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

Dottles1

Good to see you back One step, I've been wondering how you ere doing. It sounds like you've had a bit of a tough time financially so hope it's over now. You will get back onto it, try to see it as a hiccup rather than a disaster.
Looking forward to you posting
Dottles x

One-step-at-a-time

Thank you Dottles - it's just sod's law, really - I was planning on selling some equipment in order to fund the replacement stuff before the year is out, it just got turned on its head and now I'm playing catch-up instead! In theory I can sell more than enough to cover it, but in practice it may take a while to find a serious buyer, so I have to suck up the cost in the meantime. I'll be able to pay off 25% of it before the credit card bill comes in and the rest can go to 0% for 18 months so in theory it'll only cost me the transfer fee, but it's still massively frustrating to take any form of backwards step. On the plus side October is looking to be a very quiet month which should give me plenty of opportunity to do another financial review and figure out how we can make things work.

One-step-at-a-time

Sums and juggling have been done, and I can actually cover more than 40% of the new debt before the card statement comes in without impacting other payments, so it's not as bad as I thought. I've had a look at the activities we had planned over the next couple of months and have (with DH's agreement) cancelled a couple of things, so money I was putting towards those has also gone to the card. Damage limitation!

Meanwhile the mortgage has dipped under the next £k marker and total debt including mortgage is still sub £60k so in the grand scheme of things it could be much, much worse.

This month I will be trying to concentrate on making some extra cash!

[Deleted User]

Brilliant, well done on mitigating the damage as much as you can - such a grown up post-LBM thing to do!

JP2019

After reading this whole diary I have subbed.

You deserve a standing ovation! You will beat this

One-step-at-a-time

Welcome JP2019!
Blimey if you've made it through all that you deserve a medal

One-step-at-a-time

Happy weekend everyone!

Things are on the up at the moment. I had two really lovely emails yesterday and have got a sale of more than £300 (after tax) coming - this is brilliant news and means that we will get back on track just that little bit faster. Still a few days before the credit card statement comes in so I may be able to squeeze in another payment and do a smaller balance transfer.

Damage limitation has us staying at home all weekend which means catching up with auction listings, doing loads of cooking and generally tidying up the house and garden. No equipment sales yet (not even a bite) but I'll keep chipping away. Best get cracking during daylight hours

One-step-at-a-time

Super-quiet weekend at home - made one auction sale, declutterred various things to charity shop, recycling and bin, and scanned a box of books for Music Magpie, clearing 1/3 of a shelf. Total profit from the two lots of sales will be in the region of £25, and no money was spent all weekend.

One-step-at-a-time

Evening all! I've got to redo my Music Magpie sale - the box was way over the allowed weight limit so I can only send them the amount that hits the sweet spot of over £5 and under 5kg! First time user, I'll know in future.

Good progress today with an invoice prepared for another bit of work and another sale agreed, so another £200+ on the way! Even if none of this stuff is paid imminently it's really good to know that it's coming. Last year was dire in side hustle terms (to the point where HMRC owe me money), so I'm quite excited to know that I'll be paying more tax again next year. Warped brain, eh?

One-step-at-a-time

How did the weekend get here so quickly again? :eek:

It's been a good end to the week - some of the payments came in and I've sent another £300 back to the card, and another £100 is due to come in early next week. Beating the extra debt into submission! We'll be spending our time much the same way as last weekend (quietly at home), though I will be sorting out a few things that have the potential to make me some passive income, like print sales. In terms of the debt free date, with the extra money I've managed to make/find, the latest hiccup has put us back less than five weeks, which is way better than I could have hoped for. Obviously still very frustrated at the time it's taking, but for now I'm focusing on the goal of getting under £20k, which WILL happen in the first quarter of 2020.