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

Triggles

Hoorah! Christmas presents almost completely purchased - just a few items left. Less pressure to get shopping done at the last minute means I've taken time to budget for presents better and make good purchases, saving money for us. It will make for a more relaxed Christmas, I'm hoping. Christmas is a fairly low key thing for us, but we had a few bad habits we're trying to change. We had a big family party last year where we spent loads of money stocking up prior to the party. This year, no party. We've decided that it was a waste of money to have a big party requiring tons of drink (alcohol - very expensive!) and food (of which some is invariably wasted), and we are simply "getting together" with various friends and relatives when we can prior to or during the Christmas holidays. More manageable, less stressful, and much less expensive.

I got a splendid buy at Boots yesterday. I bought the No7 Ultimate mascara, which came with a free No7 eyeshadow palette. So I actually bought 2 mascaras, received 2 eyeshadow palettes free, then used my £5 off coupon - which means I spent £18 instead of £23. And because No7 is 3 for 2 right now, I also got my £7 eyeliner pencil free. So basically I got £48 worth of makeup for £18, all of which I needed (to replace my seriously old supply of makeup - I am dreadful about replacing this stuff regularly!).

Making Christmas cards is next on my list of "to do" for Christmas, as well as making Christmas cakes. I usually make a couple - they're not that horribly expensive, they keep well, and they're handy for when you have company. I was going to make the cakes this week, but kids are just getting over being ill, and I'm exhausted, so it's being postponed yet again.

We've been good about not spending a lot on Christmas, but might splurge on getting a real wreath. We aren't comfortable getting a real Christmas tree (too much needle droppage, watering, fire hazard, clean up, plus expense when we already have a good artificial tree), but a wreath would give us the lovely pine smell in the house without issues involving a tree. I don't mind a little expense on that, as it's one of those little splurges that I'm prepared to pay for.

DD is cross-stitching a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament for DS3, as she did a lovely one for DS2, and we'd like them to have similar ornaments for that. We've got tons of Christmas wrapping paper from last year still, so I won't have to buy anymore this year. And we bought extra Christmas crackers last year on sale, so we have two boxes of them for this year. I bought a lovely tablecloth from Lakeland this year and will be using that - I try to buy something small each year to either replace something old and worn out or just something we'd like to add to our Christmas decor. This tablecloth was nice, but actually less expensive than in some of the stores I had seen similar ones in recently, so I was pleased.

DH & I discussed the possibility of bankruptcy and whether or not we would need to go that route. We're hoping not. We still believe that if we can avoid it, we'd like to. I guess we'll continue to struggle through things at present and revisit the idea in 6 months and see if we're making enough progress in our debt to feel that it's feasible to continue to struggle through it. Bankruptcy is a bit scary to both of us, so I think we would truly need to exhausted all other options before we make that decision. All the debts are in DH's name, so my understanding is just DH would go bankrupt, which is slightly better than both of us having to do so. I don't know much about it though, so I'm taking the time to browse the board about it to see, just in case it becomes a necessity.

Well, plenty done today:
- bottles washed, sterilised, made up again
- steriliser fluid changed
- washing up done
- laundry folded and taken upstairs (although not put away yet!)
- quick clean up of kitchen, living room, dining room
- kids fed, dressed, now taking naps
- chicken carcass cooking in water for stock for tonight's chicken soup
- nice leisurely soak in bathtub with a good book :j

I still need to:
- take pics of ebay stuff to sell
- go through some baby clothing (get 0-3months ready to ebay, dig out 6-12 months for baby to go into)
- finish making chicken soup and dumplings for tonight

slm6002

great to see that you are so organised for christmas and in general. My little ones have both had a bug this week and everything else just gets put on hold as they need me for a hug a lot more of the time. Most rooms in my house now look more of a mess than normal.

Triggles

slm - we had the bug through our house last week, which is why I wasn't posting much - just too much chaos and illness to deal with that and posting as well. And I was so focused on dealing with the illness that the rest of the house looked a bit like a bomb site! Thank goodness everyone appears to be healthy now (knock on wood, right?)! Now I just need to drink tons of coffee to be awake! My sister gave me a recipe for an iced coffee, much like Starbucks only cheaper as you make it at home, and I'm thinking of making it today! Yummm!

My other sister is putting together the instructions for canning/preserving mince and chicken in the preserving jars. My aunt showed her how, using pressure cooker. It's something that would be great as it would free up tons of freezer space for us! So I'm thinking about trying it. She did 30lbs of mince the other day, and is now working on chicken. I am so impressed - and no stress of defrosting either!!

Have already:
- dressed & fed the boys
- laundry washing now
- washing up done
- steriliser fluid changed
- bottles washed, sterilised, and made up

slm6002

Well havent managed much this morning yet. We all went to the car boot for a little fresh air. Bought DD some boots for £1 for winter. A little scuffed but as thats how they would look after a morning of wearing them anyway i was not that worried. Glad you are all feeling better now - fingers crossed!

Triggles

I haven't been to a car boot sale in ages - would love to go to some but just haven't seen any recently. That's a good buy on the boots though - and you're right, kids seem to scuff them up within 5 minutes of putting them on anyway. LOL

I'm mentally in craft mode today. I have decided I'm going to use old clothing that we were going to scrap and use the material for sewing practice and then possibly to put together a scrap quilt. The good baby clothing we will ebay, but stuff that has a stain on the collar or tiny rip can be squared and used. I've seen people talk about unravelling jumpers and such and using the wool for knitting projects - it's something I'm seriously thinking about. I have a lovely dark green jumper that I have unfortunately damaged a little, so I think I may try and unravel it and see how the wool looks - I would love to make something else out of it as it's my favourite colour and very soft wool.

I'm going to take a nap tonight, after DS2 goes to bed. DH is going to hold down the fort, so to speak, so I can get some extra sleep, as it's been a bit short lately. OOPs... DS2 just woke up from his nap... (figures, as DS3 just went down for his! LOL)

slm6002

how typical. enjoy your little nap later

Triggles

So much for taking a nap. Shortly after I posted, DS2 tripped over a block in the living room and injured his foot. We spent 4 hours in the A&E and xray department to be told "we don't THINK it's broken, but you'll need to watch him over the next couple days and see if he'll put weight on it or not." :mad: He's putting a little weight on it today, but still walking awkwardly. It doesn't seem to be actively painful, and there is no swelling or bruising, so we figure it's most likely a sprain. If no improvement over the weekend, back to the A&E he goes for further checks and possibly another xray.

I have been struggling through on far too little sleep lately, so I took a nice long nap yesterday, while DH took over household duties. He insisted, as he could tell I was exhausted.

We ordered a book from Bangzo online the other day for DGS for Christmas (very cool Spiderman collection) and got Inchworm trainers for DS2. Very nice. I've been prowling the free and low-spend boards and finding some nice little things to add to Christmas gifts.

slm6002

glad you got some sleep and that OH was good enough to notice. Hope your little one feels better soon and it doesnt involve another trip to A&E.

Just realised how quickly christmas is approaching and realising i still have a lot more to do before then. Scary

Triggles

Easy tea tonight - prepackaged chicken kievs with ham/cheese (2 for £3 in Sains on sale). It's one of the few things with ham/cheese that I can get DS2 to eat, so that's fine. Some veg, piece of bread with butter, and fruit afterwards if still hungry and that's that.

I've just been reminded that I need to do tax returns ( paper by end of October, but will probably do online, so by end of January) and will need to organise now so I'm not running around trying to do it later! Plan on getting that done by next weekend.

Also need to get any Christmas stuff to family in states organised and mailed as soon as possible. Postal issues being what they are, it's best to get it done now. That means taking a few pictures of DS2 & DS3 together (and printing off the pictures) to send to family members in their Christmas cards.

And sitting here typing, I think I will need to add "clean laptop screen" to my list of to-do's! Ick!

Tescos had a great deal on their bananas, prepackaged for 39p. Excellent buy and great looking fruit - we bought a few packs! So we can make more banana bread and freeze it as well.

DH got great news at work last night. Sains usually ups the employee discount from 10% to 15% over the holidays, generally from beginning of December until beginning of January. DH was given letter from Sains last night that the discount is going up early this year, in October!!! So an extra whole month of an extra 5% off! Doesn't seem like much, but when you're stocking up on non-perishables, it's a big help!! :T

We had the heater on for the last 2 days (during the day oddly enough, not at night), but have had it off since last night and all day today. Which seems a bit silly as the temp is cooler today than it was the last couple days, but we felt chilled then and don't now. Not a clue why. I hate this messing about with the heater - on sometimes, off sometimes - that you get this time of year. I think DH would be happy to just turn it on and leave it on, but I can't justify it running if it doesn't need to be. We're still at the point where some baking in the evening will warm up the downstairs enough to avoid turning on the heat.

As DS2 really likes blueberry muffins, I think I am going to pick up some blueberries while they are still available fresh in the stores at a reasonable price and freeze some so we can make blueberry muffins during the winter easily. I'll just freeze them measured and ready to pop into the batter, which will make it quite easy.

Still waiting for the directions from my sis for the mince and chicken in jars. I think MIL has a pressure cooker, so am hoping she will let me use it to do this (or maybe help me in exchange for a few jars for herself).

Triggles

I'm mulling over a few cookbooks I'm interested in. First one is that new Delia Happy Christmas, and then two Rachel Allen books - Home Cooking and Bake. Hate to waste the money, though, if I can get them from the library - do they stock those type of books there?? I'll have to check! My DD has access to the library online, so I think I will ask her to check for me and see if those books are in stock. If they are, I may check them out and see what I like before deciding on buying them. I am loathe to buy any Delia books when lots of her recipes are free online on her website. (not all of them, though)

Done today:
- kids up, dressed, fed, DS3 now napping, DS2 trying to stay awake from his nap :rotfl:
- washing up done
- bottles washed, sterilised, made up for today
- sterilising fluid replaced
- picking up done in DS2's room (trying to get him into the habit of picking up his room in the morning before coming downstairs and again at night before bed)
- yesterdays washing folded and ready to be put away
- today's washing washed and hung up to dry

That's my daily list I guess. It just feels good to see it written out, so I feel like I've accomplished stuff today.

STILL getting mail from previous tenants, a year after we've moved in!! So I've ordered a stamp from vistaprint (free!!) saying "RETURN TO SENDER - No longer living at this address" as I'm getting tired of writing it on all the mail they get. :rolleyes: I also ordered a number of other free items - pen, photo calendar, and will be ordering one of those flip photo books as they are free right now! Will make a nice addition to MIL's present for Christmas.

Also bought DH a cool keyring and mug that he really liked when we were in Disney store - the Nightmare Before Christmas ones. That'll be from the boys to him.

Off to go finish up my menu and grocery list.