Hypno's kick up the backside debt diary....

hypno06

Hi El, glad you managed to get some cooking done, it will really help out in the next week or so.

We are off for a buffet tonight which could be anything from dire to delicious!! Hoping for the latter but expecting the former. Perhaps you could keep back some of that crispy duck for me, just in case.....

I am determined to stick to this £1 per person per day thing. I reckon that if I can do that, I can do anything. Just hope that the rest of the family play the game too.....:rolleyes:

Hope you have a good week and don't get too tired. Remember to take care of yourself x

taxi73

Hi Hypno ..well done on the shopping!!!....also I hope you enjoy your buffet a night out will do you good especially one that won't cost too much...
Changing the subject (sorry)...My chair collapsed with me on it last night so the darling husband has been out today and bought a new one...£71.99 (ouch)...I did register for freecycle but there were none there and other people in our area also wanting them...that was the last of his savings...I asked him not to spend that much....he also went into the shed for something today and found a garden chair so another problem solved

hypno06

Hi Taxi :hello: I hope we didn't talk up the chair issue At least now though you have something safe to sit on, both indoors and out. It means that you get chance to heal quicker because you are sitting properly, and sometimes the cost just isn't worth worrying about.

Had a good evening, decent food and only spent 60p on some squash for the children so very good DFW wise! Back home now because the children were tired and needed to go to bed.

The sun is due to shine tomorrow, so the garden will beckon, at least for an hour or so inbetween mystery shopping!

hypno06

Have done 4 mystery shops today as part of my Marathon Mystery Shopping Mission so that took up a reasonable amount of time, but at least I am getting there - only 19 more to do by 13th May

While we were out I popped into PC world to use my credit note that they gave me when I bought the laptop. Actually chose goods to the value of around £45 which is a couple of quid over the value of the credit note and was quite happy to pay the balance, but the guy just let me have the whole lot for nothing! So thank you PC world for 2 printer cartridges and some CDs that will see me through for a while :T

Now that I have got printer ink, I have no excuse for not printing off my insurance claim, doing letters for OH credit card charges, etc etc. Looks like I will be busy tomorrow (in between trying to do a couple more mystery shops!).

Spent 31p on some Asda own brand liquorice allsorts though.......did share them with DD though so not too bad really.....

I am also trying to work out how to use excel as I want to try spreadsheets for the spending and income budgets especially for the next few weeks when things are quite tight. Haven't had much luck yet, but will keep trying!

Snaggles

Hi Hypno! You sound as though things are going well, hope you are managing to find plenty of time to relax in the sun.

I can't help much with Excel, as I only use it for very basic stuff, but using 'help' or doing a Google search comes in very handy for working out what formulas to use etc. Start with something very basic and then build up from there. There's loads of techy-minded people on here that will help if you get stuck with how to do something.

Glad you had a good night out last night, very DFW!

hypno06

All I want to do is to add and take away on the spreadsheet. I don't think it gets any more basic than that!!

Need to have something that will deal with negative figures, as that is what I will be faced with but thought if I could put in all the expected income (child benefit and stuff that comes in throughout the month) and do daily spending entries, it might help me stay focussed (or it could make me spend even more time on here!!)

Oh, and I have joined Dithering Dad's mortgage free in three years challenge. Now I have a very large mortgage and I know I have absolutely no chance of paying anything off in the next three years, but their challenge timescale is the same as my DFD so I thought it would be another tool to keep me motivated and on track, in the hope that I can then follow it up with a mortgage free challenge afterwards!

Snaggles

I'd love to do the mortgage challenge too but haven't a chance of paying it off - in fact we will shortly have to increase it to buy a bigger house

It's quite scary really, the mortgage we have now could be paid off in 10 years, maybe less, but we'll have to increase it by quite a bit and it will be at least 20 years then.

I can't see any way round it unfortunately as we will outgrow this house very soon and there's no scope to extend it at all.

taxi73

Hi Hypno...
So glad you had a good time and all for the princely sum of 60p...I can't help with excel either as I'm so useless on a computer...I haven't even attempted it yet..though it would probably be very useful for me...but I'm technophobic...it's a lovely day here as well ....so have been for a stroll...and really enjoyed it...not too far ..though..Well done to PC World for giving you the stuff for free....
No excuses now for not doing the paperwork for those charges...lol

chocaholic110

Snaggles wrote: »

I'd love to do the mortgage challenge too but haven't a chance of paying it off - in fact we will shortly have to increase it to buy a bigger house

It's quite scary really, the mortgage we have now could be paid off in 10 years, maybe less, but we'll have to increase it by quite a bit and it will be at least 20 years then.

I can't see any way round it unfortunately as we will outgrow this house very soon and there's no scope to extend it at all.

We have that "problem" too Snaggles. We have a tiny three bedroom house, but the two children's bedrooms only really have room for a bed and a wardrobe and that's about it. The two children we have really need more space and we are still hoping for a third who would have to sleep in a drawer in our room if it were born already!

We only have £33,000 on our current mortgage and could probably pay that off in 3 years after we got debt free, but instead we are planning to sell ours and buy a bigger house. It's really scary thinking about how big our new mortgage might be, but at least we should be debt free or thereabouts by the time we buy.

Hi hypno :hello: Sorry, not trying to take over your thread!

hypno06

Ok, so after an hour, I have the bare bones of a very basic spreadsheet. Now I have to put the numbers in - not sure which is scarier, having a small child say "Mummy, if you had asked me, I could have done the spreadsheet for you" or having mega negative numbers to enter into the bloody thing!!!

Snaggles, outgrowing your house is an exciting part of life and as long as you don't overstretch yourself with the new mortgage, it is a very positive thing. OK so you will have potentially 20 years left on a mortgage, but with all of your new DFW/MSE skills you can get that down easily, especially as the children get older and you have more ability to work etc.

Hi Chocoholic, feel free to visit the thread anytime, and as long as people are nice and constructive, or just down right funny, they are very welcome to take over!!

Taxi, I will do those letters tomorrow. I promise, I promise (sound like my DS doing his homework excuses now!)