And so the long slog begins.....

MummyDrusilla

Woohoo just shaved another month off the DFD!!! The O/D is getting lots of £1 boosts with all this lovely weather and no need to use the tumble dryer . DS' nappies and wipes are coming off the line all scratchy but it's a small price to pay .

Managed to get a few bits and bobs on ebay yesterday too and 5 of them have bids on already! After my run on having to give buyers refunds cos of my own stupidity, I'm hoping the tide has turned and I've not made any daft mistakes in my listings :S

Eyebright

Great news MD, I find ebay fantastic for boosting your income. Comes in handy for throwing at debts or for stashing in a savings account for whatever the future holds

I really need to put some stuff on ebay, you've reminded me that I really need to get that sorted

MummyDrusilla

Hi Eyebright,

I've been ebaying since february and after fees and P&P have made around £500. I really lost it during may though (mind you we have been quite busy). I intended to gut 1 room at a time but we quite spectacularly stalled when it came to the office as I need DH's input and he's not the most motivated of people when it comes to dealing with our possessions :doh:! I've decided to get on with the lounge and our dvd and cd collection. I must also look at filtering out some of the books I've got collecting dust.

MummyDrusilla

I think I'm the only person in the country who's glad it's a bit cooler today! I don't do well in the warm weather so it's much nicer now!

Been paid today. Woohoo! After my really bad spell of not knowing when I'm going to get paid and then not getting paid by my previous employer, I still find it surprising that I actually get a money injection at the end of the month!

As the work system isn't working properly and taking AGES to run reports, I've taken the time to sort out my monthly budgets and pots. We still need to claw back what we overspent on last month so I need to be careful but it's looking ok so far. £119.53 in credit after all the bills, food/fuel budget (which we went over last month grrrr), car saving pot and standard extra debt repayment amount. Am debating whether to shift that £119.53 to another account or just leave it in the joint account till the end of the month. Hmmm. Actually I do need to replace the money I 'borrowed' from my big savings pot. Will have a think about what extras we might need to pay for this month and then decide.

More bids on my ebay too

chevalier

At least you had started to have pots for things like the car. Which is better than resorting to the credit cards.

Ref the shoes. You do know that they aren't necessary? Who are the people that are telling you you need shoes, the shoe companies....

MummyDrusilla

Thanks chevalier! Yes, I'm chuffed that I've got pots of money rather than more pots of debt

Do you mean DS' shoes? No I don't find them that necessary but I'm encouraging him to walk outside more now he's building his confidence with it and enjoying having his 'freedom' (as far as his reins allow ). I don't have him in them in the house and when we're out and he's not walking (at the supermarket, etc) cos I much prefer the idea of his feet not being enclosed.

MummyDrusilla

Long time no post again!

I sense a pattern of good intentions with this thread and then forgetting to post

DFW news since I last posted - DH has had a tax rebate for £250 from the HMRC! Will pay for the car service that's due and then a bit more of my OD.

I finally got round to digging out the paperwork for the car 'pot' and after ringing them found out they haven't received my cloak and dagger password. So another form filled in and sent off yesterday. Seems more hassle than it's worth atm!

I'm getting very impatient now. We've got busy weekends coming up again over the next few weeks and so no real chance to get into rooms and search for ebay stuff. I sold a few bits last week and amazingly transferred £150 from pp. Unfortunately only £40 of that was profit but it's still an extra £40 paid to the OD. I've been reading some DFW posts and been inspired to trawl the grocery threads again. It's the only area I have any real control over so I'm always looking to find ways to adjust it. not sure about anyone else but I don't have the time to shop around 3-4 different supermarkets every fortnight so I know I'll never spend the least I can. Perhaps a monthly trip to Aldi to bulk buy might help. I think I'll compile a list of our cupboard items and how much they cost at our usual orange supermarket and do price comparisons.

Oh and my boss rang on Tuesday asking what my work pattern currently was (!) and if I wanted any more hours :j. It's not going to be immeidately and he's going to get back to me with more details but hopefully I'll be able to increase to 4 days a week from the 2.5 I'm doing now. I wasn't ready to do 4 days immediately after maternity leave but now DS is 18 months and we seem to be coping with the routine, i feel able to take on more hours. And we really need the pennies!

Aamberle

Morning Mummy,

Great News it would seem, things really are going in the right direction for you! If you work a couple more days, then your DFD should come down a little more..which means under a year woohoo..
And the ebay seems to be going well - making any money is a bonus well done..

Anyway off now, just wanted to say am still following and supporting from here..Good Luck XX

MummyDrusilla

Cheers hun. how are you doing?

Spoke to my boss again today and he seems to have found another full day for me. A surgery who I used to work for before I went on maternity leave and with my old boss so kind of know it but it sounds as if all sorts of stuff has happened since I left (not related to me ha ha!) so the new management wants someone to help out. All sorts of fun for me and my wage slip will start to look like it used to.

He's also going to start offering childcare vouchers which will help massively, especially with adding on another day at the childminder with this extra work.

Perhaps we'll have some spends for our camping holiday in july!

MummyDrusilla

Another week, another post.

Hmmm, so what's happened since I last posted? Things are coming together with my new surgeries. I'm starting at 1 on tuesday afternoon and have a meeting to chat about the other tuesday lunchtime. Childcare is all sorted for tuesdays so we're good to go. I really should work out how much extra I'm going to be earning. I'd like to increase my DFW payments from £650 a month to £800 at least. This would change my DFD from October 2016 to October 2015. So a whole year closer to being able to have another addition to our family . I'm hoping we can put a bit more away than this though. Question is, do I put it all to snowball or do we start to save the £4k I'll need to be able to go on SMP for 9 months? I need to do some projections I think.

I finally got the details through for my car money pot account after applying for it 2 months ago!!!! Managed to set up a S/O for £15 a month so hopefully that account will sort itself out and I'll dip into it when we need car funds. We're taking the big car in for a service today which won't be funded by this account as the bill wil far exceed the account balance. We can absorb this cost in our day-to-day money (I hope).

I haven't put this on here yet cos I feel a bit embarrassed and scared I'll get slated but we're off for a week's camping in Wales at the end of July with some friends. I don't know why I'm so scared of admitting it to people reading this. I'm being ridiculous - I mean, I only need to justify it to myself surely? I could probably manage without the holiday and just have annual leave as a break from work and to get on top of jobs in the house we've been meaning to do for a while. But DH needs to get away. Work is awful for him right now and he doesn't get a break even when he's at home. A break from the monotony of routine life will be good for us all, some time with our friends will be even better and DS will love his week of mischief and fun with their DS. It'll be good for us all. Do I sound as if I'm making excuses .

Another thing I haven't mentioned is the money that I got from the insurance payout has mainly gone now. It paid for a deck in our garden. So there. :P We just need some sunshine now (and for DH to finish building the thing lol!).