Ditching the last of the pizza debt

ani*fan

Wishing all my MSE friends a wonderful Christmas Day.

:xmastree: :xmassign: :snow_grin :rudolf: :xmastree: :santa2: :snow_laug :xmassmile

Where would I be without you all? Still neck deep in debt, that's where.

Thank you all for the chat, the tips, the stories, the inspiration and the encouragement when things are hard. Which is often.

Much love. :heart2::heartsmil You guys rock.

misstara

Merry Christmas ani, hope you and OH have a lovely day x

Igamogam

Hello Ani...hope all is well and married life suits:) Thanks for posting on my diary.....yes the frogs are in check but only just - They are getting snappier and more complex . More demanding and needy and just multiplying weekly........maybe I am just less tolerant

I will put a little update on my diary over the next few days....need to plan 2018:p

ani*fan

Hi Igamogam, good to hear from you and thanks for the reminder about planning for the New Year. I also need to do that. I think the frogs get worse with every passing year too. Hope you've enjoyed the break. x

ani*fan

Here's the plan for 2018.

1. Build up the emergency fund to £1,000. It's currently at £100, better than nothing, but not big enough to address much of an emergency.

2. Get the downpipes fixed at the back. After the last quote came in at twice the cost of the first quote, I need to keep looking for someone to do this. Bleh.

3. Get flooring throughout the flat. So the living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, bathroom and massive hall. This is going to be expensive.

4. Get something done to the bathroom. Anything. We cannot live with that for much longer.

5. Keep paying down the pizza debt. HSBC 0% deal ends in October 2018 and I've just changed the monthly payment from £150 to £100 to help free up some cash for flooring. I have a problem with my name change, the electoral role and my credit history that will all need to be fixed before then.

6. If I keep paying what I'm paying now, the pizza debt will not be much smaller at the end of 2018, around £4,650. This won't do really. I want it to go faster. But don't we all? I'll see what's manageable and try to keep it a priority.

That list is making me tired just looking at it.

Happy debt busting day everyone.

ani*fan

Me and OH were having a chat about cash last night. I was sitting looking at my spreadsheet feeling quite despondant that despite the lovely new home taking shape, the debt is not reducing very quickly at all. As well as my pizza debt, we are also paying off the new windows. Somehow I don't seem to count that but it all matters and I was feeling a bit fed up.

OH suggested that we set ourselves a target for the year, that we have one year of utter frugaldom to try and pay off all of my debt and as much of the windows as we can. One year of mad money saving mentalness.

I always did love a challenge. We're going to try for £1k per month including minimum payments. Must be nuts right enough. I'll post an end of month summary of how much I managed to pay off things. Ooh I'm excited now!

Hope you're all having a great money saving day.

hiddenshadow

Ooh, I'm excited to follow your uberfrugalness challenge. I keep thinking we should try it (for a month, not a year - don't think I could get DH on board that long), but then I get complacent.

ani*fan

Oh yes, complacency, that's been a problem for me recently as other things have taken over. Nothing major, just a wedding, a home purchase and course to finish. Ahem.

Anyway, in the spirit of debt repayment and keeping costs to an absolute minimum, me and OH set to work on the kitchen. OH painted all the cupboard doors twice and then varnished them, then repaired a section of wall with some materials left over from previous repairs, then built a shelf for the microwave to sit on, just above the oven, so the whole thing looks like a complete unit. I stripped all the wallpaper, no small task in such a big kitchen, then dismantled a kitchen unit to fit the fridge/freezer in where it should go. We then painted the walls white with a feature blue one. Wow, it look like an entirely different kitchen! And the cost to us was the price of the paint. I think we are both thrilled to keep the kitchen like that now until the debt is completely gone and we can save up for new units some time in the future. In the meantime, I'd really like us to add a tumble dryer but it can wait for now.

In other news, remember the £500 cheque in my maiden name? I have literally been waiting on this cash for months so felt quite justified in phoning them up and expressing my fury. I got a phone call yesterday to say the cash will be returned to me by BACS transfer within the next 5 days. Ha, sometimes it pays to lose the plot.

I sold my old laptop online for £50. Yippee. I have another old laptop that won't even switch on, I'm going to sell that one too once I've figured out the make and model.

I'm also able to make a tiny overpayment from the food budget this month.

Taking all of this into account I am definitely on target to meet the £1k debt payment this month. I'm so pleased about that.

Planning for next month has already started. A couple of family birthdays, Valentine's day and also a friend possibly coming to stay for a day or two.

I'm enjoying this challenge already. And if everything works out as I hope, I will be debt free of pizza debt by October this year. :beer: Game on.

Have a wonderful debt busting day everyone.

hiddenshadow

Kitchen makeover sounds brilliant. I love when a space feels completely different just with a few changes.

angela110660

You are doing brill - well done. Are you doing the Uber Frugal Month challenge featured on the Frugalwoods site? I have signed up for their daily emails of motivation and trying VERY hard to be as frugal as I can. It is just getting rest of family onboard that is difficult.....