Goal - 3 debts paid by Christmas

Triggles

Gave DD a lift to HomeBase today and spent a bit of time browsing around. Found some pamphlets that had some gardening advice that were free, so I picked up a number of them for informative reading. We were offered an allotment less than a month ago, but it was one that (in the words of the caretaker/manager of that particular area) "needed unbelievable amounts of time and work on it to get anything at all out of it as it has gone so long unchecked" and he would recommend we let this one go to a more experienced gardener and he would leave us at the top of the list for a more manageable one. We're quite happy with that, as he said we'll probably be offered another one soon. So we're trying to do some reading up here and there to get an idea of what we'll need to do when we start.

£10 won on free bingo today. :j Still have some more free games to play, so hoping to see more, then can withdraw.

Triggles

Miscellaneous task for the day: write up a template for a grocery shopping list. I'm going to print it off, laminate it (with some sticky laminate sheets I have in my craft stuff), and then as we run low or out of things, I can just circle them on the list with a dry erase marker. Then write out my shopping list from it, and wipe it clean. I use the backs of my old order sheets (from a home based selling plan) to write up lists as they are blank on the back. No point throwing them away if I can use them first!! Saves on buying paper, as I really am a huge list-maker!

Still taking antibiotics, and still sniffling and sneezing like mad with my sore throat and earaches. I bought basics tissues for blowing my nose (since I'm going through quite a few), and I'll admit I was not sure about using them initially. But my reasoning, even though they're not as quite as soft as the plushy expensive ones?? Because after about a day of constantly blowing my nose, my nose is sore anyway, even with the plushy tissues. So why pay more? :rotfl: A little vaseline on the nose helps that, although someone suggested sudocrem for red raw skin on the nose - not sure I'm quite brave enough to try that - can just imagine having to leave the house and forgetting to wipe off that white cream!! Wouldn't that look nice? LOL

I've toyed with the idea of picking up a couple sales items at Morrisons, but I'm holding off for a bit. I don't want to get in the habit of buying something JUST because it's a good price. My parents did that, and I swear they reached a point where they could have survived out of the contents of their cupboard for 6 months easily!! I worry that if I do that, things might be wasted as they won't be used in time. Case in point - the two jars of mincemeat in my cupboard. Bought last year, still not used. I need to use them by October, so will probably make some mince pies soon. I haven't made pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie "season" is coming up in a few months, so I'll have to stop in our local Waitrose and pick up some tinned pumpkin, speaking of tinned pie ingredients.

Back to work on my shopping list.....

Triggles

Shopping list written up. Just need to print it off and laminate it now. And then it goes on the bulletin board in kitchen to be used.

Found a couple coins in the roadway yesterday, so that (along with the loose change in my handbag) goes into the savings jar.

DS1 and DIL's car failed it's MOT (miserably - cost more than the car is worth to make the necessary repairs), so they are effectively without a car for awhile. Thankfully, they are right near the bus route, so they still have fairly reliable transportation using the bus. It's inconvenient sometimes, but we've already decided that if our car doesn't pass the MOT next year (which we suspect it won't, as it took £250 worth of repairs to get it to pass muster this year!), then we will simply go without a car for 6mos to a year until we've saved up extra money to pay for another one. I'm not thrilled about not having a car, with 2 little ones, but let's face it, while it's a convenience and helpful to have, it's not really a life necessity. We've got very good bus transportation around here, so we'd use that or walk. DS2's preschool is the only thing we absolutely need to drive to at this point, and he finishes there in a couple weeks. Then he'll be going to reception in September at a school within walking distance. MIL lives about 15-20 minutes drive away, however, it's also quite easy to go there on the train (and not very expensive either). The only big hassle would be afterhours medical problems and such. But other people deal with them, I guess we would as well. The money we spend in petrol and car expenses (MOT, breakdown cover, insurance, etc) would easily cover a monthly bus pass (which DH & I could both use at different times), plus still leave us a little to save towards a new car. I think DH is a little worried that once this car dies, with our financial situation, that we would NEVER have another car, but as long as we work to save, I can't see that happening. It just may take us awhile to save for it. We need more exercise anyway. :rotfl:

I have to pop up to the post office today to pay my last NI contribution bill, as I have officially stopped my self employment. I was selling Usborne books, but honestly in this financial climate, I am having difficulty making it work. A lot of people are not willing to pay for the books, when they can get them reduced sometimes at Asda or other places, or similar books reduced online. It's unfortunate, but I find myself spending more time and money (petrol, postage, and such) than it is worth. On the up side, I have a fair amount of various books (leftover stock) that I will be able to use as gifts for birthdays and Christmas for quite a while. :rotfl:

I would like to go to the library as they have a few books I'm interested in reading, however, I have a horrible time remembering to return the books and recently paid a fine for forgetting to return a book on time. So I'm not sure that's a good idea right now. Maybe when I'm slightly more organised.

When I'm in town today, I think I will stop at a couple charity shops. I'm looking for a nice decorative (but functional) mirror to hang in the downstairs bathroom, but don't want to pay a fortune for it. I'm also keeping an eye out for anything that is inexpensive that might provide me with some material to sew a few things with.

Oh - and will be crying later today!! I have a bunch of onions I need to chop up and put in the freezer, so I can have them on hand for soups and casseroles. Also will be chopping up a few peppers for the same reason.

Positives for today:
+ MIL likes to go for walks, so when we pop over there later today to join DH (when he's painting), we'll be able to go for a nice walk and get some exercise with the kids
+ MIL is not a huge fan of fast food, so no temptation to stop at fast food place while we're over there :rotfl:
+ today is my once a week luxury of "long hot shower or long soak in a lovely bubble bath" - during the week, it's quick hop in the shower, get clean, and get out - but once a week I like to relax and enjoy the process. It's a fabulous way to de-stress!
+ we still have our bottle of wine left from the monthly shop, so we'll probably have a little tonight and a little tomorrow in the evening after the boys are in bed.
+ I have some bramley apples left so will probably make an apple pie late this afternoon when we get home. (so we can have a decadent late night piece of pie! :cool:)

To do:
- post office to pay NI contributions bill from self-employment
- change child benefit to come to me, instead of DH (apparently it should be coming to me as I am SAHM and it counts towards pension credits??)
- check charity shops for mirror for bathroom
- make apple pie
- lovely lovely bath!
- 30 minutes of paperwork (sorting, filing, shredding this week's post, responding to any letters needed)
- printing off shopping list, laminating, and hanging on bulletin board

Triggles

Well, a busy couple days and a complete turn about on the car issue. We were going to drive this car until it dropped, however, we've found out that the suspension and a few other things are in rather poor shape, and there is slight concern that the rear end of the car could go while we are driving about in it! Not good with 2 little children in the car!! But my mum has loaned us money to purchase another vehicle and we can pay her back a small amount each month, no interest. We calculated how much we could afford, compared it to how much we averaged over the year in repairs and such to our old vehicle, and we're actually about equal. Which gives us an idea how much we were actually paying to keep that vehicle running!! :eek: So we found an ideal car and are picking it up today. :cool:

I've taken the cash out for the next grocery shop, as we are sticking to cash shops. We're more careful this way.

We picked up DD's birthday present and a few Christmas presents on sale yesterday. For example, DS3 is getting "Handy Manny" slippers for Christmas - he likes Handy Manny, and they were £2 on clearance at the Disney Store (marked down from £7). And I found a set of 2 brand new books that DD will love for £1 for both books! :T

Easy supper tonight - eggs, bacon, and toast.

I'm still fairly tired from this most recent bout of illness, but I would like to get some more organisation done in the dining room. It seems like we get started in there, don't finish, and then it just falls apart again. Never seem to actually FINISH in there. One day.....

Triggles

Argh - tons of cleaning up to do in the kitchen, but just can't get to it right now. Both kids up and about and DH in and out of house cleaning out stuff out of the old car. Because the door's not locked and DS2 is a runner, I need to be right here with an eye on him to make sure he doesn't make a break for the door. I'm going to end up doing it later tonight after supper, when the children are in bed, thus putting a damper on a relaxing evening. LOL

Triggles

Wow! Filling up this car with petrol is a scary experience!! £48!! although to be fair, it's got a larger petrol tank than the other car, and will most likely drive quite a bit further on it. And DS2 will be done with preschool (which is really the only thing we absolutely must drive to) at the end of next week, and then it's just mainly driving to visit DH's family nearby and grocery shops, other than an occasional day out. At least finally DS2 doesn't have his legs all cramped up in the backseat anymore and has room to move a bit.

Off to a friend's house for coffee this morning. It will be nice to get out and chat a bit, after a couple weeks cooped up with both kids and myself being ill.

Going to spend a bit of time doing some paperwork this morning. Finally got a response back from one creditor from my "please update me on my account status" letters I sent out last month. I can't believe that only one creditor has responded!! You'd have thought that me contacting them in order to facilitate payments would have them jumping at responding! But no, unless there is money involved, they tend to ignore it seems. Guess I will send a second request to the other companies, with "SECOND REQUEST" written in big red letters across it. This one will be sent with a small cheque inside, so that when they cash the cheque, I will know it's been received. (I'd rather put that £1 on the debt than pay extra for postage receipt.)

Update: Finished working on budget for the day. Updated spreadsheet with all debts paid so far this month, including petrol, grocery, and rent. Also transferred all monies to savings that are "save for quarterly payments" items, such as electric, gas, and water. So far, so good.

Triggles

Ooops. Spent about £30 I shouldn't have yesterday. So I will need to make it up somewhere and be better now. Shame on me. :mad:

NoDebtDiva

Hi Triggles,

I've just read your diary.... keep up the good work

Triggles

NoDebtDiva - thanks!

Oh my!! We've been out and about most of the day so far, running errands. First we went to Aldi's, as part of their Super 6 is 39p for lettuce, tomatoes, spring onions, and cucumbers, all of which I like for salad. Then off to Morrisons, as they had a number of items on sale there that we buy regularly. Some of the prices meant they were cheaper than the basics/store brand in other stores!!

Once that was done, we walked up to Farm Foods and picked up bread, milk, and toilet roll, as it's cheaper there than anywhere else locally. We buy our sugar there as well, as it's less expensive, but we have plenty for now, so didn't need to buy any today. A quick stop at the farmer's market on the way home, and now we have bananas and strawberries for snacking as well.

A little annoyed with myself that I didn't do a load of washing today and put it out, but forecast yesterday said possibly rain, and we wanted to get an early start to get the shopping done, so I didn't wait around to see what the weather was going to be. The weather report says tomorrow should be hot and sunny again, so I'm planning on putting a load of washing in at 5am when we get up so I can hang it out as soon as it's washed. By noon or 1pm, it should be dry, so I'll have another load of washing ready to hang out about then. This way I can get at least 2 loads done tomorrow!! If it gets dry earlier, I might even be able to sneak in a third load. Saturday is the day we wash sheets and towels (weather permitting!), so I love it when it's sunny!!

I have about a half dozen letters I need to type up and send, in response to various creditor letters. I meant to do them last night but got caught up in something else. So they'll be done tonight, so they can go out in the post tomorrow. A good 10-20 minutes tonight to check the bank balance and update the spreadsheet as well.

Still loving the car! 2 pushchairs, a hugely full nappy bag with clothes and bottles in it, and a trolley full of groceries went quite nicely into the boot. And 3 kids in carseats across the rear seat with plenty of room. What a nice change from scrunching everything into the smaller car (which we've now sold, and are using the money to pay for the tax/licensing of this car, so that it doesn't have to come out of the budget).

We've got some extra loaf ends from bread today (from this loaf and the last), so I'm going to make a small bread pudding with raisins for DH to put in his lunch for work. I also had a bunch of overripe bananas, but we don't have any room in the freezer for more banana bread (already have 2 loaves in there!), so I gave the bananas to DD who took them home to make banana bread.

This month is such a full month for birthdays and such - and now my niece has just had a baby yesterday so another July birthday!!! :rotfl: Thank goodness I bought all the cards for the month at the beginning of the month, and all I have to do is get the particular needed card and get it ready to post. I've got stamps already purchased as well. Otherwise I end up running out at the last minute to the supermarket to buy a card, and then we end up spending more money than we planned as we end up buying other things as well. DS2, DD, and DS3's birthdays are all this month - we've already got DD and DS2's presents purchased (just need to wrap them), but I'm stilling mulling over what to get for DS3. He doesn't really NEED anything... he has plenty of toys and clothing, as much of it is hand-me-downs from DS1 that are in good condition. We have a present for him, but it's one we're saving for Christmas, as he'll be a bit older then and enjoy it more (it's a rug for his room that has roadways and such on it for his toy cars and trucks). Possibly a couple books of his own, as he likes books and being read to.

I have to admit that we are trying hard to realign our thinking for birthday and Christmas presents this year. For example, we purchase a gift that we feel the person will like and appreciate - we don't try to make sure the gift is "up to a certain amount", but just make sure it's under that amount. I bought a couple superb books at Poundland recently, just the kind of books that DD will love. That and a few hair things that she's been wanting will make a lovely present package for her birthday. The total expense? about £5. But she'll be happy with the gift because it's stuff she will like. We set a £20 limit on her gift, but as we spent less, the £15 surplus will go into savings to pay down our debt. We used to purchase more to bring the total gift amount up to £20, but recently, we have wondered "why?" Surely a thoughtful nice gift at £5 is fine - the rest is just clutter to up the ante, really. Not to mention wasteful. I'm not certain how we even got caught up in that, as we did it at Christmas as well. This year we are going to make every effort to buy (or make) nice gifts and keep the costs down by not going overboard or attempting to "equal out" the expenses.

I suppose I should go get a bit more done around the house. Washing up is done, laundry is waiting for tomorrow. I still have the bread pudding, and maybe some scones to make this afternoon.

Triggles

Hooray! £10 won on the free bingo so far today. I will continue the free games today and then, if I chance to win anything else, will withdraw before I go to bed tonight.

£45.50 yesterday on the shopping. Very happy with that. Still leaves me about £4.50 for more bread and milk. Hoping to make this last until next Saturday. I'm going to be extra careful this month, as we had a mishap last night. DH leaned over the stove to reach something and accidentally bumped the knob and turned a burner on. He didn't realise the toaster cord was slightly over the edge of the stove, and it ruined the cord on the toaster. :mad: We have toast practically every morning, and I simply cannot make it on the grill in the oven, as then I can't allow DS2 anywhere near the kitchen. The toaster is actually a necessity, so the grocery budget will have to absorb the cost. It is a bit of an annoyance, but accidents do happen.

This weekend will be DIY, general household tasks, and cleaning time. The following need to be done:
- put up "learning to tell time" clock in DS2's bedroom
- put up a few family pictures on the wall
- hang out laundry to dry (first load), and start next load washing
- wash fleece throws in the living room
- print letters and post them
- put away clean clothing piled up in bedroom
- sweep and mop kitchen and dining room floors
- clean out junk corner by back door
- go through DS2 and DS3's clothing and take out any items that are out of season or too small and pack away.
- dust
- clean off the catch-all sideboard in the hallway (seems like I have to do this a lot - hence calling it a catch-all LOL)
- put together card and gift (already purchased) for niece to send congratulating her on her new baby
- find out if DS1 & DIL are visiting this weekend or not (they have a tendency to wait until the last minute to confirm plans - drives me nuts as it's rather inconsiderate, but god knows we've tried to change this behaviour and it just doesn't seem to get through - we do like seeing them, just don't like the "last minute" of it all as it means we can't really make any solid plans for the weekend until we know what's going on - I think we really need to break this habit though and start just making plans and if they conflict say "we couldn't wait around all week waiting for you to make up your mind".. maybe after doing this a few times, they'll take the hint)
- wash playpen base
- clean toilets, sinks, tub
.... ok I know there's more but I'm getting tired just typing it.. LOL