£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

can you purchase in stages?

Perhaps - it was a sistema set I was looking at, which they seem to sell in lots of places. I will see how the prices compare.


Just got confirmatio of (and payment for) a small bit of work next weekend, so almost have the whole of August's expenses and salary, before end of month invoice time. This is good news after eradicating my business cushion entirely. I still think I'm going to continue to live on the edge and only save August and September's money and put everything else towards debt so I can't be tempted to spend the entire cushion on some random 'essential' purchase.

Well my new fancy SIM has arrived and and it looks good, very comfy when I lay on it to test. Not sure I'm ever going to squeeze it back into the bag though!

Feeling very non-MSE as I'm not making any extra money/doing anything clever with the debt at the moment, but we are sticking within budget more successfully than we have in previous months (I appreciate we are less than halfway through though - plenty of time for it to go horribly wrong yet) and things are just ticking along. I suppose there will be a lot of periods like this in the coming weeks, months and years, but it is rather more fun when you can actually do something with the debt rather than staring at it.

to do today
1. bake sourdough. Last loaf of three in the oven now.
2. bake flapjacks for school snacks. Done.
3. make pasties. Done, using leftover frozen homemade fillings from last week for extra MSE points.
4. finish tidying my bedroom. Not remotely done. In fact I think it's fractionally messier than it was 24 hours ago.
5. return a coat I ordered in the sale on a whim (from my actual clothes money pot!) - it's very nice, but not right. Quite a short returns period so need to sort it. Done.
6. Make a small overpayment on the MBNA card - I'd budgeted £50 and the minimum payment is only £39, so I need to pay the extra £11 manually. Done.
7. sew DS1's new badge to his cub uniform. Done. Made a phone call while doing it so I didn't notice how incredibly dull it is sewing on badges.
8. Pack orders for smaller business. Done.
9. Continue rearranging all the stuff I've moved out of the dining room and making space for it - nothing like moving things around to make you realise what's useful and what is just clutter. More progress, but not finished. Squeezing things into our teeny house is a constant juggling act!

to do this week
1. Order camping gear needed. Done - limited it to new self inflating mat for DH and I and a sleeping bag for DC3 (who never had one while in a cot, but will now she is out on a big bed). That's enough to see us through for now, but will need a single bed for DC3 at some stage (she can share the double bed with DH for the camping trip next weekend as I'm not going). Going to see if I can get through without buying any more equipment this summer, but who knows what will break on the first outing of the year.
2. Continue with cleaning the house thoroughly one room at a time.
3. Make strawberry jam with the big batch of strawberries in the freezer. Bought sugar, which was a minor hurdle to overcome, but haven't made jam yet.
4. Order walking boots for me, preferably on sale or with some cashback to take the sting out of it.

Aims for July:
1. Pay some extra off the MBNA card - I'd like this card gone asap. Well, a whopping £15 paid on top of the minimum payment so far, hoping to make another payment before end of month.
2. Pay for camping holiday commitments out of self employed income rather than adding to debt.
3. Stick to the budget even more closely than in June!

Phew, my fast-turnaround work didn't come in today, so it looks likely I'll have the weekend to get it done, which eases the pressure a fair bit.

Dh got very excited at a huge parcel that arrived today and was very disappointed to find it was a bulk order (money saving!) of epsom salts and castor oil. :rotfl:

Didn't make as much progress on my list as I wanted today - forgot we had a play date arranged after school when I was writing it! Nice to catch up with friends though.

to do today
1. bake sourdough. Done.
2. make butterbean soup. Not done.
3. finish tidying my bedroom. Not done.
4. pack orders for smaller business. Done.
5. Continue rearranging all the stuff I've moved out of the dining room and making space for it - nothing like moving things around to make you realise what's useful and what is just clutter. Bit more done.
6. update the camping packing list for DH for the weekend (I could leave him to do this as I'm not going, but since I have always done it I'm more likely to spot any missing items and be able to remove stuff that he won't need because it's such a short trip). Dh has asked to do it himself :eek: . He is using my list as a starting point though.
7. make candles. Not done.
8. make jam for teachers. Done.
9. get at least a couple of loads of laundry on the line - am so behind after not doing any on Sunday then it raining for the last two days. Done, four loads!
10. do the accompanying ironing. Shockingly, not done.
11. order walking boots for me. Not done, have decided to go to a real shop in a few weeks instead - too much choice and have been stung by returns a couple of times already.
12. re-pot my windowsill cacti - they have outgrown their little pots! Not done.
13. Walk 10,000 steps - this has slipped again and it makes such a difference to how I feel. Not quite done
14. social media for smaller business, and hopefully main business too. Done.

to do this week
1. Order camping gear needed. Done - limited it to new self inflating mat for DH and I and a sleeping bag for DC3 (who never had one while in a cot, but will now she is out on a big bed). That's enough to see us through for now, but will need a single bed for DC3 at some stage (she can share the double bed with DH for the camping trip next weekend as I'm not going). Going to see if I can get through without buying any more equipment this summer, but who knows what will break on the first outing of the year.
2. Continue with cleaning the house thoroughly one room at a time. Ongoing.
3. Make strawberry jam with the big batch of strawberries in the freezer. Done!
4. Order walking boots for me, preferably on sale or with some cashback to take the sting out of it. Not going to do this, as discussed above.

Aims for July:
1. Pay some extra off the MBNA card - I'd like this card gone asap. Well, a whopping £15 paid on top of the minimum payment so far, hoping to make another payment before end of month.
2. Pay for camping holiday commitments out of self employed income rather than adding to debt.
3. Stick to the budget even more closely than in June!