Buying a little piece of Middle England; Manifesting my way to mortgage free.

~FlowerPot~

I have a big issue taking stuff to the charity shops here, none of them ever seem to want my stuff! I get we are full, nearly everytime. So frustrating, So I now tend to big a bag or to in the car and try offloading just 1 bag at a time which seems to be more acceptable!

debtfreewannabe321

Interesting the different experiences with CS donations. I live on the outskirts of the city so have 1 huge CS near me and yet they would only take 3 bags and no pictures or electricals. The pictures I have are nice too. One has a huge frame that could be reused for something (I broke the glass by accident though) and two are large canvases that could be re-painted probably! Perhaps I will try fb instead and give away free there....

LadyWithAPlan

On the S&S I suggest getting the ISA Vanguard one on the vanguard platform - cheapest and great low cost funds 
you don’t need to get complicated to start 
just buy lumps of Global All Cap Acc then if you want to branch into certain areas eg USA S&P 500 or high dividend ..
I wouldn’t buy bonds just shares given you have time and have SP and other pensions 


on feeling tired maybe go to GP to check your hormone levels ? I started on HRT but felt super tired and the bloods showed  apparently I wasn’t absorbing the oestrogen gels etc properly - so am on a 3rd type  and do feel better a month on 

debtfreewannabe321

LadyWithAPlan said:

On the S&S I suggest getting the ISA Vanguard one on the vanguard platform - cheapest and great low cost funds 
you don’t need to get complicated to start 
just buy lumps of Global All Cap Acc then if you want to branch into certain areas eg USA S&P 500 or high dividend ..
I wouldn’t buy bonds just shares given you have time and have SP and other pensions 


on feeling tired maybe go to GP to check your hormone levels ? I started on HRT but felt super tired and the bloods showed  apparently I wasn’t absorbing the oestrogen gels etc properly - so am on a 3rd type  and do feel better a month on 

My son was mentioning vanguard too. I will start seriously looking with this info when my ISA comes to maturity next year.

I am debating blood tests but I know it is hormones. If I get a good night sleep all is well with my energy but often I am on and off with hot flashes still. They aren't as bad as they were years ago though when I honestly didn't really even understand what was happening to me (thought I was too young for menopause but obviously not). They seem to come and go now as they will be bad for a couple of weeks then stop for weeks on end and then return. It's tiring though. I have just restarted on some magnesium I found in my cupboard so I will see if they help. 

debtfreewannabe321

LadyWithAPlan said:

On the S&S I suggest getting the ISA Vanguard one on the vanguard platform - cheapest and great low cost funds 
you don’t need to get complicated to start 
just buy lumps of Global All Cap Acc then if you want to branch into certain areas eg USA S&P 500 or high dividend ..
I wouldn’t buy bonds just shares given you have time and have SP and other pensions 


on feeling tired maybe go to GP to check your hormone levels ? I started on HRT but felt super tired and the bloods showed  apparently I wasn’t absorbing the oestrogen gels etc properly - so am on a 3rd type  and do feel better a month on 

My son was mentioning vanguard too. I will start seriously looking with this info when my ISA comes to maturity next year.

I am debating blood tests but I know it is hormones. If I get a good night sleep all is well with my energy but often I am on and off with hot flashes still. They aren't as bad as they were years ago though when I honestly didn't really even understand what was happening to me (thought I was too young for menopause but obviously not). They seem to come and go now as they will be bad for a couple of weeks then stop for weeks on end and then return. It's tiring though. I have just restarted on some magnesium I found in my cupboard so I will see if they help. 

debtfreewannabe321

I'm having problems with this website it's giving me a server error message each time. 

Anyway this is a money update as to where I am 10 days before payday.

Current accounts both have less than a tenner each 🤦🏻‍♀️
Food budget account has £147.54 (with 42 from child benefits to be added next Monday so this is okay - not great but hopefully doable).

Xmas/ birthday - £151.48

Yearly pots - £10.06

Bills account -£376.38 (and from what I can see we have only £271 due out still 🧐 which means I should have £100 spare.)

EF - £2850 (6% to be added 1st Nov).


The CC is at -£912.02 😑 but I was assured that some of this is train tickets and petrol that are going to be expensed back to us I know one train ticket alone was nearly £140 so this is right plus the bag money will come back and all of it is to go straight on here. 

The car loan sits at -£12,386 with interest added. 

Carpet loan is at -£1571.14

I suddenly feel like I should be back in the DFW board and feel utterly uncomfortable at this debt and ashamed we got here so quickly.

I have a plan but it can't be put into effect until the new pay for DP has evened out and that won't be until end of NOVEMBER now - he is owed one last bonus though if his part old pay/ part new pay/ bonus are enough I can start to pay down this stuff. I am also owed money too ....So it's all up in the air atm but I intend on snowballing this debt with the child maintenance money we no longer pay out.
CC first. Then the carpet loan then the car. Just need all the new jobs to start and all the pay packs to start coming in regularly and the same each month so I am able to plan. Tbf that EF was always meant to see us through this period of changing jobs. And I've not touched it. So we are doing 'ok' it is there if needed. But I want to see what we're paid before touching that. And I won't touch it now until the interest has been paid. Thank goodness I came back to budgeting on these boards and YNAB and even my trusty paper budget (which I still use alongside YNAB) because it could have been much worse!

Edited to add I have updated my signature. This will make it more real and I won't be able to stick my head in the sand about it....time to get snowballing....!

Viking_mfw

Giving away canvases on fb is a good idea, esp if you label as being for repainting. 

Our Ox-charity shops are extremely picky and everyone else a lot less so. 

You have a plan for your debt, and you have been in a period of transition. You've got this!

Watty1

You've got this.  In times of transition debt can rise but as jobs and pay all settle so will the debt.  You know what you are doing - keep inspiring us.

debtfreewannabe321

Thank you both!

I tried to reply earlier but the wifi went off (again) and I gave up and went and made sandwiches for the kids instead I am sat waiting for the engineer now. Our wifi has been really bad since moving, ironic that we had excellent service out in the sticks, and absolutely rubbish service in the city. Also a coincidence I am sure that our provider is trying to upgrade everyone to their new fiber service and all of a sudden our box stops working well. So anyway we received the new box and he is coming out to fit it today so that is me waiting in until 12pm (slot opened at 8am so expecting him any time). We want it relocating anyway so this is good.

It is wet, dull, and grey and still dark here. Hello Autumn! 🍂🍂🍂

DP is away now until tomorrow so he will be fed and watered wherever he is staying tonight. He did say but he's on a drive over West Midlands, then down south, then back up East Midlands and I can't remember where he said he is staying now 🤔 he did the north yesterday... hmm.. dunno but his job sounds full on and I am glad in a way I never had a corporate career when I hear him speaking about his days. If I had the money I would float around in my dresses all day, baking and cleaning and petting my chickens that I rescued (this was me a few years ago actually when my online business was doing well and I had rescue chickens and stayed home with the kids lol). Hmm anyway, for now I have a plan 🧐 I may not be able to fully implement it until NEXT year now but I have a plan and that is always good. 

IF we manage to pay the CC off in one or two hits over the next couple of months then this is the plan- CC empty⚡ 
We have £400 (rounded down) that we haven't got used to yet in our budget from CM that has stopped (oh did I say that we actually overpaid and there was us worrying we hadn't paid enough) 
I intend to snowball that straight into a savings account for three months and not touch it. So by march at the latest I should have enough to pay off the carpet. If I can figure out how to overpay on the loan app I will just pay it immediately each month so it can't be touched. ⚡

That will be carpet and CC paid off in full by hopefully my next birthday or thereabouts (end feb).
Then I think I will split the money that is rolling over at this point £500- so £300 towards a pot for paying off car early and £200 either into savings or MOP. Our car loan is 5 years I would love to half that.
This is all based on the calculations that DP and I have tried to work out- on our new wages. But we may have to change this dependent on what actually comes in. This is best case scenario though I think. 
Our credit scores have both taken a massive hit and aren't very good at the mo so any major building work won't be able to be done just yet as we won't be eligible for a good rate atm. 
I want to start on the MOP again which may not make sense to many as our rates aren't awful (one is very good) but I would like the loan overall value to come down, so when we have to remortgage again we may be able to add more to it for the building works, I think that might be the best way to borrow the money on a cheaper rate. I will as always keep all options open though  
The lean to this morning is starting to leak through again. I am hoping DP can patch it up when he has a spare weekend so it stops leaking through, that should see us through the winter then. Oh isn't it great fun when you move somewhere new and have to find quick solutions, mid solutions and long term solutions to what you want to do to a new home  

DP new employer pays 40p per mile so he's taken his car today and had to use the CC to fill it up again but he should get back more than he actually spent. ALL money he gets for expenses at the mo we will throw straight at the CC.

Feeling much brighter today  

KajiKita

You are sounding a lot more positive today 😊
The online business you had before - no possibility of starting that up again?

KK