Boarding the Bus of Positivity (for 24 months of travels!)

debtfreesomeday

Trying to concentrate on normal day to day life today; Ds and I had a lovely morning together before nursery. When I picked him up this evening, in his bag was a handmade Christmas card with his handprint on; a calendar with a cheeky photo of him and a little crafted decoration to hang on the tree! These made my day really and will be treasured always.
Hubby had the first of his two Christmas parties today. He came home much earlier than expected and having spent a lot less than budgeted, so all good.

I'm not convinced we're going to get much sleep tonight. Ds has woken up a couple of times already and seemed snuffly with a bit of a cough. I really hope he hasn't picked something else up now, he's only just finished the last course of antibiotics for the second ear infection in a month.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend,
Dfsd
X

debtfreesomeday

Well not a brilliant night but certainly better than I was expecting. Up early and have the first load of washing on already. There's a few more loads to follow the first today. The kitchen's been tidied a bit, need to finish that and then shower and get dressed and start the day properly.

Chocforever

Hello DFSD

The card and calendar sound lovely and things to treasure. Personal things like that can give you a lift every time you look at them .

It is the end of a very busy week. I have been out to various parties which made a nice change. I have also been to a couple of concerts and done some charitable work, so feeling quite virtuous. Something tells me you won’t be very sympathetic to any moans from me about short term, and self-inflicted, sleep deprivation!

I am getting organised for Christmas. I have been writing 3 or 4 cards a day for a while and need to speed up a bit and get them finished this weekend. Someone sent me a card yesterday which was totally blank inside. I was thinking of recycling it since the card is nicer than mine! Just thought, this might not be such a good idea in case I send it back to whoever sent it to me!

I think I am all MSed out for the year. I have done more than expected this month, mainly food and phones, which will bring in some extra cash in January. My knowledge of mobile phones is really quite impressive as these shops come up a lot. What is interesting, in a relative sort of way, is that most of the companies will recommend a single phone at any one time. By the time I next do a few mobile phone shops, often only 4 to 6 weeks later (there is high staff turnover), they all recommend a different phone. If I ask them what the difference is between the phones, the answer is usually not very much at all. I wonder if there are supplier incentives given or if it is done to create the impression that phone technology is constantly improving to increase demand.

This week I need to thoroughly clean the house, get all my washing and ironing done and pack ready to go and stay with relatives from Friday. I am looking forward to the break and a change of scene. Like you, I am fond of the area where I grew up. There are limited job opportunities so I live elsewhere, in a lovely town so I can’t complain, but it’s still nice to return to the familiar surroundings and visit my favourite places there.

I get paid this week and this marks the time of year when my bank account looks very healthy. It lasts until my credit card bill arrives on 5 January!

Best wishes x

debtfreesomeday

I love the blank card thing, Chocs! How funny! I have to say, the task of writing Christmas cards is usually one I dislike, but this year, it was done a few weeks ago whilst Ds was napping some mornings and I found it relatively painless. However, I have since realised the reason it was too easy is because I've forgotten quite a few people - all of whom live away and whose cards require posting.

We too get paid early in December. My plan is always to put thd wages in an e-saver until the date pay day should be, but that never works! Not looking forward to the long weeks until January's pay day.

Nice to hear you're going 'home' for Christmas too. It is always lovely to go back to the place one grew up in. One day we shall hopefully return for good.

Yesterday was very productive in the Dfsd house. We were up early, and I managed to get lots of housework tasks done, mainly washing, changing bed linen, bit of cleaning etc. We then went to price up some carpet for our lounge and dining room. We inherited a cream carpet from the previous owners of this house and they didn't look after it too well so it was a state when we moved in. Despite regular cleaning it is now on its last legs and desperately needs replacing. We've been covering it with a large rug for ages now but this has also been retired now. It's going to cost about £300 with fitting, so not something we can afford now, but at least we know how much we need to save. Hopefully we can use some of the house/car maintenance savings, but will wait and see how the car's MOT goes in early feb first. We shall have a browse in the January sales to see what the prices are like then, but hopefully we can get it done before Easter.

I also picked up some photos yesterday, that we had taken of the three of us via a Groupn offer. It was £24 for the photo shoot and 5 prints and we ordered a few extra photos too, declining the £200 framed print they tried to sell me!
They are lovely photos, very natural and fun; they have captured Ds's cheeky and inquisitive nature brilliantly. I had 9 cheap, but nice, frames ready and waiting to copy and print photos for various family members Christmas gifts! I also bought a really lovely, and much bigger, multi- aperture frame for my Mum which was more expensive, but as it's her main present, quite happy with the cost. That was bought back in the summer though when I spotted it, so have spread the cost of Christmas! MIL is also getting a smaller multi-aperture frame with lots of little photos in, and I have done one of these for ourselves too which I can't wait to hang on the wall today. I bought these two smaller frames last year actually as they were being sold off for a couple of pounds in a warehouse sale near us, but they look much more expensive as are fully mounted etc. I haven't had anything suitable to put in up to now, but they've proven to be perfect for this. So, last night, once Ds was in bed, I set about and printed, framed and mounted loads and loads of photos, then wrapped and labelled them all ready for Santa to deliver. I had a whale of a time and managed to finish just as hubby walked in the door from his 2nd Christmas do in as many nights (although he was home by 8.15pm!).

Today I need to Hoover through the house and also want to bake one of the Mary berry cake mix packs I picked up in tesco, reduced to £3. I also need to buy one more cheap frame for a photo gift.

debtfreesomeday

Forgot to mention that I've realised we're on this 'bus' for 3 months longer than I thought... When I started this diary it was a year since we took the loan out. I automatically thought it was another two years until it was paid off; but, a few days ago, remembered out of the blue, that there was a 3 month repayment holiday and we didn't start paying it back until the 1st of February. Technically, we still have 25 payments left then! Oh well, what's 3 more months when I've been in debt on and off for 14 years! It's being dealt with and will be gone as soon as it can be. That's how I need to look at it at the moment.

Dfsd

Chocforever

Ah, what is 3 months in the grand scheme of things .

I only have 8 cards left to write but am rapidly losing the will to live. I hate writing cards - I feel obliged to write something personal in them, so it takes ages. I am sure the people whose names are at the start of the alphabet fare rather better than the Ss,Ts and Ws :cool:.

I was speaking with my parents today and looking for some hints for last minute presents. I am sure my Dad is regressing back to childhood. His list comprises Nintendo computer games, books on cars and iTunes vouchers for music and apps :rotfl:

I have had a lovely weekend. Not done anything amazing, just enjoyed simple things which have left me very content. I watched Lost Christmas today on BBC1 which was a bit quirky and very enjoyable. I feel like I am winding down now ready for 10 days of doing very little. And it is a good feeling

Best wishes x

Itsadogslife_2

I have to say, I pretty much always write the same message in most cards. My OH doesn't really write cards full stop but he always writes lovely messages in my cards. I don't know whether he scoures the internet but they always make me feel all warm inside

debtfreesomeday

I always start with the best intentions for personalised Christmas messgaes in cards, but that lasts for the first two or three then I swiftly resort to 'Merry Christmas'!

Quickie update as at work, but £100 just paid off the CC, so down to £1515.95. So glad I cut it up, it's nice to have the knowledge the balance won't go up any further.

Chocforever

Paying any money off a credit card at this time of year is an achievement . Call me a wimp, but I daren't look at the balance on mine. Which reminds me, I need to put my professional subscription on it tonight to pay for the 2012 renewal which is another £1,000 :eek:.

I don't seem to have spent much this Christmas. Maybe because I have taken people at their word when they said they didn't need anything :rotfl:I have bought some things, of course, and paid for them out of my normal current account. I may have a guilt trip over the next few days and buy a few more bits. What it does mean, though, is that the bank savings account I built up over the year to pay for this year's Christmas presents has been renamed Christmas 2012! I thought that if I do actually move house next year and get a huge mortgage/other loans, I willl be grateful for those savings.

I might not be on much here for the next couple of weeks so have a lovely Christmas DFSD, Itsadogslife and the many lurkers on here xx

debtfreesomeday

I hope everyone had a very lovely Christmas. Unfortunately, our bad luck continued, and we had an awful Christmas. In fact, we cancelled Christmas, as we all picked up a really nasty virus, starting with Ds the day after we arrived at my parents house. It then wiped out the rest of the family one by one and we were all extremely poorly; in fact, we nearly called an ambulance for my Dad and DH at one point as they were so ill. Thankfully, we all have more or less recovered now, but we missed Christmas. That's all I'm going to talk about it now, we're upset enough about it and I don't want to think about it anymore. I am desperate to take all the decorations down as they're a reminder, but hubby won't let me yet!
I know my Mum has taken hers down today, they can't face it either. They were so looking forward to Ds's first Christmas and to have all the family together again too.

Today I am back at work for a half day and everybody else has gone out for lunch, so I'm on my own here. I was asked, but don't feel like eating much, so it'll save money if nothing else. I don't intend on doing any work though!

We have finally opened some presents and were spoilt by family as usual. My parents gave us £100 on top of everything else they'd given us, so we are going to put it towards the new carpet. My sister kindly gave us £40 too so that will go in the same pot. Only £160 to find now.

Ds also has nearly £170 to go into his P.O. account, mainly from gifts, but we also counted all the coins in his money box to bank as well.

Hubby and MIL kindly gave me gift cards to buy myself some new clothes. I am in dire need of clothes as I don't own a lot, and those I do are looking embarrassingly tired. I would like to lose a bit of weight first though before I buy anything new.

We haven't really been out at all over Christmas so I have hardly spent any money, except for petrol, for the drive back from my folks. I have browsed online for any sale bits for birthday and Christmas presents for next year, but have yet to find any good sales at all.

We shall not be doing much for New Year. I think MIL may be coming over for a meal as she is on her own, but that's it. We have lamb in the freezer to cook which we bought before Christmas, so just need to buy a few bits of veg and we're done. We have plenty in for dessert already and neither her nor myself drink, so hubby will probably buy himself a bottle of wine or something.

Wishing everyone a very happy New Year, let's hope it's better than this year eh.

DFSD