Mrs S, family life and debt

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

Woohoo great news.
What a place to start from.
Don't dwell on what 'could have been' think about the difference this makes going forward. You are on a really secure footing, you have a plan and it's a plan with some breathing space. You've got great habits from your debt free journey, keep them up.
Are you going to chip away at the remaining card or just let it run it's course?
I hope you are going to treat the yourselves to a little something to mark this weekend.

Sleep well
Wish

I keep jumping back and forward between chipping away at the card, or just letting the monthly direct debit do its thing! As it's 0% I may just it be for now, and once that comes to end use savings to pay off the remaining balance. Decisions, decision! I definitely plan to keep everything the same with budgeting. There is no way we're getting back into more mess again. We only buy things we have the money for, and we save for the bigger things first.

Middle of the night update - I've got a poorly child! Ds2 is full of cold so is pretty restless tonight.

I keep checking my accounts and wanting to do more :rotfl: I'm not quite sure what more is, but I've looked at November's budget (though my payday isn't until Tuesday). It's going to be an expensive month (when won't the month before Christmas be expensive!!) with days out and Christmas shopping. I've listed all our November activities and set aside a budget for them. I've also got vouchers ready for Christmas shopping (and money set aside for a nice lunch out with Dh on shopping day - we very rarely go out just the 2 of us!).

The food shop is pending on the account - £73.61. That leaves £48.43 for the week with an extra £29.65 in the weekly left over pot. That's £78.08 to last until next Friday night. There should definitely be a little left over to split between next month and savings. I do need to take £10 out of the bank for a school event and we may do a day out. Where we're looking at going is free entry, you only pay for the activities you do. An activity pass is about £15, and we'll only need one for ds1 so shouldn't be too expensive. May do that tomorrow - need to chat with Dh.

I've ordered pumpkins to come with our food shop, so will need to carve them (and look to see if last year's battery 'candles' still work. We also need to put up some Halloween decorations, which I bought last November with 75% off!!

9:30 on a Saturday night and I'm in bed......Rock and Roll!!!

It has ended up being a little more spendy than I'd anticipated today, but we're still within budget. Ds1's swimming bag broke. It's the second 'cheaper' one that's broken within a few months now, so I've ordered a more expensive one instead of the plastic ones. I've ordered a birthday gift which cost just over £5 including delivery. I took £10 out of the machine for the school event and popped that in the envelope ready.

I also popped to the local shop for Saturday night supplies. We used to stock up on a Saturday night often, but it's pretty rare now. I had 2 bags full of shopping for £13.28. That included 2 big name pizzas (half price), free range chicken breast (yellow stickered - from almost £5 to £1.23), real ales (3 for £5), yoghurts for ds1 (ordered some to come with today's shop, but they didn't have any and apparently couldn't be substituted!!!) and 'snacks' (either half price or cheap own brand!). Oh, I also found a yellow stickered pastry thing for 10p (Dh or ds1 will enjoy that tomorrow!!).

Most of the snacks are in the kitchen cupboard still, sharing the real ales and eating a big pizza were more than enough for me!!

With the money left over, we should have more than enough for the rest of the week. No big spends needed now.

Survey wise - I'm frustrated. Prolific is at £19.94!!! £2 ish of it is waiting to be confirmed, but then I need another 6p before I can cash out with no charge and meet my personal target for the month!!

Slow roasted beef was a success. I added pepper to it, and cooked it in a casserole dish with stock, bay leaves and garlic. I used the stock at the end to make the gravy. Even the roast potatoes turned out brilliantly (since I learnt about adding flour!!). Yum!!

We've carved pumpkins this afternoon and managed a few loads of laundry (including the living room cushion covers - I have no idea when they were last done!!).

Ds2 is still unwell and has a very high temp. Calpol, water, milk and cuddles. He actually polished off his Sunday lunch (minus all the naughty bits such as the Yorkshire pudding, roasties and parsnips - I think he's still too little!) but hasn't really eaten otherwise!

So far today has been a nsd. Sunday is an easy online spend day, though, as we're not really busy just lazing about. I can't think of anything I need so should be ok. I downloaded the Tesco grocery app on dh's phone today. He always writes on a piece of paper if he notices us running out of something so now can actually do something about it!!

I can't believe it's getting dark already!! Winter is on its way!!