Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Dearly beloved it has been 14 months since I first bared my soul to the people of t'internet in a quest to salvage some of my wage packet for something fun as opposed to the nescessary daily expenses incurred by merely surviving. Over that period our overall debt has halved and I have learnt lots. Mostly that the harder you try to cut back the more unexpected things rear up and snatch the cash out of your bank account when you least expect it.

I have plans. Lots and lots of plans. Mostly wildly optomistic and completely unattainable but I like a challenge and so my plan is to be totally and utterly debt free by my 35th birthday which just happens to be this October and furthermore to have 2K in savings in the bank by Christmas or at least that was what I talked myslef into when I signed onto the clear 20K by Christmas 2010 challenge. Phase two of the masterplan involves a variation on the Live on 4K a year challenge although since there are four of us and lifes not cheap the bovine variant is actually a more realistic live on 20K a year to cover absolutely every outgoing we have which sounds a lot on paper but actually equates to £1667 a month which when you allow for an OH who commutes 90 miles a day doesn't really leave that much for the everyday things.

I keep reminding myself that the best things in life are free (or so the record companies claim) but you try telling that to two horse obsessed children and an OH with a penchant for dismantling Land Rovers.

We're very fortunate in that both OH and myself work full time with minimal childcare bills outside of school holidays. We have a fabulous house which is just far enough away from the rest of the civilised world to be classed as remote whilst being close enough to everything we could possibly need to make them accessible. The house is rather more cluttered than I'd like and home to rather a lot of very prolific web building spiders. So other features of my master plan include decluttering and considerably more housework than I do at the moment. Long term plans include running the marathon des Sable but as I can barely manage 25 minutes jogging on the spot on the Wii Fit thats not likely to happen any time soon either. OH would be content to drive from here to Capetown the long way but this is dependant upon the money pit that is project Land Rover being completed. At the moment it has a chassis with an engine and a gear box but not a lot else.

For those with far too much time on their hands the original diary is here

moo2moo

Ventured forth into the civilised world late yesterday afternoon to purchase a pair of school shoes to replace those which DD2 has exchanged with an untracable child leaving her with a rapidly disintegrating pair a width too big and some very juicy blisters. Returned home a short while later a mere £7.05 lighter minus the shoes thanks to the stoer being closed for refurbishment. Will have to attempt a 50 mile round trip to the next nearest store before they close at 4pm today. Unfortunately have other commitments which will tie us up until at least 3pm so this is extremely unlikely to occur meaning OH will have to take her after school on Monday with a strict set of instructions regarding what is and what is not considered appropriate for school. Its not that men are useless but their interpretation of what is appropriate and what they can be talked into by their beloved daughters are not necessarily the same thing.

Managed a whopping five loads of laundry yesterday thanks to DD1 donating her cereals to a rug whilst managing to spill some down herself and direct the splatter at her sister. Not quite what I had in mind.

Total spends for yesterday:

£20 2x riding lessons
£7.05 mini-top up food shop at Mr Ts

Plans for today extend as far as trying not to get too cold or too wet as we escort DD1 to her shooting club for the morning. As a fully paid up member she gets six hours use of the grounds, a 1:1 lesson and a group training session for free. It gets both the little darlings out in the fresh air. Although DD2 generally takes a few pot shots and is bored within the first half hour, has eaten all the food we've taken with us by the end of the first hour and then firmly burys her nose in a book until her tummy rumbles to say its lunchtime.

Need to get yet more laundry done and at least attmpt some tidying up. Have retrieved two very small joints from the bowels of the freezer for tonights dinner, hopefully with enough leftovers for tomorrow too. Whilst the oven is on I need to bake cakes and biscuits for the DDs lunchboxes in a vague attempt to use up some of the 25+kg of flour that fill a very large cupboard. Didn't realise I had so much until I rearranged the kitchen.

moo2moo

Have finally recieved all the paperwork I need to get my new Nationwide (aka the free fifty quid account) up and running. Sent my first payment to them to cover DDs transferred from another account in order to qualify for thier offer. Just need to figure out how to do this automatically each month once I know the first payment has gone through OK.

Have another 15 minutes of peace before I need to turf the demonic daughters from their pits in order to begin our assualt on the day. Should really review to book I finished yesterday on DooYoo thus earning another 50p towards my next £50 payout but lacking the inspiration required to write coherantly about frogs legs and snails. Will drink coffee and surf instead.

moo2moo

Outgoings for the very generous sounding live on 20k a year challenge are as follows:

Interest….................................... 123
Council tax.................................. 103
Electricity...................................... 60
Gas............................................... 60
Coal and logs.................................50
Water rates.................................. 15
Telephone, mobiles and internet.... 30
TV Licence.................................. 12
Groceries and pet food….......... 250
Clothing and shoes...................... 40
Petrol/diesel............................... 260
Road tax...................................... 20
Car Insurance.............................. 45
Car maintenance………….......... 70
Dental.. ……………….….......... 25
Pet insurance/vet bills.................. 40
House insurance........................... 20
Entertainment............................. 100
Riding Lessons............................. 80
Fags............................................ 100
Pension......................................... 80
Chicken feed…………………….25
Anything that I’ve omitted…..........62

Total outgoings £1667 per month.

Unfortunately the first two months of the year have shown this to be wildly optomistic. Thanks to a stuck calliper which ate my break discs and a disintegrating clutch we've already had to spend almost £500 to keep one car on the road, the other is due new tyres rather soon.


OH had two root canals done at the dentist which then ate another £260 and I stupidly forgot to include school holiday childcare which is wildly unpredicatable but is likely to be in excess of £1000 for the year.


I know there are places I could cut back and generally I do but the rapidly increasing cost of petrol has seen our combined fuel bill escalate to something closer to £400 each month. OHs attempts at stopping smoking are generally more expensive than actually smoking and have negligable effect. Have abandoned persuading him to give up. Its something he may do eventually because he wants to and not for any other reason. Frustrating yes but theres nothing I can do about it.

Different_Corner

Moo,
I wish you would write a book, you are so articulate and make me giggle at your descriptions and anecdotes.
Wishing you a stress feel, plain sailing Sunday whilst acheiving everything !

Intergalactic_Floozie

Hey new thread, new thread! Keep up the good work. It will all pay off in the end (or be paid off!)

moo2moo

Good morning all!

Had a fabulous day yesterday. What started out as a miuns five morning ended up gloriously sunny. DD2 was warm as toast in wooly tights, knee high ski socks, thick tracksuit trousers and a thermal ski suit rahter fetchingly topped off with a pair of sailing salopettes. Poor kid was remarkably like an Umpalumpa.

DD1 shot her little socks off much to the disgust of some of the adult members of the club. Not content with outshooting me with her old rifle she went on to do it with her new one which doesn't have sights. One poor chap had several attempts at a particularly ellusive rabbit (a pretend one) whilst DD1 wandered past and knocked it down on her second atempt. Poor fella had just spent £700 on a new scope to go with his £1300 rifle. Not content with that she then pointed out that he was repeatedly missing it because he was laid down and hitting the hillock 15M in front of it. Such a smart !!!!. Most of her pocket money from the last couple of weeks disappeared in the direction of the butty wagon as she treated her little sister to a sausage butty whilst demolishing two giant bacon butties.

Eventually made it to the shoe shop to discover that they couldn't cope with the elephant child and after several phone calls to other shops ended up going 30 miles further eventually finding a store with big enough shoes for the deformaties that are DD2s feet. Suggestion of the day was to buy her two identical pairs. One in an E fit and the other in a H fit and throw one of each pair away. Yeah I'm so made of money imbecillic zitty teenagers of Clarks. So declining the opportunity to blow £88 we elected to try a hideous pair of boys shoes in a G fit that are snug enough on her smaller foot with a llittle bit of give on the bigger foot in the hopes that if she wears them around the house they will either give in to her demands or give her blisters. Means she'll be going to school in neon pink immitation crocs for the remainder of this week. Devastated she is. Who on earth wants to be the coolest child in school anyway?

Now skinter than a skint thing which incidentally didn't stop me picking up half price pizzas in the Co-op for dinner. Roasting a dinner meant the DDs wouldn't have eaten until almost 8:30pm. As it was we were all in bed long before then. I'm soooo old.

moo2moo

I will now prepare myself to be placed on a huge pyre and set alight. Ugg have an outlet store. In the UK. More specifically in the 120 some shop outlet village that is Cheshire Oaks. They have a gargantuin collection of lovely stuff including fluffy handbags. Not being a girly person I merely window shopped but DD1 was ecstatic. Prices seem well not quite sensible but definately less outrageous than other stores. It was much like a scrum though with bags flying out the door faster than any other shop in the place. Didn't have as much time on our whistle shop tour of shopping land as DD1 would have liked though. OH still managed to part with £35 for a gillet which I would never in a million years have paid the original £130 for. Even £35 seemed a lot although it is v. thick and in theory windproof. Attempted to replace my work boots which have started to crack across the sole but the range has been discontinued so will be surfing Flea-bay and Amazon to see if any are available there.

OH is at home for the next three days so will get minimal things done. Seeing Attilla the dentist this morning where I will get an ear bending about my bleeding gums *again*. Other exciting plans involve laundry, ironing and cleaning the bathrooms. Much like almost every other day of my life really. Still its only seven days to payday *whooppeeeeeee*.

moo2moo

Had another night of minimalistic slepp. Woke up at four and stared at the ceiling for an eternity before getting up and writing a review of a book which is once again not on DooYoo. Have requested that it be added and saved the review for a later date.

Had the wackiest of all wacky evening when we recieved a summons to attend a surprise mothers day celebration on sunday a mere 500 mile round trip away. Forget that OH is working all weekend or that we might actually have a life or that driving that sort of distance for lunch is lunacy. We're now in the bad books for not going. C'est la vie. Wonder how long we'll be reminded of the time when everyone else did and we didn't thus ruining another family get together.

Postie brought me a free £10 Boden voucher complete with a free delivery offer and no minimum spend. Taking I'd never heard of Boden before this was a wee bit of a surprise. Had a bit of a shock when I perused the site with someone elses cash to spend only to discover that 7 pairs of kids knickers would set me back £20. I think not. In the end I settled for two pairs of hideously ugly stripy footless tights suitable for bad taste parties and fancy dress days at school in a size which I can hopefully wedge my bum into as well as DD1s next year. There are some perks to the nation getting bigger and the best one is VAT free childrens clothing in my size. Clearly its not everyday that a 30 something woman can go out in public dressed like a ten year old but once in a while (or in my case once a term) its usually required. Best of all they're on Quidco so I'm getting 50p cashback too. Happy days.

Not going to get anything done today. Some dopey mare managed to stick a stiletto through a rotten plank in the school grounds so I have that to replace today and since I'd already planned to finish installing the greenhouse now the outside temperature is above -4 and the mortar won't freeze and crack it will be a long day, especially as today is my day as a road safety training volunteer. Will be shattered by bedtime tonight.

OH was a superstar yesterday and did all the ironing leaving me free to masacre the hedges with the clippers into something vageuly resembling a neatly pruned hedge providing you don't get too close. From about 300m away it looks fab though.

beanielou

Found you again

beanielou

Do u not pay mortgage or rent?
Or is that interest?