Lost in the middle - getting organised and debt free

savingwannabe

Gosh you sound full of beans. Well done on everything!!!! Focus on being happy.

Marru

Ok noticeboard is up. First items should be

- Pay bills (have set up DDs from now on)
- Sort out washing (clean in, new load on) and clothes in DD's room
- STUDY!!!

I put pictures on FW's thread but will put here as well. (Before it is covered with notes and stuff)

savingwannabe

How amazing is that!!!!!!!!

Ps you have gorgeous writing. Well done Marru.

Marru

Thanks SW - you are so lovely!

Got up early as we are heading to wisit BF. He is house sitting on a farm so of course we want to go there (there is this horse I have fallen in love with and given any chance want to go and give a cuddle).

However I am very pleased with myself while having a cup of coffee I have updated my address with the bank and ordered new cheque book, pay in book and envelopes to send cheques to bank. I have cheques here from the previous managing agent and previous council and they need to be banked asap.

Which reminds me that I need to call my present council and tell them I am here (and of course still sort out the stuff with old council). I will then set that payment up as standing order same as my rent. Create some kind of spreadsheet to track it all so that I know when everything goes out.

One problem that I have is crocery shopping. I am thinking of making order once a month. But then I will need fresh stuff. If I order weekly veggie box it might be that I am not feeling up to using it all (except ideally all the left over veg could go to SC for veggie soup to take for lunches). Also I am debating if I should use local milk man for my milk, use the M1lk and more service (but then I should remember to amend my order if need to) or order milk for a month and put in freezer (but it would take a bit more space that I would like to). Must ponder that.

Firewalker

Morning Maru (it is still morning),

for May, for the first time ever, we did a meal plan for the whole month and linked to that shopping lists. The experiment was to see whether and how does it work by 'bulking' the tasks involved - it works great and takes less time. If you are considering ordering the lasting stuff in bulk do the meal planning. It is the same with fruit and veg - but we live in a place where everything is a short and pleasant walk away. We freeze milk - otherwise I will go for the milkman. Apparently milk is supermarkets is full of hormones (whether the milkman's is I have no idea).

On a different matter, I just recently discovered the wonders of internet banking - now I know (and can check) easily what goes out when. Another way to do it, apparently, is to use Google Calendar to time reminders for bills, cancellations etc.

Firewalker

Marru

Thanks Firewalker. My only problem with that is the black dog that immobilises me every now and again. So I need a system that runs on its own without much input from me. That is why I am a bit concerned having veg box delivered and then having fridge full of stuff going off when I am in no condition to keep cooking them and resort to ready meals until I am back on action.

There is a farm shop near our new place that I haven't visited as yet. I am going to go and investigate if that is something we could do weekly (meat, milk, veg) so that the planning would be a bit easier. Sometimes trying to plan for the next day seems impossible to me, never mind the whole month. But that is part of the BD.

Firewalker

Hay, Maru, I should have remembered about this but I am not sure I realised how serious it is. And I should have.

Which made me think - you are right that you need to automate a proportion of this aspect of life. Is it possible to:

1) Plan menus when you are feeling OK? Loads of them so when there is BD you just need to take several weeks our and arrange them. All menues should have shopping lists attached.
2) Ask someone to do it for you if you tell them what you and DD mostly like to eat? I seem to remember that someone on the Matrix loves/is very good at planning menus.
3) Think of vegetables as two separate things - vegetables for cooking and fresh veg for eating. With the former you can get loads and cooks loads of soup and freeze it (can do this one with stews as well so you have stores for dark times instead of going on ready meals). The latter you can do without for several days.

Of course all this may not make even the slightest sense but will give you some impetus, I hope, to start churning ideas.

Taka care
Firewalker

savingwannabe

BD sounds tough. Do you eat healthily the rest of the time? I dont and need to retrain myself.

NorthernLas is good at this and actually runs training courses on this very topic. Plus she looks like someone lovely i would like to hug, i am going to try to go to one.

Marru

Thank you both. I shall see what I can do after exam and getting the house in some kind of order. BF is threatening to sell my books but I am not quite ready to lose control on that issue so need to get moving on them myself before he takes over. I will take his keys off if he does something behind my back thou.

Remember my 41 month challenge which takes me to the time that my credit file clears and I should be debt free. I have a spredsheet for it. On the left the days and on the top the 9 objectives. Every day I would like to put in one of the cells for that day something that I have done towards one of the objectives.

Today:
Declutter: put some cardboard boxes into recycling bin
Organised: have printed calendar sheets for May and June, marked DD's swimming, beavers, wisiting her dad, inservice days, bin collection days etc on them and put on the notice board
On top of todo list: will pay bills
ACCA: will aim to go through lecture notes for checkpoint 2

Have done first two, last two to do after I have fed the monster.

savingwannabe

You sound so organised! Well done.