The final countdown... and a newbie in the DFSD house!

debtfreesomeday

Hope your early night had the desired effect Chocs; we did the same last night - hubby hasn't been feeling 100% all week and was asleep by 9.30pm which is very unusual for him.

Tell me about the chocolates & biscuits thing! We have loads - none bought ourselves - but all given to us. I have been bringing them into work for the office to eat and so far they've been disappearing quickly! Today's offering is a big box of chocolates - I hope they polish them off quickly today so I can bring the last tin of chocolates in tomorrow! :rotfl:

I'm glad it's not just us with the meal-planning problem. I stopped batch cooking main meals a long time ago as they never seem very appetizing when defrosted and re-heated. We sometimes cook chilli etc. that way for packed lunches, but it's mostly for hubby as he likes something substantial for lunch and is not a soup/salad/sandwich fan. My Mum has been making lots of homemade soup lately and freezing it in portions for me so I have been using that up. Trouble is, I've overdosed on it now I think and don't fancy it! I felt bad telling her yesterday that I had plenty in the freezer for now after she made another big batch. I don't want to hurt her feeling but I also don't want food going to waste either. I know my sister and others will eat and enjoy it instead.

Onto the finances, and the new mobile's been dispatched so the CB should follow soon-ish. It's no fancy phone - just a basic free one - but that doesn't bother me. As long as I can make/receive calls and texts that's fine by me. Actually, I'll probably just put the sim in my existing phone (another cheapy basic thing!) as I'm used to that one now and may sell on the other one for a few £'s.

80p transferred to the ML account today, and another 70p or so went in the sealed pot last night from change I found around the house. Still need to raid the change pot in the car as there's loads of coppers in there which can be thrown in too.

Not so good news (in a way) is that we booked the hotel needed for later in the year, putting it on the credit card (£60). I really didn't want to, but it seemed daft paying double the price later on once the sale had ended. Because of this, we will definitely be paying the whole phone and quidco cashback amount off the card, which should be £270.

I've made a list of groceries to buy tonight in readiness for our visitors at the weekend. We're hoping to keep it minimal, I'd really like it to come in under £30 as that's how much I have put in my purse from the grocery pot this morning for it. (Well, £34.50 to be precise!). I've taken a joint of meat out of the freezer to defrost to cook for tomorrow's meal and we have lots of veg in, so no need to buy anything for that. Thankfully, we also have a few bottles of wine and even a bottle of champagne (which we were given!) left from Christmas & New Year, so won't need to buy any wine for the weekend.

We've taken some sausages out of the freezer for our meal tonight, I can feel a sausage and mash night coming on! Also found a couple of jellies in the store cupboard last night which are never usually bought, so made a big raspberry jelly for us to eat tonight. I feel like we're reverting back to our childhood - sausage & mash & jelly - all we need is the ice cream!

The first issue of our 'Good Food' magazine subscription which we bought with our clubcard vouchers arrived yesterday. I haven't read it through yet but it seems to be full of ideas for all budgets and diets which is good. We'll look forward to getting that every month and shall try making something from it each time for a bit of variety.

I managed to get two loads of washing done and dried last night; also made the guest bed up and unstacked and stacked the dishwasher as well as having a general tidy round. I had to pick hubby up from work late, so feel like I achieved quite a lot in a little time last night which is always good.

Happy Thursday everyone

DFSD
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debtfreesomeday

Well it seems I was being a bit ambitious with the estimated cost of the shopping... try doubling the £30 and adding 97p!!!:eek::eek::eek:

So, £60.97 spent yesterday on groceries - I paid with £30 cash and £30.97 came out of the account, leaving a paltry £30 of leftover money in there for any incidentals now until payday. We also filled up with petrol as the car was under half full - that took £38!!! :eek::eek::eek: This was at Sainsbury's which is one of the cheapest round here too. Shocking. There is £87 left in the account which has been allocated for petrol though, so that's nearly 2 tank fulls which should be sufficient - hopefully we won't need to use all of that and a little can go towards the 'incidentals' pot.
We also still have the £40 of Asda vouchers we were given, so we can use those for any fresh fruit & veg & groceries we may need before pay day.

70p was transferred over to the ML account his morning, so that is slowly trickling upwards. There'll be another whack going in there when we get paid.

I missed the delivery of my new mobi yesterday, but have called to re-arrange it for later today. The phone will be staying in the box to sell (prob only worth a few pounds as is not flashy). I also have a couple of old phones lying round the house to get rid of. Looking at them on these recycle sites, they're worth from nothing to about £3, but I think I can get a couple of pounds CB through Quidco so even if it's only a tenner it will be better than nothing and will get them out of my way. I'll have a look at that next week when I've rounded them all up.

DFSD
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debtfreesomeday

Have advertised an item for sale on the notice board at work for £35. Hopefully that will sell very quickly and I can throw the money at the credit card. Fingers crossed!

Just had lunch - brought in from home of course - HM soup and some mini quiches, both made by my lovely Mum. :):D I have to confess to buying lunch one day this week when I really didn't fancy soup again and was being lazy, but at £3.29, that definitely won't be happening again for a while!

A joint of meat for dinner tonight is in the slow cooker - we are feeding guests so it is a larger dinner than we would normally have on a Friday! May need to finish the meat off in the oven tonight whilst getting the veggies done. I prepped the spuds last night, so not a lot to do really. We need to run the hoover round the house as well and I'd like to get some washing done but that may have to wait. Bathrooms were cleaned last night so that's one more job out of the way.

debtfreesomeday

Monday already - and into my last full week of full time working for a while now - ML starts a week tomorrow. :eek: I've been full of cold the past two days so not feeling great this morning.

This weekend saw us entertaining guests again and, as lovely as they are, we were both glad when the door closed behind them. It's been too much these past two weekends and we're both really tired. We have a mini mountain of washing to do again what with changing the linen and washing towels etc after more guests. I did two loads yesterday but probably have another 3 to do at least. Shall try and make a dent in it tonight.

£12 more spent on groceries and bits at the weekend - I didn't realise we were so low on loo roll so had to make an early Saturday morning dash to the local supermarket! We went out for coffee a couple of times with the guests which hubby paid for and they also kindly bought us a lovely lunch, so nothing out of the bank account there.

I've had one enquiry about the item I advertised on the notice board, so hopefully that will be a quick sale for £35.

I made us both lunch this morning and had breakfast at home, so no spends today for me; although I've asked hubby to pick up some throat sweets today and I'm not sure he has any cash on him, so there may be a pound or so spend on the card - necessary at the moment though as both of us have sore throats. I have taken some mince out of the freezer this morning to defrost for our dinner tonight, so chilli or cottage pie is on the menu. Usually, we make enough to ensure hubby has leftovers for lunch for a day or two afterwards too.

The odd 50p loitering in the main account has been transferred over to ML e-saver this morning. It's two weeks until payday and we have around £100 left for petrol and 'all other bits' + £40 in supermarket vouchers for groceries.

Have a good week everyone

DFSD
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wantabetterlife

Hi DFSD, i am sure you cant wait to start maternity leave, i am really enjoying my time off and dont miss work at all. I am already dreading going back to work as i will be doing full time hours with three children :eek: . Hope your item sells. xo

debtfreesomeday

The item has been sold for £35, the lady is going to pick it up and pay for it tomorrow. Also, I've just checked my Quidco account and there's £16.87 sat ready to be paid out, so, combined with the £35, that's £51.87 ready to pay off the credit card. Hopefully a few more transactions will be paid on Quidco before payout so there'll be even more!

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

This afternoon I have spent a couple of hours trying to update the financial plan I have in place for maternity leave and beyond as I produced the last one when I first found out I was pregnant. Unfortunately, since then, some of our bills and expenses have gone up as most people's have (ie. the cost of food, petrol and utilites etc.), as well as the £50 extra we are now paying on the new loan to clear it two years earlier. Hubby now also has to pay for car parking at work which is an extra £20 a month.

In addition to this, now I know the actual dates of my maternity leave and the number of weeks I get paid and roughly what amount, I am able to be more accurate with the budget.

All I can say is "oh, @$*%".

It doesn't make for good reading.

We will be pretty skint, but ok ish until April/May, and then the poop hits the fan. From what I can work out, we will only have £168.72 left between us (and that's including child benefit!) from June's payday onwards, whereas there would normally be £400+ which needs to cover credit card payments, gifts, haircuts, entertainment, clothing - everything other than groceries, petrol and household bills. It also means we can't put as much into the post ML savings account, and instead of putting £700 in for 3 of the months we can only afford £600 in there a month.

It gets worse...

when I go back to work at the end of October and we have to pay nursery fees, we will have a shortfall of £80.80 a month - again after child benefit.

Now, the previously mentioned 'post ML savings account' is to cover the period from when I go back to work until our loan is paid off in November 2013. Our aim was to have at least £6k+ in there so we would be able to draw out £250 a month to help for those 25 months. Unfortunately, we'll be about £700 short on this total with things as projected and will only have just over £200 a month available to us. I really don't know what we're going to do! How are we going to afford Christmas/birthdays/clothes/things needing replacing without any money?! It also means the credit card will take an age to pay off again even though the balance is not that high.

I'm in major panic mode and can feel a sleepless night coming on... :(:(

debtfreesomeday

Within the budget above, I've allowed for £200 for groceries and £200 for petrol a month with the costs of both spiraling. I guess we'll have to just try and keep these to a minimum and make savings where we can in these two areas. I've also kept up the £100 a month tax and insurance savings as I think this is important - it enables us to afford to pay the road tax and car and house insurance when those bills come round. Also car maintenance such as new tyres, brakes etc if there's enough in there, but in the past there usually hasn't been and those things have had to come out of our monthly earnings.

Will have to sit down with hubby tonight and talk it through, I really don't know what we're going to do. I may have to consider going back to work 3 months earlier as I'd planned to take 9 months off, or, I may seriously have to go back to work full time and put the baby in nursery full time once maternity leave is up, but that would break my heart.

debtfreesomeday

Oh, I also ordered a book on Amazon today which has been highly recommended, relating to baby and childcare etc and what the heck we do - I'm feeling very useless and very clueless about knowing what to do with a baby - but due to the above, I've gone back on and cancelled it quickly before it was sent out as money is now like gold dust. I'll try and join the library this week and get the book out of there instead.

SmlSave

Hi DFSD, I'm just delurking to firstly give (hugs) and say try not to panic too much. I can't give you any advice as I'm expecting my first one too, have no idea what to expect and have just worked out that we're going to be short money wise too but I know that you have to stay as positive as possible.

You never know, we might win the lottery - would actually have to buy a ticket first though!

lurks back down....

P.S. definitely join the library!