Time to stop pretending it will be ok!

julie2710

Thanks Satchmo1. Yes the boys' school do have a second hand shop, the parents get a cut of anything that sells. I'm using all DS1's stuff for DS2 though so until he outgrows the first batch I don't have anything to sell . I did get two polo shirts for DS1 for £3.50 instead of £12 and the sports holdall I got last year, which is still immaculate, only cost me £7 instead of £27 :eek: Unfortunately (annoyingly) they changed the uniform at the end of the term so although there's a year leeway on old style stuff if I buy second hand for DS1 now it will end up costing me more in the long run as I will need to buy him new kit at the end of the year and DS2 won't be able to get it as a hand me down

I've been lucky with the blazers! Bought DS1's second hand 3 years ago, the child had only been in the school a year and was leaving for Germany. Got it for £25 instead of £90! It was a bit big but could fold the sleeves up. It's now being handed to DS2 and I got given one for DS1 this summer as his, slightly bigger, friend was leaving to go and live in Jordan . I'm not buying DS1 jumpers as he refuses to wear them as he doesn't feel the cold!

We've had a good day today. Local carnival and didn't spend any money. I'm trying to eat out of the freezer too. It's a bit of a treasure trove as I [STRIKE]have[/STRIKE] had a really bad habit of buying stuff, stocking the freezer then leaving it there while I bought fresh food for us to eat. Well today we discovered some venison burgers :eek: I have no idea how long they have been there or what made me buy them! The boys loved them! Unfortunately they have now said that they don't want beef burgers in future, they want deer burgers :eek::o They'll be eating mackerel first. Found four of those that I think my neighbour caught down the beach at the end of our road! I need to make sure there's plenty of space in there anyway as my bramley apple tree is loaded this year so a years supply of crumbles and pies

Looks like the weather should be good this week so more outdoor painting to get done!

Suziebabe

Hi Julie

Just wanted to say thank you for such an inspiring diary - I read it through last night and was genuinely awe-struck at how much you get done in a day, and your determination to tackle whatever life throws at you. We're still in the early stages of getting our act together financially, and reading your story has given me a real boost to get my act in gear.

Hope you don't mind, I've subscribed to your thread - keep on keeping on!

x

julie2710

Welcome and thank you Suziebabe. It's not always easy but I'm so determined that I am going to make a definite change so I will keep going!

So today was a day in the garden, you guessed it, more fence painting! Maybe I should downsize just to get less fencing? I have to say it is looking good. Will be great when its all finished.

Didn't spend anything today. Boys were happy playing in the garden, up I the treehouse and DS1 made a Lego model he has had for ages. He was very proud of himself as he didn't ask for any help with it at all

Tonight I'm chilling a bit as it is back to work tomorrow. I dropped the boys at the train station to spend the night with their dad and then the day tomorrow and I have to go and pick them up either tomorrow night or Wednesday morning at 7! Might go for the early morning as I can get some more painting done after work tomorrow then

I have to admit I was a bit smug when I dropped them off! Ex had been working today and had obviously come to get them straight from work at 6pm. Boys were their usual lively selves and asked if they could go to the park when they got back to his? He said "No. I'm tired, I've been at work all day!" To which DS1 replied "But mum works all day and she takes us to the park or out on our bikes and this week she put the tent up in the garden and we slept in it for two nights and she goes to bed way later than you!" . He was even trying to persuade them to go to the cinema tomorrow (he said he could sleep there) but I had taken them to the movies for juniors for £3 on Saturday so they said they would rather go to the park as it was going to be sunny :rotfl:

julie2710

I really should be getting to sleep but wanted to update here first. I need to be out of the house for 6:30am as I have to pick the boys up from my ex in the morning and get them sorted before work!

House seemed very quiet tonight with no boys. Managed to do some more fence painting this evening. Then, typical of me, I've found myself something else to do. There is quite a big gap between the office at the bottom of the garden and the back fence. It's pretty overgrown with brambles and ivy and general weeds. I've decided that I need to get it cleared along with the gap between the garage and the office. So once it started to cool tonight I made a start on hacking down some of the weeds! There's an old wheelbarrow in there and a ladder of some sort which looks to be in good condition, so I can sell that! . I'll do some more of that tomorrow night I think. Then once all the undergrowth is removed I'll see if any friends or relatives have any paving slabs they need getting rid of and get it paved. It won't be much use for anything other than storage but it will be a useful space for garden pots rather than the drive where they currently are!

I made the mistake of weighing myself this morning too! Need to get a few pounds shifted before winter or none of my clothes will fit I'm really petite and its not as though I'm massively overweight but could do with losing about 5-7lbs! Good excuse to not buy tea bags and start using the green tea ones I have!

I've done two yougov surveys tonight. I had £50 from them in January this year. That was the first payment I'd built up. This time it seems to be building up a lot quicker so I'm hoping I should be able to get another £50 by Christmas. I also have £20 on Ipsos so will get vouchers for Christmas too. There's also £12.60 so far on App Expert and just under £10 on Topcashback! Did sign up to DooYoo and did a couple of reviews. Should really try and make some time to do some more! Hmmmmm! Time? That's the problem. Just never enough of it!

Talking of which, as its nearly midnight I best get my head down!

lhead123

Wow, I have just spent my morning reading through your posts instead of getting up and doing things! I'm so impressed by everything you do, managing to work full time, being a mum and still managing to pay off debts and have time for housework ect! You really inspire me to get more done in a day!
I'm a mum to 1 who starts nursery in a couple of weeks, I work 25 hours a week and my partner works full time. I'm trying to convince him to have another baby but he wants to pay off our debts first. It's only around £3000 but when we manage to spend all our money every month it's a struggle!

You have inspired me to be more proactive with my time and get ebaying! (I also need to clean the hoover filter!) it's DP's payday today as well so I need to sort out the budget again!

Wishing you well with your debts xx

julie2710

Thanks lhead123. Unfortunately I managed to run up some of those debts all on my own too! I'm determined to get back on top of things. There's nothing more demoralising than working hard all month, getting my wages and still being skint because I'm paying ludicrous amounts to credit cards

The Hoover filter has made such a huge difference I should really have done it sooner. I can get my house clean much quicker now that I don't have to go over the same bit of dirt two or three times to get it hoovered up! It's crazy the things we put up with rather than bite the bullet and just do something

Good luck with your debt busting. Set little targets or goals and it makes it happen as huge aims can sometimes put you off even trying. I'm not sure that there's ever a good time to have a second child. I think if everyone waited until they thought they could afford it the population would halve

lhead123

That's what I keep telling him, if we wait, we'll never have one! Just got to keep nagging him I suppose! ;-)

We were doing well this month but now DP has just had a look at our trusty volvo and thinks the turbo might be on its way out :-( it's got the MOT on tuesday so I'm hoping it doesn't fail... If it does it will be too expensive to fix so a new car will be needed and a trip down to the bank to see if we can get a loan :-( really hope it doesn't come to that as I really don't want to be paying another debt off! I can borrow some money off family but not enough to buy a new car and can't go without as my job depends on it! Ugg why does life throw these things at us just at the wrong time? In a few months I would have paid off the credit card and it could have been used for such an emergency, but oh no, it has to happen today :-( really hope the car passes! Eek!

X

julie2710

Good luck with the car! There's always something. Seems to be one step forward and two back sometimes! I'm currently living with a shower that works ok but there is obviously a problem with a valve that shuts the water supply off when you turn it off. Temporarily solved by using a screwdriver to actually cut the water off and turn it on when we are going to use the shower. A bathroom light switch that has a broken cord and is only about 5 inches long meaning I have to stand on the bath edge to turn it on and off. On the plus side the boys don't waste electricity turning it on unnecessarily. Oh and a boiler which I am certain will cause issues in the winter but we are currently only using minimum amounts of hot water as to try and rebalance my gas/electricity bill I've quit washing up by hand after every meal and instead use the dishwasher when the cupboards have no more clean bowls in them

I constantly think next month will be easier but it never is!

lhead123

Lets hope next month will be easier for both of us! I know I'll be £300 better off this time next month as I was off this month for 2 weeks after stabbing myself in the hand! (trying to get frozen sausages apart - the single most stupid thing I've EVER done! - mostly healed now tho thankfully!) so will only get sick pay for those 2 weeks which is less than half of what i would have earned if i was working! and it had to be the month we were going to be tight anyway that everythine else happens! oh well, We've got enough for food, bills and petrol plus the MOT and about £100 extra which might get spent on the car! We will survive, we just wont have any spending money this month...

Be thankful for a boiler, we have storage heating, and with the long winter last year it cost us about £120 more than the year before, so now the DD has gone up and we hardly use anything in the summer, just cooking/laptop/phones/TV with the occasional light!

Right, time for me to go and put the washing up in the dishwasher and have a quick tidy up before bed

x

satchmo1

Be thankful for a boiler at all - I have TWO stolen from my house whilst it was empty, one within days of being replaced. I'm within spitting distance of exchanging contracts to sell the house, and I've told the agent that I'll replace the boiler AFTER I've exchanged contracts, and it's someone else's worry.