MISSION POSSIBLE: Clear As Much Debt as I can in 11 Months

Emzilla

Hi everyone

I'm back with a new diary, and this one has to stick. If you want to catch up with who I am and my story, I have (lots of) previous diaries you can look at. I won't bore you with my background here.

The reason for the new diary and the new mission is that my landlady has decided to sell the home we've been living in for the last 10 years. We are obviously gutted, but we have only just signed a new 12 month lease, so they can't kick us out until July 2024. She is putting it on the market still, but we are sitting tenants and she can only sell to another landlord at present. We don't know if it will sell in that time, but one thing's for sure: our rent will go up dramatically in the middle of next year. What we pay at the moment is actually very good compared to a lot of other places, so I know that we will be paying around £400-£500 a month more than we are now.

So the mission is a simple one, get our outgoings down as much as possible so we will be able to afford the new rent costs next year. This isn't a nice situation to be in (and to be honest it's already stressing me out), but I feel grateful that we have 11 months grace, and I really don't want to waste that time and then get round to July next year panicking because we're in exactly the same situation we are now.

My OH has a good job, and I work part-time in a shop and I also run a self-employed business as a reseller, which earns me decent money. So we have the means to pay off some debts - it's just that we have a lot of debt and the repayments are super high - so there's not loads of wiggle room with the repayments. My OH is also quite bad with money, so I am trying to drum it into him how important it is that we get our outgoings down as much as possible before we have to move.

I'm going to try and join some challenges to motivate myself, and I want to update this diary daily to keep up my momentum. I need consistency with my reselling (on eBay, it helps if you list daily and obviously the more you list, the more you sell), so my daily aims are:

1. List 10 items on eBay
2. List 5 items on Vinted
3. Pack up orders once a day
4. Pay something off a debt every day
5. Look for ways to cut back (buy second hand, reduced food, get freebies etc) to help with costs

I'll put these into place from Monday (which is when the estate agents are first coming over to look at the house).

Have a good weekend all and I'll check back in on Monday.

Emz xx

Brie

good luck with your mission to nuke your debt!!!  

I did look at your "list 10 items" bit and thought, "that's ok".  Then I saw you meant daily and wondered where the heck you were going to source things.  And then I saw you are a reseller so I was back to "ok!"  That's a lot of buying and selling and packing - I wish I had your determination and stamina!!!

With your point 5 - check out the money saving forum as there's a lot of money saving hint threads, eating from the cupboard (aka not buying) and even the food bank threads where there's lots of talk about the free places food is available (like Olio, community cupboards).  There's also a vegan cooking one which has lots of inspiring ways to cook without meat etc - as a dedicated carnivore I've found it exceedingly helpful for cutting our food bills.  

As for getting your OH to toe the line about money.....I wonder if one of those cash cards people get for their kids would work?  Others get them for their young people going off to uni too.  The sort of thing that you could load a set amount on it each week (maybe by standing order??) and that's his budget.  If he doesn't spend it all he can use it the following week which might be nicely motivating.  Alternatively have 1 credit card for his essentials - petrol or tickets to get to and from work but nothing else is allowed to be spent on it.  

dawnybabes

Welcome back 😁😁

jwil

Welcome back and happy new diary!  Sorry to hear about the house.  Good luck with it all.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary Emz xx

Emzilla

Hi everyone 

Thank you for your messages. It’s good to be back. We definitely need to get our spending under control, as well as increasing income. We’re going to do a food shop tonight to stop us getting takeaways. 

The estate agent came to view the house. She wasn’t impressed that our landlady is selling and advised her against it, but she’s still going ahead. She’s also asking a massive £275k (it’s worth £250k at the absolute most). The estate agent does not think it’ll sell. 

I’m doing well with my daily tasks today. All sold items packed this morning and I’ve listed 10 on eBay and 5 on Vinted. Currently running at £54.93 worth of sales today - I usually aim for £100 a day, but the day isn’t over yet (that amount is after eBay fees have been taken, but I do have to pay for postage from that). 

I paid £50 off my Fluid card too (that’s the amount I sold yesterday). 

Emz xx

beanielou

Certainly won't sell in todays market if it is 25k overpriced.

Emzilla

Evening

Busy day as I was in work this evening. Have still managed to get 10 items on eBay and 5 on Vinted. Packaged and dropped off my parcels too. 

Paid £50 off my Fluid card and £30 off OH’s card too. 21p short of £100 in sales today. 

Emz xx

[Deleted User]

Is there anyway you could offer to buy the house from your landlady at an appropriate price? I can see advantages for both sides.

Emzilla

[Deleted User] said:

Is there anyway you could offer to buy the house from your landlady at an appropriate price? I can see advantages for both sides.

Hi. Unfortunately there’s no way we’d be able to afford to purchase it. 

Emzilla

Morning everyone

It's been a busy couple of days. I met up with a friend for lunch on Wednesday and then worked 4-9pm and then worked again last night. Thankfully I have 6 days off in a row now. I have managed to keep listing 10 items a day, which was a bit of a struggle yesterday, so I'm hoping I can get sourcing some more items now I have no evening shifts for a while. Vinted listings have had to take a hit, but I'll try and get back on that.

The 10 listings a day is definitely working for eBay. Since Monday, my daily amount has gone up each day (£81.36 Monday, £99.79 Tuesday, £139.61 Wednesday and £168.56 Thursday).

I have been making debt payments daily, but some of the money has to cover postage, and we've had a lot coming out of our account recently (debt payments mainly), so some of that has had to replenish the account.

The house is now live on Rightmove and they came to put a board up yesterday. Let's see if anyone comes to view it. OH and I are in decluttering mode and want to try and clear as much of our stuff as we can, so when it comes to moving next year, we haven't got as much.

Emz xx