To remind myself how far I've come - my debt diary. - SOA added

chocaholic110

Well, we're back. We had a fairly good time. Weather was mostly ok, one day of glorious sunshine, one day of pelting down rain and two days of ok but a bit overcast. With good planning we managed to see everything, do everything with hardly any waiting in queues. Think I am becoming a bit intolerant of other people in my old age though - it really annoyed me when we were queuing patiently to catch bus / get an autograph from character etc only to be knocked out of the way by other people who wouldn't wait. On one morning we waited in a queue to get the bus to the park, two buses came and the crowds thronged forward - we decided to wait for the next one along with about 10 other people. Great, we thought, we're at the front of the queue, we'll definitely get on next time. By the time the bus came, loads of other people had come, stood in front of us and crowded for the bus again - my 8 year old DD was actually punched by one woman to get her out of the way!! Decided as soon as debt free day arrives we will start saving to go back to Florida - at least people understand the concept of queueing there!!

Oh, BTW, didn't have the nerve to take breakfast food for lunch in the park, but with the snacks we brought ourselves we did ok. We managed to bring 200 euros home; however by the time I've refunded the kids the money they didn't spend and given my stepdad some money for taking us/collecting us from the airport then that will be depleted a little. Planning on putting any leftover money towards car tax that is due at the end of this month.

DS was showing his MSE side while we were away. He spent nothing and will get his money back in sterling to go in his money box. DD is beginning to show signs of MSE-ing (Usually she would spend every penny). She wanted a Donald Duck cuddly toy to match the Daisy she bought last year. It was almost 20 euros (she only had 25). She managed to find one that had been wrongly labelled at almost 12 and bought that (possible moral issues there - maybe one for Martin's moral dilemma??). Then she thought about buying two key rings to match the keyrings she bought in Florida. We asked her to think about it first. She later decided that she didn't really do anything with the keyrings she already had and would change her leftover Euros into Stering as well and begin a savings plan to go to America. She worked out that if she saved 50p a week for two years she would have just over £50 saved and is hoping to achieve that or more.

One slight downside on the holiday. We left our cases in the baggage hold at the hotel on the last day and when we returned we couldn't use our keys in the lock as both locks had been tampered with. We broke into one case but couldn't get into the other. We tried to explain at the airport but no-one seemed to be very bothered. The man at check in said to OH "I'm sure the x-rays will pick up if there's a bomb in your case, sir. We'll let you know if that happens." Our plane was then an hour late and OH had visions of the bomb disposal squad blowing up our cases!! We broke the locks when we arrived home and didn't find anything untoward - overactive imaginations only!!

OH is picking his car up this afternoon. The mechanic said it had passed, after having a few things done, he hadn't worked out the cost but "shouldn't be too much". Now, will his "shouldn't be too much" be the same as our "shouldn't be too much"???

Now, that I'm back from trip away, thoughts are turning to returning to work and I'm really not looking forward to it. Discussed with OH the posibilty of starting maternity leave a month earlier than planned - financially it doesn't really make sense but physically / emotionally it does. Still not sure exactly what we will do but I am starting to like the idea of finishing work at the beginning of December, therefore missing all of the Christmas performances / lunches / parties etc that stress the Head Teacher and cause her to shout at everyone all of the time. I could have taken the extra month on the end of maternity leave but that would mean running my leave through next years summer holidays and only receiving maternity pay instead of full pay during the holidays - not something I want to do.

Got more ebay parcels to post today. Have sort of lost track of what have made from ebay this month but think it is in the region of £180. Have tried to pay most of it off Egg card that keeps getting used during month and paid off fully every month.

Might do monthly update soon, it's a bit early but I more or less know how the figures will stand by the end of August / begiining of September and it should give me the incentive to begin plugging away with debts again.

chocaholic110

Blimey, that was a bit of an essay! You can tell I haven't posted for 4 days!

chocaholic110

Early again, but I get strangely over excited at the end of the month

My Debts

Marbles Card: £3,700

OH's Debts

Egg Card: £1,079.43

Joint Debts

A+L loan: £ £0! :j

Loans all gone! If we can be really focused I'm hoping that OH's Egg card can be completely gone next month. Every spare penny headed in that direction!


Total £4,779.43
Total reduced in August £1,014.57
Total reduced since LB moment (August 2006) : £22,196.17
Total reduced since debt at highest (January 2006): £24,104.17
Target for end of August - £4,800 - just acheived, JUST!!!
Target for end of September - £3,500

esthomizzy

Wow Choco only just read through your thread but well done. You've done amazingly and must be an inspiration to everyone on here. Give yourself a big pat on the back

Uptomyeyesindebt

Glad you enjoyed Disneyland Paris - we got back yesterday as well. We went by ferry and coach though. I was looking at a family on the ferry who were sharing one bowl of chips and one large coke with four straws and wondering if it was you!! Guess not, as you were on the plane, must have been some other DFW!

How did you manage to bring money home though? We failed and ran up more on the ccs. Completely lost the plot and kept thinking we will be on beans on toast from now until Christmas - still ended up with several stuffed mice, some mugs and cushions!! Good grief, I only saw the light two weeks ago and I've fallen off the wagon already.:o

chocaholic110

Uptomyeyesindebt wrote: »

Glad you enjoyed Disneyland Paris - we got back yesterday as well. We went by ferry and coach though. I was looking at a family on the ferry who were sharing one bowl of chips and one large coke with four straws and wondering if it was you!! Guess not, as you were on the plane, must have been some other DFW!

How did you manage to bring money home though? We failed and ran up more on the ccs. Completely lost the plot and kept thinking we will be on beans on toast from now until Christmas - still ended up with several stuffed mice, some mugs and cushions!! Good grief, I only saw the light two weeks ago and I've fallen off the wagon already.:o

Lol, nope, must have been another DFW, anyone owning up?? We went on the ferry and coach the last time we went and never again! Apart from the fact that we live in the north east and the coach trip is long anyway, we had illegal immigrants climb in the suitcase hatch that the driver failed to lock (very scary!!!), and the driver hadn't filled in some paperwork correctly and we had to wait about 3 hours at the ferry port before we were allowed on. It was a nightmare trip!

I think we brought money home as we only spent it on food and a couple of presents for my nieces. The kids had their own budget and we didn't even need to buy rain capes as we had them from a previous visit. Also we only really ate at cheapy places. Taking our own drinks was a good idea too. I worked out that a small bottle of water in the park cost £1.71, a bigger bottle from the garage beside the hotel cost 57p!!

chocaholic110

Has anyone got any thoughts on pocket money for children? We've never really given our two pocket money, instead we've just paid for anything that needed paying but while we were away DD started talking about saving up to (hopefully) go to Disneyland Florida in a couple of years. She wanted to be able to take her own money and was working out how much she could save.

The two kids have always done jobs around the house so DD wondered if they could get paid per job and constructed a list of lots of things they could do and put a price on each one. Now, OH thinks we should just set an agreed price each week but I agree with DD on the pay per job system as I think it will teach that they need to work to earn money.

What does anyone else think?

BTW, they have both got dressed this morning, then asked if they could do jobs!! I might end up a (very poor) lady of leisure!!

chocaholic110

Listed some more stuff on ebay today. One has already got a bidder within the hour and it was only some books of luncheon vouchers I got for doing surveys and probably wouldn't use myself.

OH, DD and DS out at a trucking fair all rest of day so house to myself. Should really be working but keep getting distracted by MSE!

chocaholic110

OH gone to work today - should up his pay for next week, working on a bank holiday.
Only thing was I had a cot (only 3 months old) to collect from freecycle. Went to get it to find people who owned it out and the cot was left in the yard. Problem was it was still all in one piece (I sort of thought it would be in bits). DD and I had to carry it down the street, fold all the seats down in the back of the car and push it in that way - am now shattered and having a relaxing cup of tea and half an hour on here!

My ebay vouchers are all selling - someone tell me am I missing something here - is it worth buying vouchers when you bid up to the voucher's face value. Why do people do that? Is there something I don't know???

esthomizzy

chocaholic110 wrote: »

Has anyone got any thoughts on pocket money for children? quote]

Well when I was a kid I had pocket money and neither my current boyfriend nor my last boyfriend did, their parents just bought stuff when they needed it. I'm good with money (and my brother and sister are too) and always know how much I've got in the bank and in my pocket and where possible try and have the money for things before I buy them. They (the boyfriends past and present) are useless and spend anything they have and then some. I think having pocket money and or doing money for odd jobs is great and teaches kids what it will be like to work and get paid when they are older. Especially if they are able to save up for the things they want rather than get them if the parents have had a good week moneywise and can afford it.