The long haul supporters thread...

In_Search_Of_Me

In haste-will sort numbers out tomorrow!

fedupandskint

mumto2monkeys wrote: »

It dawned on me this evening that my entire working life has been built around needing to earn enough to cover the outgoings; I have never earned the money first. It's really scary stuff. Maybe I can pay it all off, drop the responsibility, drop to part time and spend hours growing my own veg, baking with the kids and making my own chutney. My inner old-styler is fighting to get out.

Welcome to mumto2monkeys and everyone else!

I have often thought the same about my working life earning just enough to pay the outgoings I racked up and that is not a nice thought.

Still now I have let my inner Old Styler out I try not to focus on things like this and I've embraced the HM way of things (the old slip up with ready meals )

I have really enjoyed making chutney and flavoured oils etc (a lot of which are presents this year) and searching for bargains for things that are really needed rather than buying for the sake of it. I saved the bottles and jars in the main from other things I used up and my pantry was stuffed full of loads of things I could use up (part of the endless buying of things )

The other thing that surprised me was switching in Sainsbugs to Basics from Taste the Difference and most things I can't tell any difference (25p for teabags! They're ok! Basics Chips - they're ok too!)

I was a real label snob (the marketing tricks worked on me!) before but not now. I just focus on how little the shopping costs me compared to everyone else

There are a few threads on the food/groceries board regarding this for help on good/bad items!

I also found that baking things didn't cost as much as buying things. Especially using basics flour, butter, chocolate etc depending on what I am baking even though it is always a bit of an experiment! Plus at least I make use of one of the many books I have!

The other thing I have done which has saved money is to use up every cleaning product I own and stop buying things because they are on offer. I replaced them with stardrops which manages most things and use cloths I can wash over and over again instead of disposable ones.

Bring on the Old Style I say!

Debt busting targt for me this month is not not accrue any bank charges and to celebrate paying off a loan in a few weeks time. In the new year it is the CCs :eek:

ramblingtree

mumto2monkeys & Fed up - Couldn't agree more! I love making soups, gardening, all the little things. Unfortunately working 3 jobs to pay the debt off doesn't leave much time for the fun stuff, also I have no garden and a teeny kitchen LOL.
OH and I dream of the day we can take a pay cut to do something we really want to do, enjoy our leisure time doing lots of relaxing nice FREE things - what life should be about!
Our days will come, and we will appreciate it all the more because we've had this struggle.
PMA today, think I'm too tired to be negative!!!
have a great day y'all
x

TEK_2

Hi all, hope everyone's well. We also try do do as much OS stuff as possible, but as with yourselves it can be a little difficult at times, with both working full time.

Decided to do our monthly update a couple of days early, as may not get chance to get on again with the forum downtime tomorrow & a busy Saturday ahead. Managed to pay over £150 off this month, which we are quite pleased with, as we had to pay wedding photographer £600. Just feels good that,fingers crossed there are no major obstacles in the way so we should be back to square 1 by the end of the year, then next year we hope to really chip away at our debts. I know we won't clear the £1,000 we were hoping to by the end of the year but we will be happy just to be back to square 1 after paying out for wedding etc. Well on strike again today, it is so frustrating that the talks between the Union & RM keep breaking down. Luckily there is still enough overtime to cover the day's pay i lose, but could do with the overtime on top of wages IYKWIM:rolleyes:! Don't know what the future holds at work in the long run, but the one good thing to come out of this dispute is for us both to knuckle down & really start to smash these debts. Anyway here is my list on how we plan to smash these debts!! Thanks for reading folks & all the best!!

31st July-31st December 09 -£1,324.13/£1,000
31st December 10- £3,000
31st December 11- £4,000
31st December 12- £5,000
31st December 13- £6,000
31st December 14- £7,000
31st December 15- £9896.58

TOTAL £35,896.58

poorbabe

Hi everyone, now that winter has returned (I know it's autumn but it's dark so it's winter for me), I'll be spending more time at home and online (especially here).

Have had an up and down year on the debtbusting front. Was making good progress then had a blimp which led me to seek (another) consolidation loan. Fortunately, I was turned down both times and although I panicked a bit, my recent cc statements have shown me that I can handle the increased monthly payments and even overpay by a few quid on a regular basis :T. Once I discovered that, I re-jigged my standing orders accordingly and with the eventual clearance of my allowed overdraft I should (pray) start 2010 in the black, albeit with limited 'me' money each month.

I just need the postal service to sort itself out so I can ebay a few items I've identified for selling, although I really should investigate other channels.

So light clouds on the horizon rather than black ones. After all, it's only money right? :cool:

In_Search_Of_Me

Mssparkle (191)
There ya go...

sallymander

I can totally identify with the joy of HM!! I have lots of cook books and barely used them before my LBM, but now my freezer is full of HM stuff. My favourite is Spinage and Pea soup which is bright green but tastes delicious and is great 'gunge' soup for halloween:rotfl:.

As there will be downtime over the weekend and I have a bit of 'homework' to do im going to post my update now. I have just paid £600 of my CC and £70 will go out on my loan and £150 to my parents I should be able to clear £820 of debt this month :jalthough I have got 5 major birthdays coming up over the next few months, christmas, and my MOT and car insurance are due at the beginning of December. Two steps forwards, one step back. Oh well another day another dollar, think the PMA must be catching...... or is it just because its payday???:rotfl:

Happytogetdebtfree

Evening yes payday has been for me oh on Friday yay made a nice extra 300 on top of my basic wage so all v good. Paid a big chunk off outstanding marquee payment. Sounds like everyone has some pma and so we should it's been a really hard year and we have done well to get so far so chins up and keep fighting on x

In_Search_Of_Me

hang in there! How people doing?

Keeping_Positive

Well errrrr ummmmm kinda ok.

As you know from my thread I could do without OH right now but Im still plugging away. Did manage to talk myself out of a new cooker so the LB must stil be flickering somewhere.