One day at a time - A DFW diary

my_mess

Ok - am going to try and answer the questions posed by various people above......

Gas and electric - swapped suppliers late last year (leaving about £250 owing to B. Gas), moved to EDF.
They set the monthly amount at £30 ! I paid that for a few months and then rang them to up it to £70 so that it would more likely cover the usage (as I have all elec. bar the cooker - and no central heating, so it is a nightmare house to heat). All was well, then a few weeks ago, they wrote to me saying that it needed to be increase to £95, based on projected usage.

Tax credits - I believe I would normally be entitled to CTC (as I earn over the threshold for WTC) - but was overpaid slightly last year (everything's a year behind income-wise), so have been assessed as NIL.

No tumble-dryer (not even the luxury of radiators, as no central heating) and just a standard electric shower. I do have a slow cooker and use it regularly - and don't buy any ready meals apart from the odd chilled pizza.

I started doing the daily clicks and free scratchards a few months ago - so am hoping to see about £20/£30 extra each month from that.

Meal planning - yes, I should do this ... any tips on how best to make a start ?

Garden - would love to know more about how to grow and yes, Fay - a few seeds and advice would be really welcome

Stitching - I love it ! Have done for years - there's something magical about starting with a blank piece of fabric and creating something - cross stitch or freehand/primitive mostly. I've made more things than I can care to recall - gifts, cards, cushions - and have made a few quid with sales over the years. It's good for the soul.

DS - he already has a paper round - 6 days a week. I give him another £10 a week on top, and my mum sometimes gives him a couple of quid. To be fair, he has only been doing it since he has recovered from being hit by a car in Feb.- so he has done really well to keep it up, and he does buy all the things he wants out of that - mostly fancy trainers and Xbox games ! He also does some chores around the house.

My plan is to try and raise some more cash via Fleabay - I have tons of craft stuff that I can sell, and I do have the ability to sell things I make along the way. Perhaps, I should also consider getting a bit of a part-time job - I've even investigated sexy 'phone chat !!

Hmmm ........ anyway, on to today.
Not alot to say - back at work - a No Spend Day - having leftovers for tea - and DS is fine, so that's fine.

Oh, and my latest CCCS payment has come out, so am gonna amend my sig. even though it hasn't gone to creditors yet - it makes me afeel a lil better.

Tons to do at work tomorrow - that should keep my mind off any negative nonsense.


Love and huge hugs to those who continue to support me in the internet world

Pippilongstocking

Meal planning - list what you have in cupboards etc - make a list of teas/lunches etc with most of what you have and see what you might need to top up things to make some other things. I tend to stock up on bread and milk at the beginning of the week/month so I can avoid the supermarket and see the whole thing as a bit of a devious challenge.

Theres a great thread on the OS board here

Its saved us tonnes (although it still makes me grumpy)

TheBex

Hello and welcome.

I can not believe that there are other people in the world who still put the apostrophe in front of phone! Excellent!

Two quick thoughts on your obviously tight SOA, possibly freeing up £30pm;

1. Presents - have you had a look at the xmas threads?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1800153&highlight=free+christmas
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1678781&highlight=free+christmas

2. This is a crazy idea, but some of the things that come up on the thread are useful even if you aren't joining in the challenge, which is to not buy clothes for a year!
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1889035

That's all for now. *subscribes*

my_mess

Waves to everyone

Hello again ! - and thanks to those taking the time to read/reply to my nonsense.

Didn't manage to post yesterday as I got completely bogged down with stuff last night - oops !

Positive things:
- done all my little daily things towards debt-free-ness
- another No Spend Day - 3 out of 3 for September - not bad going
- Mum came over to visit today and gave me £10 (she's lovely!)
- work has been really busy, which has helped me (mostly) keep my mind off crappy money and life issues
- my son did well at his football training (He has recently joined a local under 15s team)
- I have laughed at least 10 times today - woohoo ! Check me out !

Am feeling ok at the moment - by 'ok' I mean I'm not climbing the walls, flying off the handle at DS and keeping my cool at work. Stable is what I need right now - so I'll try and maintain it.

Had a bit of a surprise heart-to-heart with a colleague this afternoon - she is lovely - and it would seem that she has had the same kind of fears/demons that I battle with each day. it would be nice to spend a bit of time with her, so I may even take her up on the offer of an outside work get-together for pizza.
Again, another unusual step for me as I'm not much of a social animal.

Jeez, I'm weird ......

cloverfan

My mess I think you are doing really well keep it up!!! And way to go on laughing so much ( hopefully one day i will get to a point where i can write that in my diary too!)

I managed to save myself £35 on my food shopping (dont know if this will help you but i am a single parent to 6 kids so am trying everything i can) Tesco had 2 litres of milk on special offer for 70p so i bought 35 bottles and froze some. This saved me £1 on each bottle as i would usually have 1) gone to the local shop where milk is £1.75 or 2) popped to tesco just for milk and spent on extras!! And another big plus for me with the meal planning is i wrote it up and put it on the fridge so no more kids wanting different things as they all know thats whats for dinner!!!

Good luck!

beanielou

Just popped in to say hi
Its hard being a single parent isent it.
I have a DS who is 15 too.
Take care.

Pippilongstocking

Hey hope the visit with OH went OK yesterday - many single mums on here wishing you well

How's the weekend been?

Loving the milk story - I haven't ever bought so much but did buy 8 4ltrs when I found them on offer too I do always have milk and bread in the freezer as it does save those trips to the supermarket for milk which result (in our house) with a trolley full - 6 kids WOW! Hat off to you I only have 2 and I feel like I am always chasing my tail

Meal planning rocks we use it lots - x

my_mess

Hi to everyone

A funny few days really...... ex's visit with DS was pretty ok. he dropped him over at my Dad's in good time for a lovely dinner. odd thing was that a few hours after I received a text from ex saying he wanted to talk..... now, try as I did, I couldn't convince him to elaborate on the suggested subject of this 'talking' ..... and the whole thing ended up with him informing me that the offer was now withdrawn !

Too much game-playing for my liking ....hey ho.



So onwards -- yesterday, a colleague of mine came round and fixed DS's bike for him. It was really kind of him to take the trouble.

And a nice surprise --- my dad bought me a mini greehouse ! YAY !
I've built it (well, put the rods and plastic bits together) and placed it in the garden - empty. BUT, I'm going to read up on what I might be able to grow from seed come next year, get some advice from those who know better than I, and with any luck I'll have veggies and maybe fruit next summer !

Work is now really busy - and I have been hard-pushed to do any real moneysaving stuff during office hours.

Mission for the next few days - work hard, dig out some more odds and ends for Fleabay, and try to not to give myself a hard time.

DS is back at school, and embarking on the GSCE/BTEC journey - it's hard to believe how quickly the time has gone since he was a little fella and that, sooner than I think, he will be proper grown up man-type person.

I'm rambling now .... so will go and eat tuna and pasta bake that I made last night (go me !) and give the dog some love.

Pippilongstocking

Slopes in as the radar picks up the words greenhouse, veggies and alll things gardenny

I have seeds, bizarre expertise and *some* knowledge and lots of pots, spare bits you might need etc and some strawberry plants spare for you if you'd like some

Glad to hear the visit was OK and the bikes fixed HURRAH.

Tuna bake sounds yum - we had a bizarre left over roast dinner beef in noodles mircowaved and although *OK* it wasn't brilliant.

glad lifes busy

my_mess

YAY ! for fay

Any lil bits you could put my way would be fabby - and I have lots of bits and bobs of craft stuff if you want some in return..............PM me.

Will hopefully be back later on this evening if I don't get stuck with the other laptop (very cronky)

x