It's time to begin.....

Kakiste

Thanks- I'll have a read through of the thread.

greensalad

It's definitely true. You can get a mortgage with a problem credit file. I only had missing payments, but even though there was a string of almost a full year of me having missed payments every month (not defaults), nearly all the major banks didn't care. It was all about the past two years. I don't know if that applies to defaults but I would definitely ask a broker, they will be able to look through all the lenders and find you one that doesn't care about defaults within a certain time period.

Also the financial year before the year you're applying, try and get as much cash as possible paid through PAYE (I know you would anyway!) But sign up for everything, do all the shifts or marking or whatever you can do. You can show your P60 for evidence of income and they will likely assess based off that, which can up your affordability. Every extra £1 you can earn would be worth around £4 or £4.50 on your maximum budget for a property. 

Kakiste

Thanks @greensalad I'll bear all that in mind. Looking at my credit report I've currently got 2 years 3 of monthly data showing everything being on time, in the black and no adverse credit markers. 

Kakiste

In other news- my gym and health kick have continued and with 3-4 morning spin classes a week, 2 weights sessions at home at the weekends and mostly healthy eating- I'm down to a size 14!

I've sold a bunch of old clothes on Vinted and made £28 so far so bought myself a pair or rocket dog ankle boots for work for £5 (my current ones bought in the summer are leaking and the soles are coming off!) and 3 news pairs of size 14 jeans. 

My beloved long serving rocket dog boots have started to tear off on the soles. I need to take them into town at the weekend to see if they can be re-soled. 

GeorgianaCavendish

Excellent progress with the gym, it is a lovely feeling to buy smaller clothes  
Hope your boots can be re-soled, it is amazing how much a good cobbler can do to restore things (and usually a lot cheaper than buying a new pair!) 

How have you found selling on Vinted? I've not used it at all but I hear good things about it. I've used ebay to sell lots of things in the past but the last time was a good 3 years ago, and their fees can be quite high.

Kakiste

I've found it surprisingly easy. Like ebay the listing them takes the majority of the time. 

You also only get the payment from sellers once they've received the parcel and marked it as described (or around 48 hours after that if they don't respond) so it's probably fairly frustrating if you want to sell things quickly- but as I'm just using the balance for more clothes for myself it's fine, 

Kakiste

Had a lovely weekend- took daughter to a local christmas fair- they had a bunch of animals as well as loads of local craft stalls so bought a lot of presents for friends and family whilst she gushed over the animals.

Still got a week and half(!) of work left. Mind you there is basically going to be no lessons next Monday-Wednesday because of all the trips and christmas stuff going on so I'm trying to get all the end of term assessments uploaded/data scrutiny done and reports written by the end of this week so I can enjoy christmas stuff with the kids for the last 3 days of term. 

My daughter's school is closing at lunchtime this Friday so I think I'm going to bring her to my school for the afternoon- which she loves as the vast majority of kids are really nice and love gushing over small children. (plus we've got a load of school animals) 

Daughter's christmas presents are sorted- going to see if I can sort wrapping them tomorrow when she's out at ballet class with my dad tomorrow. Husband decided randomly to buy the vast majority this time so there was no wrangling over the money- I just transferred him half- so that's done.  

Sadly- my uncle (dad's brother) died last week- massive shock to everyone as he was only late 50s- he'd had a minor op and must of had a bloodclot or something because he had a heart attack the day afterwards and sadly didn't survive it. My dad is very shocked; he's got loads of siblings (1 of 8 children) but this particular brother is the very youngest and the one he's closest with- when he called me up to tell me I initially assumed it would be one of the two eldest brothers (both in their 70s and heavy drinkers/smokers) not the clean living 58 year old. How sad life sometimes is. 

bellevie

So sorry to read about your loss, life is puzzling at times.

Christmas fair sounds lovely, I do love Christmas fairs, we didn't get to one this year but hopefully will next year.

RandomOne

Hi @Kakiste I hope it's ok if I pop on to say hi. Someone on my DFD mentioned that I might find your diary interesting, as I am paying off my debt (almost £11k) as quickly as possible in order to leave my husband. I cannot financially survive on my own while I'm still in debt, and my husband thinks I'll never leave because I cant afford to. 

Your story and progress is amazing, well done to you. 

Kakiste

Thanks. Hope you also get out soon.