£50k to zero - made it across the finish line

One-step-at-a-time

15 days 'til debt #4 bites the dust! That's no time at all, is it? I will be doing nearly all of all my happy dances here, the main thing about keeping very quiet about our iffy finances IRL is not being able to share the excitement of progress with anyone.

Today's been decent again; work has been, dare I say it, fun? I've got an early meeting tomorrow to demo the thing I've spent all week doing, so I'll go to bed early and give myself some extra time in the morning to get in; the trains have been a bit erratic this week.

All my auction sales have now been posted, so hopefully I will start getting feedback by the weekend and be able to move some of the money across to the CC well before the end of the month. My Starling card arrived today, and so far I'm really pleased with the service and the app. I'm going to start using it for my work travel from next Monday, and stick the full food budget as well as the commuting budget on it from next month. Also, thank you to whoever poked Prolific with a stick, nothing for a few days then a nice interesting £1.50 survey

One-step-at-a-time

Another good day!

My valentine was from HMRC - I have apparently overpaid by £114.20! Nothing in the letter about how it will wing it way back to me (I assume it will go straight back into my bank account at some point as they have the details), or when, but I'll be please to receive it whenever

redofromstart

Hurrah for the tax refund. I've usually had the cash in the bank within a day or so of the letter.

One-step-at-a-time

Another nice day today. Work has been a little more leisurely and I actually managed a full lunch break for the first time this week.

No movement on the paying off front today. I'm hoping the tax refund will turn up soon (as well as feeling safe to transfer the eb4y funds across once all buyers have made contact), as it would be really nice to slice at least another £150 off the cards this month.

Today's first win has been the lovely empowering feeling of contacting two of my three CC providers and saying 'I would like to decline the credit limit increase you have offered me'. Between the two, there was an extra £3750 of credit on the table. Completely barmy! My credit limit is still obscenely high , and the next phone calls I make will be to decrease it.

Second win - Last week's Lidl parking fine which I challenged with an email and proof of our custom has been cancelled without a whimper :A:A:A

One-step-at-a-time

Having a bit of a sad/panicky morning. We're starting to research ceiling repairs (part of a plaster/lath ceiling in a 100+ year old house). When I say repair, the likelihood is that all the old plaster will need to come down and be replaced. I'm scared of how much this will cost and know there's not nearly enough in the EF (currently <£500 after recent car costs) to cover this, and both DH and I are absolutely useless at dealing with this sort of thing and have no idea what it *should* cost (hence starting the research), and are fearful of getting ripped off.. It's not the only problematic house thing, but it's the most pressing. Need to take a deep breath and accept it may set us back a few more months.

For today we will concentrate on what CAN be done - i.e. going to the tip with as much household detritus as possible!

Drawingaline

Pop over to the DIY part of the forum, there is a place where you can put quotes received up and get advice. Obviously as with all internet opinions you need to be careful, but may be a good starting point? As with most parts of this forum they seem nice you may be signposted to more knowledgeable websites too.

One-step-at-a-time

Drawingaline wrote: »

Pop over to the DIY part of the forum, there is a place where you can put quotes received up and get advice. Obviously as with all internet opinions you need to be careful, but may be a good starting point? As with most parts of this forum they seem nice you may be signposted to more knowledgeable websites too.

Thanks Drawingaline, I will get on to that today! We've started the research and have two companies (one specialist and one local plasterer with plenty of examples of their work available), so we have a starting point, but I always like to hear more experiences/recommendations.

I've finished amending all my standing orders to the accounts that will be benefitting from the money that will be freed up for debtbusting from next month, and today I just need to register my Starling card with TFL so that I can start to use if for PAYG commuting (there's no point me getting a monthly or even annual travelcard as it would actually cost me more than PAYG). We have almost exhausted the grocery budget after the last food shop, £9.12 left to last us 11 days, but at the moment the only things we are likely to get low on are milk and loo rolls, so it should work itself out.

All my eb4y sales should have arrived with their respective new owners now, so I'm hoping that feedback will come in so that the cash from those will be freed up soon.

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I'm done with being active for the day! The tip run and garden gave me a good workout, and although we'll need to go back a few more times before everything is cleared, it's looking so much better out there now. It's so nice to be getting the garden under control this early in the year; at the rate we're moving we'll have it all spruced up and usable by the end of next month, and actually be able to enjoy it a bit this year. I uncovered some nice plant pots that just need a bit of a clean-up, one of which is exactly the right size for one of my indoor plants that's outgrowing its current home, and a couple of others that I'm going to use to replant some wallflowers that are growing through the paving in front of the house.

While I was working outside, three of my relisted auctions finished and have netted another £20-ish after fees and postage. All this chipping away at things adds up

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We're in very real countdown territory now!

NSD today, breakfast and lunch for work were already sorted. eB4y bits needed posting but I don't count that as my money.
I used my Starling card for my work travel today for the first time. Thinking about the travel to work, at it's half term and the morning traffic is not so bad, if I can haul myself out of bed 40 minutes earlier for the rest of the week I *should* be able to get two buses in instead of the train, save myself £1.70/day, and still get in with time to spare.
I will try that in the morning. Outside of school hols an extra 40 minutes would be nowhere near long enough, but I may as well give it a try on the days that I can. A flask of coffee and a book/music will help!

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Just logged in to HMRC to request the refund (seeing as nothing had popped into my account) and according to them, I am owed £230 not £114. As you can probably imagine I'm rather pleased about that. :j

No official ceiling quotes yet, but some very helpful info from the DIY forum (thank you Drawingaline), so I now have more clue as to how big/expensive a job it could be, and can have a bit of breathing space to rethink how we're going to juggle things over the next couple of months to make the expense as low-impact as possible. If I hang onto the eb4y money and the tax refund and don't allocate the money returning to our budget at the end of March to a CC, with what's left in the emergency fund, we can probably handle an expense of up to £1200, which I hope is more than will be required!

OK that's more than enough thinking for one day