Here I am in debt again. 2nd time lucky

StressedSteph

Morning Dear Diary

So sorry I haven't posted for a week. I am not sure where all that time went?. Well actually I do....Its the Children. I have been busy chasing them round, trying to keep them occupied.

We have tickets to go to our local Great Dorset Steam Fair today, but really undecided what to do. I have to get some animal feed as we are out and the house looks like a disaster .

Have been trying to be good with the money but fear I have made some unnecessary little spends, mostly because the children are with me. Like still out at lunchtime and not got a packed lunch etc. (Need to be more organised :mad:)

Will post better later xx

StressedSteph

Afternoon Diary,

Boy am I looking forward to the children going back to school next Tuesday.

Trying to get anything done round the house is like a feat of endurance. Just to achieve the smallest job involves me stopping 10 times to break up fights, get lunch, deal with the latest disaster....Aaaargh :mad::mad:.

Roll on a quiet 6 hours per day where I can actually get jobs done without feeling totally exhausted.

Hubby is busy putting the felt and battens onto our extension roof which will finally keep the weather out. Seriously got to cut back to be able to afford the windows and doors before Christmas....Not sure how that is going to happen .

Oh well, guess I had better get back to the cleaning.

Speak soon

StressedSteph

rachelet wrote: »

Hi Steph,

I have just read all your diary over the last couple of days and have now subscribed!!!

We are a bit similar in that we have live on a lovely small farm and have our own sheep and raise our own lambs each year for the freezer. We also had two pigs last year which are now in our freezer as well!! The main difference is that our farm is in Northern France!

What makes it even harder for us is that I work in England during the week whilst my husband stays in France with our four kids. So he has to do everything on the farm during the week and then at the weekend I come home and just try and play with the kids all weekend.

We are trying to be more self- sufficient but there is always something else to buy or fix on a farm. And trying to pay off our debts at the same time is hard work and is one of the reasons why I work in England during the week!

Anyway I wish you luck with your paying all your debts off and keeping things going on the farm!

Rachel

Hi Rachel

Great to hear someone is living on a smallholding and trying to tackle debt too, like you said there is always something that needs money spent on it and its an uphill struggle to tackle debt.

Do you have a diary?. I will go off and search for it xxx

StressedSteph

karmachilovething wrote: »

Make lots of Marrow Cakes and freeze them
(Taste like a poor mans carrot cake)

Oh no, I think courgette (marrow) cake is loads better than carrot. It always comes out moist and stays that way, carrot can be a bit dry sometimes. It's one of the recipes I'm missing at the moment (all my cook books are in storage )

I think so too, but I use icing instead of cream cheese. I think it tastes just as good.

Have had to make a chocolate cake this week and the family are starting to moan about the 10 Marrow cakes they have eaten in a row

StressedSteph

evie451 wrote: »

Hi Steph read whole thread over the last day or so and will subscribe if thats ok.....things are better than they were and you arent running up more on catalogues so well done :T
I might pluck up the courage to do a diary of my own...curse of the bloomin overdraft perhaps? :rotfl:ours is £1200 and curse is an understatement! :eek:

Hi Evie,

You really should do a diary, it gives you even more reason to check in here every day and keep motivated.

I get quite excited whenever my overdraft is as low as £1200 so take heart that it is not as bad as it could be

debtfreewannabe321

Roll on Tuesday here too :beer: my smallest goes to full time school this term too so i'll actually have a whole 6 hours to myself :eek: not sure how I will cope as i'm so used to having a small person attached to my side :rotfl:.

I've never heard of marrow cake in fact i'm not sure i've ever eating a marrow (and been aware of it anyway?) I do like carrot cake though so if it's even better than that I may have to research this one

Have a nice Sunday and just think 48 hours from now you could be relaxing minus trying to stop the kids causing havoc, it's the teachers job then :rotfl:

StressedSteph

lurvlyloz wrote: »

thats not even that long if you think about it

Its not is it.... My snowballing starts this month (September), Going to try my HARDEST to make the same payments as the snowball tells me to. Think this might help me see the months ticking by.

Got REALLY angry with my L1ttlewoods catalogue yesterday. You can tell when you are nearly paying off the balance because I got a letter from them upping my credit limit to £8,000 :eek:.

Heaven only knows what the repayments would be on 8k!!!. A few months ago I owed them 2k and the payments were over £500. .

Anyway I will not be wracking up a debt like that ever again. I can't WAIt to pay it all off so I can write to them to cancel the evil thing. To make sure I never do it ever again.

StressedSteph

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Roll on Tuesday here too :beer: my smallest goes to full time school this term too so i'll actually have a whole 6 hours to myself :eek: not sure how I will cope as i'm so used to having a small person attached to my side :rotfl:.

I've never heard of marrow cake in fact i'm not sure i've ever eating a marrow (and been aware of it anyway?) I do like carrot cake though so if it's even better than that I may have to research this one

Have a nice Sunday and just think 48 hours from now you could be relaxing minus trying to stop the kids causing havoc, it's the teachers job then :rotfl:

Hi DFW,

Ooooh I remember when my youngest started school. It was such mixed emotions. 1/2 of me was jumping for joy and the other 1/2 felt bereft at losing my little baby .

The Marrow Cake is lovely:-

Moistest Marrow Cake

Ingredients:
3 eggs, beaten
400g caster sugar
250ml vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
375g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
225g grated marrow

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 170 C / Gas 3. Grease two 1lb loaf tins, or one 20x30cm baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the eggs until fluffy. Beat in the sugar, oil, and vanilla. Gradually mix in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold in the marrow. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.
3. Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.

I then put icing on the top. No cake is good cake without abit of icing or frosting .

I have grated tonnes of Marrow and frozen it in portion sizes so I can make this cake all year. (My lucky family :T)

debtfreewannabe321

StressedSteph wrote: »

Hi DFW,

Ooooh I remember when my youngest started school. It was such mixed emotions. 1/2 of me was jumping for joy and the other 1/2 felt bereft at losing my little baby .

The Marrow Cake is lovely:-

Moistest Marrow Cake

Ingredients:
3 eggs, beaten
400g caster sugar
250ml vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
375g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
225g grated marrow

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 170 C / Gas 3. Grease two 1lb loaf tins, or one 20x30cm baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the eggs until fluffy. Beat in the sugar, oil, and vanilla. Gradually mix in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold in the marrow. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.
3. Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.

I then put icing on the top. No cake is good cake without abit of icing or frosting .

I have grated tonnes of Marrow and frozen it in portion sizes so I can make this cake all year. (My lucky family :T)

Oh fab! Thank you so much for this I shall now look out for marrow :rotfl::)!

And I feel exactly how you describe, he really is my baby (albeit a 4 yr old sized one :rotfl:) and I feel so sad at him going but the other half of me is thinking :j woop I get some 'me' time which has been absent in my life for 5 years now (i've got a 5 yr old DD too) and my house will stay clean-ish :rotfl:

StressedSteph

Morning Diary,

I have decided to try and turn my craft making into a small business.

I LOVE make anything and as I am stuck at home not able to get a job due to no family to help with child care and not having the earning capacity to warrant paying child minders, I thought I may as well give it a try.

I have be researching ideas of things I can make and have a nice little list of things I will be attempting over the next few weeks.

I will maybe try an Etsy or Ebay shop to sell my wares.

Not sure how well it will go but certainly worth a try.