touched that you have been spending time worrying why we don't have one. Let's just say we don't fry anything - we use a wok. And I've been busy decluttering the house and the old one we had was certainly not non-stick and pretty hopeless. So out it went to make my house nice and minimal. OH was going to buy ready made pancakes but I told him it was too expensive and not in the spirit of things. So I asked him to pick one up - probably won't be used again until next year but I won't throw it out this time - will hold on to our hard-earned goods. There, does that help? Did you have visions of us never cooking and living off expensive ready made meals (very rare) or takeaways (virtually never)

getmore4less

It is quite unusual not to have a flat cooking surface, pan, griddle even a baking tray works.

Woks are more versatile when you want a single item hanging about the kitchen, can do most things in a wok even pancakes.

Ridged heavy pans/griddle better for meats & fish.

Forward_thinking

Ha ha....you really are looking out for me getmore!!! Tossing pancakes in our wok wasn't going to happen - kids wanted to join in and see if they could catch too. We had fun. We have lots of flat surfaces - wok, one very large frying pan now I think of it but heavy, several baking trays, plenty of other things. Life is good - we are certainly not struggling for possessions.

I am busy brainstorming my new work venture and getting my website up once and for all so have disciplined myself into coming on here only at nights - don't ask why I am on here at the moment! Determined this isn't going to chew too much of my time up. Too many things to get done. Mission this weekend is to get my budget tracked and to make real progress with my website to get some interest.

Forward_thinking

One question I have been wondering about. Everybody talks about their light bulb moment. I keep wondering if I have actually had mine and what people mean. Perhaps I haven't and it is still to come. And perhaps the fact I am asking this means I haven't and more is going to dawn on me soon!!

Let's just say all I think about at the moment is our debt and how we can get it down. It consumes me all day and I can't bring myself to buy anything at all - even buying the usual Friday treat for the kids. I keep going through the whole scenario and how we really need to work on this. It's the first thing I wake up thinking about and the last thing I think of before I go to sleep. Everything I look at has an imaginary price tag on. I know we can't go on our usual two weeks holiday this year with the same glamour we are used to but I have accepted that. I am desperate to get OH on board with me and address things too. I am reading this forum constantly gleaning for hiding wisdom and absorbing all your wonderful help. I am doing our ironing for the first time ever and cleaning. BUT I still can't bring myself to get rid of everything - the biggest thing being our health insurance which I am still clinging on for the moment but have promised I will get rid of if I haven't got any work by next month. So if I haven't got everything down to zero does that mean I am still awaiting my LBM? Just curious.

getmore4less

Kids had fun take it out of their allowances!

That lightbulb moment

Something only you will know if you are truly there yet.

It gets people in different ways as well, one persons experience may help you identify things in yourself but not everything.

Ultimately everyones journey is different, you set your goals not us, we can "what about this and that" but in the end it is what you and the family decide what determines your futures, and that does not mean everything is zero.

Forward_thinking

I'm there. Thanks!

Moneywhizz

Have been reading through your diary recently and think you are doing everything in your power at the moment to change your situation. You seem to be eating and breathing ways to get your debt down and although others may think there are still things you can cut out, it sounds to me that you truly have had your LBM. It is a different journey for everyone and we all use our money differently and have different goals and priorities.

The main thing for your to do is try to get to a position where your debt is not costing you in interest and then pay it off as quickly as is comfortable for you. That would be much easier for you to do if your husband was on board but you do seem to be gaining more and more control over the finances so I am sure you will be able to do this.

The key to getting the most of your money is budgeting for the year so that all expenses are accounted for and you know how much money you have left for debt repayments. How you track that is up to you, but as simple as possible is the best. The CAP money course recommends having your salary paid into your main account out of which comes all your regular payments and direct debits. If you leave enough in that account to pay these expenses you really don't have to track them any more. You then transfer the rest of the money into two other accounts - one for savings, which includes things like Christmas, car tax, etc and the other account is for your weekly cash spending. It is a very simple but effective system once you have your budget worked out and really doesn't take much time to maintain. A very simple spreadsheet can track how much you have in your savings account for each category.
At one time in my life I was in a very difficult debt situation but have been debt free for many years. The peace, freedom and choice that it brings you is so worth a bit of effort to get there. Good luck and keep thinking forward!

When_the_going_gets_tough

Op you are obviously making great stides forward. I just wanted to point out a few bits to do with your self employment. Whatever service you are expecting to sell, remember that you will be setting up a small business - and there will be associated costs with running that business as well as acquiring the skills needed to run the business profitably and effectively. This is all completely in addition to the service itself that you are offering. If you leave the financial side to your accountant remember that will cost you and eat into the profits. Also I think you will need to factor in childcare costs - i think you have a little one - it really isnt possible to do money earning work - either you or your husband and look after a toddler at the same time - they only nap for short periods and the pattern is always changing. Good luck with it all.

Forward_thinking

Thanks for the posts. Moneywhizz - love your idea of splitting the money into different accounts and am going to keep that in mind. So today has been busy - I help out at a voluntary organisation on Fridays so it was lovely to get out and meet people. OH came home and said he had rung two credit companies and asked if there was any way of reducing the interest (I told him Martin Lewis had suggested this but did give him pages of advice on how to approach this - I think he just rang and asked!!) Needless to say that went nowhere although they asked him if he wanted to move his other card balance to them at 0%. However, anything we paid back would be on that second lump of money and so we would be getting nowhere. OH is adamant he doesn't want to take out any other cards. Partly because it would mean getting a fourth card as they would be unlikely to give us enough credit to get rid of the whole card. Also, (and I don't know if he is right here or not), OH believes that because we have 50k credit available on the cards that is what counts, not what you have used up. That doesn't make sense to me but he claims if this is the case they are never going to touch us.

Right, my head is in a different place at the moment. I am about to do an hour of budgeting but then I have several thoughts going through my head on my new venture.