Jo_R's debt-free diary, slow and steady progress!

bevan840

You've got me thinking too about the month we get free from council tax, hmm an overpayment on CC1 me thinks is in order Although need to make sure we have enough to pay the first installmant of council tax as it's always higher than the other 9 months good job it all goes in the same acount

Have fun baking, I tried that once with the 2 boys, part of me thinks it was fun, the other part thought what was I thinking???? :rotfl:

Keeping_Positive

Always try to "save" the extra ctax money for annual spends such as car and contents insurance although some does get eaten up. It does make feb and march much easier especially after the excesses of xmas even though I swear each yesr to be careful.

My 13th child benefit and tax credit monies get eaten up Im afriad so I try not to count them in my budget so they are a unexpected buffer.

Glad to hear about you money saving plans JoR you are doing really well.

PS Apple crumble mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

beanielou

Never ever feel benefit of extra CB & CTC.
As for council tax Im usually in arrears with that so play catch up.Gah.
I hate being skint.

Jo_R_2

Aw well didn't get the apple crumble done today so that's on the 'to do' list for tomorrow

Made 'chicken' casserole for tea (OH had chicken, we had Quorn pieces) which was nice, only used half the pack of chicken which had frozen from a couple of weeks back so need to think of something pronto to use it in before it goes off!

Argos is having a half-price sale on loads of furniture so just been eyeing up the range I had been looking at yesterday before I knew they had a sale:D It's not anything fancy but we're desperate for stuff - our TV cabinet is ditched and we threw our bookcase before we moved and we don't have a sideboard or anything for storage - which IMO is part of the reason why our house always look a bit of a state (besides the 3 kids LOL) - because we don't have proper places to store stuff. I have loads of lovely books I want to have stored properly and not still in boxes

So been looking through and seeing if I can glean any money to be able to purchase anything - oh and asking OH as well:D Between you and me (LOL) I do have a little buffer zone in my current account, so I could use that if I really wanted. I think a list is in order of things with prices next to them, check surplus running total in account and also any spare cash to see if we can reasonably afford anything.

Oh and still eagerly awaiting the post each afternoon to check if loan company have sent anything re: my PPI claim. Nothing yet, they have another two weeks before their 8-week deadline is up so hoping for something pretty soon.

Jo_R_2

Okay, so I need to get up to speed and organise my head!:D

NSD yesterday. Have chicken to use up - I only buy meat for OH as the rest of us are veggie so I don't want to waste it as it'll do for another meal - have no idea what to do with it though!

Cheap and cheerful for tea today, jacket potatoes, cheese and beans with salad. Tea tomorrow is sunday dinner-style, have planned for it but all out of potatoes so need to buy some later or tomorrow.

Ex will pay in £10 he owes me with child maintenance at end of month - so he says:rolleyes: If that does happen that will go as a small overpay on Virgin cc, short of paying anything else which may not happen this month, not sure yet.

So here we go:

• buy potatoes for tea tomorrow
• skip a load of laundry - doesn't need doing so resisting the urge and will do a full load tomorrow - more something NOT to do LOL
• pay £5 for another school trip for DD1
• browse Argos and make list of furniture wanted that's in half-price sale... Play with SOA and wallet fundage and flutter eyelashes at OH and see what we can manage
• wash up breakfast pots
• look at getting mum a birthday present for next week
• start Christmas lists and searching for prezzies

That'll do for now!

Keeping_Positive

So here we go:

• buy potatoes for tea tomorrow mmm
• skip a load of laundry - doesn't need doing so resisting the urge and will do a full load tomorrow - more something NOT to do LOL one job I dont have to do
• pay £5 for another school trip for DD1 thats never ending
• browse Argos and make list of furniture wanted that's in half-price sale... Play with SOA and wallet fundage and flutter eyelashes at OH and see what we can manage Hope you can its not a complete luxury and half price is MSE
• wash up breakfast pots again seems neverending
• look at getting mum a birthday present for next week
• start Christmas lists and searching for prezzies :eek: :eek: :eek:

That'll do for now!

Jo_R_2

Hehe!

I'm sat here in an oasis of calm. DDs asleep, OH is out at his mums with baby (who his mum 'borrowed' again all afternoon!) so kicking back with a cold can of... lemonade ROFL:rotfl:

Am half watching Emmerdale and half on here, with an Argos catalogue open at the furniture pages Told OH we were going to look at furniture tonight - oh I bet he's looking forward to some quality time poor guy!

Mde a trip into town, went on the bus (DD2 loves going on the bus) to pay in the cash in my wallet. Paid in £40 in cash, did have £50 but used £10 for bus fares and treated DDs to pick and mix, plus a budgeted-for face moisturiser. Just needed to get the cash out of my way - too easy to spend it otherwise.

Got to persuade OH to pay me for the shopping I bought as am terribly out of pocket to the tune of £50...:eek: However I think going, "oh baby please can you sort that shopping money out you've owed me for two weeks?" then asking him if he can contribute to new furniture probably won't go down that well:rolleyes:

dawnybabes

Jo_R wrote: »

Got to persuade OH to pay me for the shopping I bought as am terribly out of pocket to the tune of £50...:eek: However I think going, "oh baby please can you sort that shopping money out you've owed me for two weeks?" then asking him if he can contribute to new furniture probably won't go down that well:rolleyes:

Depends when you ask him

Jo_R_2

dawnybabes wrote: »

Depends when you ask him

ROFL:rotfl: I think there may be something in that! I shall have to see what I can do

Well it's all quiet again... Done the nursery/school run, put baby in the pushchair for a change - usually he goes in the sling and I pop DD2 in the pushchair - she's far too big really but it saves time in the morning - anyway baby is fast asleep so here I am making a mental list of things I need to do.


Didn't get everything done from my previous list so here is a revised list for today:

• [STRIKE]buy potatoes for tea[/STRIKE]
• pay £5 for another school trip for DD1 when pick her up later
• [STRIKE]wash up breakfast pots and dinner pots from last night:o[/STRIKE]
• look at getting mum a birthday present for next week
• start Christmas lists and searching for prezzies
• tot up receipts and spends and adjust running totals on SOA
• [STRIKE]check online banking and online credit card[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]make shopping list and menu plan[/STRIKE] - just need to do online shop, prob this evening
• [STRIKE]pay DD2's nursery breakfast/dinner money for today[/STRIKE]

Blimmin' heck better stop there methinks!

Okay off to do shopping list now. Did start one yesterday but DD1 'helpfully' took over and did her own bless her :rolleyes::D

Jo_R_2

Feeling a bit disheartened again... Think it's a phase I'm going through, I have this impatience about being debt-free and feeling frustrated that I can't do more than I'm doing.

I keep thinking about how much (little?) free cash I do have to overpay my debts and wondering how much of a difference thinking about whether to buy an extra loaf/hat, scarf and gloves for DDs/a bottle of pop is actually makes...

So another list to make me see what I have done and more importantly what I *am* doing:

• stopped any spending on credit cards
• arranged repayment plans on all benefit-related debts
• ascertained exact amounts outstanding on all debts and used spreadsheet to give provisional debt-free date for each
• started using a monthly SOA to allocate money for bills and necessary expenses and adjust it each month; this includes putting aside money for Christmas and birthday presents, something I have never done previously
• started saving an amount each month for emergencies
• opened a separate account for irregular spends
• thinking ahead for planned spends in particular months
• doing surveys

I think to sum up, the change from the start of this diary to now is that now I know exactly how much money I have coming in, when it comes in, what my regular monthly expenses are and that I can meet them, how much I need to put aside for other spends each month, what I have spent and on what throughout the month, and an awareness of what stage I am at of paying off my debts each month.

Not bad, it does help.