Silkglade's DFW debt to debt free Diary.. Please keep me on the straight and narrow!!

silkglade

Hi everyone, What a lovely day it has been today.... (not) Cold and miserable and raining and dark.... Good old british weather.

Well the family and I have been out today, was really nice actually... Had Tea, sandwiches and Cake.... Yummy yummy for my tummy :rotfl:.

The best part was that it was for work (sort of) and therefore cost us absolutley NOTHING.. .

Sent the signed agreement back for the new credit card.... Will have to see how long it takes to drop through the door... oh and then the pin numbers of course.

silkglade

I don't know about the rest of you, but as the debt free date comes closer I start to feel worried and nervous... That is when I fall into the trap of spending money either too much or on stupid things... Just to avoid either getting or staying debt free....

I hate the thought of not having something to work towards or goal to achieve.... does that sound stupid... is it just me.

silkglade

Hi everyone, Well I got paid yesterday and I am really happy to say that all that was expected in my pay packet was there :T, including the back pay.

Well so far we have been sorting things out and as long as we don't go mad on xmas presents then we WILL be DEBT FREE as of the 19th December.

I am so excited about the thought that I can't begin to explain.

On the down side yesterday was an expensive one as I had to gey my daughter a pair of school shoes and trainers, they both looked totally trashed and when I took her in and got her measured she had gone up from an 11 to a 13!! :eek:, no wonder she was complaining for the last week. I got the youngest some boots for the winter as all she had and has had for several months is a pair of trainers.

Then my son got home that same afternoon and his shoes had literally fallen apart (they had lasted a year so I shouldn't complain really) :mad:

Also had to get 2 new toilet seats (got cheap ones about 8 months ago and both of them totally snapped off, the 2nd one broke about 2 1/2 weeks ago and have been having to balance the blooming things on the toilet to then very slowly and carefully perch on the loo. Not nice, especially when getting up in the night and half asleep! Well while looking for new ones saw some perfect ones with an extra pull down child seat in argos :T how perfect is that for both daughters, especially as about to start toilet training youngest one and she both hates and refuses to use a potty!

I really need to work out finances for the rest of the month after that.

silkglade

Hi everyone

Hope your all ready for christmas.. :T

I have now got my Amazon Credit card to a balance of £16, but will be paid off in a min.:D

Unfortunatly I have quite a balance on my new 0% Halifax credit card... not helped by the fact that my PC was taken out by a power cut on the 1st Dec and is still not fixed.:mad:

Due to my worrying about finances and not beeing able to keep eye on them (victim to fraud 2 years ago) I have now given in and bought a laptop :eek:

The balance will be gone within a couple of months though as hubby and I have agreed it will be my christmas and birthday pressie as I have wanted one for ages. though until the desk top is fixed it is shared by all.:rolleyes:

What was I thinking I am of course really happy with it and very relieved to be able to check the bank balances daily, but I know that once the desk top is back I will think WHY DID I DO IT!!

silkglade

YIPPEE!! Amazon card now at zero :T :j :T :j

Just 1 0% card left.:p

Amazon is 0% till christmas day... so got that sorted just in time.:D

silkglade

Hi Everyone, hope you all had a lovely christmas.:D

We did, and as I collected my son from his dad today (he was away for christmas) We are having a second christmas day tomorrow. (I know it sounds rather ott but my dad is coming over too and we have saved some of the pressies from us and some from friends and family for tomorrow so that the girls would not be just sitting there watching my son opening all of his).

I don't know about you all but for me the week before christmas seemed to be one full of arguments on the phone to incompitent people :mad: I was so stressed then.

1st the PC was not fixed when we were told it would be, they had even cancelled the job (their error, they admittd that) and gave the parts to someone else that had been ordered for us and we had waited 2 weeks for!!!:eek: - still waiting for the parts again and so therefore still not working:mad:

2nd My son has been waiting for a letter to come through so that he can see a specialist for a leg inj that is still hurting (happened in July) phone to surgery to chase it up and the receptionist phoned back after talking to the dr and said that they had never said they would refer him.... Argh... Had a huge row with her and demanded to speak to the dr.. was told sorry gone home today, I told them I would make a complaint... a week later the letter from the specialist drops onto the door mat... very convenient.

3rd I had ordered a fridge freezer, showed as in stock when I ordered it.. Was then told that it was out of stock but would at the latest be delivered the friday before christmas.. anyway to cut a long story short on the monday before xmas I phoned them and they said it would be in stock and sill delivered on the friday... but could not arrange delivery till it showed as is stock. Phoned them on the tuesday and they said yes now instock... but earliest they could deliver was the 2nd... told them to stuff it and I wanted a refund.

Yesterday ordered the same fridge freezer at another store (now in their sale) for £70 less - oh and it will be delivered on sat before 10am :T.

So will get it cheaper and faster... nice one

Sorry for the long update, but till recently was not able to access the internet... But now have a shiney new laptop to play with

silkglade

Right, I have decided that it is now time once and for all to get this last and final debt from hanging over our heads.

We have got round from this time last year and are almost in the same position as last year... Suppose at least we are not any worse off.:rolleyes:

I am hoping that as we are no worse off than last year once we are debt free we will be ticking over nicely. Maybe even able to start saving some money in case of emergency - and for a holiday to Florida Oct 2009 (my dad is paying 1/2 with us)

We have had rather an expensive year all in all with big buys, plus spent tons on the kids going out almost every day of my 3 weeks off in the summer hols.

We in total bought, Dishwasher (never had one and there was a space in our new kitchen for one)

Washing machine (old one packed up and had caused us no end of problems)

New built in Cooker (the one in the house was really terrible and took over 2 hrs to cook roast potatoes)

New shed for the garden (a smal one was supposed to be left by the previous owner but they took it)

New radiator in hubby's car (he was having to put 2 bottles of water in it just to do a short school run)... EEEk

New Laptop - (desk top has broken and is still awaiting parts, is covered by guarentee though) I have to admit that I have been asking hubby for one for around 8 months anyway.

2nd laptop - Hubby decided to get one too - made this both of our xmas and birthday pressies though.

New fridge freezer - arriving tomorrow (the old one will just not hang on any longer)

Nintendo Wii - spoilt daughter this year for birthday as they had all gone without for as long as I can remember.

Xbox360 Ellite - Spoilt son this year for birthday same reason as above.

So if you take all of those big spends into account on a normal year it should be a piece of cake - what is left on the credit card is less than all those items put together.:T

We are wanting to decorate through the whole house though, but no mega rush.. Just do each room as and when we have the cash in the account. Been here just over a year and we could move out and it would be as if we were never here...

Want to put my stamp on it. Both Kids rooms have a really horrible bright orange on the walls... yuck!

silkglade

Well what a day today has been

Hoping for a couple of days to relax now before i am back at work on tues :rolleyes:. Please nothing happen thats bad!!!! Please

The new Fridge freezer arrived at 7.50am :eek: it looks great, but.....

Well online it shows as width measurement of 59.5 cm, measured the gap for it several times at floor level (so at to take into account the skirting board) gap comes in at width of 60.5.... by my thinking good, a little extra space can only be good.... NO THE FRIDGE FREEZER IS NOW TOTALLY WEDGED INTO THE SPACE - so much so that there are now scratches down either side :mad:.

Also we wanted to change the way the doors open... tried for over an hr... to no avail. we got both doors off, but are unable to move the very top fitting over to the other side. :mad: :mad: - ended putting it back on the original side again and then once it was fitted in couldn't open the top (fridge door as it catches on the door frame..... OK i thought get the plaine down and shave some off the door frame, which is now done and fine... but in the process hubby.... bless him (totally miffed by this time) did a sweep up the door frame to shave it and caught the fridge... ( now has a really big scratch down the front. He was so annoyed and I think he feels really bad about it. Doors still hanging the wrong way too.

Took our old one to the dump - had to que on the road for ages..

Then went out to my brothers for dinner and only just got back..

I am shattered.

Right - Where's the alcohol!!

silkglade

OK, this is the scarey part where I reflect on this year and all the spends that we have made.:rolleyes: That and the fact we are in almost the same position now as 12 months ago:mad: .... NOT GOOD REALLY - could be worse though I suppose... Debt level could have gone up:eek:

Well I have to say that we really spoilt the kids this year... spent far too much really on them for both birthdays and xmas.

Got debt free in June 2007 - for a total of about 2 - 3 weeks :eek: then...

Just before the summer hols brought a new cooker and shed. (essential spends though)... but then about 2 weeks later...

Spent more than we could afford on days out with the kids in the summer holiday, which entailed going out EVERY SINGLE day with them for 3 weeks.


Right then... NEW plan of action for 2008

During 2008 - Clear all debt on the 0% card, should not take more than 4 months all being well.

NOT TO OVERSPEND, if we need something then we will save for it FIRST! (this will probably be the hardest habbit to break).

DO NOT GET BACK INTO DEBT AGAIN!!!

Lose Weight - really need to knuckle down and start this up again. (need to lose 4 stone total, but will make the goal 1 stone at a time)

well lets see how I do and what I manage to achieve.

silkglade

Good evening to you all.

I am still rather worried about getting to payday this month as we have no cash in the bank (we used all the cash to get the amazon credit card to zero as the 0% ran out on christmas eve) and will have to put any food and petrol on the new 0% credit card for the remainder of this month.

You can see the balance it currently is at in my sig but do any of you have an amount that you think we can live on until the 24th (We have not had to budget this strictly for some time but would rather cut back alot this month rather than have too much extra on this card).

I know this new card is 0% till November 08 but we want to clear it as quickly as possible.

What we are planning to do is unlike the Amazon card - which now I know we made the wrong choice with, as we paid every penny we had off it each month and then had to spend back on it (which makes you feel your not really making any progress). Therefore instead once we get to pay day we will keep our monthy food and petrol budget in the bank and use it - so that we are feeling more in control of the day to day shopping and petrol. Then all the extra will be paid off this card - and i really hope that by seeing this card going down steadily we will keep motivated and on track... rather than falling off the wagon so to speak.

Do you all think that is a good idea?