The Last Leg; 6 years later, debt free in 2021

greensalad

Not quite the end of the day yet but I have not spent anything today which is good!

I worked a bit in the garden this morning, my veggies are doing really well. Then I've been sorting out some of the junk in our spare room. I found a bunch of camcorder tapes I had rescued from my Grandparent's house when we helped them move into sheltered accommodation several years ago. I had intended to digitise them (they are holiday videos mainly). My Grandmother died last summer and I just feel like I can't bin them but the digitisation cost is quite high. I've asked my Dad if he'll cover the cost of having them digitised and then I can bin the tapes. Much more sensible to have them in digital format than just stored in old tapes. Hopefully he'll agree. I can't justify the hundred quid cost. 

I also found a set of silver spoons my Grandpa gave me. I never know what to do with things like these. I believe they belonged to my Great-Grandmother. She wasn't someone I ever met and wasn't a nice person anyway so I do wonder why the hell I'm holding onto her set of silver spoons... I'm going to ask my Auntie whether she can put them in her shop to sell (she runs an antique centre). 

Had a call this morning with a friend of mine about the possibility of doing some freelance work with her. If it works out could be a really great side earner for me.

Other than that not much going on, just counting down the days to payday now. Tacos for dinner tonight, yummmmm. I'm veggie so we have Vivera mince and my boyfriend says he can't tell the difference when it's seasoned and eaten in a tasty taco!

greensalad

Good afternoon everyone. 
Loving the warm weather, means I can get ahead on my laundry build-up. One load on the line already and another in the machine, might get three loads done today as the days are so long!

I watered the garden, wondering how long it'll be until my first crop. Tomatoes, courgettes, mange tout, strawberries and cucumbers have all flowered. My money is strawberries being the first crop, there is one very large looking one that I am rooting for. Cabbages are looking good and my shallots and potatoes have gone crazy, and my blackberries are getting very bushy now. Sadly my raspberries and garlic seem to have died completely, not sure what I did wrong. I may check out the supermarkets for some more mature raspberry plants rather than the canes and hope I'm not too far behind.

We did meal planning today and have an Ocado order coming Friday. Spent £80 which is higher than normal but we are having friends over for a BBQ so ended up buying meat and alcohol. We tried to make up for it by scheduling in two freezer-dive meals (I spied some scampi in there which I'm excited for). 

Still hoping to have £250 left by Thursday. I've got £252! Sadly I ended up having to shift some money over to our bills account because EE have charged us for the sport package that was meant to be free. They are refunding it in next month's bill but I still needed to clear this one.

I am photographing lots of fabric scraps today and hoping to put them up on my Facebook groups to see if I can shift any of them. I have some nice fabrics, but being plus size I don't have enough to make anything out of a metre whereas lots of other people sew for children or are small enough they can make clothes from 1m. 

Veggie casserole tonight and maybe a movie from our jar. 

Kakiste

My potatoes, peas and tomatoes are looking brilliant! I think it's the blazing sun/torrential downpour weather we've been having for the last 4 weeks. Beans don't seem to have liked it that much

greensalad

Yes my peas had crisped up a lot but I've been watering them like crazy. I have a soaker hose in the veg bed so I can just turn on the tap and leave it for half an hour to water the whole bed. Some of the peas that died away have crumbled now but lots of others have popped up in their places. My longest vine is about 1m high now. 

Oh and my honeysuckle flowered! I didn't expect to get flowering in the first season. I'm growing it up my fence on a trellis I constructed from nails and wire. It's really starting to fill out and I've been tying it into the wire whenever a new sprig is long enough. I reckon by end of summer it'll reach full height.

greensalad

The desire to spend is so high. I reaaaalllly want to walk to the shop and get a fizzy drink but am trying to resist.
Have made some money today, £5 from selling some garden bits, £5 from selling some fabrics and I still have some with bids on eBay. Hoping I can get all my scrap fabrics sold, but people take so long to reply! 

Just found out I am back to work on 1st July, though still WFH for another 6 weeks. Not sure how WFH will work as BF is also WFH too. When I was first WFH he was on leave so we didn't clash, but we're not going to be able to both be in the office at the same time.

Kakiste

It's hard isn't it? I find where I give a little bit I then give loads and spend unnecessarily money that would have been much better in my savings.   

Kakiste

Also- do you get the people who keep you hanging around for ages then change their mind? I had a woman promise me that she'd come and collect/pay for a brand new quilting table that I was selling (bought as a bundle with my sewing machine but I never used it) and she kept coming up with excuses why she couldn't come and then about 10 days later finally said she had changed her mind and didn't want it. So annoying. 

greensalad

Kakiste said:

Also- do you get the people who keep you hanging around for ages then change their mind? I had a woman promise me that she'd come and collect/pay for a brand new quilting table that I was selling (bought as a bundle with my sewing machine but I never used it) and she kept coming up with excuses why she couldn't come and then about 10 days later finally said she had changed her mind and didn't want it. So annoying. 

Yes all the time! What is wrong with people. 

Yesterday I asked a man if he could collect tomorrow, and he said "I'll try". 

No you won't "try". You can give me a time so I can be ready for you! I'm not just going to wait in like I've got nothing else to do for you to "try".

Or the lady who refused to give me a time, she just said "afternoon", then messaged me ten minutes before she was going to turn up which I didn't see. Then when I actually apologised for not being in (it wasn't really my fault but I was trying to be polite) she said "I'm the customer you work around me." I had to point out to her I was selling a £2 craft item, I'm not a business. Get real lady. 

Well I just had a good one as a man did turn up when he said he would and bought several of the fabrics I listed, for £12. So I've made over £30 just today.

Also agreed to some freelance work with a friend of mine, £500 to make some changes to their website. If they like me there might be a continued stream of work, but everything is small enough not to stress me out. I used to do a lot of freelance but I found the workload stressful. This should be a nice earner without being too much. Hoping to start work on Monday so that could be a nice boost and will go into paying off my CC early as I want to try and beat my birthday next January (otherwise forecasting I'll be paid off in February).

Kakiste

That's excellent! A really good sum of money and brilliant that it comes with the potential for more work  

greensalad

Made another £2 this evening from some more fabric sales and invoiced for another £2. Dunno why people buy such tiny pathetic amounts, the postage is more than the fabric, but they do. 

4 parcels packaged and put outside for the Hermes man. 

Bundle of storage tubs and boxes that I no longer need due to the mass sewing cupboard clearout are being collected by freecycler tomorrow so put them on the doorstep too. 

Still got a few boxes listed on FB marketplace as they're the nicer ones that I think are worth something.

Arranged to go see Mum at Hever Castle in July, as their gardens are now open and she's in our "bubble". Added benefit of offloading the pile of bits I've been collecting for her, she's just getting back into sewing and I have some patterns and magazines that will suit her better.

Still trying to clean up the sewing room, it's a total mess because there simply isn't enough storage for everything. I really need to reduce my fabric stash. I've got two huge tubs full and would like it all gone so everything fits in the cupboard but that's feasibly 20+ garments. I'm not a very prolific sewer but I have enough here to last me 10 years! 

Also it's payday tomorrow (well, at 4pm, due to Monzo's pay early feature) and I'm dying to budget. I find budgeting so exciting now. I don't know exactly how much we're getting paid as furlough can vary but I think I'll be able to do the following towards our main goals:

Boyfriend's MBNA £286.50
Virgin CC £417
House deposit £896.73

It's a little bit less than I'd like to be putting into the house fund, but the £500 from freelance should help (if it gets paid this month or whenever), plus I've pulled my Virgin CC goal early by a month. It's still £97 more than we need to put in the house fund to reach our target so a little overpayment there as I really don't want to miss out on the full bonus.

I should point out we're putting aside £500 a month for our holiday, which we booked for September and ended up pushing to next year. Thank god really, we wouldn't have been able to afford it. I haven't been on holiday abroad since 2017 so this is really exciting but it is a ridiculous spend. However we're at the stage with our debt now where nothing is costing us in the long run so this'll be the last holiday for a fair few years.