Debtdawg says enough is enough debt diary

BlueCrayon

Glad to hear it DD!

Your day sounds lovely, I wanted to go to the beach today but as we were getting ready the skies darkened and then it started throwing it down! The heat had been quite oppressive though so its been a bit of a relief but I was restless stuck inside.

I love boot sales so much! I'm not allowing myself to visit for a while though I've got lots of projects on the go and know I won't be able to restrict myself to just getting vintage china and the like. I know when we do ours I'll be abandoning Bob on the stall for a while to have a good mooch.

What do you have planned for her Birthday? Maybe we could come up with some ideas to reduce the cost?

BC xx

debtdawg

It's meant to be a disco with a facepainter. She had this for a previous birthday a few years ago and I assumed it would be roughly the same price. Unfortunately prices seem to have risen hugely since then (facepainter is $30 more, disco nearly twice the price) and we're now looking at over $200 for the hall and entertainment before food, party bags etc. It's stressing me out

sc1_2

debtdawg wrote: »

It's meant to be a disco with a facepainter. She had this for a previous birthday a few years ago and I assumed it would be roughly the same price. Unfortunately prices seem to have risen hugely since then (facepainter is $30 more, disco nearly twice the price) and we're now looking at over $200 for the hall and entertainment before food, party bags etc. It's stressing me out

It's crazy isn't it? We abandoned big fancy parties this year in favour of small parties at home for a small group of close friends. The ids enjoyed it just as much. Fizzy drinks, cake, sweets and games. The whole thing cost about £30.

mum2one

have you got a church hall nearby that you can hire, I know one by us os £20 for 2 hrs, scout hut, local halls all may be worth a try.
Disco what about seeing if someone has an ipod, computer with some big soeakers etc?
Face painting - maybe you could swop that for the glitter type tatoos, and have a friend to do them? (could say novelty no one else has done that, should be able to get the bits from amazon or ebay
If its estimated at £200 thats a fair wack,

How old is DD? negoitiaing isn't the best as you di feel guilty, I stopped doing DD parties at 7, we had a really bad disater, hired council run sports centre, the plan was 1hr play, 20mins food (supplied by us) 40 mins of bouncy castle.....

That turned into 5 mins of play by the staff, before they disappeared to the office as the boss had gone home early so it was skive 4 England, luckly my cousin + her hubby had stayed, there was them me, and dad trying to organise 30 kids. Never again.

Another thought -
Swimming party - some pools hire them out,
Pictures have worked for us, - this time DD wants 6 including her, so may take them to Pizza hut, kids meals £5, + 2 adults, reckon £50. Prebook the table, they usually put ballons up. xx

debtdawg

Good news on the party front!

I spoke to DD this morning and told her that her party was going to be super expensive and that I'd rather buy her some nice toys instead and have a party at home. It's meant to be on Halloween so I told her that I thought that we could decorate the front room and I could learn how to do glitter tattoos, we could do scary cupcake and bat biscuit decorating, have party games like musical zombies and dead people (i.e. sleeping lions, DH said it's not a PC idea though lol), pin the nose on the witch etc, pass the poo (parcel), have a just dance competition on the wii, do party/swag bag decorating, a halloween treat treasure hunt etc. She's really excited about it! I only have a small house and we've agreed she can invite 12 people so the reason for the different activities is to keep groups of the children doing a different activity for say, 10 mins, and then to swap. By doing a party at home I just need to get glitter tattoo stuff in (been checking out Ebay for inspiration), some icing pens for the biscuits (I can make basic bat shaped biscuits for them), colouring for the buttercream for the cupcakes (I was thinking black or orange?) and then some different sprinkles etc, some 'prizes' for the competitions, party bags to decorate and I have a load of craft stuff here but can get some 'scary' bits in for cheap and decorations which I can sort out cheaply. My mum picked up a bag of last year's halloween cups, plates, tablecloth, invitations and room decs from work the other day for real cheap so that's sorted. It sounds like a lot of stuff to get in but I am sure I can source it all reasonably cheaply and I am saving loads by having it at home instead! I do need to find someone to help with the baby though as otherwise he will be right in the way! I'm going to have to beg for family help on that day I think!

We went out to the beach again today, it was such a lovely day yesterday and the weather was just as good today that we went back to the same beach and playpark with a packed lunch and had a great time. Parking was free and I only bought ice creams at the end of the day for just over $3, so the day cost me $3ish, I did buy some packaging stuff for a parcel I have to send but that will come out of the money I have transferred into my account.

I've noticed that the kids are accepting it now that we can't afford loads of treats. They did ask for a few different things today but accepted it immediately when we said no, that we couldn't afford it/didn't need it.

All in all a positive day really. There are still a few 'spendy' events on the horizon that I am going to try to scale down, but we're getting there

mum2one

That is absolutly brillaint news on the party, ans sounds fab, can i gatecrash!!

The trip at beach sounds lovely, our nearest beach 70 miles away....

DD off on trip 2mor, a fun day of games and sports (free) then we've choosen some national trust activities to go to all localish, take a picnic, just be some petrol.

The kids sound brill when you said no, at least your starting them young as to you can't have everything.

One of my friends comments every so often about that DD and i have have a holiday, or we're going away, but as i said to DD, x has facials, manicures, spa days, eats out 5 days a week, yes she pays a mortgage,( but was ex-council house her mums full discount), and gym memebrship, cocktails, can't afford a holiday shes single no kids.
But for us, its £1 movies, orange weds, cheap days out - that money we don't spend goes for treats and holidays. Bless her DD has said she'd rather have her holidays......
xx

debtdawg

Aw, good on her mum2one! She sounds like a good girl and you are teaching her well!

I am going to do some baking today, I am always losing the recipes so I am going to plonk them here!

Twinks Hobnobs

225g SR flour
225g sugar
225g porridge oats
225g margarine
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp hot water
1/2 tsp bicarb

Mix flour,oats,sugar.Melt marg,syrup and water in a pan.Stir in bicarb and add to dry mix,mix well,make smallish balls and put on greased tray.

180c for 15 minutes.Cool on the tray.You want them golden,not brown in oven.

Weetabix Brownies

In a bowl put
4 crushed weetabix
4oz caster sugar
4oz self raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
pkt chocolate drops (i use a 25p 100g tescos own milk chocolate chopped up)

mix this altogether

then take 4oz of melted marg and stir this into the mixture along with an egg

mix well and put in a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes at electric 180.

Millies Cookies

3oz butter
6oz sugar i use half brown half caster
1 egg
6oz sr flour

debtdawg

The sun is shining it looks like it's going to be a lovely day. I want to do something with the children but not sure what I have no car, public transport costs a small fortune, I have a tiny garden and $21.10 left of my $50 budget. Hmmmm going to get ready and put my thinking cap on!

Talking of the $50 budget, it's going quite well really this week considering we went to a car boot sale and had two days out with the kids. Had to top up on bread and milk yesterday, plus some ingredients for the bakeathon (mmm lots of flapjack, brownies and smarties cookies in the tub though, delish!).

Bank balance is looking ok-ish at the moment, $300 in the savings pot for the MOT and car tax to buy next week. I still struggle to know where we are week to week when our bills come out monthly, despite my spangly wonderful informative spreadsheet that I made the other day. All I know is that we have to not spend money and then hopefully we'll be ok

I was meant to go to the hairdressers next week but I think I can put it off for a good 3 weeks extra. I have a hen night on Saturday and I am a bit worried about the cost. We will be treating the hen so I don't know how much that will be and then I will have my meal and drinks on top. I think I might drive to save on expensive taxis and drinks, but it's still not going to be a cheap night *gulp*. I have DS's school shoes left to buy and all I keep thinking is that the money spent on Saturday will easily cover his shoes!

saterkey

Hi have just read your diary. I have two children and stopped the kids parties after primary school, they have ranged from home ones, which were hard work with bouncy castles, to leisure centre, and play areas, i realised that we were paying for all those other children to have a great time while we sat around watching and getting stressed, so now we agree with the kids what they would like, sometimes like my daughter whose 16 this year, she went ice skating with 3 friends, (i had two bogoffs) and then dinner in the restaurant overlooking the toboganning so they had a laugh watching everyone coming down through the windows while eating, the restaurant was reasonable priced so they could choose anything and the most expensive was around 6-7 on the menu. ( I had 10% off token). My son i have to book but we are doing the trentham staffs aerial extreme, they have an offer on of 3 for 2 at the mo bring the price right down and then we are going for a meal.
My son was asked to go paintballing to a party and asked to pay 25ukp for the priviledge, I said no, I drather spend that on a family day out!
So always look for vouchers, coupons discounts and rarely go to anything without one or two.
I use tesco clubcards lots, and have had loads of days out and treats with them. I do lots of competitions particularly for days out, have won alton towers family tickets 4 times now, we only go i we win!
So good luck from a lurker,
Julie

debtdawg

Hi Julie, lovely to hear from another lurker
I was thinking of using the last $5 of tesco vouchers I have towards a day out next month, they convert into $20 worth so that's a chunk off an entry for us. We've stopped shopping in Tesco so I haven't been gaining any points of late, which is a shame.
I can't believe you won tickets to AT 4 times! That's brilliant! My DS and DD love it there but it's about 4 hours away so involves an overnight stay at least which really bumps the cost up. We did Drayton Manor last year which was more affordable and they loved it there, plus the rides were slightly more suitable for their ages. I really want to go back to AT next year though!

We didn't end up doing anything yesterday as DD was out of bed late, baby DS is all croaky and sniffly and it seemed like such a hassle to have to catch a bus and a train to get anywhere decent. Being a one car family is hard during the school holidays when DH is at work. We may go to a soft play centre today though ($6 for the two children, plus a coffee for me ) which just means a bus ride as I have to collect some wallpaper from Next that I ordered last week and I need to get DS's school shoes at some point (goodbye $40+!)

We bought a dressing table off Ebay last night which we are collecting this weekend for us to shabby chic up for our boudoir. DH is responsible for making me bid on it, though I didn't take a lot of persuading! He's really into the idea of renovating old furniture so wants to get some bits done around the house for practising.

Our car insurance is due next month (along with the tax this month and MOT next month and a tyre that needs mending *sigh*). Our current insurer put up our repayments nearly $10 a month, so I had a quick look last night and can get the same cover for the same price as we're paying now, with Hastings, with $40 cashback through Quidco. I need to investigate other insurers though before I sign up!

Under a month to go before I can knock down my expensive $36 a month phone contract, woooo. Can't wait to sort that moneypit out.

Swagbucking is going well, I have another $10 of Amazon vouchers ready to convert for next month.

Still worried about Saturday night, especially now we bought the dressing table. I know that DH doesn't want me to go either as he thinks it's a waste of money, so it's sucking the joy out of a night out tbh. I think staying sober and driving is the best option!

The weekend away next month I bought before my LBM is now going to be a full family affair. Originally it was going to be just DH and I plus the baby, whilst the other two were at their dads. But I can't bear the idea of time away without them, it seems so unfair! As it's a one bed apartment we'll all get in. I'm planning on taking loads of yummy food, baked goods and special hot chocolate ingredients in case it's cold (it's a coast/beach 3 night break) so we don't have to eat out lots and having some MSE days out whilst there. I told the kids about it at the weekend and we're all looking forward to it now

Best get ready and wake sleeping beauty DD I guess!