The long haul supporters thread...

In_Search_Of_Me

Hi there all. Ltm one thing I discoverd was the need for balance in the journey. Were here a good while & need to pace ourselves so debt busting s great but we need to finish the journey sane, or relatively sane!! Overdoing it just means you get exhausted and then more likely to splurge & let the old destructive spending behaviour set in. Can you plan in some mini goals & small treats to give you something to look forward to?
Well done on grocery budget Wendy. Must start mine as have only done little bits this week. Mum coming tomorrow so we'll pop into tesco on the way home. Did get some bacon & ham at farm shop today which is expensive but yummy!!
PC keep yo the good work! MIT we all have naff months and clothes are a necessary of life! Am trying to make do with mine for a month or so as had cat vaccinations of £103 today! Should be OK but just hope no hot dates as would have nowt to wear & would have to go for a shop!
How are others doing? Hugs all...

Keeping_Positive

Well first day of "April" for me yesterday and I spent £86. All on clothes and mostly for me. It better not keep going this way.

Did use my extra MBNA pints given for using the card once (this wll be paid off on the 2nd) to request £20 Debenham vouchers for my Mums birthday.

ltm07

Thanks ISOM for your kind reply. The main reason i have been busting a gut doing so much overtime is i want to pay for holiday in July that we have booked. Was on course to pay it but with te setback of paying £600 for the car repairs it has completely cleared us out. We are going away with my Mum & Dad & stopping in a lovely house in Devon. It has cost over £800,for which we are paying over £500 as we have split it five ways. Would have gone somewhere cheaper but OH's Dad lives in Exeter so we will be stopping there for a night,as OH only sees him 2 or 3 times a year. I will not give up overtime completely,but as you said calm it down a little. Hoping to get a £400 pre tax bonus next week so can put around £300 towards hols. If we haven't got enough money come June when we have to pay then i'm sure my Mum will help out. Just wanted the satisfaction of paying for hols without borrowing,but can't sustain the amount of overtime i'm doing. OH doing an extra shift tonight & hopes to do some more if any spare shifts come up which will help out big time. Thanks for the advice & encouragement,back later.

Jelly_Babies

Not managed to read through the whole of the thread but it definately applies to me, I need to debt bust for at least the next 5 years and I have learnt over the last 12 months I need huge support of you lot to do this.

Will do my siggy at the weekend after paid and it looks better :rolleyes: then you will see quite how long haul I am :eek:

Keeping_Positive

Welcome to the thread Jelly Babies. Ill be around for quite a while!

In_Search_Of_Me

Jelly babies (109)

Welcome Jelly babies. Youre amongst good company!

Wendy enjoy the clothes & just be honest with yourself on whether it was a need or want! If a want look at why (feeling low, fed up etc), learn from it & move on...

Ltm - my pleasure This debt busting is so wearing at times & life just gets in the way. I spent £103 on cat vaccinations today (thankfully 0%) which are necessary as insurance invalid without...decided to just make do with clothes although I could do with some new ones! Trying to shift some weigh so that I can fit into smaller ones that I own!!

Hang in there pepys, the journey will be up & down but we WILL get there & what a joyous day that will be eh!

Keeping_Positive

Thanks ISOM

I think it was half and half for my stuff. The suit could have been done without but I have been wearing the same two for months now. Its not often I spend money on clothes for me so it should be a good while before I think of splurging again on them. The kids stuff was needed.

ltm07

Thanks ISOM. Like you say,it's no good going like a bull at a gate. Spoke to people at work today about the overtime knackering me out & it's funny the different answers you get from people! Spoke to one guy who more or less said that i should do as much overtime as i can as if anything unexpected comes up then at least i'll have the cash to pay for it & spoke to another guy & he said what's the point in working yourself into the ground & feeling like !!!!!!!! Both right in their own way i guess! I think as long as we continue to live within our means we will be ok & if we do have to borrow a little for hols then so be it. After hols we will be £100 a month better off as one of our loans will have finished & although this £100 will go towards snowballing our debts at least we can fall back on it should we have to pay out for anything major. I will still have quite a sum to budget with the overtime that i can handle doing & everything is being paid so why kill myself taking on more overtime than i can handle? As i said before not feeling sorry for myself as plenty of people work as hard & harder than me,just that my body's telling me to slow down a bit! Thanks for reading.

trulymadlydeeply_indebt!

(((HUGS))) Ltm. I know how sometimes you can get blinkered vision on the path to being debt free. I've got 2 jobs totalling 34 hours per week and have 2 young children to ferry to and from school, plus attempting mystery shopping, swimming lessons and cooking from scratch - it's knackering! Sometimes I just want to drop. I'm so glad I discovered this thread as I know many people are just chipping away, little and often, as best they can and coming out alive at the end of it.

That thought is the only thing keeping me going right now as I am so tempted right now to just jack it all in and go BR - which I hasten to add goes completely against the grain of my make up - but I just can't see a way out on many occasions.

I'm desperately trying to adopt a more laid back attitude to clearing the debt, whilst still remaining determined at the same time. It's hard.

hugs to all who need them

TMD xx

trulymadlydeeply_indebt!

p.s. I've spent a bloomin fortune as well this week. We have a wedding in Ireland to go to May Bank Holiday. It's been £200 for the ferry, £261 for the caravan. Clothes, shoes etc., for me, OH and both kids, car MOT on Saturday. Believe me, we literally didn't have any clothes suitable for a wedding and we have had to kit ourselves from head to toe for all of us. 1 step forwards, 3 backwards this week, to the tune of about £800! And yes, it's all on the credit card too. AARRGGHH!!!!!!:mad:

...... and that's before the wedding present, the stag night, the hen party, the family day activity and the drinks/taxi money on the day. The joys!

Sorry for the rambling post everyone, just needed get it all out

TMD xx