Sorting through my rubbish

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi All

Hope you are enjoying the beautiful weather today.

Had a nice weekend but unfortunately am back on strong anti-biotics so felt quite poorly and didn't manage to faceb@@k as planned.

Did a shop on Friday with DS1, managed to keep it to about £35, got loads of meat, cheese and vegs for that. Had a huge roast on Sunday (massive chicken from mossies only £3), left over chicken stirfry yesterday (with posh stirfry veg reduced to 9p and schezuan sauce down to 19p), tonight we are out for a family meal as DS1 goes back tomorrow, bubble n squeak and fried eggs on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday will probably be something in the slow cooker - we have plenty of options for that.

Sunday I also made sausage rolls (mixed sausage meat with a pack of value stuffing, garlic granules and S'n'P), 2 baked lemon cheesecakes (value digestives for the base and 3 tubs of lemon flavoured quark reduced to 9p each mixed with sugar and eggs and baked) and also 2 large chocolate courgette cakes all of which was yummy. Froze one of the cheesecakes and one of the chocolate cakes.

Feel fairly organised for Xmas, DH is still decorating though!! Need to get the carpet organised, oh, and the cooker has gone on the blink and we need £100 to repair that!! DH is hoping to sell my old car, not worth much at all but should cover both bills!!

DH is hopefully starting his new job at the beginning of next month and SHOULD get paid at the end of the month so hopefully we won't have to go too long without money! It's always a nightmare when you change jobs, hopefully this will be the last change for a while and we can get financially more organised.

Right must dash 'at work'!

Take care

321 xxx

trixiepix

Hey lovely,

Just a quick 'pop in' to let you know i'm still here! - at work so gonna have to make it brief!

Hope you are feeling a little better, i'm back to docs too on wed after 3 week course of anti inflammatories (sadly no better ) so off for back x-ray, Tut!! - i was hoping to be jumping around like a spring lamb by now, lol:j
DH has been doing lots of overtime of late so takes the 'christmas' pressure off a tad, i did feel quite ahead of myself for a spell but in light of the blinking craft fayres now feel a tad behind!, last fayre on Friday and then i can shift focus back to xmas and ebaying!!

Kitchen is slowly getting there, still lots to do (which will have to wait financially until after christmas) but the new table and chairs (courtesy of ebay) looks lovely (v pleased :T) and i'm watching a few other bits and bobs, even better is that ebay sales paid for purchases, result!!

Anyway, must fly - will check back in soooooooon xxxx

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi Trixie,


Sorry I've been MIA for sooo long, been a bit of an odd time.


Glad to hear the kitchen is coming on well and well done on the table and chairs. We were given a new dining table earlier in the year, needed a new coat of varnish and has come up well, we got real leather chairs to go with it from [EMAIL="Eba@y"]Eba@y[/EMAIL], real bargain, half the price of the faux leather ones!!


Sorry to hear about your back, hope it's improving, it's so debilitating and inconvenient when you're a mother and backs can be a nightmare to get right again!


Hope the Craft Fairs proved profitable and you have managed to do a bit of ebaying too. I have been feeling quite poorly so all of the items I was going to ebay have been put back in the loft. I really need to tackle the loft in the new year, it is over flowing!! I think my new years resolution should be to tackle one box/bag per week and the contents have to been either sorted and put away properly, ebayed or charity shopped.


Well the bannisters are stripped and waxed, all the painting is finished and the new carpet is down, looks lovely but I want to change all the other carpets now!!


Pretty organised for Xmas, spent all day yesterday wrapping presents whilst hubby and the kids decorated the house and tree. Just need to wrap the 'Santa' pressies now but need to print off 'his' special labels first. Have been making the most of loyalty card and special offers, don't seem to have spent too much but I think everyone will be pleased with what they have.


I am having to have my op repeated on 23rd Dec, absolutely gutted as it will mean I am back to where I was in July. Saw 3 consultants on my last hospital apt, including the head of department, who I have not seen before, and he was not al all happy with things so he is redoing the op himself. Back on antibiotics at the moment and quite a lot of pain :-(. DH is therefore cooking Christmas Dinner for us plus his aunt and my parents!! He is quite organised with it, booked his grocery delivery already.


Food wise we are eating out of the cupboards as much as possible. Although I still pick up any bargains I might see ( like the 2 whole sea bass I got for 39p instead of £6!!). We have all 9 of our Mossies coupons now so will get £40 off of the shopping a week before Xmas. Think we are sorted for booze and quite a lot of the food has been bought, just the last minute things to worry about really.


DH started his new job today, been thinking about him all day, hope it is going well. Really, really hope he gets paid on 26th as he is supposed to (they asked for bank details weeks ago so no reason to think otherwise). Should really improve the family finances and mine personally as this is the first time he will have been employed full-time for 5 years.


Must dash as officially at work, but the boss is away so making the most of it ;-)


Take care
321 xxx

trixiepix

Hey lovely lady,

Now it's my turn to apologise for being MIA!!

Well, as usual the weeks of planning, rushing, spending, stressing in preparation of christmas day passed in the blink of an eye!!!

Now it's that January time of year where focus has to be shifted to debt repayment (AGAIN), back to budgeting, decluttering, meal plans, shopping lists and which diet to start :eek:

Bit of a deja vu moment :rotfl:- surely i've not been here before......

Anyway, hope you had a wonderful christmas and Santa was kind and i hope a little fairy dust was sprinkled to help with your health issues, i truly hope you are feeling better and 2014 will bring full recovery.

This week is the transition of getting back to 'normal', decorations down, big clean, assess the freezer contents for meal planning and get to grips with finding space for christmas gifts (and starting the box for items ready for re-gifting) - not sure if i'm gonna do any ebaying in Jan as is always a bit flat, not that i had much success ahead of christmas!! - had a fair few kids party dresses that i thought would fly but not one bid on any of them!! - maybe left it too late!!

Happy New Year to you and here's to 2014 - the year to get thin and rich:rotfl:xxx

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi Hun


Hope you had a good Christmas and New Year. Ours was lovely although DH ended up working until 3pm on Xmas Day!! My op was postponed from the 23rd December so I ended up cooking on Xmas Day anyway! Now going in on Monday (6th) for the procedure, fingers crossed it works this time!


Like you we are in the post Christmas 'sorting' period, decorations down, house cleaned, presents put away. Budgets being looked at and food being used up (why do we always seem to buy too much even though EVERY year I aim to buy less??). DS1 is back to camp on Sunday, which also happens to be my birthday so I'm hoping we'll get to have a family meal before he goes.


DH is loving his new job and yes he DID get paid this month!! He is also keeping his other job going (working from home out of hours) so when he is at work I am covering this for him, he in return is going to pay £100pm off of one of my credit cards, hurray!


Not made resolutions as such but my goals for 2014 are, get well, keep paying down the debt, think more about what I am spending and take the kids abroad again this year. Oh and decorate the kitchen!


Sorry to hear Ebay was a bit of a flop for you, to be honest I didn't even try and sell anything this year, first time in years I haven't raised some extra Xmas money this way, was just not feeling up to it.


Likewise I haven't ventured to The Sales, can't be bothered, we visited my sister at the weekend and the boys got the train into the city centre to go shopping but I had not the faintest desire to go with them. Maybe this is finally the year I get my spending under control! Fingers crossed. Something needs to change that's for sure.


Here's to you as well and 2014, the year to get thin, rich and HEALTHY!!!!


'Speak soon'


321 xxx

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi Hun

Sorry I've been away for a while, since my op (6th Jan) I've been in and out of hospital and am currently having to make a daily 50 mile round trip for treatment.

I'm signed off from work but only eligible for 1 weeks sick pay so my pay today was half f what I usually get (think there may have been a small tax rebate in there to!).

Have done my monthly budget and due to not having to pay Council Tax this month I think I will get by, we will have to eat out of the freezer etc. But there will be no extra payments to credit cards etc. On the plus side if I can get by on half pay for a month I can do it for longer and make bigger payments to debt.

I hope you have everything back to normal after Christmas, are you still crafting etc??

Sorry for the quick post but nothing debt busting to relate at the mo, hopefully will be back on the wagon soon!!

321 xxx

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi hun

Hope you have had a good weekend.

I am still of work so no great debt repayment for me as I only got half my normal pay this month.

Hubby is being great and picking up the slack, he is taking as many overtime shifts as he can.

I have made a few decisions for the coming year......

• I am attempting to stick to a clothing budget of 260 pounds for the year (5 per week)
• I will only by toiletteries when we have used up what we already have, same for cleaning products.
• I was given a terramundi for xmas which I will save 2 pound coins in and only smash once full (should hold 500 pounds plus).
• I will save the money from my little lady each week for treats.
• I will save 20 pounds per month for Xmas
  
• We will shop to a list once a week and avoid mid-week top-ups where possible.
• When I am back at work I will attempt to manage on half pay and use the rest to pay down debts.

I have also started ebaying again, listed a few items tonight, will try and keep it up for a while (really need to empty that loft!!).


Right so that's it for now, we will carry on eating out of the freezer/cupboards to keep the spending down.


Catch-up soon, 321 xxx

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi Hun

Well I am still off of work so not a lot has changed since my last post.

I am keeping to the savings and budgeting plan and have worked out a repayment plan for when I am back at work.

I have managed to do a 0% for 15 mnths balance transfer from one credit card to another (moving debt from a card that was charging 29%!!). Need to update my signature in a moment.

I have got a free app to manage my spending and another to manage my debt through snowballing so hopefully these will help me to achieve my goal.

DH is also in debt busting mode so fingers crossed we will get somewhere this time.

Take care hun and catch-up soon

321 xxx

trixiepix

...........walking through with tail between legs..............

Hey lovely,

So sorry i've been off the radar for a while - have been having a head in sand moment and lots of different things became a bit too much for a while and just had to switch off for a spell, on the up now though and back in fighting mode!!

Hope you are feeling better and things are healing ok and you too are on the up?

Had lots of things goin on which have been v stressful which is never good for my spending habits, stress = overspending, overeating and over everythinging (try and find that one in the oxford dictionary, lol!!), also had a succession of birthdays, weddings, dd's friends birthday parties, friends birthday nights out plus the regular expenses!!, March continues to be an expensive one right up until the last day, Eek, what with DH's Dads birthday, His M & D's wedding anniversary, Mothering sunday and the list goes on!!!!!

Well, now my head is back out of the sand i've started contemplating those things i've been putting off but need to be dealt with in an attempt to lower stress levels!!! - got back in the kitchen again yesterday and made a huge lasagne (which doesn't look like it's going to last too long!!) and a small one for my mum (she's been laid up again with problems with her back), a huge butternut squash and veggie curry made from scratch (it's been a while since i've used spices rather than just opening a jar!!) plus some pineapple jellies for the girls - so the gang have lasagne tonight and i'll add some chicken to the curry for them tomorrow and freeze the remainder.

As for finances, I've applied for a balance transfer but have yet to hear anything!! - would only cover 2/3rd of outstanding balance with new card but at least it's something if it goes through! - have paid off near all of Nxt Card, loan is still rumbling on, and need to get some money back in the savings but all heading in the right direction - could really do with generating some extra income, i've booked a couple of novelty cakes in for friends but don't really want to start doing that again as the profit margins for the time spend is not the best and as for ebay, well a tad dissillusioned with it at the mo as (maybe it's just me and my stuff!!) but the fee's seem to be eating away a lot of the profit and stuff seems to be selling for much less or not at all!!

Anyway, how are you and your brood??

xx

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi Trixie,


So, so, so glad to hear from you, my debt busting friend!!


Really glad to hear that things are moving in a positive direction for you, life is hard isn't it??


I'm finally back at work on a phased return but on my first day in the office was told that I had to reapply for my job (due to a very small restructure)!! I have an interview this week but I am not overly hopeful, think it may be a ruse to get rid of me bearing in mind my sickness record lately. I have applied for another job, just in case, but again not hopeful as I don't think anyone will take me on with my current health issues.


I last went to the hospital about three weeks ago and things appeared to be healing well, not totally healed but getting there. The nurse told be I did not need to go back unless there was a problem. Well things have got progressively worse again so I have an appointment on Thursday. I'm really worried as the last time it threatened to flare up I was told the next step would be radical surgery.


I too am really stressed to the eyeballs at the moment, having these debts hanging over me doesn't help, just feels like everything is coming down around me and it's all too much. Have asked my GP for antidepressants today so hopefully they will help. I have no enthusiasm for anything, nearly told my employer where to stick their job application form!!


I have got as much of the debt onto 0% interest as I can but until (or if) I am back on full wage there wont be any extra repayments.


I too am disillusioned with Bay of the E, I've listed a few items lately, brand new nice items, and they have either NOT sold or sold for less than I would have liked and as you rightly say the fees take a lot of the 'profit margin'. If I do become unemployed I will have to seriously get into selling on Ebay/Facebook and boot sales to make some money to keep us afloat, we would have struggled a long time ago if it hadn't been for my vast food stores and my dad taking me to a from hospital (daily 50 mile round trip) and taking nothing for petrol.


On a positive note DH is really happy in his new job and picking up loads of overtime but that means I barely get to see him! Can't have it all!


I hope things continue to improve for you hun, keep plodding away at those debts.


321 xxx