£121K debt payoff - challenge accepted

savvysarah

Working_Mum wrote: »

Hi savvysarah,
Want to say a big well done for chipping away at your debt position and making some tough (but necessary) choices.

I repaid my mountain of debt by working my boring but simple plan every single day, paying what my budget allowed and then once I had done what I could I refused to stress about it - my kids were little and I prioritised being zen and in the moment with them as they only get once childhood. I would ask myself "have I done everything I can right now to sort this" and of the answer was a "yes" then I refused to worry. I knew my plan was solid but boring but I knew I would get there eventually.

I am self employed so pay myself weekly - this meant that if I was really skint I could make do until next Thursday/pay day! Being broke and eating out of cupboards was do-able for a few days at a time. I also gave (give) myself £150 FFF each week - this is my Food, Fuel and Fun money - by having a round figure I felt I had a bit of wriggle room and could flex the areas to have a social life etc

Thinking about the wall - is it something you could have a go at yourself?? I couldn't afford any outside trades etc when things went wrong in my 1920's home (and gosh did things go wrong!!) and I found YouTube to be an amazing source of knowledge etc - it has given me a set of skills which I still use today - up-cycled some drawers only yesterday to stage my spare room as I am trying to sell my house!!

Hey don't worry too much bout Mum Guilt!! My kids are 21 and 18 and I STILL feel guilty about working whilst they were little - they absolutely do not care!! They tell me time and time again how great their childhood was! NOT buying into the modern hype of everything being perfect is the MSE way to happiness I am sure.

Good luck with your journey, I am subscribed and will be cheering you on from the sidelines!!

Thanks so much Working Mum, I'm always really happy to hear about other people's big debt payoff stories Solid and boring is exactly what I want to be able to do, I'm splitting grocery and other spends into weekly amounts at the moment for the reason you said; if we run out of something, its never really that long until the next week's budget starts.

However, this solid, boring and effective plan keeps being scuppered by the unpredictable and drama-fuelled rental house business, so by selling I hope to jump on that boring train for success!!

I'm always up for a bit of DIY, unfortunately the rental is over an hour away so its impossible with 3 little ones to try to do it myself

And thanks for the reality check re: the kids! I'm just trying to be really present with them and remind myself of what's important. And we had a good drop off this morning so I've much less guilt today!! :)

savvysarah

april_hunt wrote: »

I love sitting down and catching up with your diary
Well done with the debt clearing, every little helps so they say!
As for the property it is such a shame that your having to sell due to all this but like others have said it maybe good for you and you can finally breathe that little bit more. Would there be no way of ending the tenancy for you to go in and see what you can do to fix things and then letting it back out to someone else ( through a better letting agent obviously)

With the trainers are there none on the selling sites or charity shops?

Good Luck Savvysarah cannot wait to hear more
x

Thanks April, I'm hoping every little does help! :rotfl:

We could try to get her to leave, then re-let it but as I say she's the best tenant we've ever had! So I'm not sure we'd be doing ourselves any favours. And as much as she's doing my head in, I do feel bad that we're probably going to go through this process so unless it got worse with her I honestly probably wouldn't be giving her notice unless we were selling, if that makes sense.

I still haven't bought trainers! We now have zero cash until next Friday :eek: And although this might change this year as I try to get us sorted out, up til now shoes are the one thing I really don't want to get second hand. I'm MORE than happy with pre-loved clothes, shoes and furniture, just not shoes. But I might not have much choice!

savvysarah

Eyebright wrote: »

Hi SavvySarah, have just read your diary and considering everything that you've had going on you've been doing brilliantly!
Sorry about your troubles with your rental property. Even you do make a loss on it in the short term selling it, hopefully in the long term it will be much better for your finances, what with the amount of money it seems to be costing you.

I've just started my journey to debt freedom, so I'm subscribing and will follow along with you

Ahh thank you so much for reading and for following along! The more the merrier. Good luck with your debt-busting, we WILL do this

savvysarah

Morning!
Another update while tiniest is at nursery, it was a happy drop off today thank goodness!
We are now in scraping the cupboards territory until payday on Friday, January is soooooo long :rotfl: So I'm about to make a big bowl of couscous, its a box of plain stuff that's been shoved to the back of the cupboard for too long so I'm hoping if I cook it with veg stock it might flavour it up a bit?!?! Then I'll add little chunks of cheese and some spinach as that's what we've got, and hopefully that'll be my lunch for the week.

Beyond that, I've found someone who will do the wall at the rental for us for £500 - yippee! Much better than £3K. Although I'm slightly nervous as its from one of those websites where you put the job on and get quotes back, so who knows if they'll actually turn up/do a good job/not just take all our money?? But that's what the guy at the insurance company recommended we do to find someone (after they declined our claim) so I think we'll go for it, I've been messaging them and arranged provisionally for this coming weekend.

We haven't decided on whether or not to sell the rental yet - I reckon we're at about 80% decided and are going to chat next weekend after payday. Husbands pay will be increased this month as he's just come out of his pension scheme :eek::eek: to enable us to pay down the debt quicker (please don't shout at me - this has been a very considered decision as we both have substantial pension pots) so when we see exactly how much that is we can make a more informed decision about what to do.

I've set a challenge to myself to make £500 in Feb to start rebuilding our Emergency Fund (as per Dave Ramsey) and to offset the garden wall in my mind I have 6 items listed on Ebay so far, and I'm about to tackle the room of doom which I hope will be my goldmine :rotfl:

Phew! I think that's quite enough for one morning! Happy Monday everyone

Silver_Queen

Do you have room in your food budget to buy a courgette(or aubergine), some mushrooms and some cherry toms?

If so...

Chop the courgette and mushroom into slices, halve the cherry toms. Drizzle in a small amount of oil and roast on 180 for about 25 mins (keep an eye on this - I've just pulled these timings from thin air because I normally play it by ear) on a sheet of foil on your tray (otherwise they'll stick to the tray)

Meanwhile, boil kettle and make up some couscous, add a knob of butter and mix thoroughly. Then add the mixed veg in and mix it all up. Then add spinach and mix it again.

Makes couscous 1000% more exciting and is so quick and easy, shouldn't set you back more than about £1.50!

Isitdoable

Hi Sarah, I'm trying to work my way through your diary, as another +100k debtor, I know it's a scary place to be!

Someone told me once, with regards to my business, 'turnover is vanity, profit is sanity'. It really stuck with me and has been something I have tried to keep top of my priorities since. I think you can apply this principal to your rental property.....It HAS to make money for you or its not worth it!

I agree with others that chipping away in a small way is the way to do it. Good luck, I'm looking forward to following your progress.

Eyebright

Good luck with sorting out your EF Sarah, that's what I'm currently doing at the moment too! I'm hoping to have mine completed by the end of march. I have plenty of stuff to ebay/sell on FB too, unfortunately I'm very much lacking in enthusiasm.:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: I really need to motivate myself to get this done!!! It will be a big help towards upping the income and decluttering the house. I have lots of savings pots I want to fill to ensure we don't fall back on credit card spending, and to reduce the number of DD's that go out each month, as well as the obvious clear my debts! You would think that would be motivation enough wouldn't you?!:o

savvysarah

Silver_Queen wrote: »

Do you have room in your food budget to buy a courgette(or aubergine), some mushrooms and some cherry toms?

If so...

Chop the courgette and mushroom into slices, halve the cherry toms. Drizzle in a small amount of oil and roast on 180 for about 25 mins (keep an eye on this - I've just pulled these timings from thin air because I normally play it by ear) on a sheet of foil on your tray (otherwise they'll stick to the tray)

Meanwhile, boil kettle and make up some couscous, add a knob of butter and mix thoroughly. Then add the mixed veg in and mix it all up. Then add spinach and mix it again.

Makes couscous 1000% more exciting and is so quick and easy, shouldn't set you back more than about £1.50!

This sounds LUSH! And thanks for taking the time to post it Unfortunately since I last posted a stomach bug has hit our house so I really have had to make do with the few things in the fridge/cupboards. However I will save that idea for next time as we have a ridiculously huge amount of couscous in the house I did find a random bottle of blueberry and lime dressing though which jazzed it up a treat!

savvysarah

Isitdoable wrote: »

Hi Sarah, I'm trying to work my way through your diary, as another +100k debtor, I know it's a scary place to be!

Someone told me once, with regards to my business, 'turnover is vanity, profit is sanity'. It really stuck with me and has been something I have tried to keep top of my priorities since. I think you can apply this principal to your rental property.....It HAS to make money for you or its not worth it!

I agree with others that chipping away in a small way is the way to do it. Good luck, I'm looking forward to following your progress.

Oooh, I like that saying! Very wise, and very apt. And we have no profit, and that explains the fact its been driving me mad. That definitely helps to crystallise things.

Sorry to hear you're in the +100K club too! Do you have a diary? I'd love to read it if you have, I don't think there's very many of us on here!

savvysarah

Eyebright wrote: »

Good luck with sorting out your EF Sarah, that's what I'm currently doing at the moment too! I'm hoping to have mine completed by the end of march. I have plenty of stuff to ebay/sell on FB too, unfortunately I'm very much lacking in enthusiasm.:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: I really need to motivate myself to get this done!!! It will be a big help towards upping the income and decluttering the house. I have lots of savings pots I want to fill to ensure we don't fall back on credit card spending, and to reduce the number of DD's that go out each month, as well as the obvious clear my debts! You would think that would be motivation enough wouldn't you?!:o

Ha! I am SO feeling this!! Selling is just so so tedious isn't it? Even though we have all those carrots to motivate us! We also want to clear the house, get the EF sorted, get enough money to sell the rental, start snowballing the debts and mayne enjoy life a little along the way - that should be enough motivation but I'm struggling!! :rotfl: