£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Honeysucklelou2

I think your diary has been very helpful to many readers. The menu plans and cooking ideas are useful as are your daily lists as it shows how becoming MS has impacted across various aspects of your life.

System

The problem with apostrophes is with ios11 . To sort go to settings , tap general, then tap keyboards and toggle smart punctuation to off. That sorts it out .

Blackberrycurved

That!!!8217;s a huge debt I!!!8217;d think very hard about borrowing more for an extension much as you need it. When Brexit hits and it will, interest rates will be high and wages will need to be cut as we!!!8217;ll struggle to compete outside the European monetary system. It will be a very different UK look at Southern Ireland!!!8217;s economy you may need to pay back your parental loan as the rapid rise in food and petrol costs may hit them hard. Good luck you sound organised but see how things play out 2019 before you borrow more maybe.

System

Blackberry curve may have a point but I tend to live in the here and now. Interest rates are set to rise but I think you have fixed yours haven't you for the next couple of years. The impact could be felt next time you need to remortgage. Brexit is a unknown quantity and until it finally happens predictions are all we can go off,

My diary this past 6 weeks or so has been about illness , your daily lists are great and it is your diary. I think you have done very well so far . Everybody attacks the debt in different ways , if it's right for you then that's ok. The journey for me is more about your mindset towards money wants and needs etc. This has changed from 12 months ago and will continue to do so as long as you stay on the right path.

Happy 1 year anniversary TOPM.

warby68

Happy Anniversary

£4k is great and is quite understated as you also stopped the runaway debt train, so probably more like £9-10k of overall improvement.

How you run your diary is about what works for you - I read your comments, your lists less so but only because they don't really apply to me but its extremely easy to read as you write so well. Even though it probably doesn't seem like it, I do identify a lot with your thought processes so I love the posts where you first of all defend a decision and then think it through for all to see and end up with some compromise.

I know you NEED space but financing either an extension or a move looks very much a bridge too far as yet to me unless you change your mind and get a job to create an income step change or undertake a much more draconian period of frugality, but I am of course dying to know whether you make it (and hope very much that you do).

There is one area that nags away for me and that is your car - I think you've said before that its relatively aged and you can't manage without one. That looks a threat that very probably could kick in within the same timeframe as the extension. Do you have any thoughts there?

The other thing is the 'secrecy' you maintain in real life. I wonder if confiding in a relative might be useful to you in terms of having some real life support. Keeping up appearances is a pressure in itself. I suspect they know more than you let on anyway. I know you've been adamant on this so far but when you're down about money its hard not being able to be open. I have had a miserable 'secret' to maintain before now - its hard work. I never did master opening up about it and eventually things moved on but I know now how much pressure I put myself under.

Long post, sorry, but its a big day

Good luck with it all.

Sugarcandy

Hi, I am subscribed to your diary and although I don't comment, I just want to say I love the format you use, and I find all the lists very helpful for myself and started to do my own lists for the week ahead. Obviously though it is what is easiest for you.

kirtsypoos

Happy Anniversary TOPM - I'm mostly just a lurker on your diary but I feel like over the past year I have laughed and cried with you about decisions you've made or things you've talked yourself out of buying!

Keep up the good work - you are managing brilliantly without sacrificing the key things for your family

XSpender

Happy Anniversary!

£4,000 is a lot to pay off on a tight budget so well done to you and Mr TOPM.

If lists work for you keep using them, it's your diary and we will still be here reading along. Sometimes I do lists and sometimes I just brain dump :rotfl:

Treadingonplaymobil

Thanks for all the good wishes, it's so lovely to have you all along for the ride. I really don't for a minute think we would have managed to turn this tanker/empty the first ladleful out of our lake/insert metaphor of choice here without you all cheering me on and keeping me on the straight and narrow.

Treadingonplaymobil

Ooh, and thanks for help with the apostrophe issue Cumbria! That's been irritating me.