Single mum to 5, striving for debt free life

Jill12

Thanks @Adeley, I am now a week on from handing in my notice and I am more certain than ever that I have made the right decision. I told my dad my intensions and although he was shocked and worried for me he now completely understands. I have been surprised at how positively everyone has responded. Not one person has said I am mental but admires I have *alls to undertake such a leap of faith!!
Cheers @savingholmes and @Savingtomove, I am still enjoying my walks. 

I now find myself in a very unexpected position. I am now completely deft free. I have paid off my car and settled my small credit card debt. I took the money left to me by my beautiful mum and flung it at the car debt. I can hardly believe I am now completely debt free. I decided to pay the car off and get rid of the £308 monthly payment due to me handing my notice in and my income is about to completely snow dive. The feeling was quite brilliant. I keep revising my monthly budget (I use that term very loosely lol) to see what else can be cut. But overall things are not looking that bad! 

On Monday I have a company coming to start the loft conversion, two rooms will go in the loft. So the task this weekend is to clear the loft and begin the enormous task of decluttering my life. I look around the house and think how can 6 humans possibly use so much stuff. The answer is we dont use it, we just think we do use it. I ve been reading up on minimalism and the whole concept seems to fit my ethos. With being a particularly messy human I can see no negative of having less stuff to mess the place up. I ll keep you posted on how that turn out......

Savings wise I have a small pot that is growing happily, I will know that figure better once the conversion is complete. 

Health wise I am going from strength to strength although I think I need a medication increase for my condition as I am still utterly exhausted. I will get the girls at work to take my bloods today and send them off. 

Think that is quite enough for now, happy Thursday to y'all xx

[Deleted User]

Jill I'm ecstatic for you! Congratulations on being DEBT FREE and being footsteps away from a new chapter in your life after you put down work life for this time. I know how unbelievably freeing this is. You can't put it into words. We sound simular in the sense that I'm also a messy person by nature, once I finished work I set about really focusing on different areas if my life that needed reviewing ( I did become debt free too but then after a few years it's found me again ha)- one being the amount of things we owned. My house was jam packed with 'stuff'. I slowly set about reducing it and after 2 years I'd say our home is very minimal and everything in it is what we use and need. I still find things we've stopped using and take it to the charity shop but these days it tends to be seasonally when the children have outgrown clothing. I think at one point I was going 4 times a week to the charity and the skip. It's all been worth it and has had such a positive impact on.my mental health and my families. Everything has its place and I'm very careful about what I let in my home and if it's to replace something I make sure the old item is gone before the new one comes in.

I look forward to reading about this new chapter of your life xx

Honeysucklelou2

Wow Jill12, what an amazing step to take...your writing comes across as feeling lighter, if that makes sense.  Congratulations on becoming debt free.

savingholmes

Congratulations on being debt free. Good luck with the next chapter. 

I've declutter in bursts - but there's always more to be done. I agree though that as a messy individual - the only real answer is a mix of strong organisation (not my strong suit) and/or less stuff!

Jill12

Thank you for the lovely messages!!

My life is moving very fast at the moment, the loft conversion is under way and should be completed by the end of next week. The company undertaking the conversion  is amazing and working so fast. There have been a few nights lying in my bed where I have prayed the roof will not collapse but that is just my good old friend anxiety making its presence known! The house is full of dust, the kids are fighting all the time and I got up to go to the loo at 4am and stood in poo, a small present from the puppy. The word chaos would aptly describe home life perfectly this week. However, very excitingly I have booked for someone to come and measure for new carpets. I am not sure yet if I am going to decorate myself or get someone in to do it. Pros and cons to doing it myself, mainly the financial saving but I think hiring a painter would save my time, I ll decide on that later. 

My official leaving date for work will be the 29 July, while tearful I am so excited to be finishing up. Taking a career break meant I was not going to be able to work at all so I terminated my contract completely. By doing this I can undertake agency work which pays well and most importantly I can chose when and where I want to work. This in part in due to the deficit of nurses, everywhere is always short on workers so for the time being I will not be without work.

My household budget is looking healthy too, I am still in the process of trimming back on all unnecessary outgoings and trying to wrap up a few mobile phone contracts but overall it is looking not too bad. The decluttering is proving a nightmare. I have piles of stuff everywhere and the gardens resemble a rag and bone mans yard. Today will involve a few runs to the skip to get rid of crap. I will continue with the decluttering but it would be so much easier to just ram it al back in boxes, the garage and loft. But I cant, I need to see this through. I have a vision of a minimalist lifestyle and I really want to achieve that. Less stuff equals less clutter in my head. 

I am missing sending odds and ends to my debts so I am going to apply the same principles to my mortgage, once things are more settled. I ll see how quickly I can shave some years off of that! Life overall is heading in the right direction and much more peaceful now I have made the important decisions xx

Chrystal

So pleased for you.  (((hugs)))XX

Jill12

@Chrystal, love your quote about things not making you happy, so true. 

So the massive declutter continued yesterday and oh my!!! I have a rule I am following, think it is called the rule of 20, can it be replaced in 20 minutes or replaced for under £20 and if the answer is yes, it is going. The living room has no space to move in but I have to believe it will get worse before it gets better. Sitting drinking tea and eating lemon drizzle cake for breakfast, waiting for a sensible hour before I go and load the car up for another skip run. I need to remember today is Sunday and the neighbours appreciate a bit of quiet until before 9! I also now understand I am a definite hoarder, even when emptying the loft the kids were asking why on earth have you kept that or why is that not in the bin. I have no answer other than "just incase" or sentimentality. I have and will continue to donate or recycle what I can. Had a hard time deciding what to do with dvds and cds. All local charity shops are saturated in them and buying apps already have too many. So I decided to bin them, that was heart wrenching but I think the memories attached to the items were more important than the actual items. Like reading my kids bedtime stories or watching movies together. Time for new movies and stories. Highly recommend trying decluttering, it is quite freeing. On saying that I am away to eat the second half of the cake for my breakfast, !!!!!! it .

[Deleted User]

Morning! Love love love this post! It will get worse before it gets better but another rule I set myself is "take it there now" so if I find something that's out of place while decluttering I will take it there now instead of a big pile being made. So a towel for the airer, take it there now, a donation for charity, take it to the bag or box and once full put it straight in the car. It helps me to know I've dealt with it and if I have to stop I know everything's been put away and I don't have lots of piles to sort. I also used to only tackle a space at a time that I could sort in 30 mins and wouldn't get everything out. Things like this helped me so much when I was just starting out. When I'm tidying up I try to stick to the take it there now rule too.

Mmmm lemon drizzle. I thought I was the only person who liked cake for breakfast. I've got bannana bread and tea calling my name.

Keep going you are doing so well! You'll be looking at clearer spaces in no time and the different to your wellbeing will be priceless xx

Jellytotts

Rather than dumping stuff that could be used by someone else why not advertise it on FB market place for free, or try Freecycle or Olio.  Even a box out the front of the house with "take me home" on it.  You'll be surprised what people will take for free.

ayupmeduck

Jill12 said:

Professionally I have been offered a new job part time over 4 days with a new team that I have accepted. I can work overtime to make up the pay gap if I want and that is the biggest draw- if I want. I will undertake a post grad certificate come April that will run over 2 years and this will be funded through my employer. The qualification will open up my career and earning potential so win win I think. 

What band are you on or were on? I'd have assumed quiet high to be bring in £3200 a month after tax.  Sorry to bring up an old post, I'm just interested being a fellow nurse

Ignore I see it includes benefits