Hey MissF.
I'm sorry to read about the boyfriend and the job situation. I was hoping he would have had some luck by now. Is he looking for something quite specific, or something more general? Some jobs seem more plentiful than others, but they're the ones that don't pay very well.
I think you are right to just focus on the money you have at the moment and not the extra that the boyfriend will contribute when he does move in. As you say, it's going to be a bonus then and will definitely help to make things easier, I hope.
Great news on the bonus and the payrise. Every little helps. I wish my job gave bonuses; I could do with the odd windfall every now and then. My best friend in school went on to become a stockbroker and in the good old days, he was getting 50k bonuses and living the high life. What I couldn't do with that money now! He was moaning to me a few weeks back that his bonus this year was only 15k. Needless to say he got no sympathy from me
I'm still feeling quite positive. I paid off the smaller of the two credit cards last Thursday and closed the account so I was quite pleased about that. Got the e-mail yesterday confirming the account closure. I only had 2 cards, but I've had them for years so it's a little scary being down to just one card. But I know it's also progress. I've worked out that if I knuckle down for the next few months, I should be able to clear the second card by July. The problem will be keeping that at 0 though. While I'm tempted to cancel it, it does come in useful for booking flights home, hotels, car hire, etc so I will keep it and just try to discipline myself into using cash when possible and paying it off when I do incur a balance.
Next on the list will be the personal loan. I just did up a plan of action on that last night. Throwing all spare cash towards it (balance is currently 7k), I should hopefully be making the last payment in September, 3 years before it's actually due to finish.
Then one more loan to go after that and I can finally start saving for that mortgage, which is the main reason for all my penny pinching and spend diary keeping. You're a homeowner; is it worth all the sacrifice just to have a place of your own? I've rented since I was in college and thought I would forever, but now that I'm married, it just seems like the next most logical step. My wife got very excited back in March the night of my LBM when I asked her about possibly buying in the future; it's certainly something that she's wanted to do for a long time.
Witht the progress that I have been making and will hopefully be making over the next few months, I might even be able to bring my DFD forward by a few months. The whole debt payment process is so painstakingly slow, but it has certainly made me realise that this is a situation I don't want to be in again.
Hope you get things sorted with GBW. The mystery shopper thing sounded like a great gig, but I knew there had to be a catch!
Keep me in the loop on your progress. Will be sure to do the same.
Best of luck with it
LBM: March 2018, Aiming for a DFD of December 2019
Pay ALL your debt off by Xmas 2019 Challenge #07
€5,950.00 / €20,075 (29.64%)