Miss Optimistic's Diary to stay focused & stay organised!

MissOptimistic

You are so right Hypno - thank you for making me realise that. She has been single for a couple of years and I know she would love to meet someone to settle down with, so she is probably a little envious of what I have

MissOptimistic

Well, its a terrible day here today, firstly I got hailed on when I took my daughter to nursery at 9am this morning, and now it is chucking it down and windy, so looks like I will be getting wet later when I go to pick her up
I almost don't know what to do with myself today (oh yes I do - its called housework!) - OH is away until this evening, 2 DS are at school and little DD is at nursery till 1pm. Ive given the bathroom a really good clean and hoovered throughout the house and just packed away my tesco delivery and wrapped a couple of bits I've sold on Ebay, so quite productive so far.
The house seems awfully quiet though

clearmydebts

MissO,

Enjoy the peace, it never lasts! I reckon your sister is probably a bit jealous of you and your family life. I think the grass is always greener. I look at some friends and get jealous because they seem to have so much money, but then they never did some of the things I did (like living away) and they probably wish they did that. Maybe you could focus on doing a course that interests you when you reach a certain point in your debt clearing, or when the debts are gone.

MissOptimistic

Well quite a good day DFW wise. Firstly the lady I mentioned earlier came to see me to pay her £100 deposit for renting my 'granny-flat' from 4 January. She is taking it for 8 weeks at a rate of £100 per week, so that should help right after Christmas when I am likely to need it most. The £100 has gone straight into my current account, as it is this time of the month when my deficit catches up with me and I am struggling to have enough money in there to cover all the direct debits, including the mortgage which come out on the 1st (Monday). Usually this means I have to get some cash out using my CC but hopefully, this month that won't be necessary, if I am very careful (with just a little bit of luck thrown in!)
Tonight for tea we are having a storecupboard/freezer tea, which is lamb cooked in a minty gravy with peas and mashed potato, I have my meals planned till Friday, and am doing quite well with the shopping budget although it could be better. I spent £66 at Tesco last Friday and the only other things I have had to buy are nappies (£4.97) and a couple of packets of choccie biccies.
We had a good weekend with my sister, Bowling came to £40.50, but as I had £40 worth of clubcard deal vouchers, it only cost 50P! - We did go to Frankie and Benny's though afterwards which cost £50.05 (and that was using a £5 off voucher I found on here) - Still, for 5 of us, I don't think that was bad per head including drinks.
Anyway, better be off now - catch up with you all later!

hypno06

That is good news about the granny flat - £800 will make a lot of difference when balancing the books.

I got my cheque for the December fee for the student. until now we have been paid directly into the bank but they have changed this month and started paying by cheque which takes time to clear :mad: Oh well, money is money no matter how it arrives, I suppose!

WorkingHardDFW

Sounds like you having made positive progress which is great :T

Staying within the food budget is something that I still far hard although I am getting better at it

clearmydebts

Hi,

You are doing great and I'm sure the £800 will come in very handy. I find it hard to keep to my food budget too!

MissOptimistic

Well, I have another unexpected day off work today so my plan is to get some stuff on Ebay, I have about half a dozen things I would like to get listed, so I need to crack on with it. I had to pay some cc's that were due yesterday, but this time of the month is really tight and my deficit catches up with me - I should be able to get by without putting anything on the cc, but that means there is no money for food until a week on Friday - I wouldn't mind if the storecupboard was full but It will take some really creative cooking to get a week worth of meals out of what Ive got in my pantry!

MissOptimistic

Blipped a bit over the weekend - we really needed to get some food in, so I did a £70 shop and paid for it on the cc
I should be able to pay it off at the end of the week, but still, I hate using that thing!
Things at the shop haven't been good, you may remember me mentioning that the ceiling had fallen in due to no fault of our own, well, that has all been sorted and the shop is back to normal again and the Landlord paid for everything which was good, however, we have had trouble with the Insurance Company who don't want to pay out the full amount of our claim for damaged stock. Although they have admitted that there is nothing wrong with the claim, and have seen the evidence for themselves, they are trying to avoid paying out on a technicality in the wording.
I was so :mad: and they have born the brunt of one of my letters threatening to take them to the financial ombudsman. We will have to see what result that brings, but the mood I am in, I certainly won't let it drop!
Other than that we have had a couple of good customers through the door today so a good start to the week.
Just signed up for the £10 a day challenge, I managed it in November, but whether I will in December with Christmas and everything we will have to see

MissOptimistic

Well, I can't quite believe it has been over a month since I posted, Christmas and the New Year was great but we are now dealing with the aftermath of being closed for 2 weeks over christmas, meaning that all our suppliers want paying again and there is no money to do so because we have been closed. I have had a couple of really bad days worrying myself silly, I can tell it is bad because I couldn't go to sleep last night until 3am and I was awake again at 6.20am - neither have there been any tears, I kind of feel numb from it all and don't feel hungry or tired (I don't feel anything really).
Monday didn't help when I spent my first day back in the shop and spent all day there for the grand takings of £4. But, being me, I am trying to stay positive and focus on the good points. Over the next couple of weeks DH and I will be weighing up all kind of options including DMP and bankruptcy, but for the time being, here are reasons to stay positive.

• Spent a nice morning at mum and tots, chatted to the other mums and had a lovely cup of coffee, all for 60p
• It sounds like the Insurance Company are paying our claim so that will be £2000 to pay some of our business suppliers
• My Boots parcel arrived yesterday, got about 6 pressies for birthdays and next christmas all for half price (and paid for them in real money!)
• My Daughter is out of nappies during the day which is saving some money
• We have not had a takeaway since 20th December and the meal planning is going well
• I have been putting the odd £1 coin into my terramundi for next Christmas (There was £300 in there this year which paid for two kids bikes and some other toys)

I have also been doing a lot of reading which de-stresses me, our local library is great and I have also been re-discovering some books from my childhood. I had a mammoth listing session on play and green metropolis over the past couple of days and I am listing on ebay tomorrow, so hopefully that will bring a bit extra in.