Hard work now but hoping to lead to financial freedom

tootallulah

Great news on the over draft, really brilliant progress. As for challenges............PAD? Target small saved payments to the 0% card will help to get paying it down started.

niftythrifty33

thanks for the replies. I'm dubious about doing a challenge as I dont think I come on here enough to keep up with it. If I did do one it would be to pay off the credit card, but I also want to pay back into my savings as they are very low and I feel better when we have some money put by.

Elantan, I have cooked some chinese stuff before, but not much and we all love chinese, I will look into this more as i get very bored of cooking the same old stuff.

Tutaloolah, what is PAD?

I managed to get loads of cleaning done today, kids rooms have never looked so good, now that im working less I can hopefully keep on top of it. I know my kids are old enough to do their rooms themselves but they just dont!

I have had a mysterious £119 come out of the bank and have no idea why so will call them in the morning.

Happy debtbusting to you all

chevalier

Hi have just read your diary.

I have a couple of thoughts. Sorry if they are a bit out there.

Ref football boots/ sports kids in general. Have you tried freecycle? Indeed for all the kids clothes. Some people just can't be bothered to list on ebay. So you could pick up some clothes for free. Other option is charity shops and ebay. Do you have any friends with older children who could hand you down clothes? Also most schools have a second hand uniform part (even though they don't advertise it often), so perhaps you could save a bit there.

Regarding the house. Sorry but if you have children in the 16-19 age range, then they need to contribute eve if it isn't financially. Nothing wrong with them now KEEPING their rooms tidy. They don't stay tidy, they lose out on stuff. If they do chores then you don't have to, and can get on with doing money making things such as ebay, or surveys etc.

Whilst I am sure weekend jobs are like hens teeth it wouldn't hurt the oldest to look. Most people I knew who did A levels also had a weekend job.

Have you checked that all of your utilities are with the cheapes suppliers, and also that all your insurances are too? Could save a bit there.

Well done on following up about the tax credits, I hope that can pay off your OD.

Good luck
chev

niftythrifty33

Ok so not been on here as much as planned. I have been saving all year for Christmas but as usual we have overspent!! I still need a few more presents but refuse to buy anything else so am now looking for inventive ideas for the rest of the stuff? I will have a look on the Christmas gift thread, Im sure there is one.

The OD has got worse, its now at £600 od though Im sure we will get back on track. Trouble is the house ins. has just been renewed which I'd saved for but that meant my Christmas pot was down.

This is the 1st year EVER that we can account for nearly every penny thats been spent in a WHOLE year. Therefore, in 2013 I can set a realistic budget to come out of the current account each month to go into savings acct. It will def be a lot more than the £240 that I had been putting by each month! as this wasnt enough by the end of the year (Christmas).

Next year I need to do 4 very important financial things.

1, Stick to my part time hours, don't get tempted to take on extra work just for the money (too much stress)
2, Sell EVERYTHING on Ebay, I have 5 binbags and other stuff to sell
3, put savings (though small) and kids savings into high interest acct.
4, Pay off as much as possible from the credit card, preferable before the 0% runs out in June. This is doubtful but means less of a balance transfer fee if I have to move to another 0% card.

Right, off to wrap pressies, do a food shopping list and make a homemade chicken pie, my eldest DS favourite as he has a bad cold

niftythrifty33

Well I haven't posted for a while and it seems a bit mad anyway as I wonder if it's only me that reads it? I don't really mind as I will enjoy looking back at this, hopefully one day when we're debt free :j

We have financially survived Christmas and it was lovely. We spent over budget (again) but amazingly we are just over £1,000 in credit before the 1st Jan DD's which is a real first. For anyone that does read this, this is only due to saving each month for all eventualities throughout the year. Yes, we were short on the Christmas budget but the fact that we're not in debt for it is a great feeling and does have a knock on effect on relationships/stress levels this time of year.

I now have 1 years full accounts of spending so intend to have a really good look at that this week. Then set a new monthly budget to save based on last years spending. We definitely weren't putting enough by each month. I am still slightly confused by it all though as with things such as clothes or dentist it only really works if you have a years worth of savings at the start of the year, otherwise if all the kids need new shoes in February there isnt enough money??

I based my way of budgeting on CAP (Christians against poverty) system which is really good and can be done online if anyone wants to try it. I don't use their website but I do use their system.

I have just been looking online and it seems everything left over in the fridge/cupboards from Christmas can be frozen, even Chocolates and brandy butter!! so will do that today before the kids and me get even fatter and our teeth fall out:rotfl:

I have been a right scrooge this Christmas and saved some wrapping paper (like my mum used to when we were kids) to iron out and use again. I've also bought some wrapping paper, cards and pressies in the sale for next year. I've decided to be organised for next Christmas and will make cards from this years ones stuck on blank card (need to buy that and envelopes). I'm also going to buy presents throughout the year and make hampers.

Happy end of December everyone:D

beanielou

Keep posting~ I read

echo_and_narcissus

Hiya

I read what you said about doing packed lunches being a real chore.

Me too, I don't like doing them! But what I do is I prepare them the evening before when I'm doing dinner. When dinner is cooking, and there's a bit of washing up waiting to be done, I arrange all the lunchbags in a row and chuck things in in a conveyor belt fashion. Have a stock list of stuff to comprise a reasonably healthy and filling lunch and check there's everything in there. So (my kids are younger), sandwiches, piece of fruit, yogurt, maybe a packet of crisps (not so healthy!), and possibly a piece of flapjack/biscuit/leftover cake.

I also keep a stock of non-fresh items to supplement just in case. So I keep in crackers if we're out of bread. Cheap tinned meat. Cereal bars. But doing it the evening before means I can nip out to get stuff if I need to.

HTH a little!

niftythrifty33

Echo, you are right I should do it in the evening or better still, get the kids to do it!!

Like you I pop to the shop the night before when I know theres nothing for lunches, trouble is popping to the shop seems to happen far too much then when I'm there I get other bits too, sometimes this is good though as all the reduced stuff is out, just a case of having a mini scrap with the other shoppers at the reduced counter, I end up walking off in a huff as they are soooo rude!

niftythrifty33

Just a quick update on some frugal things over the last few days. Yesterday I spent hours doing meal plan for next 2.5 weeks using up stuff in the freezer and ordering the bits needed from Asda online, it cam eot nearly £70 but thats pretty good for nearly 3 weeks for 5 (all adult size meals). Will still need to get bits for some packed lunch stuff, milk, bread etc. I'm hoping to make cakes and pasta etc for packed lunches.

I had 2 huge cartons double cream left over, 1 will be used for sauce today for cauliflower cheese (with left over stilton) and sauce for tomorrow with pasta. With the other carton I made...BUTTER!!! woohoo go me! I just blitzed it in food processor, poured out the butter milk (will use for making scones to freeze) then added some sea salt and put in a pot in fridge. I never knew it was so easy. I'm also going to freeze the Christmas cake as it hasnt been touched, and have frozen the left over brandy butter.

Today I ironed some used wrapping paper for next Christmas, my mum used to do this when we were kids. I am also cutting up old Christmas and birthday cards that are nice to make into new cards, just need to buy the plain card and envelopes.

Just been to Tesco and spent £6.64 on loads of reduced food inc. 8 duracell batteries, they are BOGOF and on supersavvyme printed off 2 x £1 vouchers, so 8 good batteries cost me £2.80 instead of £9.60.

Hopefully there is nothing else to buy this week so might aim for 5 whole days of no spend (unless the kids get desperate) also dont think were going anywhere for new years eve which doesn't bother me at all.

echo_and_narcissus

All sounding very organised!

And ironing wrapping paper??!! Well I never knew you could do that!