Trying to take the stress out of the debt - little steps

slm6002

Thanks for the info on the bingo sites i will go grab a magazine and sign up i think. I feel for you as ds woke up yesterday at 4.30 and i was exhausted come lunchtime. I think everyone was in bed by 8 last night including OH and me

Triggles

Eeek! Another long night! DS3 was up about every 30 minutes all night long! *yawn* Coffee is the word of the day! I've already had 2 cups, with plenty more in sight!

But... on the good side, regular morning tasks are done:
- kids up, fed, dressed
- washing up done
- picked up kitchen, wiped down counters
- yesterdays laundry folded to be put away
- load of laundry currently washing now
- bottles washed, sterilised, and made up for today

Plans for today:
- research blogging for an income. I have a few ideas that I think might be worthwhile, but will have to look into the actual ins and outs of blogging and webpages and such
- sweep and mop kitchen floor. Mainly just because it really really needs it!
- continue working on clearing out a good space in the dining room for nonperishable storage

Okay. So now I'm wondering.. which is the better place to put my clothes drying rack... closer to the window to allow the moisture to escape? or closer to the radiator to allow the clothing to dry quicker? Or do I sit on the fence and put it about halfway in between?

We've got heavy curtains up in the doorways to the living room and the dining room. This is mainly to keep the living room warmer, as we spend most of our time in this room, and to keep the chill of the dining room enclosed there as it usually has a window cracked open due to laundry drying in there. I have to say the curtains do make quite a bit of difference. The living room and dining room used to have doors on them (prior to us moving in), and we've thought about replacing them, but while I'd be happy to replace the dining room door (to keep the cold in there), I'm not so keen on replacing the living room door. Maybe it's just that I like to be in a more open room, but partly also because the door would have to open into the living room, and our current furniture arrangement would suffer. Sadly enough, we've already rearranged the furniture in order to accommodate a playpen for DS3 (he goes in there for his daytime naps as we are trying to make sure he's used to sleeping with background noise) as well as planning ahead for the Christmas tree! I've always wanted to put it in front of the big living room window, but it hasn't been feasible with the furniture arrangement previously. Now that it's changed, I may finally get the tree in the window! :j Sounds silly, but I like having the lights in the window on the tree - does double duty, doesn't it? Light up the tree, plus have lights in the window to see outdoors as well! That's MSE, right?

We have some bananas getting a bit brown, so we'll be making banana bread this evening. Probably just as well, as we don't have any more in the freezer. And I need to put together my online Sains order for stocking up to come after Thursday (to include higher discount). Why lug a trolley around the store when they can deliver? The order will be high enough to get free delivery, so no worries there! Although it will blow my grocery challenge out of the water for this month, it will potentially save us money over at least the next 6 months, so that's alright.

I was looking all over for slipper socks to fit DS2's feet, when I realised he had slippers with rubber soles already that he didn't wear much. So I "re-introduced" him to his slippers - for some reason he's much happier to wear them when I call them shoes instead of slippers. Not a clue why, but as long as he's wearing them, I'm happy. Slippers are great - no extra wear and tear on socks, feet stay warmer, and no worrying about slippage on the fireplace stones, stairway, or kitchen floor. He's also quite happy to wear 2 shirts - his favourite look is the long sleeve shirt under the short sleeve shirt. It means he can pick out TWO shirts to wear - although I have to say sometimes his colour combinations are appalling! :rotfl: But again, he's warmer, so heater can either be lower or off, so I'm happy. I've been putting DS3 in sleepers or outfits with onesies underneath so he's warm and comfortable. We have a big heavy rubber storage box in the entryway, so everyone has one pair of shoes or one pair of slippers in it - when we come in from outside, the shoes come off and go in the box, and the slippers from the box get put on. Keeps people from walking around tracking dirt in the house or wearing just socks and wearing holes in the socks!

Oh goodness - off to nab another cup of coffee. *yawn* Oh, for a nap!

Triggles

Ouch. Had a horrifying day today. We were £355 over on our credit card - and I didn't realise it!!! I was using it to put some miscellaneous expenses, a few bills that popped up unexpectedly, and yes, spending that I probably shouldn't have! I'm so angry with myself that I let it happen! :mad: I had to speak to DH about it today, although I didn't go into complete detail, as I don't want him to be too upset over it. I paid off the overage out of the regular bank account and am now in the process of scraping it back by other means. DD owed me £50, so she put that into our account today when she went into town. And I have listed some items on ebay and have one or two more to list tonight, after I've spoken to DH about pricing on the items (get his opinion). I will hold off on stocking up until mid-November, which is fine. For groceries, I will be very very careful over the next couple weeks. I will fully admit it's my fault, as I was stressed and not thinking things through well when I put the stuff on the card, instead of changing our everyday spending habits and not telling DH about it. I didn't think. I will blame part of it on stupidity and part of it on sleep deprivation. But it won't happen again, that's for sure! Ouch ouch ouch! I've learned my lesson! Think I'm going to be quite stingy with the heater too! To keep those bills down!

I have noticed that some of the heat is lost at the base of the windows in our house. The previous owner was a window installer and put in all double glazed windows, however, I'm not sure how good the job is, TBH. So I'm going to put draft excluders on the base of the windows. I have some old jeans/trousers that were going to be tossed, so I will be cutting off the legs, trimming them slightly (oh, to have skinnier legs! :rolleyes:), and then stuffing them and stitching them closed to place at the base of the window sill (our sills are quite wide) to keep any air coming through. I'm hoping this will make a big difference. We also seem to be getting a fair amount of cold air coming in from our open fireplace. Is it okay to put something in it to block it up, that we can take down if/when we decide to put a fire in it during the winter? TBH, we rarely have a fire in it anyway, maybe 3-4 times during the whole winter. Our heater has a timer on it, so I'm trying to decide what the best settings for the timer will be - I can schedule it to turn on and off 3 times over a 24hr period. So need to figure out when the best times are.

I was planning on making the Christmas cakes this weekend. I may cut that number from 3 to 1. It all depends on how expensive all the ingredients will be. The biggest expense will be the alcohol. I need to source out an inexpensive alcohol that will taste good in the cakes. I wonder what some of those basics alcohols taste like? Hmmmm......

DD is going to be moving soon, and I am trying to get her to change her spending as well. She doesn't worry overly much about money, and I need her to start thinking in terms of OS. She tends to buy a lot of junk food snacky stuff, soda, and was talking about wanting to buy a new particular pair of trainers for £30-40 and then grizzling about not having enough money to colour her hair. So I pointed out that if she bought a less expensive pair of trainers and then bought the hair dye in the shop, we could colour her hair at home, and then it would all be within her budget. I got a little nervous when she said she was going to apply for a credit card "for emergencies" for when she moved. DH & I recommended she think about applying for an overdraft instead, that she can pay off immediately if she goes into it during the month. I think at her age (early 20s) a credit card is too tempting. (Let's face it, obviously it's too tempting at MY age in the 40's as well!! I did use us as an example of how quickly it can get away from you!)

*sigh* What a day....

slm6002

Hi sorry to hear you are having a few worries with your own budgeting. Just a few bits i thought of while catching up on your diary

- I have read that people block their chimneys with old pillows to keep the cold out , but please please remember to remove before lighting. I wouldnt want to cause any fires!
- Perhaps for xmas you could produce a MSE folder for you DD with little tips, recipes, budget hints etc for when she moves. She might think it is a silly gift to begin with but later on when she has a tin of tuna and an apple left she can find a tasty recipe in the folder to save the day. (random ingredients but sure some MSE expert will still come up with something to make!)
-If DD is wanting the Credit card perhaps offer to look after it at your house and then she will only be able to use it in an emergency - again she may not like the idea, but it will much better than her getting in debt

Hope these ideas are not too stupid

Triggles

slm - no the ideas are not stupid. We're currently praying that a self-administered DMP will keep us out of bankruptcy, so things are currently a bit dire. This is mainly due to me sitting down and going over current finances aside finances after maternity allowance stops. And it's not looking good. I think DD is feeling quite guilty as one of the main reasons we are in debt up to our eyeballs is because of paying uni fees for her for two years, which meant a loan and credit card debt, just to cover things. At the time, I was working as well, but now with 2 little ones, I'd just be working to pay for childcare, so it's just not an option right now - especially with me having some health problems and with DH working nights. DH even has the offer of some overtime coming up over the holiday period and is saying no to it, as it would mean we would have slightly more income, but it would affect the working tax credit we are currently receiving as well as creating an unbelievable amount of stress at home. They would want him to come in 2 hours early, 5 nights per week, for the overtime, but sometimes that couple hours in the evening is the only time I get sleep, as the baby is up still alot during the nights. So after discussing it at length, we decided that the overtime wasn't a good option right now.

Lemon_Tree

hi, sorry to hear you've had to have a quick rethink of things after going over your card limit. I suspect it's something which has happened to us all in our times so we know what you're going though. You sound like me with your efforts to save heating costs, I've had to cave in this week and turn on the dehumidifier as the condensation has started in the bedroom and it's a forerunner to lots of damp problems. I'm still trying to train OH on the issue of opening bedroom windows during the day with the hope of airing things to stop the damp building up so much.

Triggles

Lemon Tree - me too - I always make sure to at least open the bathroom window first thing in the morning and the dining room window (where we hang clothing sometimes). We keep the bathroom door closed and a heavy curtain over the dining room doorway is kept closed during the day while the window is open, to keep the cold in those rooms so that the heat isn't wasted in the rest of the house.

Triggles

I'm feeling a little better today about doing a self DMP, and so is DH. We've discussed it more in detail today, and I'm happy to say that I think we're both experiencing a little less stress already. I think making the decision and taking some action to start a remedy to the situation has really lifted a bit of weight off our shoulders and given us both a little relief from the ongoing worry about whether or not we can keep up with the bills.

dawnybabes

Basics brandy is fine in cakes - I used it last year.

Lemon_Tree

reality is often not as bad as you've worked it up to be in your head is it? also being in control, even if things aren't perfect always makes you feel stronger.

best get wriggling, weather is nice so need to make the best use of it.