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

EssexHebridean

Jo - your Dad sounds like a star and at least you'll be proving his concerns wrong when you pay him the money back.

We the Direct Debits, if, once this times lot have all gone out, you ring the companies concerned and ask that they change their DD date to the 4th of the month, say, I can't imagine for a moment that they will disagree. If you explain the problem you have with the dates being too close, then they should be fine about it as they will have come across this problem before. I get paid on the 15th of the month and my OH at the end so we have DD's coming out on all sorts of strange dates - the only one that has EVER been a problem is the mortgage one as they HAVE to take it on the 1st, apparently!

Good luck, and stick with it!

Jo_R_2

I've worked out that things will be okay next month regarding my DDs - it's something that comes round every year as my DDs go out on 1st of every month whilst tax credits are every four weeks so moves through the month throughout the year if that makes sense? So at times they go in right before DDs go out, so that's fine, but when they've moved through to the same day or after the DDs go out is when I have problems. Obviously I hope to alleviate this by savvy planning because it IS solvable without moving everything every year.

Okay so my to do list for the rest of the week is as thus:

• write in diary dates of further charges to come out (got them from bank yesterday)
• pay council tax instalment for May
• make a sealed pot:D
• send off £10 cheque or postal order to get bank statements for purposes of reclaiming bank charges
• look into cancelling PPI on loan and reclaiming it (don't know much about this so need to read up on it)
• shopping list and MENU PLAN (god I need some inspiration for some new meals!)

ped54

Hey Jo_R - Just to say Ive really enjoyed reading you're thread - keep up the good work. You are an example to us all! Im subscribing, so make sure you keep us all updated - I've started my own thread up so you could say you inspired me a bit! make sure you take a look when you get a second. Ive started keeping a record of anything / everything I spend because it is obvious that i dont keep track enough of what im spending - or give anything enough consideration! we'll see how I get on. Congrats on the baby! looking forward to hearing more from you, Ped. x

Jo_R_2

• [STRIKE]write in diary dates of further charges to come out (got them from bank yesterday)[/STRIKE] All done, feeling very organised!
• [STRIKE]pay council tax instalment for May[/STRIKE] Done this morning by phone
• make a sealed pot:D
• send off £10 cheque or postal order to get bank statements for purposes of reclaiming bank charges
• look into cancelling PPI on loan and reclaiming it (don't know much about this so need to read up on it)
• [STRIKE]shopping list[/STRIKE] and MENU PLAN (god I need some inspiration for some new meals!) Shopping list is in progress, not menu planned yet but need to.

Desperately need some new inspiration for meals. I tend to make the same things day in, day out, I've found economical meals and I'm not terribly adventurous with new foods, and both DDs are worse than me!

OH is the only meat eater and I'd like to cater for him more but not sure how without making separate meals. I do sometimes split portions and cook one veggie and one meat (eg sausage casserole) and he likes eating what I make but it would be nice to give him at least a couple of meat-based dinners a week.

Also thinking of changing our shopping day - usually trot off to Tesco or Asda come Sunday so we have stuff in for the week ahead but the MAJOR problem is we sometimes spend up to our budget on the main shop and I'm loathe to spend much more during the week if that's the case so inevitably by Friday the inside of the fridge is looking rather empty and the cupboard quite bare.

When me and OH have time to ourselves at the weekend (well, us and baby when DDs go to their dads), we sometimes end up spending £10/£20 at Asda on bits and bobs when we "pop in" to get something for Saturday tea. Tbh we've grown wise to ourselves and have now mostly started to make Saturday tea at home but with few fresh ingredients we are always stuck for what to make (mantra: MEAL PLAN, MEAL PLAN...)


I think we need to rein in what we're buying at the weekly shop and factor in a top-up shop. I'm happy that I won't splurge by popping to the shops now midweek so was thinking maybe do shopping on Saturday morning then top up maybe Wednesday with fresh veg and anything else we need.

Jo_R_2

Well it's alternately a lovely sunny day and a rotten grey one depending on where the clouds are. Was going to take a walk to the children's centre for the toy library hoping to join and then borrow some bits for baby (don't want to buy a playmat if I can pay 20p to borrow one!) but realised I didn't have any spare pennies as we'd budgeted tightly for the rent which comes out tomorrow. So we instead walked the opposite way up the road and went to the park which was lovely as it was really bright out and we had it to ourselves

Rather than ramble on, heres a list of things from over the last few days:

• been checking banking online every day
• been referring to my money diary every day which has been a godsend - I swear I do not know why I didn't do this before, no longer am I forgetting things, not knowing when stuff comes out or not planning ahead enough!
• transferred money back to my dad that I borrowed to cover DDs
• did shopping list but ended up doing shopping online as car broke down:eek: Got a cheap delivery slot and bought some buy 1 get 1 frees and hoping to do a bit of batch cooking and home baking this week
• car broke down (yep!) Was a bit peeved and upset (I get really claustrophobic in this house sometimes) but it's going to save petrol and give us the opportunity to ease the distress of handing it back as my dad is getting it towed to his to mend it so we won't have it anyways then

Things going pretty smoothly at the mo. I'm finding that I'm really thinking about the pennies and have been forgoing my daily trip to the shop for my caffeine fix (mostly!) thus not only saving £1 a day but the associated drink and snack for whatever child/children I have with me at the time (and yes that includes OH!;):D)

Hopefully next month I can start putting money aside into pots for things like emergency fund, birthdays/Christmas and clothes. I can also start working out overpayments towards my credit card and loan.

Jo_R_2

Another new week...

Went for a walk down to the shops earlier on, it was lovely and sunny I had a very small amount of change and had intended to buy a paper (see if there's any jobs in) and bought DD2 a lollipop. Walked back past newsagents and was soooooo tempted to buy a bottle of my favourite caffeinated beverage but felt very proud as I resisted the urge and saved myself a pound:T Shamefully I *still* haven't made my sealed pot which I keep intending to put all these pounds in that I keep saving, so that's on the list for later...

Things still on track. Have been using my diary to keep track every day and plan ahead. This week is pretty quiet with nothing going in or out, and I only have one standing order and a bank charge next week (the final one I hope in my DFW regime!)

I really need to get cracking on decluttering and getting rid of stuff (good for the mind - and for space LOL) and ebaying. I still have a pile of maternity clothes to sell, most of which are in good condition, so I have decided to set myself an ebay challenge a month, and use that money to overpay on my credit card at the start of next month. Hopefully next month I can set a fixed payment on it rather than the minimum, but I'm going to wait until the start of the month and see how we're fixed after getting things on track this month:D

OH has changed his talk plan (or whatever you call it) on his phone which is on contract to save him some pennies each month which is great and starts in two/three months.

The BIG news is that we went to view a house to rent on Saturday. It's across town and not exactly the area we were thinking of, but the house is big, has a nice size garden, is in a nice quiet area and the local schools are very very good, and it's also not too far from OH's mum and his dad. But (and there HAD to be a 'but' didn't there?!)...

...it turns out another couple viewed the same house middle of last week and have already put in an application. Being a bit bemused as when have rented before through an agency, it's been done on a 'first come' basis (ie whoever applies first has first dibs if their application is fine), I phoned up the agency this morning.

Seems at this agency they invite a number of applications and then forward them to the landlord who then takes his pick. Fortunately (or not!) this landlord (he showed us round) only wants a maximum of two applications so the agency is happy for us to apply also, but then it's up to the landlord. So OH's going to pick up the forms this afternoon and we're going to apply anyway -nothing ventured nothing gained and we have a 50/50 chance so fingers crossed. We're going to continue to look anyway just in case but am praying we get it because this agency has minimal fees compared to a lot of the others in the city centre so that would be a real bonus.

Keeping_Positive

Good luck with application

beanielou

Sending you positive vibes

Jo_R_2

Confession time - yesterday and the day before I bought a treat for DD2, bottle of pop and newspaper and put it on my debit card. So I did have the money for them but they weren't essential. However it has only been those two days and I figure allowing myself a tiny treat (needed a caffeine boost, and wanted to check housing supplement and jobs pages in newspapers) means I won't suddenly splurge elsewhere.

However my sealed pot is sat in the kitchen waiting to be sealed so I am going to start putting in the equivalent money every time I WANT to buy such things but resist.

I have been using this quiet financial time until the beginning of next month to work on my grocery situation. This week I've been incredibly waste-not-want-not in the kitchen and been using up leftovers, making-one-and-freezing-one and doing lots of yummy home baking. If I'm being honest I don't think I could keep up the amount I have been doing but certainly I think I could make things such as cookies and buncakes instead of buying sweet things, and I already make dessert stuff when we have it like rice pudding and crumbles, nothing fancy but all home made, otherwise it's fruit and yogurts.

I need to make a list of things to keep on top of, which I will do shortly after taking advantage of baby sleeping to have a shower in peace!

Jo_R_2

Yep deffo need to make a list of things to keep on top of. Now we don't have a car I need to properly sort out online shopping. Yesterday we were busy painting, realised we didn't have time to go shopping so I did a rushed order meaning to come back to it after baby was in bed and go through it.

Of course baby decided not to sleep until after 11pm so I fell asleep with him, never got to sort out the order and ended up going to Somerfield this morning to get the bits I'd forgotton to order and you certainly pay through the nose for the privilege there :eek:

So I need to use my written diary to make a note each week of when to do the online shop ahead of time so I can keep an ongoing list of what we need.

We also should be moving soon, but no time to write about that now so hopefully will update tomorrow...