Here I am in debt again. 2nd time lucky

StressedSteph

I am starting to panic :eek:

I have just been upstairs, getting all the Christmas presents wrapped.

I have realised I can't find the two presents I bought for my Little Nephew. 1 for his birthday and 1 for Christmas. They are visiting this weekend from London and I REALLY need to find them so that I can hand them over this weekend and save myself postage costs. But where the heck are they?????

All presents are wrapped and back in the attic which is a relief, I am normally having a Chrstmas eve panic, hoping kids are asleep and not hearing the ripping of selotape and wrapping paper crinkles.

Their little pile of presents look soooooo rubbish. I told you I would start beating myself up about the small amount we can afford this year :(:(:(:(:(:(.

Ok, off to rip apart my wardrobe on the hunt for those missing presents. My house is quite tidy and organised so I don't normally lose things. where the heck have they gone???

Back soon xxx

StressedSteph

Found them....Phew. I had hidden them in the chest in my bedroom. All wrapped up and ready now. Thank heavens for that.

It feels good to get completely organised :T.

Off to pick children up from school.

xx

[Deleted User]

Fae wrote: »

They get a prize for each layer really :question:

What a wonderful way to (not) learn about winning and losing.

What's the point in playing, if nobody wins :huh:

Can't help wondering how some of these kids are going to cope in the real world :eek:

Quite.

BTW. How do you make sure each child opens a layer, and gets a gift :huh:

StressedSteph

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

BTW. How do you make sure each child opens a layer, and gets a gift :huh:

Hehe nowadays, the parent in control of the music does'nt have their back turned when they switch off the music. They watch and purposely turn the music off as it gets to each child to make sure they all have 1 prize each. Boring isnt it.

The amount of times i have been at parties where a stressed parent has asked my help in keeping track on which children have had their prize yet and who hasn't.

Nightmare!!!

StressedSteph

Evening all,

Not much to report today. Got all my wrapping done today, have nothing planned fo the weekend, except putting up the Christmas decorations and maybe walks with the dog and kiddie-winkles.

Hubby is off to skittles tonight, bless him, to save effecting the budget, he did a little extra job of fixing someones wiring in the week and from the payment he had enough money to put fuel in his van and pay for his skittles night out. I can't complain about that can I.

I am relaxing with the tv tonight, my chance to catch up on all the rubbish telly that hubby hates.

Hope you all have a cheap but fun weekend ahead.

xxx

mummybearx

Ah the poundshop is a killer! £1 here, £1 there, I spent £15 the other day, only went in for sugar and tea bags :rotfl:

Glad you found those missing presents :T I've piles all my gifts into the side of the dresser. I've not been able to use one door of the wardrobe for about 3 months now with all the stuff piled up against it :rotfl:

brizzledfw

Hello Steph

Lovely to stumble across your diary..have read it all and subscribed so will pop in from time to time to cheer you on your way.:T

I am doing the present 'stock take' this weekend. I am also sure it's going to be a pretty small pile. But from talking to other parents in RL, let alone here, we are all cutting back. Off to try the pound shops for stocking fillers next week (i have been warned though zepsgal) and today I resisted getting DD2 a work box she wanted. Instead am going to buy it for her birthday in 6 months time. One of the issues was not just the fact that it would be £40.. It would be that I would feel obliged to buy a comparable present for my other child...so ratcheting everything up. No-so very MSE and..given my signature felt that a bit of a reality check should not go amiss:o:rotfl:

Have a good weekend

Brizzle

StressedSteph

Thanks for all your replies. glad to hear its not just me that got dazzled in the Poundshop..:rotfl:.

It wasn't until I got home that MIL told me there is a .99p shop in town thats good.. hahaha will have to try that one next time.

I decided now that I have been doing my spreadsheet for a month or so and I have forecast forwards through to February 2013. I can actually work out how much we have spare to throw at debts.
So I did the Snowball Calculator . Wow, basically, I we have no disasters, unexpected large expenses we could be debt free by the end of next year :T:eek::T.

Unlikely really, as life has a habit of getting in the way with unexpected costs and as we have no fall-back money pot i am sure it won't be smooth sailing.

I have printed off the summary from the Snowball website and I am goingt to keep that with me and try and cross off each month to give me some incentive.

I can't imagine what it would be like to be Debt free .
As soon as I have paid Littlewoods & Next I am ringing them up to cancel my account. I have cleared those debts and stacked them up again sooooo many times. I will NOT fall for it ANYMORE -:mad::mad:.. hahah getting mad now.

I think the big secret is keeping the momentum of money saving going. Its really easy to be enthusiastic at first, but as the months creep by and temptation comes round each corner its so hard to not say "Oh stuff it" and buy what you want.
REALY REALLY REALLY want to do it this time. Fingers Crossed.

Ramble officially over :beer:

StressedSteph

Afternoon all,

Got a letter from my Littlewoods Catalogue this morning, from their Arrears Collection Department :eek:.

They want £526.57 Immediately and £590.60 by 21st Dec. Thankfully I have just made my budgeted payment of £370 to them and have had to factor a payment of £157 in 10 days time. I won't be able to pay the £590.60 until Mid January:o.

Hopefully that will be ok, I am assuming that as I am making decent payments and don't go over 1 month in arrears that they will not hand it over to a debt collector???. Am I right?

I am abit annoyed as was hoping to get rid of the overdraft first, but think I am going to have to tackle Littlewoods first, just to keep them off my back.

Its my fault because I chose the interest free higher weekly payments for everything that I ordered instead of accepting the high interest that they wack on everything.

I guess one way or another I am paying off the debt, just not what I chose to start with first.

Oh well, it keeps me on my toes, pushes me to keep going, I hate getting horrible letters demanding money .

Hope everyone is having a good Saturday, the sun is shining here again today.

We have just finished tanning and drying the Sheepskins that we had after our sheep went to slaughter. Have got three lovely brown rugs now. Can't decide wether to keep them as rugs or try to make them into cushions. I could even try to sell them, but not sure we have done enough of a proffessional job to get away with it.

Hubby is busy getting the barn ready for the Turkey processing next Saturday and I am about to tackle the Christmas tree contructuction

If I can just stop the children from bickering, then it will be a lovely weekend

tesuhoha

I've been reading your thread. I read the debt diaries now and again when I feel that my spending is going haywire and it makes me pull back. I'm not in debt but I was once and I don't want to go there again.

Anyway, a couple of things I wanted to mention. You said on one post that you shouldn't be using the dishwasher but should be washing up by hand. My husband is a plumber and he says that using the dishwasher is much more economical on water and heating than washing up by hand.

Also, regarding your difficulties shopping, have you thought of getting the Tesco Delivery saver or whatever its called. I have paid £60 for six months and you can have as many deliveries as you like as long as they are over £40. With one delivery a week it works out about £2 something a week which is cheaper than paying the delivery charge or petrol. Just a thought.

The other thing is, I used to be like you. My husband is in the building trade and when we were in debt he could never take any time off because he didn't get paid. I used to feel guilty that he used to work all the time, all year with only a little time off at Christmas. However, now we are debtfree and have some savings he is able to take a little time off when he feels like a break and he has been able to take on a less demanding maintenance job.

So there is light at the end of the tunnel and it doesn't last forever. It felt to us that it would but now we actually have money to do up the house and it feels quite risky to be spending it even though we can afford it. You never really get rid of that edgy feeling that you are spending too much but it still feels very good not to be in debt 3 years on!