Turning 30 n changing my life!!!

toots82

Soooooooooooooooo, here we go!!!

Briefly, in our house we have me (29....just clinging on), DH (33), DD (4) and our DS(1) and the furry one, K. Dh is a joiner and we've had a couple of mega bad years, me not working (had DS n my place of work shut....well boss did moonlight flit while I was preg) and DH's work being VERY quiet. So now our cc's total around £10,000 (plus a personal loan but this is paid every month and has 3 years to run, we're hoping to move in 3 years so I think of this as money which will be extra mortgage lol) We've been late with payments to cc's recently and due to this and the number of them we have, we've no chance of any 0% offers at moment. I waste money on shopping which I vow will change now and I've just started working. We;re behind with a couple of things now and owe my mum £500 all of this will be payed of in Feb so the real journey will start in March.......with a hen weekend, DD's birthday and a wedding to attend it'll be a challenge straight off. :rotfl:

I have some downfalls which I'm overcoming in terms of my mentality....I've had to learn that my kids don't have to have what I deem to be the best of everything to be happy. Christmas was a struggle with them getting about half of what they normally would. But as my mum pointed they had a lot more than some kids and basically get a grip. I was lucky and got them stuff earlier in year when argos did 3 for 2 and got DD the big sylvanian families hotel half price, and I filled it with 2nd hand furniture from ebay etc, something I wouldn't have dreamed of in years gone by. I sound like some snobby cow but honestly I'm not. I grew up with mum struggling for everything for the 3 of us and I guess I wanted to give mine everything but missed the point that they don't care, as long as they have me n their dad and food n warmth and a couple of things to play with they are happy.

I've halved the costs of DD's swimming by putting her in a class instead of 1:1 ( see what I mean :embarasse ) and she loves it.

I'm hoping to cut petrol costs when I get work in a hospital nearer home (I'm an auxiliary on nurse bank but could only get job 1.5 hours away, I do 1 or 2 12 hour shifts at weekends so def worth it but b far better nearer home, hopefully local bank taking on at end of Feb).

Hoping to change my food shopping ways and cost (£127 last week :eek: ) by some trips to cash n carry, couple to freezer shop and weekly aldi trip for fruit n veg.

So, this is just the start. My main focus is the cc's, starting with my next acc (oops forgot to mention that one eh) and asda as these have highest apr's, next balance is £1000 and Asda is around £2300........wish me luck, all hints, tips etc are very welcome. This'll really take off in few weeks but start as u mean to go on n all that!!!!

xxxxxxxxxx

toots82

OHHHHHHHH I forgot to say, my lightbulb moment was having to tell my s-i-l I was ill and miss her birthday meal due to having no money to go......broke my heart lying to her.

toots82

hit a new low today, had to raid ds piggy bank of £30 for few essentials to get us by til Friday. Its for our holiday in 2013 so plenty time to pay it back but still feel terrible. Ach well it can only get better I guess.

signed up to quidco last night but will need to read through it more and figure out how to use it lol.

MuffinTops

Hi Toots82. Well done on starting your diary and listing things out. These are the darkest days now, they'll slowly start lighting up as time goes by. Obviously with the odd low day, but all in all it will improve.

Have you wandered around the site much and had a look at other little things you can do to boost amounts. Personally I do a few surveys, sell anything I can on ebay and Amazon and one specific voucher site is a little lifesaver for enabling me to buy treats.

I think I mentioned in your other thread, but I also really enjoy reading other diaries of people I can relate to and as motivating as they are they also give me a lot of inspiration of things to try. Plus it's nice to be in a place where people understand my journey and I understand theirs.

Good luck with it all. I'll keep popping in to see how you're doing.

toots82

MuffinTops wrote: »

Hi Toots82. Well done on starting your diary and listing things out. These are the darkest days now, they'll slowly start lighting up as time goes by. Obviously with the odd low day, but all in all it will improve.

Have you wandered around the site much and had a look at other little things you can do to boost amounts. Personally I do a few surveys, sell anything I can on ebay and Amazon and one specific voucher site is a little lifesaver for enabling me to buy treats.

I think I mentioned in your other thread, but I also really enjoy reading other diaries of people I can relate to and as motivating as they are they also give me a lot of inspiration of things to try. Plus it's nice to be in a place where people understand my journey and I understand theirs.

Good luck with it all. I'll keep popping in to see how you're doing.

Hiya

thanks for dropping in. I'm quite new to the site so I'll be browsing around certainly. Tried listing some toys on ebay but didn't sell, will probs hold on til 0 insertion fee weekend, will pop on gumtree in the meantime. Have also put away some clothes Paige got from x-mas (from a so called uncle n auntie who obviously don't know she's nearly 5 not nearly 4) and some other bits n bobs I can use as gifts for others rather than leaving them sitting around in her overstuffed cupboard.

Was chatting to dh last night about our groceries budget n how much we were spending, he's well on board for cash n carry etc......to be honest he doesn't care as long as he eats.

Oh god how the hell did we get in this mess, impatience I think is the key, well no more, I am glad we're dealing with this now,

Do u have a diary too? I'm going to see if I can find it n join in

Thanks xxxxxxx

beanielou

Keep plodding!

toots82

Hiya beanielou, n thanks hon.

oohhhhh its freezing today, heating gonna be on a bit I think lol. Money for Paige's swimming hasn't come out of bank yet, gave them details last fri, hope its not tried to come out before I managed to get the cash in, red neck at lessons tomorrow if it was declined.....sure they would have phoned me though!!

So I'm working all weekend this week and next, good news for pay (monthly) bad news for petrol lol. BUT am so excited, not this week but next am booked for the labour ward all weekend (I'm a bank nursing auxiliary).

Off to pick dd up from nursery soon and heading to her wee pal's house. Oh and borrowing MIL's bread maker soon to see if can save money that way.....bought a loaf yest n it just about gone already.

Pay day tomorrow for DH but only about £300 as he was off sick

xxxx

MuffinTops

You sound a bit concerned about your shopping money. Do you watch SuperScrimpers (I know!!!). There was a family of 5 who spend £200 a week on shopping. They thought they could get this down by about £50 a week to save some money as they were throwing around £50 worth of food away every week.

Well, they were given a weekly budget of that £50! No more money was to be spent! By planning each meal every day they did a really good job. I think they ended up spending around £48 something. They even managed a roast dinner with dessert on the Sunday. Obviously this £50 was for food only. No toiletries or cleaning products etc.

I think it's still on catchup TV. It's 4 On Demand.

toots82

MuffinTops wrote: »

You sound a bit concerned about your shopping money. Do you watch SuperScrimpers (I know!!!). There was a family of 5 who spend £200 a week on shopping. They thought they could get this down by about £50 a week to save some money as they were throwing around £50 worth of food away every week.

Well, they were given a weekly budget of that £50! No more money was to be spent! By planning each meal every day they did a really good job. I think they ended up spending around £48 something. They even managed a roast dinner with dessert on the Sunday. Obviously this £50 was for food only. No toiletries or cleaning products etc.

I think it's still on catchup TV. It's 4 On Demand.

hhhhhmmmmmmmmmm ta muchly, I will have a wee looky.

Not had good day, my sil (and best friend) has been told her mum's cancer is back and the outlook is very grim. I feel useless.

MuffinTops

Oh I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible news. Unfortunately, with a diagnosis like that I think everyone feels pretty useless, but you're really not. Your friend has you to turn to when she needs to talk things through and let out her emotions and that's far from useless. Knowing people care during such tough times works wonders for the person going through it. That's genuinely priceless. I wish you all the strength you need to get through these dark times.

toots82

thanks muffin hon,

she's an only child too (our husbands are brothers) so she's bearing a lot alone.

So, its payday today, spent £68 in mr A....BUT this included £10 on nappies n wipes, £10on cleaning products....kinda extras but all on offer, HUGE fairy washing up liquid (1200ml) for £2!!!!! would have needed it all next week anyway. This didn't include meat but hoping to balance it all up at cash n carry maybe next week lol. Took out £40 for gas n electric and have to put petrol in later. Also got £50 to spend on DH's car to get it fixed, but he's doing without it for an extra few days as buying the parts online has saved £30. Stocked up on savoury rice n pasta n sauce for our lunches at work, DH has had to cut back as he used to but lunch a fair bit but he's been fab and I know he'll try his best......I have access to all the bank accounts so he has no choice!!!!

Not much left this week to pay towards getting us back up to date but I'll figure it out tonight.

xxx