Not Tiny, Not Courageous, but definitely in debt

tiny_courageous

£175 for car tax later............... thanks mr postman!

tiny_courageous

Bedroom carpet £110 job done. It's gorgeous. Love the colour and it's so soft! Now need OH to get home to start shifting stuff back into the bedroom.

I've been really bad with doing surveys recently, might spend a day doing some as I've a few days off work (only in 4 days next week then mat leave starts yay!). Currently have £20 asda vouchers, £10 sainsburys, £40 M&S,£10 boots and £5 WH Smiths. That should be fine for Christmas along with whatever I can do between now and then.

The good thing about being on mat leave will be that I can use up the numerous packet meals (pastas, couscous etc) which will be easier to prepare with a baby and are all perfectly edible (but a bit out of date - I don't mind). This will also empty some of the cupboards in the kitchen which are, quite frankly, bulging with food.

tiny_courageous

Been sorting out and washing baby clothes this weekend. Baby has more clothes than I do. Got some in pretty much every size from newborn to 1-2 years so probably won't have to buy much for a while.
Listed a few bits on a facebook selling group to see if there's any interest. Boot full of stuff for the charity shop as well.

Money wise, it's payday Friday. Should have £4500 in savings by payday - £4000 to supplement wages on mat leave, and £500 for ongoing house repairs/improvements. Need a plumber out to sort the shower, and someone to remove a gas fire and plaster over - if we get that done might well get a new carpet for the living room as well. That will force us to declutter yet another room!

tiny_courageous

Quiet day today, couldn't sleep last night so didn't get up until late. Done some more washing, making my way through the piles of crap, and have sent OH off with some stuff one of his friends wants (that I wanted rid of). Might try to make some apple crumbles later as a friend has given us apples from their garden. Or, I might wait and make some Wednesday and take them into work on Thursday.

Spend wise, was the grand total of £1 today, as went to the new pound shop that's opened in the village and they had 2 jars of sharwoods curry sauce for £1. Bargain. Also ordered myself some boots for winter, as having inspected my primark bargain fake uggs from last year, they aren't going to last the winter. Ordered from M&S with their 20%off and used vouchers so didn't actually cost anything. I can't believe I'm even having to consider winter clothing as yet. It's only September!

Another beautiful gift in the post from a friend for baby. We're so lucky! Working it out, I think we've spent around £300 on stuff for baby, everything else came free/donated. The main spend we've had has been on doing stuff on the house, which needed doing anyway, but if a baby isn't going to be the impetus to GET STUFF DONE nothing will.

tiny_courageous

3 days left at work. Not really getting chance to wind down as it's so busy. Am starting to bring home some of the stuff off my desk though, so I don't have to do it all on Friday.

Got a decent night's sleep last night, which was a blessed relief. Could not get up this morning though!

Money wise, I am being naughty this week and treating myself to subway breakfasts (only 3 days of them, £1.80 a pop as we get a discount, and they are ok with my GD). Will also need to buy some biscuits and cakes for work colleagues this week.

tiny_courageous

2 days to go!

Spent £13 in M&S today, on chocolates and cakes for the office. Tomorrow is my last office based day, out and about on Friday, and two offices to buy for so that wasn't too bad in all honesty. Didn't get round to making apple crumbles, was too tired when I got home from work.

Also picked up my new boots from M&S, really nice and fit round my fat calves! Good result there.
Must confess to a spend - £16.50 for 4 nursing bras on ebay. A bargain, at least.

And that's it for the spending. Breakfast tomorrow, and that's it until payday. Should have £100 left minimum before payday - do I save this or pay it off the credit card? If I pay it off the credit card I can in theory get it down to £2000 this month, which would be great. However, if things are going to be tight in months to come, would I regret not saving it?

Lloyds phoned earlier to do their 6 monthly "come in and we can [STRIKE]try to sell you another loan[/STRIKE] review your finances" thing, told them I wasn't interested. The only thing I'm interested in is getting it paid off!

tiny_courageous

Mat leave and payday are here! Very happy and feeling quite relaxed now.

Money wise, I had £150 left by payday so have put that in the savings. Made a small overpayment on the credit card, and loan payment (and all major bills) will go out on Monday.

Last day at work was lovely, and I must secretly work with moneysavers because instead of a voucher my workmates gave me cash "because everyone will buy you baby stuff and mothercare are a bit s!!t".

Need to find room in the house for the stuff I have brought home off my desk at work - will try to get it all in one bag and put it in the back of the wardrobe or something.

So, moneywise this week I shall need petrol, I am going to treat myself to some leggings (as I live in them) and very limited foodstuffs. That should be all.

tiny_courageous

in the interests of moneysaving, went to tesco yesterday to buy leggings but as they were £6 a pair didn't buy any (I know they're £3 in Primark). Will probably pop into town next week and get some (can park for free).

So tired today.

Transferred another £200 into savings, will work out how much I'm left with when all the direct debits have gone out tomorrow and then try to transfer a bit more. Still toying with the idea of getting the Barclaycard to £2000 - it's such a mental boost to get to that round number.

tiny_courageous

Went to Primark, £12 for 4 pairs of leggings, sorted. Resisted a really nice biker jacket and some dresses. And boots. Just got the leggings and nothing else. Proud of myself for that (it's the small things).

Watching Superscrimpers - what a load of old rubbish. Much of the advice appears wrong (on credit files, for example) and I'm sure you'd end up spending more making some of the things they describe.

First day of mat leave and I'm finding it quite hard to "let go" of work, as it were. I need to not think about it for the next 9 months but that's really hard, it's not the kind of job you can just disengage from. Need some distractions. First distraction will be sorting all the washing out.

Money wise, all the major DDs went out today, waiting for Tesco to take out the money spent on petrol and then that should leave a reasonable amount to live on for the next few weeks - and to save some as well! Am going to try to be sensible petrol wise - drove today but shouldn't need to again until Wednesday when I've got midwife appointment. By then I should have another boot full of charity stuff to drop off in the village near the doctors.

Right, I need to make myself do something now... washing it is.

tiny_courageous

Bit the bullet and paid a bit more off the CC to get it down to a round £2000. That makes the debt now £7150.

Today, have spent a bit. 5 Xmas presents on Amazon for £10 (earring and necklace bargains seen on HDUK). Am also ordering a breast pump. Will order a cheap manual one first to see how I get on. Will need to avoid Quality Save when I go into the village later, as I'm on a mission to use up all of the approved food bargains we have in the house so I can declutter the kitchen a bit more.

So far today, have shifted some shoes into a new storage box in the bedroom (didn't manage to put any in the charity bag, but did get rid of an old handbag and a hat). In doing that, also found a pair of boots I had forgotten that I owned (as you do) and a sleeping bag that I'd forgotten about.

Depending on what time OH gets home from work I may ask him to assist in decluttering some videos to the loft (mostly stuff we don't want to get rid of, but I haven't had chance to get the contents put on to DVD - one day!) That will clear space for the DVDs that are on another bookcase to go on the shelves, and then the other bookcase will theoretically go in the bedroom as extra storage. Theoretically.

This afternoon I intend to mostly make cakes, crumbles and fish pie for tea.