Facing up to reality!

 I hit another milestone today. One of my 'snowballed' payments, passed the half way mark today and I only have 3K left of another credit card to pay off. It was Dearly Beloved's MBNA credit card at almost 18%, which we moved to Virgin and are paying it off at 0%. It has five months left to pay off. I then pay off the biggest and oldest loan we have. We borrowed 25K against our old home, to renovate it, to improve it and make it the wonderful place it is. It didn't stop there, we would pay off, and then borrow again, so when we sold, we still owed 25K! The irony is, that the house I used to live in, is now a rental and it has been allowed to deteriorate............no one even cares about the sensitive renovations, new roof, Victorian features or the fact that the door knocker is an antique! I will never, ever bother again!

There is a positive! I am five months away from moving my 'snowball' to my Lloyds home loan, by the time I do that, the loan will remain at £9750. My snowball payment will be £900 a month by then as I will be paying off only one loan. That will be paid off in ten payments and I will meet the London Olympics without any debts.

Every single penny counts! Every thing I don't need; I don't have! Dearly Beloved used to love to buy a newspaper every day and a coffee at the station. That amounts to £3 a day, to £15 a week, to £720 a year! By halving our grocery bill to £45 a week, we save £2430 a year. By not having a holiday, we save £2500 a year. If we did not go without the things we 'like' we could no longer afford to pay for the things we 'need'. By taking the train to work and not the car, I save £15 a week, so another £720 a year. There are so many of us, who have to face up to reality. We can't afford debt, we can't afford to spend money we don't have and we just have to grit our teeth and deal with it.

Someone said to me yesterday "I couldn't do the job I do without a holiday to look forward to." Oh, I think we'll manage without! We never had holidays, or day trips, or theme parks, or museums, or theatres or any such treats like that when we were young and no one we knew did either. We survived just fine and we will again.