DFSD's five year plan... and all it brings along the way

Chocforever

Hello DFSD

I am delighted to hear you are pregnant :j. I know it is early days, but I hope everything goes smoothly. You are more restrained than me; I think I would be shouting about it from the rooftops!

I realise this is all happening in the context of other not so good life events. I hope your Mum is still progressing well and they can prevent a recurrence.

Take care of yourself. You have an awful lot on and must put yourself first.

Best wishes xx

P.S. Not going to talk about money saving because let's just say a few spending sprees have hindered progress :rotfl:

debtfreesomeday

Thanks for your good wishes everyone, I'm still struggling to get my head round it at the moment as I don't have a lot of symptoms. I have the first midwife appointment on Thursday so it may seem more real after that! I'm pretty anxious though, just about the uncertainty of the future really after working so hard to reduce our debt. We'll just have to cope though.

Mum is doing well, but my anxiety levels are through the roof now that there is 300 miles between us again.

We're £50 overdrawn today with 9 days til payday. We certainly don't need any more food shopping, so it'll just be petrol, but we'll try and make that last as best we can. There's also a few bits yet to come out of the bank account so it'll probably be about £100 overdrawn by the time payday arrives. I have lots of things to ebay but haven't got the time or the will at the moment, at least the potential to make a bit of money is there though - when I get round to doing so.

There's lots I need to do this weekend - the garden needs weeding and some general attention and we are going to try and get the hallway painted which will be a big job ticked off our list. If that doesn't prove too much work, then we'll try and get one other room painted too. We have the paint ready and waiting as bought it a couple of weeks ago when there was a 'buy one get one half price + 10% off' offer on.
I also need to change and launder the beds in both double rooms, so fingers crossed for good drying weather.

Chocs - spending sprees? That sounds very unlike you! Don't beat yourself up too hard, you've done amazingly well over the past few months with your savings target.

I was just going to say 'have a good weekend', but then realised it's only Tuesday. I have the feeling it's going to be a long week.

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

The overdraft hasn't increased at all yet which is good, it will before payday though when the last few direct debit stragglers come out of the account.

We weeded the garden thoroughly last night, so that's one job off my list for the weekend. I'm going to try and list some stuff on ebay this weekend too, but I'm not making any promises!

I reached payout with a survey company, so there should be a £10 Amazon voucher on its way to me which I'll use towards buying something for hubby's birthday next month.

I have my first appointment with the midwife today and I'm really nervous. Wish me luck! I really hope she's nice, I struggle with medical profession and intervention - I don't like a fuss. It does mean I get the afternoon off work though which, on a day like today, is absolute bliss!

DFSD

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

I hope the appointment went well. I'm so excited for you!

Things aren't so good here at the moment and my time is being taken up with sorting out legal problems with a charity. Not my personal problem, but lots of vulnerable people involved so it is important to protect them as best as I can.

MSE wise, I am doing OK bringing money in, but it is disappearing to pay medical bills. I have a relatively unusual medical problem and the NHS isn't good at funding this sort of thing so to get any kind of decent care, I have to go privately. I know it is money well spent and the improvement in my health since I took over managing it in this way has been incredible.

I think I am just getting run down so plan to take a few days off to get my perspective back. I am making good progress this year and if this month I cannot find any extra money then so be it. I will be back on Ebay before you know it!

debtfreesomeday

Hi Chocs

Sorry to hear you're having a tough time of it lately. It sounds like you are incredibly busy with your charity work, but it also sounds very worthwhile. Just don't let yourself get too run down and tressed, especially if it is starting to affect your health.

Sorry to hear about the medical bills too, but again, if it's improved your health significantly then it is definitely money well spent. I guess at least your bringing the money in to pay for the bills and it's not coming out of savings etc.

The appointment was fine thanks - she just measured and weighed me and asked to come out to the house in a couple of weeks for a booking in appointment which will be more detailed. It's starting to feel a little more real now. :eek:

As I finished early yesterday, I managed to get quite a bit of work done around the house. I stripped one bed and did 2 loads of laundry which all dried nicely out on the line whilst I got on with some ironing. I also made 12 pasties to put into the freezer for hubbys lunches, just to use up some potatoes, carrots, pastry and meat that we had in more than anything else. Hubby has gone off to work a happy boy this morning!

We are going to try and get the painting done tonight instead of Sunday now, or at least one good coat. We've been offered a free lunch on Sunday and would like some sort of weekend, so there's our incentive!

Had to spend £5 yesterday on some fruit, little bit of veg and extra pastry when I ran out. I see the phone bill and mobile bill has come out of the account today, upping the balance to £85 OD, so it'll be £90 when the fiver comes out too. Next month is the month the overdraft goes though, we're throwing our all into it with ebaying & car-booting planned!


Have a great day and weekend everybody

X

debtfreesomeday

I've just transferred £6 in survey payments from my paypal account to the bank account - will help the overdraft a little!

debtfreesomeday

The £6 from Paypal has hit the account this morning, it hasn't made much of a dent in our £150 overdraft but it's better than £6 spent I guess.

I had a bit of a difficult evening last night, worrying about how we are going to cope with the cost of children and decreased income. I was in a really negative mood and just couldn't see how we'd manage at all, but hubby and I talked it through and I managed to drag myself out of the pit of doom I'd sat myself in!

In an attempt to be more positive, I proceeded to list 2 books on Amazon, find more stuff for ebay and charge the camera battery ready for taking pictures tonight or tomorrow. I am estimating we could make well over £100 with the current stash we have for ebay. Unfortunately we're away at relatives this weekend, but I'm going to try and get all the pictures taken and uploaded before Friday, then list everything when we get back on Sunday evening. That's the plan.

I've also completed quite a few more surveys lately and am a third of the way to the next £10 voucher, two weeks after ordering the last one (which I'm yet to receive - chased it up yesterday).

I have also ordered hubby some birthday gifts today - mainly clothes as he is in need of some new things. The money won't come out until at least Friday, so it won't add to the overdraft, but will be from next month's budget. I managed to get him three T-shirts, one hoody sweater and a wallet for under £35 which I thought was very good. He has a typical rugby-player's build so it's difficult to find clothes on the high street for him that aren't extortionately priced, that's if they fit in the first place.

I also sorted through my present box last night and wrapped a gift for my Auntie whose birthday it is in August. I bought some more bits for Christmas & birthday gifts last month and hadn't listed them/put them away yet, so I feel more organised now. I have a couple of people 'done' for Christmas now, and several little bits towards other people's gifts. I also have lots of birthday gifts sorted. I do need to buy a £10 gift voucher this month for a birthday gift which I'll do next week. I managed to bulk buy several lovely quality birthday and occasion cards a few months back from a really cheap shop I found. I think they were 29p each which was a complete bargain! Especially as we have 5 weddings to attend/send to this year and the price of wedding cards are extortionate! I've nearly used them all though, so I need to go back in the near future and see if they have any more.
Talking of weddings, we've had to decline one invitation this week just because it involves hotel bills and travelling and would cost way too much for the weekend. We both feel much happier at having done so as we were worried how we were going to pay for it.

Think that's enough of an update for now before I bore you all to tears!

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

I'm really bored at work this afternoon and just want to get home so I can get started on the ebay photographs (more to get it out of the way than a general enthusiasm for the task!).

I've been looking round the boards today and have joined several baby clubs in the hope of gaining some freebies and vouchers which will help us out a little I guess. We are still yet to do a car boot sale, but have plenty of stuff to get rid of. I need to fix a date for this tonight, at the moment it's more a case of finding a free Sunday to do one - we always seem to be busy with other things.

It's payday in two days time and the Sainsbury's card will be paid off, all £380.04 of it. Then from July's payday we can start stashing £400 per month in a savings account instead, ready to cover maternity leave. The Sainsbury's card doesn't get used now so there will be NO balance building up on that again, that's for sure. We've accumalated a good stash of nectar points which we'll save for Christmas shopping, but the points are not worth the risk of us building up a credit card debt again.

DFSD

mummytogirls

Hi DFSD, just felt compelled to reply to your post about worrying about how you will cope.

I had my first DD in 2006 and panicked like hell about how the cost would affect us and cried down the phone on numerous occasions to my poor mother about the cost of nappies and how we would cope.

Anyway, you just do cope somehow! I took quite a wage drop and we didnt really have any savings behind us at that point.
So please dont worry about it you always get by and if you are planning on saving £400 a month thats fantastic. Plus you get child benefit and maybe tax credits aswell which always come in handy x

debtfreesomeday

Thanks so much for posting MTG, it's nice to hear from someone who has 'been there' already! From what I've read, unfortunately we will just miss out on tax credits but I guess child benefit will go a way to help paying for essentials. It's more childcare afterwards that I'm concerned about to be honest. We're not lucky enough to live close enough to family or friends who could look after baby for us when I have to return to work, so childcare is going to cost us the earth. I think our employer offers some sort of childcare vouchers scheme which we'll have to look into - something about substituting part of our salaries for a higher value in childcare vouchers - but it doesn't appear well publicised, so I'm not even sure they still operate the scheme.