debt free in 1200 months!?

bountiful

Well - it's just a matter waiting now for money to arrive from my late father's estate.... house is sold and people are moving in - so it is an AMAZING done deal!!!!! Who said houses weren't selling?
I've done well with my money this week - still have £25 left for the weekend (although I haven't done any laundry this week and I've been out a lot, so not cooking much).
I forgot that last week I had to pay out £17.50 for a new driving licence photo card and also paid £5 to the bank for being over my overdraft limit for one (yes ONE) day.
My son's fiancee has e-mailed me asking if it's OK if she comes over on 23rd December and spends Xmas with us .......... I said "that's fine".
I am frittering away my Saturday morning - collecting the sewing machine this afternoon and have an idea for making a xmas brooch/corsage thing with green felts and red beads to look like a sprig of holly - should be easy enough.
Over to FlyLady now to inspire me to clean up my house a bit.
Hope everyone's OK - lots of love:A

Seaxwyn

What wonderful news. I am so glad to hear that the money is on its way and your worries will be behind you. The Christmas corsage sounds lovely. I hope you and the young lovers have a very merry and festive Yule.

beanielou

Fab news for you.
Really hope u get the £££ soon & then you will be debt free

bountiful

Finally - just managed to open a basic bank account with Lloyds....... and had to have a quote for home insurance to keep them happy! So - will transfer my pay to that account - transfer a chunk to CAP account so they can pay my priority bills and my priority debts - then, eventually, my secondary debts.
My brother just sent me photos - very sad - of the emptying of Dad's bungalow - and locking up for the last time....... lovely (but unwanted even by charity) furniture on the tip....... sad That's death for you! Someone else has got a lovely new home - and we are going to get some money. Life goes on.

bountiful

I was almost blemish-free with the budget this week then remembered that I had to use my debit card to buy a train ticket from a platform machine at 22.00hrs because it kept spitting out my £20 note! :rolleyes: That was an extra £4.90 withdrawn from my account on top of the week's budget. Still, in view of my past record, that is only a minor blip! So - two weeks into the new budget and I haven't managed to stick to it completely yet.:o

I have got to get to grips with it - because even when my inheritance pays off my debts, my income is still going to be the same (for the forseeable future) so I am going to have to keep budgetting to stay debt-free.
:money:
Can't tell you how tempting it would be to tell work to stuff it and take a year off - that'd be silly, wouldn't it?:p

I had a bit of a shock browsing round the fabric shop this afternoon (going to make a dress for the xmas party remember?) - anyway - black crepe £29.99 a metre would = £70 for the frock - so that's a NO! Found a very tasty shot silk at £12.99 a metre = £30 for the frock ...... so will probably go for that. I need a fabric which will hang nicely - and I don't really want to put my handiwork into a polyester fabric - maybe viscose would be OK. I already know I am going to go for the shot silk (it felt like a cotton to me - shows how much I know about fabric!) and I was surprised when she said it was £12.99. I mean - why is crepe so expensive? Crepe is so flattering and hangs so beautifully...... sigh...... anyone a dressmaker? The shot silk is a green-red - the colour changing everytime it moves - quite lovely. I also bought a brooch-pin and 5 red glass beads from the bead shop to make my corsage thingy.... can't wait to get making. When I was younger I used to be really good at making new clothes from old - hopefully I might get back into that - you can do wonderful things with old curtains!:rotfl:

Seaxwyn

Hiya! The shot silk sounds lovely. It's so wrong that you can buy a readymade dress somewhere like Primark for less than you can make one for. But your dress will be so much nicer.

I've never been good at making clothes, but I'm glad that my daughters got a different set of genes and are all quite handy with needles.

Seaxwyn

PS I'm not really 'here', I'm writing reviews on www.qype.co.uk - 13 more to go and I get a £50 Amazon voucher. Once again showing my bad prioritisation skills as I'm neglecting work that would pay more than that. Doh!

I must get to 50 reviews though. Trouble is I've done all the obvious ones and am now reviewing Museums and Ancient Monuments, and I want to put a bit more thought into them. Stupid stupid stupid.

As for taking a year off work... well that's not silly is it, if you could afford it?

bountiful

Hiya - keep up the good work.
And taking a year of work - keep encouraging me........... (you know what springs to mind is that thing about being careful what you wish for - you just might get it......)

Seaxwyn

Have you got a plan for what you would like to do if you took a year off work?

It might be easier to decide if you couched the questions in postive rather than negative terms. "Shall I spend a year doing xxx" rather than "Shall I spend a year not working".

bountiful

Thanks Seaxwyn - good point - I will think about it. Currently it is mostly about just having a long rest!!! Can that be positive? "I will use my year off to have a long break"

Hmm - not sure - have to be doing all the time - maybe I could experiment with not doing and then write a book about it.....tee hee! Dare say it would be fun for the first month....

I went back to the fabric shop - having decided there was no money in the budget for material at all really - went into the market and checked out the cheap stuff ..... not great...... but found a perfect embossed Damask linen (black) for £11.50 that would look the biz. Costed that at £25 which seemed good. However, turned out it was a funny width and I had to have 3 metres instead of 2.3 - then I needed bias tape and thread - ended up spending £37. Now I am afraid to cut it!:rotfl:
Still, am busy for the next few days - so will save it for a day off and take my time. So that's come out of the food money for now...... beans on toast for a week - or spend some of my xmas savings card money on groceries.