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

Chocforever

I am delighted to hear everything was OK with the scan :j.

That's all that matters; don't let the hospital staff distract from what is a very special time for you and OH.

I hope you had a relaxing weekend after the stress of Friday. I managed to recoup a bit yesterday and then have spent today working so not looking forward to starting another working week in the morning. I keep saying that things will get easier soon and then something else crops up. I just need to knuckle down and this stressful time will pass. I think there is a longer term lesson to be learned about not taking on so much in the first place .

Moneywise, I am just about staying on track. I have cut down my spending a bit, tried to be more economical with food shopping and I am managing a few MS and surveys etc. I really want to achieve that end of year money goal!

debtfreesomeday

Thanks Chocs

Sorry to hear things still aren't any easier at work, I think you'll need to take a holiday once you've gotten through this long busy period! Well done on the budgeting too whilst you're so busy, I often find it hard to keep in control when I have a lot going on.

debtfreesomeday

3 days until payday

The money situation has gone a bit awry the past two weekends, nothing major, but we could've been in a better situation with a bit of planning ahead, we've just got lazy lately.

I sold a book on Amazon after a particularly dry spell, so £7.22 better off. The surveys seem to have dried up - I often find they do when I'm nearly at payout level, sure it's not a co-incidence!

I bought another 2 Christmas presents at the weekend with a voucher I'd been given for my birthday that I wouldn't use for myself. I also bought one gift for hubby to put away for Christmas. We're going to try and get the Christmas shopping done by October now as we don't want to much pressure - physical or financial- on us at Christmas as, all being well, I'll be heavily pregnant by then. :eek: We're aiming to buy a few gifts a month until we have everything. We have lovely wrapping paper up in the attic that we bought after last Christmas for mere pennies!

Last weekend we also took a lot of stuff to the charity shop and cleared some space. We need to finish clearing the small room this weekend as we have guests the following weekend. There's not much left to do in there, but I would like to give it a lick of paint as it desperately need it. I have the paint in the garage already so it would be at no cost.

Last night I made some pizza dough in the bread machine and used up some veggies, plus a jar of pesto we'd had for ages, and made 8 pizzas for hubby to take for lunches, which are now in the freezer for when he wants them. Also cooked a chicken in the slow cooker, the leftovers of which hubby has taken for lunch today.

We're going to need petrol in the car within the next few days, I'm really hoping it will stretch until Thursday at least so that it doesn't come out until after we've been paid, otherwise our bank balance will be very depressing!

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

The petrol didn't last, I had to fill up yesterday costing £43. :eek:

It's payday tomorrow so I've worked the finances out for next month today and they don't look great. The plan was to put £400 away into the isa this month to start saving for maternity leave but I don't know if we can afford that much as it will leave me with only £80 'spare' once the bills/groceries/petrol has been budgeted for. We have a wedding we have in 3 weeks which we already have the gift for, but I need something to wear. I've ordered some maternity clothes from an online sale - bargains at £5 - £10 an item - hopefully one of those will fit nice and look nice. I'm then hoping it will do for the next two weddings we have this year too. I'm really struggling with clothes to wear at the moment as I don't really have many. I am in desperate need of some tops that fit me (which is currently down to about 4) so that's a must have this month.

We were going to try and do some Christmas shopping this month to spread the cost, but unless it's a complete steal of a bargain, it'll have to wait.

Next month we have a hotel and two wedding gifts to fork out for - cheapest hotel is £56 per night and we have to stay for two nights as it's a long way away from us. Hubby has saved £30 towards it so far and will have about £50 by next month so that will help. Urgh, there's always something to pay for isn't there. :mad::( Just remembered we also have 4 birthday gifts to buy for out of next month's salary too, none of which I have anything suitable for in my birthday box.

Another month is ahead of us of money being too tight.

debtfreesomeday

Just paid £19 in ebay fees :mad: and closed a couple of book listings on Amazon that I gave to the charity shop at the weekend. I tried to list one book that I still have on ebay, but it won't let me list anything for some reason. :mad::mad::mad:

I received the address labels from music magpie a couple of days ago, so I need to wrap all the cds/dvds up tonight and get them sent off tomorrow so that the £12-odd will be coming to us sooner rather than later.

There should be £7-odd hitting the bank account from Amazon soon too, but that turned out not to be a great sale considering the postage was nearly £4.

I'm feeling rather glum and downhearted about money today as you may be able to tell. I'm so tired of this constant struggle and balancing act.

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

I'm really trying to keep myself motivated into thinking the DFW way again from tonight, knowing that, if I don't, I'm likely to fall off the rails and get lazy like I have for the past couple of weeks - hence the overdraft.

So... I've wrapped the cds and dvds for music magpie, ready to be freeposted tomorrow.

I've completed a product questionnaire for something I tested last month - hopefully they should send me something else to test soon.

I intended to make some banana & blueberry muffins with some squishy black bananas we have left and blueberries from the garden, but upon weighing out the flour, found my kitchen scales are broken. :mad: Must be the hormones and the downer of a mood I'm in, but it nearly made me cry! So, muffins have been shelved and hubby has eaten a banana instead - as long as they're not wasted!

We have a glut of courgettes in the garden at the moment, so I've printed off some recipes (at work!) to utilise them. They're not one of hubby's favourite foods so I try and make them in enticing meals!

I've done the freebie scratchcards tonight - although can't get one to work - now at a loose end so might have half an hour of sorting through some drawers upstairs and feeling like I'm doing somethig productive...

DFSD

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

Hang in there! I see the sofa balance is almost paid off, so that will free up some money soon. I know what you mean about something expensive always coming up, but it's still best to minimise the damage, so keep up the MSE stuff to get you in the best possible money position.

I was reading F-F's thread one night (hello if you are reading!) and she had worked out the amount she needed to save per day to hit her target. What a great idea I thought to kick start my motivation. Until I calculated mine was £52. Now the only way I will hit my target is if I get a bonus in December. The rest will be raised by a mixture of saving money and earning extra money. So I recalculated the amount per day excluding the bonus I will hopefully get and the answer was £34. It was more than I thought. Ah well, 7 months in and somehow I am keeping this up, but only just and by raiding some other funds. Methinks this is going to be harder in the next few months. Good job I like a challenge!

I have tried to make a bit more effort this week. I am trying to cut down spending on snacks and other bits and pieces that seem to have got out of hand recently as I am forever withdrawing money. I found some football betting slips from MSs I did at bookmakers pre-World Cup. I took them to the shop this week and that got me £50 which was nice. I have ordered a couple of vouchers from survey sites and will try to keep the momentum going with the surveys. The MSing has slowed a bit, but I'm still managing to keep the momentum going.

I need to have another wardrobe sort out because I have far too many clothes. I wondered if any might suit you if you are looking for some different things. I feel cheeky asking your size and clothes style so I'll tell you my size and then you can PM me if you are interested. I've got quite a range of things in the wardrobes from smart/tailored to casual. I'm 5ft 8 and a size 12.

Best wishes x

P.S. Have you told your family yet??

debtfreesomeday

Hi Chocs

Thanks so much or your lovely reply. As for your challenge, you know what? I think you'll do it! You're so good at making the savings and getting the extra income in that I have faith you'll achieve your target no problem. How likely is the bonus? Hopefully that will be coming your way too, sounds like you sure have worked hard enough for it this year already to be eligible for one!

I know what you mean about the extra spending too - I've been guilty of spending little amounts here and there on snacks, lunch and bits we don't really need these past two weeks, it certainly adds up to a lot more than I think I've spent too. I need to control this more - I always find it's towards the end of the month when the money is lean that I do it more often - no idea why.

A great bonus on the MB slips, good job you found them, it'll certainly help the savings pot a wee bit!

Thanks so much for your kind offer of the clothes swap, must be the pregnancy hormones again but it made me shed a tear at my desk this morning, it's so thoughtful of you. I'd love to take you up on your offer but unfortunately I'm a size 16 / 5' 10" so I'd also really love your figure too!!! I really appreciate your kindness though Chocs. x I did used to be a size 10 but my waistline expanded when I met hubby... I blame him anyway!

Thanks Chocs, you're a star and have restored my faith in human kindness this morning x

Edit to say: forgot to add, no haven't told the family yet, but they'll know tomorrow - we put a card in the post to my parents this morning from the 'newbie of the family' with a scan pic included - hopefully they'll be over the moon when they receive it! I'm 31, married and in a reasonably well paid job so can't understand why I'm so nervous about telling my parents!

debtfreesomeday

Hopefully I have been paid today but Lloyds internet banking seems to be down so I can't check and transfer any money yet... hopefully it's back up and working again soon, I feel out of control!

debtfreesomeday

Phew, Lloyds back up and running, I've been paid and hubby's money gone across to the bank account too.

I've put £100 in the insurance e-saver, £400 into the 2nd e-saver as my Isa details strangely doesn't seem to be in the list any more - will have to sort that out when I find the details of it (and brush the cobwebs off of it it's been so long since any money went in there :(). I'll put the £400 over into that then so that it can't be touched until we need it.
I've also rounded the bank account down and transferred the odd 68p into the savings e-saver too so we have £400.68 towards paying our bills on maternity leave so far! :rotfl:

It's very nice not having to pay any credit card debt off though.

I'm shattered today; for the past 2 weeks or so neither of us have slept well and we seem to be waking up between 3am & 4am and not getting back to sleep for a couple of hours - usually just before the alarm goes off. :mad: I think it's caught up with me today as I'm not feeling very 'with it' today - my head's a bit fuzzy and it's taking me longer to focus on anything - going to be a long day!

I was given a bottle of wine by a kind colleague when I came into work this morning, just for doing a little bit of a favour for their out of work club. Very kind and no need for it, but very generous. I personally don't drink (even before becoming pregnant), but hubby will appreciate it or it'll become a gift. Actually, we're having a BBQ for hubby's birthday, so we can use it then.

Tonight we are supposed to be going round our friend's house to watch a DVD (if I can keep my eyes open). So this morning we bought some crisps and nibbles to take round as a contribution. A cheap Friday night out for the grand cost of £2.95!

Have a good weekend all

DFSD
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