Mizmir's determined to get there diary

hypno06

Blimey, just caught up on the last couple of days - you really have been through the mill!

I hope you manage to get things back on track this weekend x

boredofbeingathome

Have a really nice weekend mizmir....at least the dog walking is taking off (well not literally I hope)

Just to say as well that your plans are great, it has inspired me to get off my butt and do something.Thanks BOB

Karmacat

Hi Mizmir

Hope the weekend is enjoyable - I do love the sound of your dog walking. But grrrr to the broken wineglass stem, what a pain.

I'm just catching up this weekend on diarists/diaries I like before I'm off on holiday on Monday... you're putting in such a lot of effort, I'm sure the debts will be shrinking down like crazy.

mizmir

Sneaking on before everyone gets up and about! Thanks for the support everyone - am sure it will all be OK - just a lot of frustrations recently and no time to sit down and really look at stuff and work out where we are. Hopefully will be able to do that on Sunday evening.

Have a good weekend.

taxi73

You too!!!!!!!!

mizmir

Well finally able to get back on here! Good weekend - though a little expensive as we went to a country fair and came back with lots of very nice organic food! So the freezer is well stocked but the budget has taken a bit of a hit. Job for later is to update it and see where we are - but I have to work this afternoon (am on a late lunch break right now).

Good news is that I have made/saved £98 over the weekend in other ways - mainly the dog training session (I don't walk them just train them! ), ebay (in spite of the glasses!) and a matched bet. And I still have one in the system with £40 more to WR.

Have talked a lot with OH about the future and particularly my plans for going self employed and have made some significant decisions. Basically I think it is unrealistic to plan to go fully self employed in the next couple of years - even when we have paid our debts off we have some major works that need doing on the house - and we need to reduce our mortgage which at the moment is frightening. Coupled with that I have just got funding for a project at work which won't finish until 2011 and have another in the pipeline which would be a commitment to 2012. Of course I could leave in the middle but am not sure that I would want to - the project work I do is the bit I really enjoy. So we have decided two things. First that we will aim for me to go to an 80% contract next spring - giving me one day to do the dog training etc. but enabling me to keep on with the projects and maintain a decent salary. And second that we will accept a slightly slower debt repayment schedule in order to also be able to save for the most urgent work on the house (a new bathroom - at the moment the bath doesn't work - although we have the shower we both really miss being able to have a bath!). So I will still be aiming to put the same amount aside and raise the extra but I will divide it up so some goes into savings. I know this isn't the most sensible MSE approach but all our debts are now on low LOB rates and we can put this in the ISA which is comparable interest.

So a profitable weekend. I feel a lot better as I was starting to stress about the debt repayment and getting it gone so quickly - I think doing it this way is more realistic and therefore more likely to succeed.

Will catch up with everyone's diaries over the next few days!

mizmir

No lists for a few days so even though it is half way through the day here is mine for today. Like Hypno - even though have done stuff there is something very satisfying about striking them out!

• [strike]Meeting at work[/strike] DONE
• Three hours on funding application - half complete - still
  
• [strike]Take garden waste to tip[/strike] DONE
• [strike]Check on line banking[/strike] DONE
• [strike]Work out £20 a day money[/strike] DONE
• Find a matched bet for c*nbet
• Copy receipts for expenses
• Two hours dog training classes
• Update budget spreadsheet
• [strike]Start "to do" spreadsheet[/strike] DONE
• [STRIKE]Catch up with diaries [/STRIKE] DONE
• Go through offers in email for euro free bets
  

taxi73

Hi Mizmir ..think you have made the right desicion there as we do have to have realistic goals or if the budget is too tight something has to give.This way you are finding your feet with the new business while maintaining a salary and getting your house done at the same time as paying your debts off....all sounds good to me...

Seaxwyn

hi mizmir. Well done for having those conversations. I hope you feel OK about the decision to postpone going self-employed.

I think it's really good to review your goals. Getting debt-free is not an end in itself, we have to focus on what we actually want - whether it's a more comfortable home (with functioning bath), more time with loved ones, more travel or whatever.

mizmir

Seaxwyn wrote: »

Getting debt-free is not an end in itself, we have to focus on what we actually want - whether it's a more comfortable home (with functioning bath), more time with loved ones, more travel or whatever.

You are so right. And all those things are important to me (plus more) and need to be balanced. I know I need to get work into balance (at the moment it is way too stressful) but I can do that without ditching it all together. I can look at ways of being more effective in the time I have and cutting back on the things that aren't helping. The more funding I bring in the more flexibility I have. If I can do that and take one day off a week for me and the dog training (which I find really relaxing) - then weekends and evenings can be more for OH and me and we will still be able to afford to do stuff. She works incredibly hard so it is not fair either to cut back my salary and have to cut out being able to do things that are important to her too.

So this seems like a reasonable and doable plan. I haven't adjusted the snowball but will do in the next few days to see where I end up!