Changing our lives....

Sessie

This is just a quick one as I have just printed out the SOA from the main DFW board and, armed with my last few months' bank statements, am about to try to complete it as best as I can to give me a better idea, in black and white, of where we stand.

I will probably then monitor our spending over the next few months - especially if I'm able to switch utilities and save money there (one of the bigger tasks I intend doing when I get a child-free day at home!) - and see if we're able to pay off even more per month on the CC with what we're saving. Not really sure how all of this will turn out, whether it will be obvious from the figures or more complex but only one way to find out! Will re-do the SOA maybe every 3 months as things change to keep a record of everything.

With respect to the expected outgoings over the next few months there are (to the best of my knowledge at present) as follows:

2 x prescriptions every 2 months - next one due in about a month so £15.00

I need my own hair cutting and the children need theirs trimming - I won't be going to a salon - WAY too expensive - have put a notice on the work intranet asking for info on any good but not overpriced mobile hairdressers. Working on a figure of no more than £25.00 for all three of us, hopefully even less.

My mum is 65 at the end of the month - will prob spend at least £50.00 on her. She's the best mum anyone could have and also 65 is a biggie. My sisters and I are all cooking a course and taking it to mum and dad's house on the day rather than go out for a meal as all of us are trying to cut back a bit.

Dad's birthday is in September - probably spend about £30.00 there including cards from hubby and me and the kids.

Car tax (£210.00) is due by the end of September.

MOT due mid-September - (£50ish?) am hoping it will pass OK, had a bit of work done on it last year (minor) after the MOT and we haven't noticed anything wrong with it since. Hubby does try to keep an eye on oil, water etc... and keeps it in good nick so fingers crossed there.

2nd instalment of the water bill due 1 October - about £200.00. I know, I know, put it on monthly direct debit - we probably will in April next year but until now it has suited us better to pay twice a year.

The children will each need a new pair of shoes once the weather turns for the worse. They have been living in lovely Clarks sandals bought for them by a COMPLETE STRANGER! (that's a story for another day) all summer but proper winter shoes are due soon after a re-measure of their little feetses. Approx £50.00 there (I won't compromise on Clarks for the children's feet, cheap shoes might save me money but my childrens' health is more important).

Those are what I know are coming our way - who knows what else will explode in our faces?! I'm sure SOMETHING will!

As for tasks today:

Money - put some silver and bronze change I found in hubby's pockets and on bedroom floor into my sealed jars.

Money (again!) - (so long as I do three things every day, I can do two or more from the same category so nyah!) - checked cupboards for what we have in so I could make meal plan and then write shopping list for tomorrow. Had omelette for tea made with eggs bought for crumble and with leftover mushrooms, onions and tomatoes from last week's cooking marathon.

Together with the Decluttering one from earlier that's my three for today! TICK! TICK! TICK!

Ha! So much for this one being "a short one"! Onwards and upwards to the SOA I go.... eeeep!

x

Busy_bee_3

What a great Diary!
Just wanted to wish you well and congratulate you on how well you have done so far.
I don't have a massive amount of debt either but I'm also looking to tighten my belt and build up a reserve 'just in case'. I feel really inspired and will be coming along every so often to see how you're getting on, so keep sharing your tips!
I'm off to the kitchen to list what i have in.....

Sessie

I think I'm getting quite good at this lark! Today has been another successful one, particularly on the shopping front. I am SO a Morrisons convert (thanks mainly to my sister and her other half)!

Went shopping after working this morning and I got enough stuff to last us at LEAST another two weeks, including meats, spreads and cheese, crisps and biscuits for packups, yoghurts for the children, fruit and vegetables galore (for the next lot of batch cooking, though I think that will have to wait until the weekend), LOADS of cereal, tinned stuff... seriously, LOADS of stuff for the huge, whopping total of £78.25! :j.

We have not done a "big shop" now for almost six weeks and have eaten well, not run out of any toiletries (don't think we will for a while either) or cleaning products.

Pick of the bargains:

Buy 3 tins of (Princes!) tuna - GET THREE FREE!!! A saving of £4.11.
Guess one of the dishes for next week is tuna pasta bake!

6 loaves of Rathbones bread (HUGE loaves) for 50p EACH! Cheese on toast for the children's lunches methinks, maybe make a bread and butter pudding... yummmmyyy..

Flora Buttery was half price (84p instead of £1.68) so I got a few of those stocked up.

Their honey nut cornflakes and "Trim Flakes" are JUST the same as Kelloggs Crunchy Nuts and Special K but half the price.

2 big packs of bacon for £2.00, saving £1.58.

Buy 3 tins of (Branston!) beans GET THREE FREE! A saving of £1.24.

Also they had quite a lot of meat on the reduced counter so that's in the freezer now.

I had already planned the meals I am going to make (note the word "AM" not "might!) but can maybe put together a few more now, it's just finding the time!

Again, managed to stick ONLY to the items on my shopping list, didn't deviate at all (though I may have "slowed down" past a few of the chocolate-based ones *ahem*). There's my first TICK for today for the Saving/Money element.

Came back and picked yet MORE blackberries - can't believe how many are on the bush - every day it's full again! Magic tree!! Have stewed them and put them in freezer, think we need a bit of a break from them but they will do nicely in the autumn with thick custard. Oh, bought custard POWDER today to make myself for puddings rather than ready made, again SO much cheaper and it's not exactly rocket science is it??! Also bought packets of jelly to make up rather than pre-made for the same reason.

Started on the SOA last night, didn't have all the paperwork I needed to fully complete it so took it to work and did some more in my break at work today. TICK number 2.

Found some more change lying around for the pots. TICK number 3. Also tidied out the fridge before putting shopping away and only had to throw ONE thing away, which wasn't even mine! Hubby likes those sandwich spreads with bits of chicken and egg and stuff in...eeewwww! One was about six days over date so I slung that. Usually we are throwing away veg and all sorts but have been really careful to use everything up this last week so that was it!

Forgot to say, yesterday was an NSD too. Didn't take any cash to work so the vending machine's evil ways could not tempt me!

Am going to see my sister tomorrow (she lives in another town) and will be pushing her to set the date for our boot sale - there is a really big one near me every Sunday. I'm a bit lazy when it comes to Ebay and Amazon, I know it's one way of making a bob but a boot sale is just... easier! I may give it a go later in the year when it's cold and we can't go out and I have more time but am still trying to make the most of any day that's nice if I'm not working and get out with the children whilst we still can. The task on the day of the boot sale will be "DO NOT come back with anything!". No point clearing out MY clutter and bringing home someone else's!

Blimey, all my posts end up being essays! I will be amazed if anyone other than me is still reading the way I go on!

Hoping everyone (if anyone's still here!) is doing well, off to read a few other diaries for further inspiration.

x

meersy22

Hi Sessie

Still here, marvelling at how much energy you have. Well done.

M

Sessie

Whee, today has been another good one! Realised that a payment had gone into my bank sooner than I expected so was able to draw it out and repay my mum the balance of the big dentist bill she kindly paid for me so that's THAT debt gone! TICK number one before dinnertime whooooo!

As we don't get together much, we decided to treat ourselves and went to Pizza Hut for lunch - I got a goat's cheese pizza, some wedges and a YUMMY chocolate milkshake. Sis got the buffet and mum got another pizza and cheese breadcrumb thingies. Had the children with me but we just gave them shares of ours, so it cost £11 to feed the children AND me which, given it was a special occasion, I was cool with but THEN mum insisted on paying for us all as a treat!! I honestly did try to say no but she insisted so... gracefully accepted.

Went past a salon offering "model" cuts and mum and sis offered to take the children while I had it done so you know what?? I went for it and.... WOW!! Had my hair washed whilst lying almost flat in a vibrating MASSAGE chair, low lights, candles and piano music floating in the background... then a slow, deep head massage (OMG, it was BLISS!). Then, whilst drinking a DIVINE latte (tasted like it was made with cream and .... strawberries .. or something, it was really tasty) the guy created this... cut that... looks awesome (I don't mean that in an "I'm-all-that" kind of way, it just really suits me and will be easy to manage with the kids and my time constraints). All for the princely sum of £20.00. I know I set a budget of £25 for me AND the kids and I'll probably fail on that one now but I feel FAB, can't stop looking at it in the mirror, it's given me a REAL lift so I reckon it was worth it. I SO rarely get anything for me, even the TIME alone without the children to have it done, was such a treat. It's not something I'll do again probably this year so I'm not apologising for it!! Nyah!

Only other spend today was £1.65 on cheese straws for the children.

Got back and my dad had totally redecorated our kitchen and it looks fab! I knew he was doing it - t'was the main reason for taking the children out for the full day, along with seeing my lovely sis who usually comes over to us - but it will be a surprise for hubby when he FINALLY gets home from work (been there since 8 this morning and he's not home yet - 8.29 pm!).

Put the children to bed and washed the kitchen floor, polished everything that's out on display, washed the windowsill and first thing this morning, before dad started, I had cleaned all the cupboard fronts so it looks fab for when hubby gets back. I reckon that's my second TICK.

Took more books upstairs, put another load of washing on and put change from today in my jars. Oh and managed to resist all the offers in the shops in town whilst out with sis and mum, didn't buy any magazines, even resisted "triple points offers" in Boots. TICK.

It has just remotivated me to start work on the house sorting/decluttering side of things. When I'm done here, going to work some more on my list of daily/weekly tasks I need to do. I did start it last week but it's not finished; looking at my lovely kitchen it's time I did! Then I can start putting THAT into action!

The way I'm going I won't have TIME to spend any money!

x

girlracer

regarding your water bill, have you ever considered having a water meter installed?
Ive had oneput in, and my water bills are so much cheaper
theres a website where you can put in your info about how much water you use and it tells you wether you will better of with a meter, i will try and find this website and let you know, you may not be interested, but may be intriging to find out

all the best

girlracer

http://unitedutilities.co.uk/WaterMeterCalc.aspx

Sessie

Thanks for that Girlracer, I will have a look at it soon. I'm hoping for a day soon where my parents take the children to their house so I can get a good chunk of time to go to all the "compare" sites and see what I can do to cut my utilities costs, also need to look up the cashback sites that pay for changing suppliers. Was talking to someone today who said I need to be careful not to go to the utility sites first or I have to remove all the cookies and such or the cashbacks don't work....? Didn't really understand but I'll have a look around and see if I can work it out.

Made a sausage and lentil casserole this morning (before 8 am!) - had it for tea and it was ...."nice"... I guess. I think next time I'd use red lentils (this recipe was for green which I'd bought to try). I wasn't massively impressed with the green ones when I was tasting as I went along but it ended up palatable enough. Maybe I'll mix red and green next time. There's some left and the children both liked it (which is important as the lentils are really good for them!) so we will have it again tomorrow. I probably won't buy any more green lentils once I've used these up but I WILL use them up and eat whatever I make with them, they're not HORRIBLE, but they're not great either. Red ones, on the other hand, I really like, made a great stew padded out with red lentils the other week.... which was FINE until I came downstairs next morning, having left it out to cool, to find our two cats had enjoyed it immensely and I had to throw out what was left!! Grrrr....

After breakfast, got a big bowl of soapy water and gave the children a sponge each and we all washed down the outside of the back door. Meant we all got VERY wet as two year olds don't quite get the idea of squeezing your sponge out before slapping it on the door, but we had lots of giggles and the door is now clean.

Other sis's boyfriend came over for the day (he works in a school so is on holiday at the mo) and we had a great day with the kids, running around the park and playing in our sandpit. In the midst of all this I got two loads of washing through and dried (on the line in the sun of course, no tumble drying!), folded most of it right from the line as it didn't need ironing so that's always a bonus!

Also, had a letter through saying boiler service was due - didn't, as I would normally have done, stick it on the windowsill to "deal with later", rang them straight away, arranged it for a couple of weeks time, wrote it on my reminder board in the kitchen and took the letter upstairs to the paperwork file in case I need references etc.. TICK!

Son had an ABSOLUTE tantrum meltdown at teatime and threw his dinner dish across the kitchen (he was exhausted after having no sleep all day and then a deep late sleep of 30 mins) so my kitchen hadn't even been decorated a DAY before it was splattered with food!! Cleared that all up and gave him another dish - he had calmed down watching mummy crawling along the floor cleaning his mess up - which he ate every bit of!

After the children had been changed into jimjams I hoovered the living room and "hallway" (for hallway read: small square bit inside the front door before you get to the stairs) which looked as though an entire primary school had had a chalk stamping convention in it. After such a busy day - and the half hour SCREAMING tantrum - I really didn't feel like doing it but the thought of being able to post here that I had STILL done it was enough - so I did it! I need to stop THINKING "I'm too tired, I can't face it"... and realise - as I did tonight - that some of the jobs are quicker and easier than I think. Looking at my nice tidy living room now I'm glad, I feel better. TICK!

Today was also an NSD - TICK!

Didn't get round to finishing my chores list last night, got too engrossed in some of the other diaries on here! . Loving Memorygirl's tree idea - may adapt that for "changes made to my daily life" in some way as the whole "seeing" how much you've done really does motivate you. I can SO see her tree with more and more leaves being coloured in acting as SUCH a push to her! Great idea and great diary too!

Anyhow, I've ended up with another essay length post - I never MEAN to, I'm just.... talkative!! Am going to watch some recorded Masterchefs to try to catch up and I'll work on the chores list a bit while I watch.

Again, hope you're all doing well - the weekend is coming! Having said that, I'm working 4 til 8 tomorrow and all day Saturday but, to be honest, it's nice to get a break from the children and some adult conversation and to use my brain to do more than remember nursery rhymes! Hopefully Saturday will be my third NSD for the week as I'll take a packup. I have to get my prescriptions tomorrow (painkillers as I have a nasty disc problem in my back) so tomorrow I HAVE to spend .

Okay, I really AM going now. G'night!

x

JoKay_2

Wow, Sessie, you're really going for it, aren't you! You're such an inspiration, well done!!

I'm intrigued about Memorygirl's tree - off to find it now...!

chevalier

I like your idea of having areas and for a successful day all you have to do is get 3 ticks. Nice one. I will also go off to read Memory Girls diary, seems intrigueing.

Ref the prescriptions, would a prepayment card be cheaper foryou? I think for it to be cheaper you have to get two or more items a month...

chev