Put away your purse & become debt-averse

maddiemay

A productive day for you again.

The following really range a bell for me, or rather slapped me in the face, I think I will print it and stick to the front of the cupboard where I keep my day book and meds to remind me. LOL

it's just a case of making myself do them, rather than glaring at them every time I walk past.

MM

Four_Seasons

Evening Foxgloves, I also spent a few minutes this morning turning all our radiators down a notch, think in some of the rooms, the ones used for visitors and empty most of the time could even go down further, checked windows and curtains, having spent so many years on my own (before moving in with OH)and worrying about bills I tend to be obsessive about turning things off!!   
Have a lovely weekend x

BlueJ94

Evening @foxgloves and all

You've given me the motivation I needed recently to give myself a talking to and stop wasting my free time. So, I seen a job advert on Facebook for sainsburys part time and I applied for it.

I had the interview today and got told there and then I can start next Sunday!

Woo! It's 3 days a week, 4am until 8am. I also have my current full time job which is 8.30AM until 5PM. So two days are going to be loooong. But worth it for the extra money to pay my debts off ASAP! I also get paid unsociable hours which is between 5am and 7am which is £12 an hour!

Just wanted to say a quick thanks for the motivation! 

Baileys_Babe

Have you measured and noted down the size curtains your HQ requires? You never know you might get lucky and find a suitable pair in a charity shop.

foxgloves

Awww, a nice bunch of comments to read through, which I always enjoy - thanks.

@maddiemay - I do sometimes need to give myself a kick up the backside when annoying jobs start feeling as though they are deliberately lurking, but I am very good at getting rid of the very quick ones. Years ago when I was on a management course at work, somebody said that if you are confronted with a task which would take you literally 30 seconds or less, then do it NOW, immediately. I applied this to my professional life & it really did help in preventing stuff building up. I also apply the same rule at home. So...example. Postman delivers mail. I open something which I don't want to keep, particularly, so it gets popped on the dresser until I decide what to do with it. No. If it is something I definitely need to keep or deal with, it gets put straight in my stair bag for going upstairs to where it needs to be. If I don't want it, then it instantly goes in the recycling bin. Those piles of papers/jobs don't just magically appear overnight. That one thing on which you didn't make a 30 second decision, then action will become the bottom thing in a growing pile on the dresser which will then be an annoying job. I do find this nips a lot of really annoying tidying & sorting in the bud. Simple rule - "If it will only take 30 seconds, deal with it now"!

@Four_Seasons - Yes, I am the same. I usually have the back bedroom (Man Cave) radiator turned down if there is nobody in there & only heat the conservatory if it is in use (it doubles as our dining room) Energy prices are so expensive now that we do really all have to get into that mindset of every little saving helps over the course of a year. Somebody (a bit of a know-it-all-because-I-am-a-man caretaker) once told me that one of my little electricity saving measures would save such a microscopic amount as to render it not worth doing. I disagree. If it is a microscopic saving that happens daily or even multiple times daily, multiplied by weeks & months, added to ALL THE OTHER tiny little energy savings one is making, then everything will add up. Yes, we've changed tariffs in the past, yes we've changed providers but the only course of action which has really caused a reduction in our bills was when I did a room-by-room audit & action plan to cut wastage.
F

foxgloves

@Baileys_Babe - Thanks. Good idea. I will do that. It's possible that I'll have fabric left over from when I make new curtains for the landing & the linen cupboard door, but I might also stumble on a treasure in one of the many local charity shops, so will make sure the measurements are in my purse.
F

foxgloves

@jadewest94 - Wow, go you, girl!! Make sure you stay properly hydrated & eat nutritious food as those are long working hours. I know how desperate you are to get rid of your debts though, so if you can cope with the hours for a while, you may find it is worth a short term sacrifice to get a bit more paid off. It looks as though that debt figure is soon going to start with a '4' & not with a '5' - That will feel motivating in itself. Just think ....when that has gone, you will be able to keep all the money you are currently paying towards it. That's ultimately what pinged the lightbulb on for me, just too much of our salaries going to debt repayments for stuff we'd had bought so long ago & so frequently, we could barely remember what any of it was!
You'll get there!
F

foxgloves

Hello Soggy Saturday People,
Wazzing down with rain here. No money spent as Mr F has had to work all day so I have no wheels & feel no inclination to cycle or stand at the bus stop getting soaked today. Dinner in the slow cooker - the piece of beef purchased was too big for the recipe I'm doing, so I've chunked up the surplus & frozen it ready for an additional meal at some point. I've kind of done random jobs since then. The tomato ripening bag worked its usual magic & I skinned & blitzed some for the freezer & about a kilo went in the fridge. 
We hope to begin moving back some of the biggest items of lounge furniture this evening, so I've been busy attacking the more recalcitrant plaster dust with my spray mop, which must have burned a few calories. I've also had a really thorough go at the window frames with my trusty 'Stardr*ps' solution (I dilute it in an old spray bottle & also use this in my spray mop) & I swear they have come up 2 whole shades lighter. If Mr F helps me move my big treasures cabinet & piano tonight, I can get the rest of the floor done & we will have made a start on getting things back to normal.
I've continued clearing a few annoying jobs - I've been putting one of them off for ages. It took me about an hour, cost no money, made somebody happy & was actually quite enjoyable to do. I do think there's a lot to be said for the 'Tidy home = tidy mind' mantra.......although if my Mum had said that to me when I was a teenager, I'd have thought she was crackers. I'm never going to be one of those people who plump up cushions every 5 mins or damp dust every day (like my Nana did & thought was essential), but I do increasingly find that I am happier if the place is tidy. 
I bought some pittas to serve with dinner tonight (BBQ pulled brisket in the SC) but I have some yoghurt which needs using up so I am going to sign out now & go & mix up a batch of dough for garlic flat breads instead, as the pittas will keep for another time. In case anyone is thinking there are no COURGETTES in this meal......there will be! I have sliced some ready for stir-frying!
Right, coffee time first, then off I go with the griddle pan.
Enjoy your evenings m'dears. 
F x

BlueJ94

foxgloves said:

@jadewest94 - Wow, go you, girl!! Make sure you stay properly hydrated & eat nutritious food as those are long working hours. I know how desperate you are to get rid of your debts though, so if you can cope with the hours for a while, you may find it is worth a short term sacrifice to get a bit more paid off. It looks as though that debt figure is soon going to start with a '4' & not with a '5' - That will feel motivating in itself. Just think ....when that has gone, you will be able to keep all the money you are currently paying towards it. That's ultimately what pinged the lightbulb on for me, just too much of our salaries going to debt repayments for stuff we'd had bought so long ago & so frequently, we could barely remember what any of it was!
You'll get there!
F

Thank you foxgloves! I couldn't agree more. Luckily it's only two days between Monday to Friday that mix with my other job so that's going to be a killer! Then every Sunday.

Thanks for the encouragement. I agree about the eating and hydration. I plan on meal planning properly, I'll have a breakfast just before 4am and then one at work at 8am! Or something to fill me up and keep me going.

Same here with debt using basically all my salary! It's so frustrating. I plan on putting all my money I've saved after my debts have been paid into my savings for a house. 

foxgloves

That house deposit will be your big motivation, @jadewest94. re debts taking so much of your earnings. I can remember back when we were still very spendy, thinking 'Why can't we afford a camper van? It's not fair, we earn good money but we've never got anything left over for any of the big stuff we'd like to do. And we didn't, because we frittered it all! At that time, we had 2 full-time, not enormous but perfectly respectable professional salaries coming in, no savings whatsoever & around £35k of assorted loans, debts, consolidation loan (the 3rd one!!!) & 2 overdrafts. I sat at my desk & added up every debt repayment & was shocked at the amount. Because we never got into difficulty, could afford the payments, & only once had any of our borrowing capped (which was on a new joint mortgage when our debts were taken into account & deducted from the maximum amount the Building Society would lend us), we never saw our debt as a problem. We just regarded it as regular monthly payments. I just couldn't live like that now & it is very obvious from your posts that you obviously hit that same lightbulb as me (Mr F took a little bit longer). Even just getting rid of my overdraft (which I'd had from the age of 19 to my early 40s!!) was amazing because for the first time in practically my whole adult life, all the wages I had coming in to my account belonged to me. They no longer disappeared straight off down a dark hole never to be seen again! I don't even miss all the stuff I used to buy. You are going to sort this at a much younger age than I did, I reckon. Keep at it & you will defo get there. It is so worth it when you make that final payment & think 'OMG......it's GONE!!'
F