Learning to live my dreams not trample on them

savingholmes

savingholmes wrote: »

Confession time....

Debt update

Car loan £4K owed to MIL
BOA £2766
PO £2982
BC £1550
c £11298

Plus building a balance on 0% txfr and spend card
RBS £2668 including £610 hols, £290 car, £350 padi course, food & bal txfr

So total debt excluding overdrafts currently a scary £13966 :eek::eek::eek:

So once £1550 above paid will owe

MIL £4000
RBS £3739 (doesn't yet include £350 for PADI)
BOA £2798 (must have been slightly out last month)
PO £2892

£13429 we really have spent a lot on my new 0% card :eek::eek::eek: I am also paying £193 to a card that is not listed above - that is payment in full

lucielle

All good going there.
L

savingholmes

Well last week I managed to cut my lunch time spend by taking in rice pudding 3 x. Mr As selling them at 50p a tin at the mo so reduced spending for £1-5 per day to 50p!! which is a significant improvement.

For this next week therefore my target it to take in lunch at least 4 x as this will also mean I stick to a lunch half hour rather than going over and having to make the time off and that I don't fritter spend while I am out.

I also intend to give MrAs my new email address so hopefully they will send me a free delivery code. I then want to go back to online shopping as a way of reducing my spending. I also need to revert back to send DS or OH for top up shops as my top shops have a way of turning into a £50 plus spend!

I need to do some meal planning for the next week too if we are to have any chance of staying on track so soon I will go off and investigate what's in the freezer and then perhaps plan an online shop for say Monday or something.... We are wasting quite a bit of fresh fruit and veg again at the mo which is not good and we need to get that back under control!

I also need to investigate what garden fruit I still have and make sure my apple tree is still alive and that our pond has enough water in it, do the washing, tidy the house, declutter etc. I have spent most of the last 4 hours reading firewalker's diary and generally relaxing but now I need to get on with some stuff. I feel I have lost some of my mse way at the moment and need to relight the proverbial lightbulb!

Wish me luck!

savingholmes

DD has got an ugly bug ball next week at school and she wants to go as a ladybird. So just been to the local pound shops and picked up some face paints and some corn rings - which she can either colour black or stick black card on to. She is then going to stick them on to her snow white red cape that she has and wear red shorts, with black tights and a red school top. She is then going to wear half a pair of tights on each arm and then we are going to stuff another pair of tights with newspaper or black bags or something to make the third set of legs. Under her red cape, I am planning to put scrunched up black bags, probably with newspaper in to ty and make it into more of a ball shape. She is really chuffed with that.

I came back having spent £11 which is typical of me. The above items were £2. so the rest was
£1 tin opener - ours recently broke
£1 england inflatable hammer - to give to me nephew with £20 cash
£4 on 2 craft mosaic packs for the kids to make while we are on holiday
£2 on spades for while we are on holiday
[STRIKE]I wonder whether I was diddled on the other pound as I can't see anything else?[/STRIKE] £1 on bike bell for DD

Need to have a think about a birthday present for BIL too as I think that is in July! I also need to think about what pressies DD can give her teachers and assistants... I think I bought some incense packs a while ago so may give them some of them - they were 3 for £1!! Or I might get her to do some candle making as I have a kit.... Really do need to got more organised!

savingholmes

Right I have just done a grocery delivery online for £61.40. A free delivery code seemed to work. I also paid for from our bank account not on CC. Target now is to take lunches to work all week.

Expected spends for the next week:

Week1
car parking £11.00
oh £10.00
me £10.00
ds £1.00
dd £1.50
school dinners£10.00
cleaner £23.00
nursery £90.00cheque (about 4 week's worth)
diesel £0
sub total £156.50 plus old childcare debt need to find bill could be c£100

If I can stick to that it will be an improvement so wish me luck!

clearmydebts

Good luck SavingH!!!

Glad JLS were good

savingholmes

Thanks CMD

JLS were very good, very sweet - they were so delighted with the response they were getting!

I have spent all day trying to come up with a workable budget - if we manage to stick to it it will make a massive difference to our DFD. Just have to hope our mortgage stays low now so we can serious kick some debt butt. Our fixed payments have nearly halved which means if my job does end after March 2011 we should be okay - while I am getting job seekers at least.

savingholmes

Hi - well today I have been to church. I resisted encouragement to sponsor someone - felt slightly guilty and regretful but it would have scuppered our new budget before we'd even started. Having just budgeted made it easier to say no today. I did take some clothes over for a friends kids so that is my good deed for the day LOL.

Later on today we have a delivery from Mr As so hopefully that will keep us on track for the week.

DD brought a friend home - they are having fish fingers, micro chips and beans that we already had in. DS, OH and I are going to have mince beef and veg pie, chips and veg.... not sure what veg we have as we've run out of our favourite - which is peas. I am hoping that works out to about £1 a head!

Just discoverd we are running low on beans and juice but ideally want to resist buying these in and use up what we already have in the freezer and the cupboards. DS has just announced he needs some food for a mexican theme as part of a community lesson tomorrow. Luckily I have a tacos kit in so he can take that. He thinks some of the other kids are taking chilli and stuff in so they can potentially eat that together.

:j*Meal plans for the week*:j

I have packed the dishwasher today and switched it on. When it is finished I hope to pre-cook some spag bol for tomorrow to take some pressure off then. I reckon that will cost about £1 a head

When the korma jar arrives later - I may prepare some frozen chicken, korma and rice ready for Tuesday. I think that will be about £1.40 ish a head.

I want to make chicken fried rice Wednesday - I already have chicken in the freezer and some rice and peas and sweetcorn will be on the delivery tonight. I think that too will be about £1.40 ish a head.

We could have a roast dinner one day as I have a big joint of beef in the freezer that we have had since mother's day weekend - it is one of those M&S specials.... Might pre-cook that Wednesday and have it Thursday - that would be yummy! That will probably be around £2+ per head

Might then do a vegetarian bhuna (jar arriving tonight) with rice and any mince beef or quorn I can find in the freezer for Friday. 50p-£1 per head.

Saturday we could perhaps have chicken in a piri piri marinade with rice.... about £1.40 per head

Can then do another grocery shop and plan next week of meals but kids should be away most of that week which should make it easier.

Today
Need to do the washing
Still need to hunt for tax credit info and complete it
Need to continue decluttering efforts

gilligansyle

Keep on with the planning, all seems to be going well. A certain well known brand of beans are currently on offer in Mr A and work out at 33p a tin.

Take the chance to sort out some lunches with your shop. Can you take things in and heat them or are there only facilities for sandwiches?

savingholmes

gilligansyle wrote: »

Keep on with the planning, all seems to be going well. A certain well known brand of beans are currently on offer in Mr A and work out at 33p a tin.

Take the chance to sort out some lunches with your shop. Can you take things in and heat them or are there only facilities for sandwiches?

Hi Gill - yours is one of the diaries which encourages me to budget better and stick to it! I took rice pudding in 3x last week and have bought 6 tins this week! Boring but easy to heat up in the microwave and not too smelly!

So DS takes packed lunch anyway. DD has school dinners. OH buys his but at £1-1.50 a day I don't think his is too bad. If I take in something costing 50p a day we should be doing better anyway. I haven't committed to doing that all the time. The current plan is to do that for the 2 weeks between now and our holiday so we can get back on top of things. :cool:

The kids are away week 2 so lots of planned cut backs for that week and hopefully some walking :eek:to work and car park fees saved!! We'll see;)