Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

enthusiasticsaver

I think most of us tend to keep more clutter the bigger our house is so buying a bigger house would just mean you decluttering less often as more space to store stuff. Selling stuff is worth it as all the little bits add up.

My DD had her 2nd baby 11 weeks ago and is selling stuff now like maternity clothes, Moses basket and 0-3 clothes apart from a few favourites she is going to use on a memory quilt. She is adamant 2 DC is her limit though as she doesn't have good sleepers and health issues in both pregnancies and 2 c sections have convinced her no more. We stopped at 2 as well. We couldn't have coped or afforded 3 or 4 as we liked our holidays which would be very expensive and childcare costs for more than 2 would be high.

You are doing brilliantly with the debt reductions.

AdventureWanted

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I think most of us tend to keep more clutter the bigger our house is so buying a bigger house would just mean you decluttering less often as more space to store stuff. Selling stuff is worth it as all the little bits add up.

My DD had her 2nd baby 11 weeks ago and is selling stuff now like maternity clothes, Moses basket and 0-3 clothes apart from a few favourites she is going to use on a memory quilt. She is adamant 2 DC is her limit though as she doesn't have good sleepers and health issues in both pregnancies and 2 c sections have convinced her no more. We stopped at 2 as well. We couldn't have coped or afforded 3 or 4 as we liked our holidays which would be very expensive and childcare costs for more than 2 would be high.

You are doing brilliantly with the debt reductions.

Thanks ES. I've finished sorting through the clothes I had and now have 5 different sized boxes of clothes to sell :eek:. Is quite daunting starting the task of listing it all, but it will be nice when it's gone and we have some extra cash. Was actually amazed at the amount of stuff we had! Might get DH to bring down some more bits from the loft once I've got rid of all this lot.

I checked my topcashback account earlier and I've got £71.43 payable and £40.40 pending . I've been able to transfer £35.68 of the amount payable, but for some reason can't transfer all of it. Will try again in a few days. Am going to put the £35 in the EF. Think with any further cash back and money from things I sell I might split the money (depending on the amount) between debt repayments, EF and maybe a small bit towards a day out or home improvements.

AdventureWanted

Have rounded down the bank account this morning and transferred £5 to CC3 and 31p to debt savings.

Didn't achieve as much yesterday as I had hoped, as I didn't feel brilliant. Think I was really overtired. Hopefully today I can be super productive and get lots done. Really want to continue the decluttering this weekend, especially as my parents have offered to store the bits I want to sell as they have more space .

jwil

Well done on clearing CC2 and the decluttering. If you haven't already closed it, I'd keep it open in the hope of getting a 0% deal for when one of your others expires.

AdventureWanted

Thanks Jwil . That's a good idea to keep it open for 0% deals. Might reduce the credit limit a bit, as it's just been increased to a ridiculous £14.5k :eek:.

The dd for cc4 has come out today, which has moved the debt total in to the £21ks .

Managed to transfer the top cashback money across, but didn't manage to move it to the EF quick enough! Our flooring in our cloakroom is ruined beyond repair, so DH managed to pick up some cheap tiles to replace it with. I'm glad we've been able to use "free" money to buy it, but slightly annoyed I couldn't increase the EF balance.

jwil

Well done on being in the £21ks :T Annoying about the floor, but at last it's 'free'.

AdventureWanted

Today I've rounded down the bank account and sent £3 to CC3.

Have been sorting out our living room today and my goodness it's exhausting! I've managed to move our large corner sofa, remove the tonne of toys hidden underneath, hoover under it and even hoovered down the crease at the back & sides of the sofa. I've started the toy declutter, but can't really do it with the DC about, as DC1 especially gets very upset at the mention of selling any of their toys, even if they no longer play with it! Think I'll just continue to sneak bits out without them noticing!

DH has been offered a new contract job in Wales, which is miles away from where we live now. They've offered to pay an accommodation allowance, but it wouldn't cover the kind of property we would need. DH is keen to go (it's only for 3 months), but I don't want to have to live in a tiny house for 3 months, when we have a perfectly good house here. It's hard as I do love wales and I've been saying I want to travel for ages, but I'm just not sure we're ready yet. If we didn't have the debts then spending an additional £500 on rent/bills wouldn't be a problem, but I begrudge spending it when we have so much else to pay off. I guess I've kind of made up my mind that I don't want to go at this present moment in time, but am worried it might scupper DH's chances of working there in the future :think:.

AdventureWanted

I should add that the new contract would only pay an extra £20 a day. We'd keep our house here and have to rent for the 3 month period (if we could get a short term let). So overall if we had to pay £500 toward rent/bills we'd be about £200 out of pocket. This isn't too bad for travelling to somewhere new and experiencing somewhere different, but we can't really afford a 3 month holiday yet.

AdventureWanted

Managed to sell a baby toy yesterday, which has been sat on top of my cupboard for over 6 months. Sold it within a day of listing and got the full £15 I wanted . Does kind of make me wonder why I took so long to do it! I've been slowly tidying/sorting the DCs toys, although it still doesn't look any better at the moment! I've got a bag of stuff to go to the charity shop and a box on the go of things to sell. I managed to clear out my understairs cupboard, so it's become a handy place to stash toys I want to sell without the DC noticing!

Next month my sister is taking part in a village yard sale, so anything I haven't managed to sell by then will be taken along to that. Gives me a deadline to sort things out, so hopefully will motivate me to carry on decluttering and listing them on eBay/gumtree/FB.

Popped in to our local city today to have a look at the build a bear pay your age day. I'd stupidly mentioned it to DC1&2 and said we could go along. They are both Pokemon mad and thought it would be good to get the teddies for a fraction of the cost. We turned up at 9.05 and the queue was horrific! We waited 20 mins before I gave up and promised to spend the money we would have spent (£14) on a toy for them both instead. A friend of mine arrived at 8.30 and it took her 3 hours to get into the shop :eek:.

I transferred £6 to CC3 today. Have been doing lots of surveys in PA today and once processed I should have finally got to the £20 payout figure . Need to find my log in details for swagbucks and start doing this again too.

AdventureWanted

Oh and DH has turned down the job offer in Wales. Really pleased that he thought the same as me that it wasn't financially viable at the moment. Was nice not having to be the 'bad cop'!. Down side is that it looks like he's going to be working away for the majority of the summer, which is a bit rubbish. He's been away all week with work and will be away again Monday to Friday next week .