SAHM paying off debts slowly

slm6002

Ok so we are a fair way into January now and i have had a good few days -money wise and 'to do list' wise.

I have managed my and OH tax returnes
Cleared out rubbish cupboard - formally known as office / understair cupboard. I hide things in here as now i have laptop i dont need to be in there and i need somewhere to stuff when visitors are expected! Anyway i couldnt find OH p60 and i knew it was in there somewhere so after emptying it and filling many many rubbish and recycling bags i looked up at the notice board and what was ther in the safe place - you got it his P60. So his tax return now sent off plus mine. Plus he is due £50 ish back :j

Next thing was i have finally finished my 1st assignment. Its been sitting there and i had made notes etc but had not quite got round to writing it in the actual booklet. That will be in the post tomorrow.

I have made £10 on facebook this week by selling a few bits. Also got to grips with my budget. I have had a few spends that dont really fit into budget such as xmas cards et for next year but they can come out of birthday/xmas fund when i take it out at the end of the month. Nothing too bad has gone out. Also had a quite promising 1st campaign of the new year with avon. Considering its a poor month for most i got more customers than i thought.

Well must get to bed as really tired. Night night

debtfreewannabe321

LOL @ the p60! that is totally something i would do !!

Glad to see the budget is working for you

dfw x

slm6002

Thanks DFW. I felt such a wally but very glad i had found it

Bought OH's valentines card today from QD. They must have been last years stock as it was only 10p although very nice. Wonderful I am all sorted for birthdays and celebrations until mid march. Just need to get vouchers for brothers wedding and a mothers day card. Will do that at the end of the month when money is there.

slm6002

Hello everyone, i am still here and i am planning on posting a little more frequently from now on as i need to keep on top of things better.

Right so what have i been up to this last month? I cant remember so i will just start to ramble on - sorry

*OH liked valentines card i bought him

*Got gas and electric bills through and after giving them the actual readings they owe me around £50 - really thought i would be paying them this winter as i have been very bad at putting the heating on during the day - i would put extra layers on first though

*Informed tax credit people of OH's new job and we are now £50 worse off each week, but sure i am not getting this much extra off OH - Still looking into this one at the mo

*Am being good and budgeting well / putting money into savings pots for birthdays and xmas / holiday / car tax onto post office card - at least i will have money for car tax even if i cant afford petrol!

*Still not heard about my Sun newspaper holiday so i guess we wont be going this year - still a few days to go but its looking unlikely

*Managed my first voucher from swagbucks ready for xmas - only £5 but it was for free

*Major turning point in our house - my son (aged 4) has managed finally to get out of nappies at night. In the end i asked health visitor what i could try and she said just dont put them on him and see what happens - magic he has been dry now for 5 nights - no more nappies to buy as still using cloth nappies for DD

*I havent been very good at keeping in the food and petrol budget this month so will tackle this one asap - have a freezer full to the brim but no real idea what is in there past the 1st top layer that i can see

*Have been using up some of the 'if we get snowed in' stock that i got in so plenty of tins and pasta left - if only DS ate pasta, infact if only DS would eat something other than chicken nuggets and chips!

*Got given a whole bag of school uniform a friends child has outgrown that will do for DD and then in turn DS as he starts in sept

*Starting to worry if DS will get into same school as DD as were not in the catchment area and its very popular - find out mid april i think

*I have had a BIG spring clean through the whole house - kitchen is the only room left now - and have thrown out / given away / sold a lot of stuff. About 40 bin bags of clothes i am ashamed to say have gone to the charity shop / charity bin - it was getting quite embarrising the number of times we went to donate. With this clean up it has been much easier to keep house tidy thank goodness

*Mum is on her way from USA to visit from 1 - 29 march - although only in our area from 11th but should be good. Looking forward to spending time with her but it will have to all be in budget this year. Lots of cheap fun and fresh air i think. She can also help with cleaning the freezer too i hope.

*After a conversation with my avon manager today i will be getting a lot more houses to go to. They were actually allocated to me back in oct but she failed to tell me that - not happy as dec sales could have been even better. Anyway thinking as mum likes walking we will have some new roads to look canvas on!



Ok now that i have bored you all i better go to bed as little ones need to be up early for school run tomorrow (been walking most days to save petrol!)

Night night all

slm6002

Evening all - sorry for yesterdays long and boring post. Right today i have had a lovely day and my feet are killing me as i have walked miles with my friends. Think kids may even sleep a little later tomorrow I spent a little on food as didnt realise we were staying out all day as it was a bit of a spur of the moment thing. It wasnt too bad though as we bought most of it from supermarket rather than at museum so much cheaper.

We got our letter saying that we didnt get our holiday but if we wanted to go in the term time there were a few left. We have decided due to changes in money to stay at home again this year and hopefully by next year will be in a better position. I still plan to put money aside for holidays but will perhaps put some of it towards days out in the school hols.

Will ring CCCS at some point tomorrow and update them on the new income figures and work out what they want us to pay - hopefully enough to keep debt people happy but low enough to make it work for us.

Been bagging up items to sell in the nearly new sale this evening. We have to label everything and put prices on things. As i have never been to a nearly new sale i am not sure whether to prices things really cheap or at a reasonable amount. I want to sell it all as i have no room for any of it but i also would love to make some money too. I get 75% of the takings and the preschool thats running it will get the remaining. Fingers crossed i will make something

Well think its time for me to go to bed - well after checking everyones elses diaries on here. Night night

debtfreewannabe321

oh your day out sounded lovely :T nice to get out and about. I can't wait for the sun to come out & stay out!!!

I hope your chat with the CCCS goes well, i'm thinking i may need to call them up and have another look at our figures the car has eaten up a lot of my funds and we're struggling to pay everything. Even after a pretty frugal month petrol, food wise. It will push our dfd back but it might stop me stressing so much :eek:!

Not sure how i'd price up things for a nearly new sale, i've never been to one. I suppose if they are new you'd want at least 50% of the original price back#?? can you ask someone? :)have a good saturday anyway xx

slm6002

Hi dfw thanks for popping by. Still not got around to ringing cccs but now have figures that i need to give them. I think they payments will stay the same as the income overall has only gone up £5 at the very most. If he gets any extras on income i can put them towards emergency fund as i currently dont have one.

I got the bits back from the nearly new sale (they didnt seem keen to keep anything for charity). It doesnt look like anything has been sold and certainly not any of the bigger items. They were all in great condition and no rubbish bits so not sure why it all came back - will put it on facebook in the morning to try and sell.

Feeling a bit annoyed as OH seems to have different priorities re paying wages. He would rather pay his friend for a new bit for his hobby, rather than passing money onto me for mortgage and other bills that will go out this week coming. I try to talk to him but he then gets all stroppy and tells me he is working all hours and he needs his hobby! - i need my house!

Anyway i do have some money in other bank accounts that were really for xmas etc which i could replace the week after as he has done a lot of hours this week, but i didnt want to do this, i need him to understand. Sorry ranting over - back to being positive

Found some tickets my grandad won for a family trip to transport museum nearby. Forgot i had these so may put them to use on the easter holidays. Also got our tesco vouchers for hungry horse today so going to take mum and the kids out for a yummy meal whilst she is here. Only spent £1.29 on yoghurts for kids and for curry today so a nice low spend day for me. I am going to try to keep up with my NSD in march - plus up to then too

Anyway time for bed. night night all

chevalier

I would be doing one of two things. Either saying to him. Right you want that bit for your hobby how are YOU going to earn EXTRA to pay for it, because ALL of your current wage is committed to keeping a roof over our heads, food in our kids bellies and heat etc in the house.....

The less confrontational route would be to fill in the SOA calculator again with how it is on the DMP


http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

And then ask him in all seriousness to point out to your where is the wriggle room in the budget for what he wants to pay his friend.

Honestly you go on a DMP and I am sure they think that that means everything is fine again, and they can stop concentrating on the debt....
chev

slm6002

Thank you for your advice. I think the SOA route is the better for my OH as if i dont go about it in the right way it will cause a whole load of problems!

Not done much today but it will be a NSD so thats all good

slm6002

Made a NSD so thats been good. Not done much today as brother came round and offered to clean our fish tank - he enjoys it apparently?! It was only done a few weeks bad so didnt take long. They stayed and talked about their wedding which is in 3 weeks time. Only got 2 out of 5 outfits so far so i guess i will be wearing same thing as i have for past 3 or 4 weddings or looking in the charity shops!

I have emptied the freezer (and made a list of everything) this evening in the hope of finding some bread hidding in the bottom for tomorrows packed lunches. No luck but quite a few other bits that i had forgotton about. Will be eating as much as i can from it in the next few weeks as some of it has been there quite some time. I have had a whole round of brie in there for several years now - i cut it into sections but never seem to get round to using it. Must find some recipies to use these types of things up. May have to go over to old style thread and see if anyone has some ideas.

As i said i think the other day i still have a lot of bits in my 'just in case of snow' cupboard that can be used plus a very large sack of potatoes that OH piked up whilst at the chippy the other evening.

Well must go have a bath and then its bed for me, night night