sj`s diary

savingmummy

£305 in orders this week so another good week for us

Tv licence needs renewal this month £145 Grr!! I really detest that bill lol!
All seems ok here at the moment even the weather has reduced in temperature, although it is still very sticky and stormy today. I am not a summer fan and prefer the cold seasons.

The garden is starting to take shape as is the house, hopefully by next summer we will be completely straight

We got £60.88p commision from last weeks Betterware and DH didnt put it into the savings jar!!! NOT happy as that was the deal prior to getting the small job!!
I started my secret savings account in my online banking, so far £20 something in there will top it up as i can, DH is unaware lol!x

savingmummy

My strawberry and tomato plants have started to fruit
I am so pleased with myself, first things i have ever grown and they worked!!!

Can`t wait til next year as i am going to do double the amount of tomatos and sow them earlier, im also going to try other things.
My strawberry plants have runners which are giving off more plants so i wont need to buy anymore strawberry seeds.

I might try cucumber, peppers and i am going to get a raspberry bush to grow too.

I have not heard anything about ironing for the lady, she emailed me to say she was going away today for a week but no mention of ironing so im guessing that small job has now stopped
She was mentioning housework at the very start but that has not been mentioned either anymore and she has been very distant on facebook when ive spoken to her. I am not mentioning it to her as i dont want to put her on the spot. She may not have the spare cash to pay, as previous i did a load for free as she didnt pay me anything when i took the ironing back to her!!

Betterware this week was slow. Most are probably on holiday and tbh most of the goods in that book you can buy cheaper from poundland lol! We still got £230.18p in orders!!

savingmummy

Yesterday Afternoon DH gave me £50 which was the Betterware commision so i will be giving that to my mum to put in the sealed tin
We went to Lidl and done a food shop and got a few bits from Tesco and spent £44 which was good as it included cleaning bits and some treats we dont normally get!
While dh was packing i went back to the car with the children. DH came out with a scratchcard for me (we never buy these) i scratched it off and won £5!!! SO thats £55 for the sealed tin

savingmummy

At the weekend we went to a bbq for my bro`s 40th and they had a chiminea. I have always said i wanted one, it is on my wishlist too so when we got home i ordered one and it should be coming in 21 days!
Homebase were selling the brickette makers for 99p, but our local ones were out of stock - typical!
I will get one eventually though as they are great, Argod are £19.99!! SO going to look around.

I have a pepper plant now courtesy of my husband DD loves Peppers and so she is really pleased we are growing them now.
Our tomatoes are getting bigger and our strawberries are red!!
I also got a american marigold and herb lavendar - homebase were selling them off cheap
DH has been finding lots of gorgeous pots and bringing them home which is fab. He has made a start on the rest of the flower bed now too so the garden is really coming along nicely!! It has cost us nothing really apart from the odd plants.
We need 9 concrete slabs and DH is going to ask the builders if they have any spare, we are going to be paving the area next to the shed so i can put all my home grown bits there and the greenhouse.
Freegle i dont seem to get anywhere, i`m not sure if i`m not doing it right or not tbh! My messages go on the site but i never get a response
I never ask for stupid things like costly items LOL! I have asked for bamboo canes, old plastic plant pots and also coat hangers but to no avail!!

savingmummy

Well it was a poor week for the betterware we got just £127 in orders - our lowest so far!
We were hoping to reach our second bonus of £150 but dont look like we will now as this week needed to be over £250.

All is ok with the house apart from minor things we are now noticing.
I am still awaiting 2 of the blinds to go up and also my lights!! Our next door neighbour has said he will do our lights for us after an electrician was charging £80 just to come out, our neighbour has done all his and i was asking if he knew anyone and he said me, i asked how much he would charge and he said FREE LOL!
Dh is so busy working and doing the betterware he hasnt had chance to finish the blinds but i`m hoping he can do them soon. It is just the lounge and our bedroom blinds that need going up plus a few pictures in the kids rooms.

I have been thinking about savings etc and have worked out £50 a month for 30 years is £18k!! A good sum of money to have for my retirement
Is it doable?! Maybe not but worth a try x

Pinky15

Haha - you are like me planning for the future. We decided once last one goes to school to move to a bigger but affordable house and the extra money we have put away for us when we retire. Once the kids have all left home we will prob be rich anyway lol! The party sounds fun - did you have a good time? x

savingmummy

My plans always fail Pinky as i found out today :rotfl:cartain not able to do what id like!
I worry about our future, we have no pensions, no savings and will certainly have a very poor future.

Party was lovely and it was nice to have the family all together, been a while since we all got together like that.

DH`s wages will be going monthly soon and he will be paying the rent by direct debit, at the moment he just pays weekly as he gets paid. He has however got to pay a month in advance due to it changing to direct debit in Sept, SO he has to pay an extra £60 a week on top of the weekly rent up until the direct debit starting! - that £60 is our food shopping:eek:

SO this next month or so is going to be VERY hard and i`m not sure how we will manage other then using the Betterware money SO that now means £0 in the SAVINGS!!:(

Pinky15

Chin up SJ - things will get better - look how far you have come and what you have achieved! Honestly dont let it get you down. Couls you put out a few betterware books/ ebay to try and help with the difference? x

savingmummy

We have done well and i know once we are back to normal all will be back on track again. It is so horrible when these walls hit you and it is always MONEY that causes the stresses!

We have 2 other worries too - tv licence:eek: new car tyres!:mad:
Not sure how we will be finding the money for the 31st - huge worry there!!
Car is not important but it now means DH may not beable to use the car at all as the front ones are on the brink of being illegal

We have decided to use the betterware money in place of the loss each week. We have been getting around £50 a week so that will be great!!
We have nothing for Ebay, sold so much over the last year we have nothing left lol!
I am going to ask the betterware lady if we can have some more books, we normally put out approx 270 books a week so a few extra may help get in some extra orders.

I wished the housing had told us about this month in advance thing sooner (i didnt realise) then we could of started paying an extra 10 or 20 each week up until DD starting!!

savingmummy

This afternoon DH contacted the tv licence people and has now set up a direct debit plan with them for the 22nd of each month. For the first 5 months it is £29.10 then from then on £12.12p each month. So thats one worry sorted out:j

I have read back through my real life diary and this diary and come to the conclusion that when your low and completely skint and can`t see a way out - there is!!
Albeit a scrimp and scrap, beg or borrow, cut back on something all falls into place...we really do worry over nothing sometimes!!
Money is a major part of life we have to deal with it!

I read today in The Sun about a man who was in 7k debt and killed his wife and 2 babies then himself How heartbreaking is that?!
Sitting back and trying to put myself in his position i just thought 7k is a lot BUT not HUGE enough to feel that way, especially as both were working (there may be underlying issues though). It didnt state if he had been for help regarding the debt but im guessing he felt no way out and was very scared.

I had huge debt for someone who had no income - BUT i done it, makes me feel stronger knowing i didnt give up or let it beat me :A

More exciting news is we done really well with Betterware orders this week £389.92p :T:j:beer: