Enough is Enough!

njk1012

Morning Diary.

I'm still plodding along, sticking to budgets and repaying every penny extra we can get our hands on. The extra payments have slowed down a little as we have nothing left to weigh in (done gold, metal, books, clothes & shoes) or sell (pretty much cleared the house of everything we don't use regularly) so progress will be slow and steady here on in.

My OH has had a few choice words with sky and we should be getting some vouchers and a little reduction in our bill, however will reserve judgement on that until it happens.

I've turned in to a right lurker on lots of threads on here and picked up loads of idea's for Christmas. Last night for the first time I sat and made 2 Christmas cards with the snowman soup recipe on the front and have started stuffing food bags for the insides. I was really impressed by the results, even my OH commented how good they were and he is not easy to impress. So hopefully will be making lots more of these and a couple of hampers for hard to buy relatives.

I've never had this much time on my hands on the run up to Christmas and I'm really enjoying it, family time has been great and am not missing the job at all.

Today's list:

- Finish college assignment and send off
- Read next college assignment and make notes
- Finish mountain of washing and put away
- List last few books on ebay
- Do survey's and competitions
- Finish shopping list / meal plan ready for tomorrow

Long post today, sorry for anyone who is reading.

njk1012

Morning diary,

Feels like I'm playing catch up today. Friend phoned yesterday lunchtime and we ended up going in to town for a walk around the shops. Totally lethal! ended up spending over £25 in wilko's and the pound shop, all stuff we needed towards Christmas but probably should have waited a week or two.

Anyway that means yesterdays list went out the window. So my list for today is the same as yesterday with the weekly food shop and a dance performance at school to watch added on.

Trying very hard this week to make sure I can pay £5 a day off the CC's. After shopping I think I'm going to try and Hibernate till next Tuesday (Payday). The weather the way it is I don't think it will bother me to much not leaving the house for a while.

njk1012

Morning Diary,

I'm still managing to hibernate going out only for work and the weekly shop, there is loads to do at home to occupy myself though. Managed to get an assignment sent off to college to be marked and am halfway through the second one. The trouble with doing an online course is that there are no deadlines, so I'm starting to set my own. Giving myself a week at the very outside to complete each one.

The craft stuff is coming along nicely I have made 4 Christmas cards complete with snowman soup and an xbox birthday card for my nephew ready for next month. When I need a break from the college work I sit and make up a new design and make another card.

I really want to get this card paid off by the end of the month which would mean we can take a little break in the tight budget over Christmas and start again in January. I would still make regular payments to the remaining card but still leave some left over for the booze budget and some extra little treats. To get it paid off I have to pay every last spare penny till the end of the month and I would need to carry on hibernating until then.

We have a separate Christmas budget in place and should be able to buy the remaining gifts from this by the end of this upcoming week. I'll feel loads better when they are bought and out of the way.

Right back to today's plans I have the housework to do, a dinner to cook and lots of college work to do.

Onwards and downwards!

njk1012

wooohoo! have my first 13 questions/ 1st assignment passed first time with apparently flying colors! I'm so happy I could scream. This course is unknown on many levels, even though I have been striving for this career for many years I have never studied such a specific subject or at such a high level (I'm now working at level 4 and excelling). Just another 12 assignments to hand in (one almost complete) and a final exam to finish. I don't know about any one else but i always find the first assignment for a new course the hardest the rest are challenging but easier as you know the standard they want you to work at.

Just read the last paragraph back and it sounds like I'm being big headed and really I'm not, I've just been staring at the finished assignment for a few weeks tweeking it here and there and not daring to send it off, so genuinely surprised no amendments were needed.

njk1012

OK I'm back after a rather extended break from money saving. A hell of a lot has been going on here, mainly family illness which is ongoing and doesn't look to be letting up any time soon.
My uncle has had several operations and been diagnosed with a life long illness but is finally on an even keel, but still needs lots of care. My dad has been diagnosed with cancer and also has had several operations and has now been told it is terminal. The prognosis for that is 1-2 years maximum left. To top it all off my son has had a major operation on his leg two weeks ago and needs full time care for 8 weeks, the first week of which he and I stayed in hospital.

So as you can see been a bit busy around here and I'm ashamed to say that money saving has fell by the wayside and we are in the overdraft again. :mad:

On the good side however I got accepted at my first choice university to do a 3 year social work degree, which I start in October and I have lost some weight. So not all bad.

Right back to the task in hand, I need to get organised again so today's list is:

- Phone dad and uncle make sure they are ok and don't need anything, and sort out what they do.
- Go through all the paperwork and figure out my debt total.
- Check online banking
- Join Grocery challenge and make an inventory of food we have.
- Create new budget
- Phone BIL to see if I can borrow his kids to help me deliver 1200 leaflets tomorrow.
- Catch up with the washing and ironing (got to the stage there are more clothes in the wash basket than the wardrobes!)
- Clean and tidy both bathrooms.
- Shower youngest (sounds easy but it takes about an hour)
- Try and spend some quality time with my eldest who is getting slightly neglected at the moment.

- DONT SPEND A PENNY!

OK think that will do for today, best get on with it!

njk1012

Got the majority of the list done, the budget is horrendous! Just need to figure out our debt total, been putting it off all day and burying my head in the sand is getting me nowhere so off to do that now.

njk1012

Bit the bullet and checked the statements and banks.
New Debt total: £1264.28
OD = £159.28 (first target) Will try and clear this by April 30th.
CC1 = £246.00 (second target)
CC2 = £859.00 (lastly the biggy!)

A little bit disappointed with myself, but it's not good to dwell on the negative so on to getting this total down again.

njk1012

Plan today is a rather simple one, get all the leaflets delivered 1250 houses in a day is very ambitious but hopefully will gt through the majority if not all of them.

I also want to cook from what we have in because the cash for food is extremely limited until the 17th of this month. Think I worked it out at £6 till Tuesday and £55 total for 18 days. Some Interesting meals are going to be made I think. Need milk today though so have sent OH,hoping he wont pick anything else up!

njk1012

Fairly pleased with progress over the weekend. managed to only spend a grand total of £4.60 even with having one extra child from Friday to Sunday night and another extra child all day yesterday. Food stores are looking pretty low, have some meat in the freezer but not a lot to go with it, so think I will have to go to the shop at some point today.

Little bit embarrassed to say that I didn't get all the leaflets delivered on Saturday, so still have around 300 to deliver today.

Listed 20 items on ebay yesterday so hoping for some extra funds by the end of the week.

Todays list:

-Ironing pile (all washed but really needs sorting out and putting away)
leaflets
-nip to shop at whoopsy time (fingers crossed hasn't been much reduced lately)
-check banking
- look for more stuff to sell

njk1012

So far so good, OH is taking DS2 out for a few hours today so I'm going to get on top of the rest of the housework. If I'm honest with myself, I've been really down over the last few months and it's been really hard to get motivated.

Banking is looking a little better, fingers crossed for clearing the overdraft again by the end of the month.

Its a little hard looking in the cupboards at the moment because usually they are stuffed to the rafters, but I know there is enough for meals and it's short term so I'm dealing with it.

Right off to muck out the sty, while I have chance.