Goal - 3 debts paid by Christmas

Triggles

No, not poorly. Thank you for asking, though. It's just been a bit chaotic around here. We've been doing a lot of things we've been wanting to get done, which takes me away from the computer.

We went to visit our niece and her DH the other day. They live about 45 minutes from us, but it's gorgeous countryside so it was a lovely drive. We took MIL along as well on the drive, as she wanted to see them as well (not to mention she knew the way, which makes it soooo much easier! LOL). It was the first time we'd been out there since they moved a couple months ago. Obviously not a drive we can afford often, due to petrol costs, but it was still nice.

I took DS2 to a soft play place the other day to give him some good "running around" time, and we enjoyed the first 30 minutes. But then a couple families came in that had some very young babies and toddlers, and they literally took over one section of the play area, wouldn't let others in it, and they had a couple older children (about 6-8 years old) that were going up the slides the wrong way and being really rough, so we finally left as I really wasn't in the mood for a confrontation. The staff at the play place don't ever step in on stuff like that, which is a bit aggravating. I don't mind it when it's got lots of kids there, but it's much more enjoyable when people play nice (adults as well as children!).

DD was dealing with a migraine two days ago, and it lasted all day and part of the next. So we were also helping her out, so she could rest and feel better.

We had some lovely barbeque pork yesterday for tea. Basically, we buy the pork (not sure what it's called - how sad is that? I just know it when we see it in the supermarket!) that's in strips - boneless (think it might say rindless on it as well?). Just brown the outside in a pan, and toss it into the slow cooker and put barbeque sauce on it. Cook it all day. And then serve over rice. Yum!!

Tonight's tea is a roasted chicken - most likely in the Remoska - with some vegetable and possibly some roast potatoes (as it's one of the few potato forms that DS2 likes). I'll put some meat aside as we're going to have chicken and mushroom pie this weekend - most likely Sunday, as we're having a roast chicken today. And tomorrow night will be chicken vegetable soup with dumplings. So that's the next few nights sorted anyway.

We've managed to sort the problem with the faulty ceiling fan in DS3's room. We ordered ceiling fans from Argos in the beginning of the summer, as they are cheaper than floor fans to run as well as out of reach of little fingers! But while the ceiling fan in DS2's room works great, we noticed a hot burning smell from DS3's fan after about a month. We gave it a rest, thinking maybe we were running it too much (was going quite a lot due to the heat!) and they weren't horribly expensive (£17 each), so thought "well, maybe they aren't built to withstand that level of use"... but as DS2's fan is still going strong with almost constant use, we decided enough was enough. I emailed Argos the other day, stating that I wanted a replacement fan as I believed this one had a faulty motor due to the smell and was most likely a fire hazard (we had stopped using it due to this concern). I asked them to send the replacement to us, and allow us the time to have someone come out and uninstall the old one and install the new one at the same time, as this was already going to cost us extra money for the second installation. They were happy to do so - I got an email back from them within a couple hours, saying they had arranged to have a replacement ceiling fan delivered today (Friday) and that when we had gotten the old one packaged up to return we could ring them and they would come pick it up for us. :T Very pleased with that!! So yay to Argos!!

Unfortunately, MIL had a fall this morning and hit her head. So DH went over to her house on the train to stay with her for the day. We offered to pick her up and bring her back here (only about 15 minutes drive away) for the day, so she could just relax and we would take care of meals and such, but she's a bit shaken up and didn't want to leave her house. No concussion or anything that I'm aware of, although she hasn't gone in to see the GP. I think it's more the scare of it than anything for her, bless her. DH just called - she has a bruise on her forehead and will probably have a black eye, but she is refusing to go to the GP. DH will be there with her until SIL gets off work this afternoon, so he'll keep an eye out for any problems. God knows with 4 kids, he knows the signs of a concussion by heart. :rotfl:

We've been going the CCA route for our debts, to sort out where we stand on them. One has already stated they cannot find one at all. Another sent us a letter that states we have a zero balance. Odd, but hey, if that's what they say, I'm happy to take that as gospel!!

We've managed to put money in savings this month - which will go towards some F&F's in November, barring any emergencies. We're still keeping to the plan of clearing 3 debts by Christmas, and we're getting closer. If we can manage savings again over the next 3 months, it will still be possible. It would be such a great Christmas present for us! And a superb way to start out the new year! Plus then we can work on getting another next year! I'd LOVE to see us debt free within the next 3-5 years! We're trying to clear the lowest balances first, as that just makes more sense to us. The highest amounts have high interest as well, but for us it's more of a morale boost to clear a few accounts, even if they are the lower balances. Then we'll focus all our energies on the higher ones.

I've got a couple more letters to finish up today regarding our DMP debts, and then this afternoon we'll pop up to the post office and send them off. The budget is going fairly well, although I think DH's work messed up his pay and shorted him two days when he was sick - which he should have gotten paid for. So DH has to talk to them today and straighten it out. Like things are stressful enough, we may have to wait until next pay day to get the remaining amount! In the meantime, we'll be short two days pay out of our budget. :mad: Thankfully we have the savings if need be to fall back on, but I'd prefer not to - seems like it's safe when it's in the savings account, but the minute it goes into the current account, it just flies out!

We have some baby stuff we're getting rid of. We were going to ebay the carseat from our travel system, but after looking on ebay and seeing they're either not selling or only selling for a fiver, we may just freecycle it instead. At least then we know it's helping someone else that maybe can't afford to buy a new one. And it's in brilliant shape. It's not like someone's going to claim it to make money on ebay from it - they're not selling there. I still need to research the other items and see how they're doing in general on ebay and decide what to do with them.

Today was going to be a "sort out clothing" day for the boys as well, but I may put it off until Sunday as DH isn't here. Difficult to sort through all their clothing with them right there - "oh nooooo I HAVE to keep that shirt!!!" LOL DS2 would wear some of his Thomas shirts and such until they practically cut off his circulation! :rotfl: Bad enough I've got to take away his pajamas that are too short for him - they still fit him as he is sooo skinny - but long sleeves and trouser legs are just too short - they're size 2-3 and he is 4!! But I finally convinced him that new pajamas can still be Thomas or cars too.

And tomorrow DS2 & I are getting our hair cut. Another expense, but a necessary one.

Triggles

Good God, that was long!! (how embarrassing - such a chatterbox, me!!) LOL

As far as MS things we've done the following this week:
- using Farm food religiously for bread, milk, sugar, and loo rolls (cheaper than regular supermarket)
- kept track of the bank account very carefully as we knew we were getting low in the balance, rather than just simply transferring money in from savings (and risking spending it!)
- used a hard bristle brush to clean the carpet in the hallway after scraping paint (and DH forgot to put a dropcloth down! LOL) - rather than risking clogging up our hoover! (also saved on electricity and did a stellar job - never knew hard bristle brooms worked as well as a hoover!! Very impressed!!)
- bought our whole chicken at Aldi - as I've noticed that every time I've gone in there recently they have whole chickens for £2.99, which is loads cheaper than the supermarket price for chickens of a comparable size!! Think I shall be shopping at Aldi sometimes now - and they're right across the street from Sainsburys, so it's not an extra trip out of the way!
- made some snack foods at home - such as rice krispie treats and scones. Cheap and easy and we all love them!
- played bingo all week, but it was money from a free bonus game, so I got to enjoy tons of play time (managed to make it last for 10 days and was able to play bingo every evening online - very fun!) with absolutely no expense to us at all! Cheap entertainment! LOL
- taped Fireman Sam and the Great Fire of Pontypandy off of Virgin TV, so DS2 can watch it whenever he likes as we have it on record box, instead of spending £7 for the DVD. And there's tons of room on the record box so it can sit there for ages, no problem!
- splurged for one takeaway meal for the family this week - at the total cost of £5.50!! One huge piece of fish that DH & I shared, a fishcake for each of the boys, and a large order of chips that we all shared. Yummy and inexpensive, and the boys thought it was a great treat! And we used some of our own spending money to do it, so it didn't impact the budget.

Plus lots of little other things, like avoiding temptation of buying things, resisting takeaways except for our one planned treat as noted above, and trying to keep expenditures and utility usage to a minimum.

maman

Glad to hear you've been busy and not poorly but sorry to hear about MIL's fall.

Triggles, I just adore Fireman Sam. I could listen to Naughty Norman Price and Bella Lasagne for hours.

I think the pork you did in barbecue sauce may be belly pork, sounds very tasty. If you like pork, google Jamie Oliver's slow roasted shoulder (of pork of course:rotfl:). It's delicious and bone-in shoulder is cheapish and big enough for left-overs.

Good result from Argos. Shame about oiks at play area. Thanks for tip about Aldi's chicken.

Have good weekend.

Triggles

Goodness! We've been busy busy and I had no idea it'd been a few days since I'd been on here! But, this is my "working on the budget" time, so I wanted to make sure I posted today.

Let's see... MIL's birthday this week, so DH took her out for a nice lunch at a nearby restaurant. We really thought about what to buy her, and she honestly doesn't want or need anything. So as she never gets time with DH (without kids, other relatives, me, etc) around, I suggested to DH that he take her out for a nice meal and enjoy some mother/son time and chat. We picked up MIL in our car, dropped DH & MIL off at the restaurant, and I took the children home. We relaxed at home, while DH & MIL were at the restaurant, and then they walked home (it's quite close) afterwards. So they were able to have a drink with their meal without driving, which was nice as well. They had a lovely time, so I'm glad we decided to do that for her birthday. MIL's a lovely woman, and I love her, but I think she really enjoyed having DH to herself for a bit so they could chat and relax.

2 loads of laundry today. Weather's a bit iffy, so hung the first load inside, and the second load is washing now. I may get brave and hang the second load outside - if it rains I'll just make the mad dash to bring it all in! :rotfl:

I've gone through the budget, sorted out 2 letters to creditors today, and updated our creditor files (I like to go through them regularly to make sure I haven't just filed something and not followed up on it). We have one debt that is unenforceable (they've already responded saying they can't locate the CCA at all), and one that they sent us a statement of account stating that the amount we now owe is £0!! I'm happy with that!!! :j One is demanding a signature, so we're responding to that. The rest we're just waiting for CCAs on. Only one has provided an enforceable CCA, so we're making payments to that company at present. The rest we've held off now until we receive the CCA as it's been a month since the request.

Off to Boots tomorrow to print off a few pictures of the boys to send to my parents as they live abroad. And then to the post office to post that letter plus a few letters to creditors.

DH signed up for the local paper £1 per week, got a lovely free Disney book for doing so. And the paper has now told us they have nobody in the area to deliver the paper, so it's cancelled. But hey, free Disney book! :T

Things got a bit stressy around here the other day. DH & I have sorted through it though, and are back on the same page with everything. Even though we don't talk about it all the time, the debt stuff can really take it's toll on the relationship sometimes. Sometimes it seems like things can be just cruising along fine, then it's like the Titanic hitting an iceberg.... everything just kinda implodes... we have to sit down and talk and figure out how to sort it all out, and then move on with things. Generally it works okay, although it can be wearing.

I need to buy plimsols for DS2 for school, as well as a new baking tray - although it won't cost much for the basics ones. Not much choice in either matter.

Oh, baby upset, and DH floundering I think with both boys, so will update more later.

Triggles

I've had a rough couple days, honestly. I actually avoided MSE as I knew we had spent too much and didn't want to see it in black and white writing. Major "head in the sand" moment for me and I'm so angry with myself.:mad: I'm not really sure what caused it, just lots and lots of little spending over the last few days that wasn't necessary. I suppose it's like falling off the wagon, and now we need to get back on. I think it's safe to say that I spend when I'm stressed too much. I think DH can be the same way, so we need to keep each other in check better. Or simply try harder not to let things get on top of me so that I'm overly stressed.

A lot of little things preying on my mind the last few days. Family (extended mainly) problems - spending so much time lately with MIL (who is lovely, no problems with her!) has rather brought the thought of my mother into my head. I haven't seen her in years as she lives abroad - my father is too ill to travel, so they can't come here, and we simply don't have the money to travel there. My father will never get better, only deteriorate (which is difficult to deal with anyway), and so I have had to accept the idea that I will never see him alive again. I will not be able to even afford to go to his funeral (when things reach that point), so I am having some difficulties with this. And my mother has some health conditions as well. So I don't know for certain if she will ever be able to come here to visit either, which means I may never see her again either. It makes me a bit teary to think about it too much, and I think I've been dwelling on it too much recently, which hasn't helped my frame of mind.

I have 3 siblings - I have days where I wonder if I am the only sane one (although to be fair, I'm sure others may question my sanity some days :rotfl:). One sibling is facing a long jail term for fraud and theft (against my parents), another has always bordered on doing illegal stuff, just seems to skirt the edge, but has basically made enough questionable decisions and is rarely truthful and very judgemental about others who actually stay within the limits of the law (me) so I don't really get on with them anymore, and the other sibling thinks that money is the most important thing and has sacrificed good relationships over it, brags about it constantly, and seems rather critical of my choices because they don't bring tons of money in the house (such as being a SAHM or allowing our DD to live with us and helping her out as an adult). Everyone seems to want me to choose sides against the other, and it's so incredibly draining. I just want to be able to chat with relatives without having choose who I can or can't speak to based on everyone else's problems. Arrrrgggghhhhh... family is exhausting!! I actually did the horrible passive-agressive thing the other day and sent pictures of the children to my mother in the post, specifically mentioning that the pictures were from their recent birthdays. Why did I do this? Because my mother carries around pictures of the kids for what she calls "bragging about her lovely grandchildren" but can't be bothered to send them a simple birthday card for their birthdays!! Not any acknowledgement at all from her (well, and my dad, but he is ill and she has always been the person who takes care of that type of thing). It just bothers me... my dad is in a home, she only visits him 2 times per week as it's quite a drive there... she doesn't work... so how hard is it to buy 3 birthday cards (she can afford it easily) and post them? I shouldn't let it bother me, but it does.....:(

This debt stuff sometimes make me feel like I'm walking through a minefield. I have crafting stuff that I would love to use (stamping, scrapbooking, and such) to make nice things, but I just don't seem to get the time to do it. My living room looks like a toy box exploded in it (mega blocks all over the place, thanks to our 4year old!), and my kitchen needs a thorough clean. The dining room has gotten out of control again and our room needs cleaning.

So....I feel that things are out of control. Surely I can't be the only one that feels that everything is escaping them sometimes. Today ... right now... I am resuming control. That's it. I am determined to turn this around before it completely takes over again. So the plan is as follows:

Taking back control steps to do today (to feel as if I've truly made some progress today) :

- take 30 minutes to do a serious cleaning blitz on the kitchen, including counters, fronts of cupboards and white goods, and floors!
- do 2 loads of washing today to hang inside to dry (as it's too much like rain today!)
- take 1 hour to work on craft stuff in dining room (DH will have the boys in the living room so I can work in relative peace)
- have DH & DS2 be in charge of tidying up the living room, including all the toys
- plan tasks for tomorrow to keep the momentum going

Small MS things to do today to feel as if I'm working to get back on budget:

- check bank balance (honestly, this is just to pull my head of out the sand and face the music, so to speak!)
- list moses basket, baby clothing on ebay (free listing today and tomorrow)
- sent DH into town today on his own, instead of all of us going - he had an appointment with eye dr and this avoids us spending extra money on parking and doing any shopping (he borrowed DD's bus pass so no cost on the transportation either!:j)
- tea will be from the freezer tonight - frozen fish pie and some veg - quick and easy so no temptation for takeaway

We had to cave in on the clothing challenge this week and buy some pajamas for DS2. He's been very upset at the thought of passing them on to DS3, as they are simply getting too short, especially his Thomas pajamas. But we found some nice pajamas (including some with Thomas on them) at Primark this week, so he finally accepted that the others were too small, and he is happy to wear his new pajamas. Plus, for the longest time it was rather warm in his room at night, so he was just wearing a pair of shorts to sleep in. He prefers pajamas though, so he's thrilled that it's cooler now. DH also has to purchase a belt today, and his finally broke the other day. And we finally got plimsolls for DS2 for school - but at £2 for the pair, it wasn't too expensive.

We freecycled the carseat from our travel system, as DS3 is too big for it now, and there's no point holding on to it and having it take up space. We also sold the stand for the moses basket and some extra bedding for the basket. I will probably donate some of the baby clothing and put some of it on ebay - it's all in good condition, but I've noticed certain brands just sell better on ebay than others (such as BabyGap, Next) and we have a fair bit of that (purchased by us from ebay as well! LOL).

I went to a friend's house and learned how to make jam/jelly yesterday. It was quite nice, but I can see why she says it's not necessarily cheaper to make the jam than to buy it. Basics jam at the supermarket is less than 50p per jar. Buying the fruit and sugar alone for the jam can be expensive, unless you can source fruit that is free or at a cheap pick-your-own place. I can't have jam that has seeds or pips in it, so I have to be a bit more selective about what jam or jelly I can make as well, which limits it a little more. There was a nice recipe for a pumpkin butter as well as a cranberry jelly that I'm interested in trying. Pumpkins are usually extremely cheap on Halloween or just after, so I'll probably pick a couple up then. I wonder if you can freeze chunks of fresh pumpkin and use later? I'll have to look that up somewhere....

WelshWoofer

Hi Triggles,
Just stumbled on your diary and after having a quick nosey at the last post or two just wanted to send you a virtual hug ((( ))).

It sounds like you've had a hard couple of days - try and take a little bit of time to yourself (maybe lock yourself in the bath with a book or glass of wine and just have a moment to recharge).

You're doing a great job - chin up!:)

Triggles

Rachel - thanks. I do need some relaxation time. DH & I just spoke about stress levels, and I told him I've spent more money than I should have recently and that we're off budget. I'm just sick about it. He's dealing with a lot as well, but he's being quite positive and supportive. He has taken the children off into the living room for the afternoon, so that I can putter about in the dining room with my craft stuff for a bit. So that's what I'm going to do. :j

Triggles

Fairly decent day today. 3 loads of laundry done (think I'm all caught up now, including towels and sheets). Spent a fair bit of time starting the organisation of my craft supplies, and was thrilled to discover that all the lovely different coloured ink pads for stamping are still great. I do have refills for the ones I use frequently, but as they were all packed in a plastic bag (upside to keep the ink pad saturated) I was a bit worried that after a few years of not being used, they'd be dried up a bit. Not so, I am relieved to note!!

My friend who taught me how to make jam/jelly recently is showing me how to make the different canning/jarring/preserving stuff and I am helping her with labels for her homemade Christmas preserves that she will be giving out at Christmas.

DH & I & DS2 picked some blackberries today at DD's garden - she has a bunch still growing (although much to DH's horror, she had cut a lot of the blackberry plants out, not realising what they were!) so we will be able to pick more soon. We plan on making more bramble jelly, but not sure if we'll be doing it very soon or freezing the berries and doing it later.

It's late and I'm tired, even though having difficulties sleeping. So I'm going to try and go to sleep.

Triggles

Having taken stock, I've realised that I only have a few jars for the bramble jelly, so I will need to wash and freeze the berries, and make the jelly at a later date. That's fine though. It will actually be easier for me to make it during the day when DS2 is at school (oh my, that sounds so odd to say - he's just turned four and will be in school all day soon! sob sob). That gives me a couple weeks to put aside a few more jars.

DS2 has become aware of the new Toy Story 3 stuff in the last month, but good grief - it seems the stores just price all the Toy Story products out of orbit!! Thankfully, he's only 4, so he really hasn't seen the original Toy Story yet. So he is now happily watching the original movie which we had on DVD already, and thinks it's something new.

We just found out a second of our debts is unenforceable. So that's 2 that are, and 2 that aren't. And one that has a £0 balance. So things are looking up.

I got quite a bit done on my craft stuff yesterday, managing to organise all the stamps and inks (which is a LOT of stuff!!) so I'm pleased about that. The plan is to do some cleaning today, and then do some more organising in the crafts again later.

Well, better get busy ...

Triggles

I didn't get all the organising done that I planned. DH & I got caught up in some telly and relaxed a bit this evening, which is nice as well. He did, however, do the colour dye for my hair, so now that's done. He always does such a nice job, and I feel much better (especially with no grey hair showing! LOL) now that I've gotten that out of the way.

I read a news story about the possibility of the government privatising the library system. Not a good thing, I think! I think it makes me a bit nervous that there's already such a huge gap between the rich and the poor that this will only increase it - the library is such an important resource and meeting place, especially for those of us that are lower income. Hopefully it will not happen, as IMO it will be a death knell for free library services and books available to those who need them most!

A bit more organisation of the craft stuff tomorrow, finish up the kitchen clean up that I started today, and hopefully some more work in sorting our bedroom out. That always seems to be the last room cleaned up as nobody else sees it but us.