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

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

Sorry to hear your Mum is still being left without any proper long term care plan. Very frustrating.

How exciting that the building work is done already so you have some time to sort out that space .

I need to get on with some jobs around the house today. I think the riveting task of replacing the sealant in the shower is needed. Time to turn the music up to get some energy and enthusiasm going!

debtfreesomeday

Thanks Chocs, yes it's very frustrating and worrying Chocs. She has an appointment with her GP today who is very good, so hopefully he will be able to offer a little more help. She had a terrible day yesterday and it was very worrying.

How did the housework jobs go? We managed to get the new rooms painted with a first coat on Sunday - ceilings and walls. It looks much more like a room now. We'll try and do another coat in the next week or so.

debtfreesomeday

Amongst other things, I have been worrying about money, or lack of it, a lot lately, which isn't good. It has been on my mind in the early hours of the morning when I'm awake and can't sleep, so today I have worked out next month's budget to try and ease my worries a little.

By payday, we will be overdrawn to the tune of £150 - there's no reason why it should be any more than this. I've allowed for another £15 towards petrol which we'll probably need before Monday, and a couple of pounds for fresh fruit. I put the HIP application form in the post on Thursday and, it seems, it is paid into the bank quite quickly, so that £190 will cover the overdraft with £40 to spare.

After everything's been paid for and money has been allocated to the maternity leave pot, tax/ins pot and petrol/groceries budget, there should be around £400 left (as long as I haven't forgotten anything and my sums are right!).

So:
• £100 of this will be allocated to finishing the Christmas shopping, plus one birthday gift for November.

• We need to buy a crib mattress which will be about £15, leaving £285.

• I would like to pay £185 off the credit card, unfortunately the balance will not be cleared, but it will be reduced to a sum that doesn't scare me quite so much.

• This leaves £100 for anything else that we may need or that crops up during the month.

Plus, we are due £44.10 back from mystery shops, so hopefully this will be paid in this month - it's the first month doing them so I'm not quite sure how it works.

The house insurance is due in a few weeks but thanks to the tax/insurance savings pot, we have more than enough to cover it.

The main financial priority of the month is to NOT be overdrawn at the end of the month. If we are, then I'm not quite sure how we will ever get out of it. This is our month to make a fresh start with the bank balance and leave it in a healthy(er) position for coping with the financial strains of a new baby and maternity leave.
Please wish us luck!

DFSD
X

Chocforever

I am pleased to hear your Mum has a decent GP; not something I have ever come across but I imagine it would be very helpful in terms of having someone sympathetic to talk to and who might know who to call at the hospital to get some action.

Well I have got rid of the old sealant and cleaned it up, so just need to wait for it to dry off and I'll put the new sealant in. It sounds so easy. I am rubbish at this kind of thing and will get totally wound up when it starts going wrong! As long as it does the job, though. It was leaking before so hopefully this will sort it out.

I've had a bit of time to think the last few days. I have come to the conclusion that the reason I am getting a bit down at the moment is that I am bored. I need a challenge. As you have probably gathered, my health is not great and it is all too easy for me to over-analyse it and pretend that sitting around will make me feel better when, actually, it rarely makes any difference. So I need to put my thinking cap on and find something that will occupy me and energise me.

Chocforever

Sorry - had not seen your money post when I submitted my last reply due to faffing around!

It sounds like you have it all in hand, but good luck . If you are at home more, it is likely to be easier. It is always difficult when there are lots of weekends away and weddings etc particularly with the price of petrol.

MS money depends on the agency (MS thread page 1 is a good guide; TNS seem to have put back their cut off date in the shoppers favour). It shouldn't matter that it is your first payment.

I am trying to have a cheap month to get my credit card bill down. I have been eating stuff from the freezer (which needs defrosting in any case). I never realised there was so much in there, or how many cakes there were. It seems a shame to waste them so the healthy eating is on hold :D.

debtfreesomeday

Well done on tackling the sealant - I don't envy you - it's not a job I'd like to do!

Good luck with your challenge - do you have any ideas as to what you may focus on? I know what you mean about being bored, I feel like that about my job and it sucks the life and energy out of me and gets me very down at times. I hope you find something you can get your teeth into.

We had a freezer overhaul tonight too - I also found some cakes - and LOADS of blackberries!

debtfreesomeday

£26 of next month's Christmas shopping budget has now been spent on little bits to finish off quite a few gifts. I'm excited about receiving them and getting them all wrapped up nice. These are going to be Christmas Eve 'hampers' (well, gift bags!) - I've spent quite a bit of time crafting some lovely tags with the recipients initial on, and am going to wrap them beautifully to make Christmas Eve a little bit more special for all. The gifts within are not expensive, but just little tokens for a cosy, entertaining Christmas Eve evening.

Nearer Christmas, I'll make cookie mix jars and hand craft the personalised label for those again as they went down really well last year. I already have the jars ready which I've bought when I've seen them at a good price throughout the year - some have also been recycled from last year.

I also made some very fiddly, but beautifully decorated cupcakes as little gifts last year, not sure if I'll do this again as they took a lot of time and effort, but I might make a big Christmas cake and decorate it. Doing little things like this help to make Christmas for me.

Back to the here and now, and I forgot that we need to buy a moses basket before the baby arrives, for 'downstairs naps' as we have a crib for upstairs which is too heavy to move. We were given one, but it wasn't in very good shape, so I didn't feel very happy about using it. I was hoping we wouldn't need to buy one and that baby could nap in the pram carrycot on the moses basket stand (which we were also given), but the carrycot won't fit on the stand and I'm not sure if it's recommended for sleeping for long periods of time like that. The best, and cheapest, I've seen is on the John Lewis website for £29.99, but they have been out of stock for ages now. I'll try and put £30 aside to cover this anyway, maybe we can buy it in December instead when all of the Christmas shopping should (theoretically!) be done.

debtfreesomeday

Baby daytime napping problem solved - have found a travel cot with newborn bassinet attachment on kiddicare for the grand price of £39.99 (RRP £100) - only £9.99 more than the cheapest moses basket we've seen and will last us for about a year or so, rather than just a few weeks/months! Will also be handy to take for trips home to see the family when baby's here. Wil purchase with 7% cashback through Quidco when we're paid.

Chocforever

I am getting all excited for you with all the baby furniture . The travel cot sounds like a really good idea.

The new sealant appears to have sorted out the leaking shower problem - hurray! So on to the next task.... Actually, tomorrow I am quite busy with appointments, an exercise class and MSs. A mere 5 tomorrow and all nice ones; 2 petrol, 2 small supermarkets and 1 lunch.

I have listed a couple more things on Ebay tonight and will be taking a few things to the charity shop and some to the tip tomorrow. I must be making some progress!

debtfreesomeday

Well done on the sealant success!
Wow, you're flying on the MS front lately, it must really be helping your savings target for the year.

Good luck with the ebay listings - I've given up on ebay for a while now!