From debt to freedom...

savingholmes

Glad things are settling down. I think repaying debt can be like a treadmill and seem to be taking forever. Given some of it is a window loan - could you divide it into boxes and think I've paid so many boxes off my window and colour it in or something?

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Spendless and SH. That’s a good analogy of the treadmill SH, will keep that one in mind. I think it’s debt 4 that bothers me most. It’s the biggest one and is about the £2900 mark, but being a credit card, I want to clear as much as possible in order to strengthen rather than weaken any mortgage application. Good reminder about the colouring in of squares, perhaps if I do mini target charts as well, it will help the motivation. I did pay £7.50 off debt 4 yesterday which will count as part of the £40 extra I want to pay off my the end of the month.

Yesterday was a strange day. I took DD1 to work at 5.30 but was so tired, I crawled back to bed when I got home and the next thing I knew it was 10😳😳😳. Must have needed the extra sleep. I got to the beach in the evening, well almost dusk really, we enjoyed a near empty beach and the last vestiges of daylight. The sunset was glorious making all the clouds various hues of orange, pink and grey. We walked the width of the beach and back again and felt so much better for the sea air in our lungs!

Today has been a quiet day thus far. I only have the 3 youngest at home today as the older ones are out doing their own thing. It is so odd with only 3! The pastry is made for pasties tonight so may well head to the beach for a while. DS3 is keen to practice his digging skills!

Have a good Sunday everyone.

Honeysucklelou2

Yesterday evening at the beach.

Parkyp

Oh wow stunning picture !!

Sun_Addict

What a beautiful photo 😍

Spendless

Oh that looks beautiful.

I like the idea of colouring squares in. I think I'd draw a picture of each of your windows. For me that would have to be with graph paper and a pencil as I am not artistic. Each window would represent £x and then I could colour in as an amount was paid off. I did something similar when my DD was having issues during yr11 and I couldn't wait for her schooldays to end. I drew a graph, bit like a rollercoaster plot, going uphill before exams started then downhill as each GCSE took place. I left this graph at my friends so DD never knew how much the stress was affecting me,  with the intention that on her last day, me and mate would go out drinking to celebrate and would burn the graph. That's nearly 2 years ago and we still haven't got round to actually doing it -lol

I've got a number of friends who have 3 children. When younger they frequently had to be distributed between different friends and family as they were 'too many of them' for someone to have all at once, so your comment on how quiet and odd it was to only have 3 made me smile. Glad you got caught up on sleep too, I definitely think you needed it.

Cherryfudge

Well done on being so diplomatic on the issue of DS1's g/f. You are right of course - between your family you must have a lot of contacts so you are increasing the risk to her as well as she to you.

That photo of the sunset is beautiful!

Buffythedebtslayer

Finally caught up, You write so beautifully, I have bought plenty of 99p Kindle books that aren't written anywhere near as well, you honestly need to think about writing a book, really. 

Thank you for sharing XXX 

Parkyp

@Buffythedebtslayer is absolutely spot on when you write I feel like I’m reading a book and I can visualise what you are describing. What is your current job?
the colouring squares sounds a good idea,

Kitten868

I've been a bit useless at keeping up to date lately. Glad to see you are still firing on all cylinders still. You say you feel like you've lost momentum but I think you're doing amazingly. You can't maintain the sprint you've been doing for too long but you've definitely kept on top of the basics. You are so fine tuned on that front you don't even see it. What's more you were able to push more as you had job 2 to give you extra income. You haven't slid into overspending which would be far too easy. Whats more it's April everything has gone up in cost. I hope you get what I mean by that. 

I think most families have had problems with lockdown rules. I've fallen out with both my parents and my inlaws quite cataclysmically. My parents take the rules too far (unless it's something they want) and the inlaws are stretching (cough ignoring) the rules. Balancing the two has been impossible. Everyone claiming I'm keeping the grandchildren away from them. I also think being a key worker I have felt like a leper and like I shouldn't be able to see anyone. I'm trying to get rid of that now and be more sociable and allow myself to do things. Nothing shocking just the kids friends in the garden. I think you've done well to get this far without disagreement! He totally disrespected what you said when he asked. That's hard. 

Are the older 3 contributing to the household now they're all working? It does seem like you're overburdened paying out for 4 adults and 3 children from one income. I worry that you're taking on too much work. I appreciate that you might be changing hours as your youngest is settled into school but a teacher and working in a pub is too much especially when you're home making all your food and raising 6 kids solo. You do the unthinkable and I don't know how you manage. Xxx