Once upon a time

There was a very, very daft woman! She succumbed to an almost new car, with extremely low milage (about 200 miles from it being a demonstrator) and she signed on the dotted line..........without reading the small print. She'd been previously seduced by the main dealers after previously having an economical little town car on a very reasonable 7.5% finance deal. She fell for the coffee, the comfy chairs and smooth banter and the shiny, 1.9 multijet sporting, sexy little Italian va va voom machine!!!! (car below is not my car, but mine is filthy!) But it's identical to the one below including the shiny alloys!!!!

However, when I'd got over my own stupidity and checked the paperwork, the bleepin' interest rate was 14.9% and they'd slipped me a new credit deal, with a reasonable monthly payment but with a hugely increased amount of interest to pay. I made a payment every month, then I doubled that payment and put it into a savings account and when I got the balance down to the 'set' amount. I transferred the money and paid for the bleepin' thing!

You have to 'click' the photo to read what it says. I managed to pay the £199 a month to Fiat Finance and then put aside another £100 a month into a savings account as I couldn't over pay the 'fixed' loan and could only pay off a lump sum.............which I did! I never saw it as money I could dip into or use for anything but paying off the car, 19 months sooner than the finance deal was due to end!

It's taught me that I can save up for anything. I'm aware that the car I have will not last forever and I have to be realistic about saving up for another. I really love getting the 'you've made the last payment' letters. I've had some achievements in my life and now I can add, almost getting myself out of debt completely! I can now transfer what's left in the savings account, plus the month amount I will deposit, to bringing my house loan to a close this year. It's been very very hard but if I achieve that, then I will have brought the final, final payment of all the payments forward by eight months!

If a silly, not reading the small print nitwit like me can get a huge amount of interest paid in a whip of time, then it proves anyone can.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxx

Frugal Refresher Day Three - the tough stuff!

Hi everyone!

Thanks for stopping by, for the comments and it's always a pleasure to have new followers as it's so nice to know who you are. You may be reading this for the first time and may be looking for some ideas to get you through hard times, to live on a reduced income, to live on a fixed income or to get yourself out of debt. Today's blog is all about debt repayment, how I did it, how I continue to do it. I did it the rough way, my family 'budget deficit' was eating up everything we had coming in and for so long that I couldn't see the benefit anymore. I went into frugal extreme but I will have paid back my debts in just a little over two years.

Previously, in my stupid life, we used our house as a bank. We borrowed against it in a 'rising market'. We believed that we couldn't lose. For a while we didn't. We had a house that was a money pit and we spent money on it to bring it up to the standard of everybody else's expectations. I've learnt and I've changed and I won't ever do that again. In future, if it's good enough for me, it's good enough!

However, I ended up with 45K of personal debt on top of a 217K mortgage. I've £8K of personal debt left to pay off. I've paid off 37K of debt since December 2009. The trigger for actually getting my life in order started when I maxed out my credit cards whilst trying to do up and sell off the house I'm presently living in. The credit crunch had landed! We sold our house but couldn't secure a new mortgage as the underwriters agreed that we had too much personal debt and we couldn't afford a mortgage at all. There was no option but to pay it all back. Initially, we looked at getting a lower rate consolidation loan and putting our debts in one place but after research we found that it would cost us a lot more. It was then that we took drastic action.

We stopped spending and bought nothing for a year. Not even a pair of knickers. What we had, had to last, there was NO money spare. Just by doing that, we managed to pay off nearly 20K a year.

1. MAKE A BUDGET -Look at your budget. We did the following. We needed £X to go to work every day. We needed £X for the mortgage and utility bills. We needed £X for car tax, insurance and maintenance. We needed £X for food. We needed £X for insurance. EVERY PENNY LEFT WENT TO DEBTS. We did not kid ourselves that we needed a 'treat' sometime. We couldn't afford it. We didn't kid ourselves that we needed anything more that what we had to survive on.

2. STOP SPENDING - We cancelled: a booked holiday, all subscriptions, gave notice to our mobile phone contracts, gave notice to our Sky contract, although we had to keep paying whilst we were still contracted to do so. We cancelled birthdays, Christmas, weddings, in fact we cancelled everything. Who is anyone trying to kid? If you have any personal debt, you can not afford what you bought! If you had to borrow to get it, then you couldn't afford it. Own up! You are skint, do something about it and live differently. For those with a job, then it'll only be temporary, for those without a job, then get real, that's it, you can't afford it!

3. OVERPAY DEBTS - We looked at our debts and put them in order. Most of our credit cards had balances of around £7K and we decided to pay off the one with the highest interest rate first. We paid the minimum payments on everything else and every penny we had on one of the cards first. At the end of the nine months, after the first huge debt went, it got easier. Now we Snowballed the huge payment onto the next largest interest baring account and added the two payments together. After 18 months, we restored our credit balance and gained a good credit score. Now we were able to move balances to 0% credit cards. We kept moving them and now, just by making the same over payments. We were able to speed up the end date. My end date was August 2012 but it's now January 2012, or if I can master it, before the end of the year.

4. GET TWO OR EVEN THREE JOBS - We earnt more money. I marked exams in November and June for all the time I could. I paid every penny of that as soon as I got it into debts. It was the extra income that meant I could get rid of some debts really quickly. I worked as a private tutor in the evenings and weekends. I used that money to live off and, whilst I had extra money, I paid off debts with my main income. I took in a lodger, again, I used this money to buy my groceries and, in term time, was able to pay off an extra extra debts. In the holidays, I cleaned caravans and used that money to save up and insure my car. Dearly Beloved embraced Ebay. He sold everything we didn't need and built up an ebay fund, we often used that to pay a big bill, such as the boiler repair or the house insurance. In short, if you don't earn enough money, do something about it. Get another job, sell stuff, dog sit, baby sit, clean houses, get a bar job. It might look like £25 here and £18 there, but do a few calculations, work out what that is a year and what the total can pay off or pay towards.

5. USE LESS OF EVERYTHING - To begin with, we just stuck to a budget. Then, as we got used to less, we lived on less and less every month. We cut back groceries by £1 a week. In three months, we were spending £10 less a week and were able to divert that money else where. We used less energy. We used less electricity and gas. We turned the thermostat down by one degree every week. Our winter heating is now set at 16 degree Centigrade and we cope happily with that, some warm socks and a couple of jumpers. We reduced our central heating time by a hour a week, now, in the depths of winter, it comes on for two hours a day. It makes a drastic difference to the over all temperature as we're used to the cold. We used the car less and less and now I shop on my way to and from work and don't make any extra trips. We use less water, gas, electricity, diesel. All of my utility bills, even with constantly rising prices are hugely reduced. In 2009, my combined gas and electricity bill was £150 a month, it's now £57. That gave me another £1000 a year to put towards debts.

We do spend money now. Things are easier. We have ways and means of getting what we need at the cost we can afford and tomorrow, I will tell you all about my frugal world of shopping and getting what I need at the fraction of the price.

Thanks to everyone who has become a follower, who has left comments, who reads every day and those who have read today for the first time. Thanks again.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

Frugal refresher for five days!

Hello everyone,

No photos today I'm afraid. I've been catching up on all of your blogs tonight and came over all whimsical when I read Vintage Vixen's blog tonight. I remembering actually saying to the poor teacher who ran 'Careers' at school that when I grew up that I wanted to be Stevie Nicks. I was 15, a mouth on sticks and had an answer for everything! Poor old fart didn't even know what I was talking about. I think I said I wanted to be a nurse so I could laugh at lots of willies as well..........I think I had to stand outside his office for an hour after school. I was well known in the corridors of my comp!

We've just paid the first of our 'repayments' on our mortgage after having a interest only mortgage for a few years! Previously, we always had a repayment and then stupidly took out a stupidly large mortgage. I've had to gird my loins and dig deep in the frugal repertoire to do this but I will get this house paid for. I can pay up to 10% of the balance a year and I'm going to get 21.5K paid off in 12 months!!! It will nearly starve and freeze us but I'm going to do it!

I thought I would share some of my truly, deeply frugal ideas with people. Some of you reading this may have logged onto 'Frugal Queen' for the very first time today. Over the next seven days, I will be sharing five frugal facts about me every day. Here are today's.

HOW I SAVE MONEY ON THE COSTS OF WATER - Get a water meter. In my water region, South West Water charge £1400 a year for un-metered water per year. Since having a meter I've reduced the amount of water I consume every quarter. I now pay under £300 a year for my water.

Here are my five frugal money savers to cut my water bill by £1100 a year!

1. PERSONAL HYGIENE Stop having baths! I am a bath addict. I can't think of any thing more delicious than a bubbly bath. Now I only shower. Baths are for birthdays and special days. Get a timer in your bathroom (five minutes are all I allow myself). I can wash shoulder length hair in five minutes. I wet my hair, then turn the water off. I then soap it and rinse. I don't do what the bottle says and wash it twice!!! It's a con to sell more shampoo!!! Also, I don't condition! That again is just a con to sell you something you don't need!!!! It will condition itself after a few hours! I don't wash my hair, or myself in the shower every day! I shower every other day. I wash my hair every other shower! I keep it clean by clipping  it up and not touching it. Most of the grease on your hair is off your hands.

2. USING GREY WATER Place a bowl under every tap. Every time I wash my hands, or my face or my teeth, the water gets used to flush the toilet. In the kitchen, the water gets taken outside in the summer and poured onto the garden. Make sure some of the water goes down the plug or your drains will block! I also use a large plastic box, or you could use an old baby bath if you have one or get given on, to stand in whilst you are in the shower. I then pour that into watering cans and water the garden. I have run out of rain water from the butts so I really need this water for my veggies. We use homemade natural soap and not much shampoo and very few chemicals, and as I've eaten the veg, I may be proof that this is harmless.

3. THE LOO If it's yellow..........We don't flush pee. We only flush poo. Plus, any hand washing water gets poured down the loo. It's a sin to throw pure drinking water down the toilet so use second hand water. I placed a brick and a water hippo in each cistern, so I've reduced the huge flush in my old style loo by one third.



4. THE WASHING MACHINE - we replaced our top loader, after we'd sold it on eBay, with a triple AAA class front loader, which we chose, not only due to using very little energy but because it used the least water. We place a full size plastic bin next to it. I put the hose from the machine on the side of the bin, to pump the rinse water into the bin. If you use Eco soap powder, which I do sometimes, you can pump all of the water into a bin, or water butt and use it on  the garden. I've eaten all of the veg which has been watered by the washing machine waste water and I'm alive.

5. SAVE ALL THE RAIN YOU CAN - Buy as many water butts as you can afford. A good rainy day will fill them and each butt represents a saving of £10 for SWW customers. When it really really rains, I put pots, buckets, pans, in fact any thing that will catch the rain. I use an old bin too, if the butt is full, then I pour the water from the butt into the bin and let the next rain storm fill it up again. Use the rain to rinse the car when you wash it, even to wash the car and windows.

I'll be back tomorrow with five more frugal refreshers of how I reduce my living costs and I'm able to pay off debts at a huge rate and now over pay my mortgage at (fingers crossed) 10% a year.

Until tomorrow,

All my love,

Froogs xxxx

Just so scary!

 Hello everyone,

Thanks so much to the responses on my blog on Tuesday. You make me feel heard, listened to and certainly not alone in my debt repayment journey. As you were so kind then, I thought I would share my massive life shift today, and a guilty secret and how I'm going to put it right.

Dearly Beloved and I each have a debt repayment schedule. I have put some of our individual debts together onto 0% interest credit cards, which we have tarted from one to the next for quite some time. We are both using them to get rid of unsecured loans and interest baring credit cards. On one of DB's credit cards, the last payment went out on the 10th of this month. It was a snowballed debt payment, of all the payments he was previously paying and he is now personal debt free. I pay the big share of the big debts and I feel that I've got them in hand.

In 2009, when we sold this house, and found one we wanted to buy a tiny cottage. We went back to our mortgage provide - Santandarseholes, who wouldn't give us a mortgage, SMALLER! than the one we had as we had borrowed too much money, on personal and unsecured loans! So, the house sale fell through and we had to really take our debts in hand. If we wanted to downsize, then we had to do something about it. I embarked on a truly, madly, deeply frugal journey that has reshaped my life. By the early few months of 2012, we will have paid back in excess of 45K!

Now if you wonder what all of this meandering is for, now is the time for my guilty secret. When we bought this house is 2007, we mortgaged ourselves to our armpits and could only afford to have an interest only mortgage. Now believe me, I have done some utterly stupid things in my life but taking out a mortgage on a house I could not afford is the most stupid thing I've ever done! Today, in a huge leap, we've begun to put it right!

After the 10th, we contacted Santander and have made arrangements to change our mortgage to a repayment mortgage. Even though we are tied into a 6.5% interest rate until the 9th of September 2012 (when our tied in mortgage term ends), we would still be able to pay off £9000 of mortgage capital before we move house. The more we pay off, the bigger the equity and the more money we'll be able to put down. We are aiming to buy a small house and pay for it in five years!

So, today we lept into the abyss and have signed the repayment mortgage agreement that DB will drop into the local branch of the building society in his lunch break tomorrow! We'll also be able to over pay up to 10% of the outstanding balance of the mortgage every year! Sometimes, admitting you're wrong and putting it right is scary. My interest only mortgage was the silliest thing I've ever done and now is the time to put it right!

The Frugal Future?

 Do you get a mortgage statement and pension statement in the same month? I seem to do so. As I am a year and a bit away from trying to sell my house and downsize, I've become a price comparison website nerd! I go and look at investment plans and have come to the conclusion that Suze Orman, Martin Lewis and Dave Ramsay have sussed it all out for me. There is no point in paying into a savings fund as long as you have a mortgage. The interest will cancel out any saved gains. So watch this space. I'm locked into a mortgage deal until 3/9/2012! Or I have to pay Santander almost £8,000 for the pleasure of changing my mortgage deal. In the meantime, post debt repayments, I will pay off as much mortgage capital as I can.

 Now, you may well window shop. I often look at tents on eBay, or even browse around charity shops and often think of what I might like in the future. Wood burning heating? Solar or PV? In fact, I just want to pay for my new house (which will be compact and bijou) and then think of saving, or solar, or a ground water storage system. Until then, just because I'm nosey, I'll keep looking for the best deals, whether for energy, utilities or mortgages.

Do you keep an eye on your 'future finances' even though, maybe like me, you're not there yet!

Until tomorrow,

Froogs xxxxx

Busy Saturday and nothing spent!

 It was just a week ago, that at this time, I was wandering around Auray about to go to lunch. Today is just about reality and being frugal and a wee bit eco. Every peeling, shredded newspaper and anything biodegradable goes into our compost, and that is being used to grow our spuds in bags. I use my tea bags and coffee grinds to add nitrogen into our plants. Anything grown in a container needs feeding. I rip open the tea bags and keep the tea and then dig it into the soil and compost around the plants in containers.

 Today, has been extremely busy. I shopped at Tesco (online) and my week's groceries, including pet food, toiletries and cleaning products has come in at £35.75 including delivery. I have lots in my store cupboards to supplement and I'll be using them up for a while. I've also been picking beans and courgettes and they are also supplementing. I've baked a fruit cake for Dearly Beloved to take some to work every day and I'm using up a lot of what we've got.

 Today started with a rigorous house clean. Here in Cornwall, we get a lot of damp and therefore a lot of black mould. I get round this with 21p Tesco value bleach, diluted 50:50 and I spray it on the mould, leave it a while and go back and clean it off. The shower gets mouldy, so do the window frames and corners of rooms, I keep on top of this and usually tackle an area every week.

I've also spent time on recycling today. My towelling bathrobe, that I bought well over ten years ago has all but given up, so I've cut it up this morning for my rag bag. I usually make wash mittens or dish clothes, but I'll keep it for when I need it. One of DB's tee shirts has also given up, so I've cut it into strips to add to the knitted bath mat I'm making.

 I spent a while this morning compiling my menu plan, based initially on what's in the house to last us until Wednesday, when my Tesco delivery arrives between 8pm and 10pm. It's £2.50 cheaper to have it delivered 'off peak' and I can't buy any extras if I don't go to the shop!!

Here's the weekend menu plan

Saturday lunch - Chicken cooked in honey and mustard sauce - 3 for £1 from Aprpoved food and part of my spare food stock (next to no sauce for me courtesy of Monsoir Dukan's advice) with salad - I cooked twice as much last night.

Supper - Corn beef hash for DB (remainder of tin into the fridge to go in his sarnies next week) I'll have some dry fried courgettes with a dash of garlic, with a tin of sardines (21p Asda cheapies - I have several tins of these stashed away) and we'll both have green beans from the poly tunnel with theses.

Sunday breakfast - scrambled egg (I just microwave it) and eat it plain, whilst DB will have his on toast.

Sunday Lunch - beef stew made with carrots and onions, some gravy (don't tell Pierre!) and DB will have some of our early new potatoes with his - I won't.

Sunday supper - steamed smoked haddock (piece reduced to £1.19 in Morrisons) with spinach (out of the freezer) and DB will have some new potatoes and I won't!

Monday Breakfast - oatmeal pancakes for breakfast and DB will have cereal and miilk.

Lunch - DB will have corn beef and homemade chutney sandwich with a piece of fruit cake - I'll have a pot of Tesco Value cottage cheese.

Monday supper - 100% beef burgers with salad, DB will have some homemade oven chips with his - I won't!!! (simple - we eat the same, I eat less and fewer carbs)

Tuesday Breakfast - both can have a ham omelette.

Lunch - DB will have sarnies and cake, I will have a tin of sardines, some toms and a yogurt.

Diet will liven up then as Tesco order will arrive!

 Many people have said very complimentary things about my debt repayments, and my determination to live a simpler life. It does bring its benefits. We eat less so we're healthier. We amuse ourselves so we are less and less reliant on money and we know we can live on very little. This in turn means we don't dwell on what we don't have or might not have in the future. We enjoy the little we have and get on with life. This has had a positive impact on our mental state and we think, as often as we can, about the good things in our life.

 I've had a really good work out in the house this morning. I've cleaned the inside of all the windows and got rid of all the mould around the window frames. I've washed all the clothes and bucket by bucket, watered the borders in the garden and even had some spare to pour onto the lawn. I've showered and washed my hair, as ever, standing in a big blue plastic box and poured the water into spud bags.

It's a busy life, but extremely rewarding. The 'down time' today will include: getting out with some music and getting at least a three mile walk into my day, reading my library book, catching up on the paper DB found on the train last night and walking the dogs.

Busy Saturday and nothing spent..................what a perfect day!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx

You heard it here first!!!!

I declared war on debt in 2009, I haven't bought any more than the bare necessities since! Today, saw a major defeat of debt in a huge battle. I came home and got onto moneysupermarket and various O% credit (with a 2.9% transfer fee.......still a 10% reduction in creidt charges) card deal sites and got a Natwest card and transferred my car payments, which were at a blood sucking 13.9% and transferred the 4.5K balance onto the card! I also scooped everything, out of every account we have and paid the last £650 off the last credit card (all of which had been transferred to 0% as well!!!!) The balance transfer will save me £549 in interest payments and (drum roll!!!!!) We now snow ball the payment from the car payments and what we were paying for the 0% credit card together and that means the last payment will go on on New Years Eve this year! All that will be left then is the home loan and with the snowball rolling in that direction................we will hit target by paying our last payment in July last year!!!!!

Never fear dear reader; I'm not about to go out and buy new clothes or pay to have my hair done (any way Foster Mummy gave me the best hair cut I've ever had!) Nor am I about to start shopping in Sainsbury's or Marks and Sparks..............life will go on as normal!

Oh yeah! And to celebrate? I switched in the gas boiler! Heated the water and had a deep bath!!! I can nearly afford it now!!!

Monthly devotions to the calculator

The financial month is coming to an end, or as we all know it, the week before payday. It's time to get out the calculator and look at bills and finances. I've been busily not shopping, not putting the heating on, not buying anything and not spending any money. This time, each month, I log onto all of my internet banking sites, my 0% credit card site and check that the balances have gone down. After I've checked all of the bills, I go back to my bank account and 'round off' anything left over. So, a balance of 3873.29, then becomes a balance of 3970.00. When I've finally done rounding everything off, what ever is left gets 'rounded down' to add to my savings account. I usually add around £10 a month extra to my savings account.

I use my savings account to pay for car tax, tyres, servicing and all home related costs. It does mean that I leave myself hardly anything spare at all but I have the huge sense of relief that everything is paid for! I know I have to pay almost £150 a year for car servicing, so £15 of each month's savings has to go towards that. I know I need about £100 a year for clothes and shoes, so I make sure £10 a month goes into the savings account for that. It all seems a bit pathetic really, it doesn't seem very much. It might seem really ridiculous after a day at work, to sit and shuffle pennies in one direction or the other. I promise, I'm not turning into Silas Marner! I actually like to end the month with no money left in my main bank account and know I've reduced debt and given myself some peace of mind.

Thanks all 2000 of you who clicked 'Frugal Queen' yesterday, who became a follower, or who kindly left a comment. I always look forward to hearing from you all.

Until tomorrow,


Froogs xxxx

Bills, budgets and not spending!

 Over a year ago, I read Ilona's blog and down the side of it are a really sensible advice and one piece I've always followed was to write down every penny you spend. I check food prices, diesel prices and if I can't get something at the charity shop or booter, then I judiciously shop round for it. It's a long long haul. The payments have gone through for my holiday and I've written them down and it's left my savings account very much depleted. Every other aspect of my trip is going to be bargain basement and I'll tell you all about that when I go. In the meantime, I'm not giving up on throwing everything I've got at the debts I'm repaying.

I've reached a repayment milestone, from when I started snowballing to throw every penny I had a repayment, which I've been doing seriously for fifteen month, well, I have fifteen months of payments to go.

 Even though I'm close enough to 'feel' half way, I'm really not easing up. I just don't shop! I'm off on holiday and not one new item of anything what so ever will be bought to take with me! Last year, when I cleaned the caravans in the summer holiday, I noticed that there were clothing labels and price tag labels in almost every caravan I cleaned. It was as if, it was normal to buy lots of new clothes when going on holiday. It seems stupid to me; I go on holiday to slum it and work on the principle that no one knows me so what do I care if they think the worse of me.

 In the past, I used to put the holiday on the credit card and then spend a year paying it off! I would also look at holidays as treat time. If wanted something, or to buy someone something, then I wouldn't even think of it! I now have a totally different perspective, the holiday IS the treat!!! We will be taking most of what we need and eat with us, I'll be in a caravan so cooking will be a doddle and the only thing I will buy is wine for DB!

 Having taken steps to not only reduce debt but work towards being debt free is rather like my new exercise regime. To be honest, it's really hard and sometimes I don't want to do it. I'd like a night in front of the telly but I know nothing is ever going to change unless I get outside and move my butt! I'm striding the streets and not really comfortable about doing this in broad daylight in sight of the masses. The beginning of anything is so very very hard.

I learnt a few years ago, if you do something for 30 days, you can programme yourself for it to become a habit. It works for quitting something too. If you can give up: carbs, meat, smoking, drinking, sugar or what ever you've decided to give up, then you've probably done so for life. Therefore, if I'm to accept that philosophy, then after 30 consecutive days of anything, then the pain, discomfort or just feeling an utter twat will diminish! Now I've been a 'non-spender' since 2009, 'going without' doesn't seem any kind of hardship and I don't care what people think of my life style. I've paid back (not paid off.......it wasn't my money!) £22,500! since November 2009! There were some really scary times, times when I had to say no to people who I thought mattered to me, when I've felt uninsured, when there's been nothing left in the freezer and when I've got the car back home on fumes.

 Using my theories of sticking to something for 30 days and then it becoming habit is being really, really tested but I have to have faith in my own convictions that anything is possible if you are brave enough, stick to what you believe in and hang on when it gets tough. My three mile walks, of which half of that is up hill, already seem easier, even after just a few attempts at it. I've conquered a mass of challenges over the past year or so and every footstep in front of the other feels as wonderful as every time I make a payment or pass by a shop without going in. I never ever thought the day would come when I would say, that having a tight budget and sticking to it, over paying and not spending or exercising daily until I work up a sweat would make me feel so very very good!

Thanks so very much to the incredibly kind words you all left for me, £65 in a restaurant was the biggest blow out I've had in years and I agree, it was well spent! Thanks to the 620 of you who are now following and cheering me on from the side lines, and to those of you who read and stop by. The support is just incredible.

Until tomorrow,

Froogs xxxx

We shouldn't make our lives too easy!

 I have three debts coming to an end this year.

So far, in the last year, we have paid back £18,179.40 and £1463.12 of that went in interest. Even though we have a mass to pay back, I can see the end in sight. Barclaycard, HSBC and Virgin will no longer get a monthly payment off us by October of this year.(That's be another £6633.27 off the debt!) By February, next year, in 2012, the Co-op bank will no longer get a monthly payment off us (That's be another £5650.45 off the debt!) and by August next year, 2012, Lloyd's bank will also get the last payment from us. Nineteen months is nothing. The end is in sight. As far as I'm concerned, this is the final countdown.

Today, I walked around Lidl, with a calculator in my hand and didn't go over my budget. Our treat was a walk round Saltash, a browse in the charity shops and we spent £2 on two demi-johns to make some homemade wine in the future. In truth, it wasn't much of a day! Coming home, and focusing on the end, which is in sight, reminded me that my venture on 'wild seas', though rough at times, is worth it.

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.

When is a good deal, not a good deal?

 We are doing everything we can to reduce our debts. We snowball. We over pay. We get the best deals on everything we can, including interest rates. I am paying for my car, through Fiat Finance, at 13.9%! It's a standard rate for car finance. My finance deal does not allow me to over pay. I pay each month or the balance; that's the only choice I have. I am in a position to find a better deal and found a low rate card,with 5.9% on balance transfers for the life of the debt, where I could have easily have transferred the entire balance onto a low rate card. Infact,  less than half the interest rate of my current finance deal. I applied and got the said 'deal'. However, you don't get the 'small print' until the paper work arrives.

I waited until the weekend, until I had time to sit down and read every word on the paper work. The 'handling fee' is 5%!!!! 0% credit card deals charge 3%!!! and this one is 5%! So thanks, but no thanks. I've not 'activated the card'. I will not be transferring my car finance. I will wait a while and look for another 0% deal when I've paid off the current credit card I'm getting 'rid of'. When ever you get 'finance' you need to wait at least six months until you apply again. It does not look good on your credit file otherwise. We now have really good credit scores (Fico scores) and can get credit any where. Nonetheless; you still have to scrutinise every word on the application or you can get stung. I know it's still slightly less and I would be able to over pay; but I'll still hold out for a better deal in six months time!

Even at the rates I am paying, by snowballing, I will be debt free by August 2012 and that is only 20 months away!

A strangle hold grip on debts.

Living on a budget! Not always fun but necessary for everyone! I used budget brain and updated it to show alterations of standing orders and overpayments. Please excuse the big gaps between pictures today but I have screen copies from the budgetbrain website and the format isn't easy to port over. Double click to see the budget below.
You can see these pictures by double clicking them. It makes you put everything on the sheets, from boiler insurance to life insurance. Our clothing allowance is £30 a month and that includes shoes for both of us although that's mainly limited to a new pair of work shoes once a year. As you may already know I buy my clothes from car boot sales, charity shops and posh things from ebay.

Living off a immovable budget is difficult. It means you have to forgo spontaneity and plan for activities. You can never just 'go shopping' unless you have set aside a specific set amount to take and you take that in cash and nothing else. You can not afford meals out and birthday and Christmas presents are always handmade. You start to live very very differently and start to put money aside for trips to relatives as you know you need some spare money for the fuel to get there.
What ever we have left at the end of the month goes onto credit card bills. Every so often, we'll log onto our accounts and see what the 'odds' are. If I have £243.26 in my account, I will often transfer £3.26 over to a credit card account and what ever I have left at the end of the month goes onto my 0% credit card to over pay it even more and pay off what I can. It leaves so very little for anything else that a day out, or something for the house has to be very carefully thought through. If I need a new coat, then I have to make some extra money to do this. If we need anything at all we try and sell something to pay for it, or we wait until payday to spend what's left if there is anything left.

We also try to have a treat, usually on pay day it's about ten quid which we spend on wine, some chocolate and a big bag of crisps. We always factor in a couple of days out a month where we spend a few pounds on some diesel and get out for a day here and there. I also buy a few craft items to make presents from. This month I bought coconut oil, cocoa butter and Shea butter to make some 'posh' soap for presents for family and friends. I will spend money on ingredients for mince meat, Christmas cakes and Christmas puddings, which are also for presents this month too. So a bigger than average spend for the end of September.

I know there are people who read my blog who are: careful with money and are living OK, some are in debt and are already doing something about it, some are on low fixed incomes such as a pension and are using their frugal skills to live as comfortably as possible and some people who need to embark on the journey and lifestyle I am on, but haven't jumped in with both feet just yet.

Where ever you are and who ever you are, make a budget. Know what you have. Know where it's going. You may see, like we did, that there is a little bit of slack and we can pay a little bit more to our debts each month or not worry when the dogs need grooming. We have as Foster Mummy says 'nuff pence' and we're getting by in style. I don't mean to boast but I'm blogging on my lap top whilst wrapped up in bed with the leccy blanket on and I'm deliciously toasty. DB is next to me and reading and our pets are at our feet. All is well!

Getting a grip of debts the painful way!

I've been talking to a few people recently about debt reduction. I feel some people have been badly advised and may take the route of debt consolidation or even debt management,where they hand their debts over to a management company and pay a fee each month, not realising that the only thing that makes debts go away is bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is dreadful for your immediate future and means you sometimes can't hire a car, rent a house and certainly not move house or get another mortgage. By far the best route is biting the bullet, accepting a very much reduced standard of living and paying off debts.

Once you get used to living on less money and living differently; soon enough and after a while, it just doesn't matter! I can so easily tell who is and who isn't 'on their arse' by their access to ready cash. So many people that I know have nothing left at the end of the month as they are either living on credit or they have maxxed out! Below is my debt repayment plan. You can only see this properly if you double click it to enlarge it..........I'm not ashamed of being in debt and not ashamed of how I have to pay this off and certainly not ashamed to share the payment plan with anyone who cares to see it.

We decided to pay off everything, which means in the first instance that you stop spending anything at all. Complete cold turkey! If you are in the position that I was in, you can't afford to drink, to smoke, to go to the pub, to have a mini-break, to eat out, to go to the pictures or theatre...............................YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT! You can't afford to use your credit cards EVER! STOP IT!

Martin Lewis uses the analogy of attacking one debt at a time, which we did. We then repaired our credit rating in six months and were able to start moving debts into 0% cards and now we over pay them and we're attacking those debts.

If you are reading this and you are cutting back because you are in debt, please contact me first before you even think of either consolidation, re-financing, re-mortgaging and especially before going anywhere near debt management. There is another way and YES it's going to be painful and it will take a few years but you will walk away debt free, with a credit rating in tact, with your own roof over your head and you will have a better future. Who's coming with me???

For those who have asked - to find the debt snow ball calculator simply google "debt snow ball calculator" - you can also discover how to pay debts off quickly by googling Dave Ramsay or Suze Orman, also watch the 'good debt, bad debt' video by Martin Lewis from Money Saving Expert on You Tube - search "Martin Lewis" in You Tube and look for his live stage show/lecture - it's fascinating and will tell you all about paying off debts. Here's Dave Ramsay and his video on debt snowballing

Special delivery!!!!!

I LOVE opening credit card statements as we've paid most of them off!!!!! I moved a huge chunk of Dearly Beloved's credit card to Virgin Bank's 0% and I'm now paying that off at £500 a month!! The balance that was left, that I couldn't transfer due to credit limits, was paid off with my exam marking fees at the end of July! So, after my first day back at work, I arrived home to another zero balance and zero to pay credit card statement! I may be eating from the bottom shelf and the bottom of the freezer, making my own soap and wearing someone else's clothes!! But hey! I'm on the road to being debt free!
I also found this on my doorstep! I assume my neighbours left these for me, some of the tomatoes are a bit green but they are good for chutney.
So I rustled up a quiche and here's how I did it.

Shortcrust pastry - 8oz plain flour, good pinch of salt and 4oz of Tesco version of Utterly Butterly - wizzed in the food processor, dribble in a squirt of cold water and hey! Pastry - put it in the fridge. Cost 7p for flour - 7p for marg - 14p for pastry

Open a pack of Tesco cooking bacon - £1.08 for 500g, use half of it - wrap the other half in clingfilm and freeze it.

Cut said bacon into little cubes, along with a peeled onion, also cut into little pieces and fry - no need for fat. Onion free from the garden.

After frying the onion and bacon, allow to cool.

Roll out pastry and line a flan dish.

Tip cooked bacon and onions into the flan dish.

Beat 6 eggs - 75p - from Pensilva, sold in the fruit and veg shop for £1.50 a doz. - Pour onto the bacon and onions.

Grate 100g of cheddar - on offer for at £4.98 a kilo (Cathedral City) so 49p. and sprinkle on top.

Slice four tomatoes and layer on top - free - on the door step!

Total cost = £1.92 and there are six portions, we had two tonight, we'll have one each for lunch at work tomorrow and one each for lunch on Friday as well. 32p per portion.

Tonight we had ours with grated carrot with some raisins and homemade vinaigrette and some sliced cucumber. Our delicious supper, to celebrate paying off a chunk of debt was under 50p per person and even if I say so myself............it was lovely xx

What do we go to work for?

"Normal" is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, the car, and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it"

Ellen Goodman

Today is a bit crap to be honest. Its a crap cake, smothered in crap, with crap frosting, with whippy crap on top decorated with crap sprinkles. It's raining, my car is making a funny noise which might indicate an imminent huge expense, it's cold and I went to work yesterday (in my unpaid holiday) worked all day and today, I've worked all day again. I love teaching, but I don' t like my 60 hour working week when I actually get paid for 32.5 hours! Nor do I like working in my holidays. I've read my own blog today and I've counted the sum of my days and they are good, nonetheless I want to work to live and not the other way round. I'm in the have no choice but to work bracket as I've determined my own future through my own choices and now I must pay............for a while. Below is the dream I hang on to and I'm almost in a position to downsize and make that a reality.

I have to remember the plan; where I'm going and how I'm going to get there. My personal debts, will be non-existent in 2012 or sooner. I will have received two incremental pay rises and will be better off. Sell big house (economy may be better? or not!) buy tiny two down, with garden big enough to grow a few veggies, a couple of chickens and some where to dry the washing and pay off the mortgage by 2018! Who knows what I might do after I have paid off the mortgage - Oh I know!!!! I will work to do things I like doing instead of just surviving.
Sound familiar??

Now I really must stop moaning and get back to work!