Chasing the debt free daydream...

Hovel_lady

I know exactly what you mean about trying to get a balance between having a life and paying back debt. Doesn't make either of us bad people.
We'd also love a holiday next year but should we? Even a long weekend would be great.
Glad the ceiling will be fixed soon.
I know what you mean about the apples - I only ever buy value/basics ones now. Our 2 little apple trees have some small apples on them so fingers crossed they get bigger!

Winnie_in_Pooh

I'm trying not to think about the holiday too much, although DS saw me looking this morning (saw the waterslides, more specifically) and hasn't stopped rabbiting on about them all day....makes it so hard because I just know he would love it out there.

Tell you what Hovel Lady - if we do manage to get away, you could bring Hovel Dog down to Cornwall and house sit for me! With any luck the hole in the ceiling will be fixed by next August :rotfl:

Had to pop back to Tesco again to grab some creme fraiche and onions and a bag of carrots for the potato salad and paid the pricely sum of £1.49 on top of the £25 odd I spent this morning :mad: no wonder we have such a shortfall in our pockets but not on paper at that rate! Spending diary is going to be a must. On the plus side, I got a bit of a bargain on loo roll in Mr T's - 24 rolls for £8 and its nice stuff! There's only two things I won't economise on - the first is loo roll and the second is coffee! Everything else is blue stripe

Hovel_lady

Winnie_in_Pooh wrote: »

Tell you what Hovel Lady - if we do manage to get away, you could bring Hovel Dog down to Cornwall and house sit for me! With any luck the hole in the ceiling will be fixed by next August :rotfl:

OK, you're on
I don't mind holes in the ceiling, it's ones in the roof I'm not keen on :rotfl:

mum2one

I would go for the holiday, ok that may seem odd, as i'm like others balancing the books with a lot of difficulty, but the way I look (try to) is we have to rule the debt, not let the debt rule us. If you lived on the debt free band wagon for 365 days straight throu, at the end of that period, you'd be pulling your hair out, frustrated and never want to hear the words debt again.

Make a challenge out of it, - use hubby for now, I'm guessing to him it was just quickness to buy the sandwich, where as to you, me and the rest of the mse'rs, its a waste of money. yep your working damm hard to clear your debts, so find out the cost of the holiday, and set yourself a challenge to cover a % from money saving, ebay, carboots etc.

I did that when we went to Dom Rep at Easter, knew main trips we'd looked at was going to be about £500, but from Sept through to March every possible penny went in the dolphin fund and managed to get £500, that was posh dolphin swim, sealion + dolphin encounters, night out to see a show. But when I was getting up at 6am for a carboot, or bartering for the sake of 50p, when we got in the pool with the dolphins everything then just fell into place. So go for it. xx

Winnie_in_Pooh

Hovel_lady wrote: »

OK, you're on
I don't mind holes in the ceiling, it's ones in the roof I'm not keen on :rotfl:

:rotfl: as far as I know DH hasn't been creating holes in the roof

mum2one wrote: »

Make a challenge out of it, - use hubby for now, I'm guessing to him it was just quickness to buy the sandwich, where as to you, me and the rest of the mse'rs, its a waste of money. yep your working damm hard to clear your debts, so find out the cost of the holiday, and set yourself a challenge to cover a % from money saving, ebay, carboots etc.

That is a fab idea mum2one. I think even DH could be persuaded to part with some of his collection of random bits of computer if it means he gets a holiday! DS is already very much on board, I gave him 50p to spend in the sweet shop, he spent 35p and told me to put the last 15p in the holiday pot - bless him he's such a little star - think I have an old coffee jar somewhere so I'll dig that out we'll start a proper holiday pot :j

never_too_old

I might do that too. its dh 50th next year and he really wants a holiday abroad to celebrate.Dont want to book anything because things always go pear shaped when we do but just try and save enough so we could.All feels a bit daunting as ploughing every spare penny into getting rid of the loans and mortgage.
Its my birthday today and i feel a bit down for some reason want to do something exciting but cant afford to ah well must put on my brave face and get off to work.
Good luck with your course, wish id done the uni thing and stayed ina good job but i have done rubbish jobs for the last 24 years to fit around the children now i dont think im employable. enough rambling have a good day:D

Hovel_lady

l.m.hart wrote: »

I might do that too. its dh 50th next year and he really wants a holiday abroad to celebrate.Dont want to book anything because things always go pear shaped when we do but just try and save enough so we could.All feels a bit daunting as ploughing every spare penny into getting rid of the loans and mortgage.
Its my birthday today and i feel a bit down for some reason want to do something exciting but cant afford to ah well must put on my brave face and get off to work.
Good luck with your course, wish id done the uni thing and stayed ina good job but i have done rubbish jobs for the last 24 years to fit around the children now i dont think im employable. enough rambling have a good day:D

Happy birthday

Winnie_in_Pooh

l.m.hart wrote: »

I might do that too. its dh 50th next year and he really wants a holiday abroad to celebrate.Dont want to book anything because things always go pear shaped when we do but just try and save enough so we could.All feels a bit daunting as ploughing every spare penny into getting rid of the loans and mortgage.
Its my birthday today and i feel a bit down for some reason want to do something exciting but cant afford to ah well must put on my brave face and get off to work.
Good luck with your course, wish id done the uni thing and stayed ina good job but i have done rubbish jobs for the last 24 years to fit around the children now i dont think im employable. enough rambling have a good day:D

Happy Birthday! :bdaycake::D

DS and I have just sat down and cut a load of pictures out of a holiday brochure and stuck them on an old coffee jar, sealed it with a whole roll of sellotape and "paid in" £1.12 ! We're going to aim to get away this time next year, so lets see what we can do!

I feel like I could easily get stuck in a rut of doing rubbish jobs to fit in around the children unless I do something now while I'm still motivated. There still is a part of me that really enjoys picking DS up from school and if all my ideas and plans come to fruition I *should* be able to work flexibly, possibly from home, hopefully long enough to get the baby through school.

I've got a poorly DH at home today - he's got a grumpy tooth thats been giving him grief for ages. Its being pulled out tomorrow so we've just got to get him through tofay but its really horrible seeing him in so much pain and not being able to help

Winnie_in_Pooh

I really can't get over how expensive things have got. Just nipped to the vets for a thing of Frontline for the dog - £11.40 for just one months pipette! Still I suppose its cheaper than treating her if she got fleas again. She had them once a couple of years ago and her fur has only just grown back in some places because she had such an extreme reaction to them. Will have to have a look online to see if I can get it cheaper somewhere - hopefully with a bit of cashback too.

Poor DH has finally gone to sleep he's in so much pain. I called the dentist to ask what painkillers I could give him and they said aspirin and clove oil and told me to tell him to "just be patient and put up with it until his appointment tomorrow" :mad: they've already made him wait over a month for this appointment! Apparently they can't prescribe strong painkillers the day before anaesthetic. I'm no doctor but that sounds like total rubbish to me. I know we should be grateful to have an NHS dentist at all but this level of "care" just isn't good enough.

*Winnie climbs down from soapbox*

Soubrette

I expect you already know this but if your son has coeliac disease then he is entitled to certain foods on prescription.

This is a general comment to everyone who keeps diaries - I love the diaries, I read a lot but don't post much and each and every one warms my heart with the determination and optimism that you all show.

Keep posting everyone