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

bevan840

Hi Jo

We seem to be on same wavelength at the moment with the shopping After last weeks fiasco of wanting to get it delivered, thinking I could leave it till Thursday night to get a Friday slot, and of course, none left by Thursday night lol Lesson learnt! Keep amending it as I remember things we also need hehe

You've also reminded me to check the council tax paperwork, I might have a month free somewhere that I've forgotten about, will definitely come in handy with our £200 deficit!! Don't know about water, will look at that one again too

I will ask Mum if she knows of any good caravan sites in Cornwall (apart from the one she works in (and I used to) of course lol) I'm guessing you mean static caravans? I used to work for Weststar/Parkdean, at Looe Bay, they also have a park further down in Mullion. (One place not to go is Tencreek Holiday Park, in Looe, they don't have a very good rep)

When is DD1's birthday? My SS1's birthday is this Sunday (Oh help, haven't got anything yet!! lol)

Hope your ok xx

Jo_R_2

We've booked at Crantock Beach with Parkdean, went there a couple of years ago and really liked it!

Bought DD1 a Tinkerbell cuddly doll from the Disney Store and a pink diary for her birthday. She was most pleased - reminds me, I need to transfer the money over from my presents budget to my current account.

Sat down earlier to transfer holiday money over to my savings account online and realised I had no idea what my User ID or password are as not used it online yet. Have to wait until I get sent my new detaisl in the post which is a pain but should only take 2-3 days (so they say.)

Going to open a small online account for my holiday spends, was thinking about withdrawing it and saving it in cash but I fear the temptation may be too great, and also worry about if anyone should break in - okay so it's not big money but it's still MY money!:D

Tesco cc balance is going down nicely having upped the payment this month. Added an extra 28.10 making it 67.10 for this month, which I aim to keep as a very minimum payment monthly.

A bit of good news is that it appears OH's stepdad has decided to let us off the £450 money for car repairs as OH is helping them out with some home improvements. Woohoo - that should go towards a new car and the Tesco cc:j

bevan840

Crantock Beach? That's about 3/4 hour from where I used to live Mum works for Park Dean as well, but she's at Looe Bay Which is where I used to work too
I wanted to get a break with DH and boys down therebut it's very doubtful that he'd be able to get a week off in the middle of the season never mind

Good news about the car My Dad did that to me too, paid for my car to be repaired for it's MOT and then conveniently forgot about it and now says now to worry about it, what he doesn't know is I still have the invoice hehe and the amount is mixed in with the money I owe him for my first attempt at college that never succeeded, which he has also told me not to bother with but I want to, but it will only be when everything else is paid off

We've told SS1 that we will take him out tomorrow and he can choose something for himself Had no idea's what to get him and his Mum got him a DS So he's thinking of getting another game

Holiday account sounds good, I did that too with a savings account which had a good interest rate but it ends this year so need to decide what I'm going to do, thinking of using an isa but still not sure, will decide when I need to

Have a nice weekend x

Jo_R_2

Busy weekend! Took DD1 to the cinema on Saturday, budgeted £60 but actually withdrew £80, and spent in total £73:eek: That consisted of 7 cinema tickets (2 adults, 5 kids), numerous drinks, a HUGE bucket of popcorn, and more drinks and food afterwards, plus bus fares for me and DD1 (DD2 still not old enough to need to pay for.)

Need to save the change as going to town one day this week *makes mental note*

This month I am planning on ebaying. Am desperate to get into gear to save for a car, so gonna put an old but not-much-used pushchair on, plus some baby clothes that the ever-growing-baby has (again) grown out of. Hoping to get the pushchair on this week, but need to check it over and give the covers a wash to get it shipshape.

Jo_R_2

Today been pretty quiet moneywise. After totting up receipts and running totals for Feb so far, one week in all my surplus has gone (admittedly it was only £60 but usually manage to make my surplus last the month.)

There's no other outstanding spends for the month, the main one was DD1's birthday which is done. Mum bless her brought over £60 yesterday, I have been ordered to buy a new coat so searching for an ebay bargain(has been an on-and-off quest since around Christmas time) and the rest I'm not sure about yet.

Need to do a bit of money transferring once I can access my savings account online as have bits of money to put towards my car savings. Should be able to post a current total once I've organised it. OH seems to think it'll take an age to save for something, but by my reckoning we could have a good £1500 in a couple of months (PPI money left over plus various savings made here and there) and that's not including anything he's got or will put in.


To do for tomorrow (some of these are from a little while ago which not gotten round to yet:o):

• [STRIKE]phone local children's centre about possible activities for half-term and sign up[/STRIKE] - need to fill in on calendar
• book online shopping slot with provisional shopping list
• ideas for fancy dress for DD1 school project
• put calendar up on noticeboard and [STRIKE]fill in appointments/dates for the month[/STRIKE] - just need to stick up on noticeboard now
• check over old buggy to be ebayed and [STRIKE]wash covers and bits and pieces[/STRIKE] - all covers washed, just need to clean footrest and handles and take photos
• [STRIKE]source lift to Ikea - desperately need planned bits for DDs' room[/STRIKE] - Dad kindly offered to help, need to arrange a day
• book haircut at Toni and Guy for March on a child-free Saturday morning using voucher from Christmas - need to check cost as will need to top up and include in March's SOA
• get making presents for Valentines - got one planned (means getting crafty but no spends on that one) and plan evening:D
• start looking into school clothes for DDs - DD2 starts September and don't want to have a massive outlay all in one go come August:eek: As DD1 needs some new stuff too, want to stagger it out

Jo_R_2

• [STRIKE]phone local children's centre about possible activities for half-term and sign up[/STRIKE] - need to fill in on calendar
• [STRIKE]book online shopping slot with provisional shopping list[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]ideas for fancy dress for DD1 school project[/STRIKE]
• put calendar up on noticeboard and [STRIKE]fill in appointments/dates for the month[/STRIKE] - just need to stick up on noticeboard now
• check over old buggy to be ebayed and [STRIKE]wash covers and bits and pieces[/STRIKE] - all covers washed, just need to clean footrest and handles and take photos
• [STRIKE]source lift to Ikea - desperately need planned bits for DDs' room[/STRIKE] - Dad kindly offered to help, need to arrange a day
• book haircut at Toni and Guy for March on a child-free Saturday morning using voucher from Christmas - need to check cost as will need to top up and include in March's SOA
• get making presents for Valentines - got one planned (means getting crafty but no spends on that one) and plan evening:D
• start looking into school clothes for DDs - DD2 starts September and don't want to have a massive outlay all in one go come August:eek: As DD1 needs some new stuff too, want to stagger it out
• [STRIKE]phone Eon about not being able to get into electricity meter box![/STRIKE] - sorted, arranged for new meter to be fitted which needed doing anyway
  
• [STRIKE]confirm psych appointment[/STRIKE]
• open savings account for OH
  
• [STRIKE]clear table and wash up breakfast pots[/STRIKE]

Had to update list there, need to get on so will post later hopefully!

bevan840

Looks like you have a busy day ahead of you, hope you haven't got any snow to slow you down x

[Deleted User]

Wow Jo! That little lot will keep you busy for a while...hope you have time for a rest and a coffee/tea break in between sometime

Tea
x

Jo_R_2

Have fooled baby into going to sleep after doing school and nursery run, he was sleepy but hadn't nodded off so he's in the pushchair in the conservatory, all wrapped up with the vacuum cleaner on:D

Anyway...! Have been crossing things off my list slowly but surely. Still a few to catch up with. Need to monitor my spends as have found myself in a couple of situations whereby I have made unplanned spends and will need to juggle some money to balance things out:o I'm not usually too bad with it as there's usually a surplus but I had to carry over some spends from January which came out of February's surplus (if that makes sense!) which means my surplus by now for Feb has all gone. Moral: don't spend what you haven't got!:o:o:o Although not always as simple as that.


So to do:

• [STRIKE]put calendar up on noticeboard[/STRIKE]
• wipe clean buggy, check over and put covers on to take photos
• book haircut at Toni and Guy for next month
• make Valentine present, browse for any more ideas (got one but not sure about it yet) and make (possibly make!) card
• open savings account for OH (need his bank details for this as started to do it the other day but didn't have them)
• tot up receipts and adjust running totals
• transfer car money into savings
• [STRIKE]clear table and wash up breakfast pots [/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]do load of washing[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]sort out baby clothes to ebay[/STRIKE]

Going to get going!

ruby1968_2

Morning Jo-R

Know exactly how you feel I have also found myself back to square one after spending a year trying to sort this out, my OH has now finally seen the light as to how much we were spending on his sports channels so I cancelled it, will be spending time today doind my SOA and getting the bigger picture once on a visual it should be pretty much a shock, still having trouble making ends meet but I have finally com to realise I'S MY FAULT ( spendaholic ) so now trying hard for no spend days and will take the dog for a walk instead. Having now rescued the posty from the dog will sit down and sort SOA.

Good luck with the little one and with your to do list.