I've had my LBM and now it's time to sort it out once and for all

Primrose2004

Sorry I keep posting but it helps me to get the words down in print/on paper. It stops them whirling round my head and will hopefully allow me to sleep.

I have a good plan for the future, i'm going to pledge not to buy any clothes(unless they're 100% NEEDED-not WANTED(eg I may need some new socks or something so will allow them to be bought!) next year and not to buy the children any toys/books unless its for their birthdays(april and june but I will allow purchases at other times as long as I keep them for their bdays-can't say no to a bargain!!)

I will be buying myself some new boots and/or shoes but these are necessary and already planned, i'm just waiting for the sales really!

I just think if I pledge that on here then I will stick to it, rather than think 'i'm off out for the night I NEED a new top' when really I have something I can wear, but in the past a night out=new outfit. and I justify it by saying I don't go out often, which I don't so really it doesn't make sense to buy a new top everytime I go out does it?!

Oh actually having said all that I will put one more exclusion on the no buying and that's an outfit for my friend's wedding, but I will pledge to sell the 3/4 'wedding outfit' dresses I have in the wardrove and probably won't wear again and shoes, so that I can buy a new dress.

Hopefully if I can make next year a 'make do' year for clothes then the year after I will be able to afford clothes without worrying. hmmm we'll see!

I am also going to try and be more organised from now on. I'll go into this more tomorrow as i'm getting eye ache from the computer. I'm sure anyone reading will be on the edge of their seat waiting for my organisation plans:rotfl:

Primrose2004

I've decided to try and think of some practical things I need for the house to ask my Dad for christmas presents. I've started with kitchen scales as mine are rubbish, do you remember I bought some asda value ones when mine broke, awful things!!

Not sure what else I can ask for yet, but I have a while to think, not long, but if I can get something useful rather than smellies then we'll be better off.

Dh and I have decided, as usual, not to buy each other anything:( I hope next year to be able to buy something for each other. I'm going to start a few spare change pots to help towards next year's christmas. Even if I only end up with £30 or so that'll be better than this years NIL.


I do have one major problem, I think up ways to sort things out, and what i'd like to do but i never actually DO it. Whatever 'it' is. SO my plan for now is to make reasonable plans that I WILL see through and i'm going to keep up this diary with the aim of sticking to it.

Herewego

We buy each other essentials like bubble bath, hairspray and deodrants that we would have to buy anyway just so we have some bits to open with DS on xmas morning.
You dont need to buy anything to give a gift, you could offer to wash his car, cook a special meal or anything you want to be redeem whenever you want the list is endless and all for the cost of a bit of paper and an envelope.
Keep posting you are moving in the right direction and im sure the New year will continue in the right direction.

firesidemaid

hello!

just wanted to let you know i am reading and listening.

trying to think of things to suggest that might help?

re. your budget - i think that every little helps, so that if you can shave a few £s off here and there it really does add up. you then need to ensure that you do something with those 'savings'.

we have a pot for the food money - and when its gone its gone. we also found that meal planning, and even a list of quick, easy and cheap things to make as a reminder really helps. quiches (can use ANY fillings), pitta pizzas (make from frozen, add tom puree, cheese whatever you have in fridge/cupboard as toppings - ready in oven in 10mins, top cooked nicely and base not overdone), pan haggerty, toad in the hole, pasta bakes (make a quick cheese sauce - add anything again!) etc

maybe get the whole family involved with planning bfasts, lunches and dinners. you could even post an entire cupboard/freezer list on here or on the old-style board for some ideas! (we made a toad/hole using a veggie saus mix which was ood in feb - it was fine and lovely)!

is your car insurance for two of you? make sure you always use quidco etc where you can for cashback. if you pay for your council tax over 10 months do something with the money in months 11 and 12.

re. BT. we have to be with them because of the rural location we live in, but i just have line rental and pay for it in the cheapest way possible. i use 18185 for any daytime calls (bt should be free in eves) or my inclusive free mins.

also, could one of you get a £10 (or less) sim-only deal eg. vodafone do unltd texts and 300 mins and use those free mins instead of to bt plus get cashback!?

you'll get through it - and next year you will have the time to plan for xmas all year.

take care x

jwil

Primrose - your CC - is that the minimum payment, or just the amount you pay off each month. I ask because I have a CC with a 7700 balance on it, which has a min payment of £200-odd per month, and that interest rate is 34.9%!! If yours is min payment, it suggests your interest rate might be really high and it might be worth seeing if you can get a balance transfer.

Primrose2004

firesidemaid wrote: »

hello!

just wanted to let you know i am reading and listening.

trying to think of things to suggest that might help?

re. your budget - i think that every little helps, so that if you can shave a few £s off here and there it really does add up. you then need to ensure that you do something with those 'savings'.

we have a pot for the food money - and when its gone its gone. we also found that meal planning, and even a list of quick, easy and cheap things to make as a reminder really helps. quiches (can use ANY fillings), pitta pizzas (make from frozen, add tom puree, cheese whatever you have in fridge/cupboard as toppings - ready in oven in 10mins, top cooked nicely and base not overdone), pan haggerty, toad in the hole, pasta bakes (make a quick cheese sauce - add anything again!) etc food is definately one of the places i need to make savings. I seem to be forever 'popping' out to get something but I don't remember my mum doing that. She did a weekly shop and that was it. I need to meal plan and try and work out how much of things like bread we need each week and only buy what I need. I've already run the stores down and we do have less wastage, which is good. But there is more that can be done.

maybe get the whole family involved with planning bfasts, lunches and dinners. you could even post an entire cupboard/freezer list on here or on the old-style board for some ideas! (we made a toad/hole using a veggie saus mix which was ood in feb - it was fine and lovely)!

is your car insurance for two of you? make sure you always use quidco etc where you can for cashback. if you pay for your council tax over 10 months do something with the money in months 11 and 12. Car insurance is for one car with bith me and dh on it, and I can't remember if I put them together but we also pay recovery with the insurance. The car's getting old and I need the backup of recovery if we need it.

re. BT. we have to be with them because of the rural location we live in, but i just have line rental and pay for it in the cheapest way possible. i use 18185 for any daytime calls (bt should be free in eves) or my inclusive free mins. I'll check out the home phone. We don't use it much to be honest. Have it really re broadband.

also, could one of you get a £10 (or less) sim-only deal eg. vodafone do unltd texts and 300 mins and use those free mins instead of to bt plus get cashback!? Do you mean PAYG, we are both PAYG already, I think I put £20 for phones each month but in reality it isn't that much. DH's phone is on O2's deal where you top up £10 and get free text and mine's Tesco where I top up £10 and get £20 free so I think I top up every other month or maybe 6 weeks. I have been trying to use mine less too and use facebook which is free!!

you'll get through it - and next year you will have the time to plan for xmas all year.

take care x

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it. Every month I think 'next month will be easier' but in reality it doesn't seem to be. I think food is the key. I est £70 per week but it must be more than that at the moment. I'm too scared to look through statements and see:o I have got better in some ways though as I now don't just pick up a dvd or whatever but there has to be more I can do.

We have our council tax over 10 months and I'm going to either save the free months for car repairs or pay some more off the cc. Our council tax is about £130 a month so I thought i'd use £100 and leave the odd to come off the o/d.

Primrose2004

Thanks HWG. I've been on another forum and there's a thread on there with some fab ideas for making christmas special that are cheap/free and i'm going to try some of those because after all christmas is about being together with family and having a nice time, not about expensive presents. DH and I both have christmas eve off work so we're trying to think up some lovely things to do with the dc. We're also going to family over christmas to avoid the food issue! I'm not really worried about presents but I would like to haev the option.

jwil wrote: »

Primrose - your CC - is that the minimum payment, or just the amount you pay off each month. I ask because I have a CC with a 7700 balance on it, which has a min payment of £200-odd per month, and that interest rate is 34.9%!! If yours is min payment, it suggests your interest rate might be really high and it might be worth seeing if you can get a balance transfer.

I'll have a look at this when I can. I don't know what the rate is. The minimum repayment this month on very nearly £7k is £210 or very close to that, I can't quite remember:o

I'm not sure if we would get a blanace transfer. I have looked at them but haven't applied. I'll get onto that asap and see what we could do.


Do you know what, I think going back to cash is probably my best option. but I must get organised first. I need to draw out £x a week and just live off that. I think because we have lived in a situation where we had cash when we wanted (before we moved into our current house and had dc2 and a bigger mortgage) the last 4 years when we should have been saying no we don't ahev the money I have jsut thought i'll find it and finding it meant using the cc or o/d. Our debt isn't through frivilous spending but living and having the odd treat of a night out or whatever, but these are always cheap.

The only way to sort it is to stop thinking 'why me' and just get on with it so i'm going to adpot the onwards and upwards way of thinking and get moving on starting afresh. There's nothing I can do about what has happened but I can do something about what will happen. Luckily we aren't in too dire a situation. Ok it's not great but there are lots of positives.

Primrose2004

I've just thought, our top up tv package must end in Feb/Mar ie fixed term contract is up, so i'll see what I can do to reduce this. Dh loves his sport but we don't need the tv favourites I don't think so this coudl be reduced to £10 a month. as you said FSM every little helps!!

jwil

I live on cash throughout the month too, it's much easier for me to manage that way.

Every little helps indeed!

Primrose2004

:mad: the clutch in the car needs doing. why is there an endless list of 'stuff' that comes up?

Luckily i've asked my sister if I can borrow the £230 to fix it:mad: and she has said that's fine:j but we'll obviously need to pay it back and now dh is talking about changing the car. I'm hoping to persuade him tonight to wait a year as by then we will hopefully be in a different position financially.

Luckily we're not going anywhere in it this weekend so we will use it as little as possible. So tomorrow i'm walking the kids to school/preschool(downhill!) and my friend will drop ds and I back home(she'll then have lunch and our dc will play) and then a friend offered to drop dd home after school. DH is working all of saturday and i'm planning a day of making christmas stuff with the kids for christmas presents. Not sure about sunday yet. Then monday i'll take dd to school and drop the car off to be fixed with dh's mechanic uncle. I haven't figured out how i'll then get ds to MIl's so that I can get to my 10am hospital appointment but nevermind:D I suppose ds can come with me:eek:

<<<<<<SIGH>>>>>>>






In better news i'm going to get 'stuff' done tonight, I have a list (a mental list) and will be hoping to get lots done. I'll be back later to report on progress