Diary of a Struggling DFW

debtfreewannabe321

I would take the students on! My aunt has done it for years. She has a spare room downstairs and has put 2 sets of bunkbeds in it so has 4 at a time. She does it all summer (and other holidays if needed) she makes them a packed lunch, she says they are out all day doing touristy things and then they often go out in the evening so don't want dinners. She's got 5 kids herself so wouldn't have done it this long if it were too much of a pain i don't think def worth considering

:A

Eyebright

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

I would take the students on! My aunt has done it for years. She has a spare room downstairs and has put 2 sets of bunkbeds in it so has 4 at a time. She does it all summer (and other holidays if needed) she makes them a packed lunch, she says they are out all day doing touristy things and then they often go out in the evening so don't want dinners. She's got 5 kids herself so wouldn't have done it this long if it were too much of a pain i don't think def worth considering

:A

Thanks for this, as it ties in with what the leaflet says about the students having lots of activites and trips planned/provided through the college, and I know this is true, as you see them all around the bay throughout the summer!
I need to speak to OH's parents, as he told me yesterday that they used to do it in the summer so they are ideal for bombarding with questions of what is expected of us, whether it would be worth it etc! The money would really help up our income....
It's nice to hear from the perspective of someone who does it and enjoys it/finds it manageable. :j

Eyebright

I've got quite a busy day today! I'm travelling up to Cheshire for my nana's 80th birthday celebration and I still have a ton of stuff to do! Will make myself a nice to-do list to help me keep track of where I am up to...

• Pack rucksack for the trip
• [STRIKE]Put train tickets in purse[/STRIKE]
• Get £50 spending money out of a free cash machine for the trip
• Make packed lunch and drink (refuse to waste any money on expensive train tat)
• [STRIKE]Print of pictures mum wants[/STRIKE]
• Dig out seed packets mum wants
• [STRIKE]Shave my legs[/STRIKE] :eek:

This weekend is all about damage limitation on my limited resources. May is such an expensive month for me as I have a lot of birthdays this month. This year it was compounded as my parents came to visit and wanted to be touristy and out doing things during the day and go to the pub in the evening, so I spent quite a lot of money, though less than I thought I had once I totalled it up (and we had a BBQ for 12 people!!). Finally there is my nana's birthday celebration that necessitates a very expensive train journey to Cheshire as OH already has plans so he won't be coming (and he is the one who drives ).

It's 15 days to payday and I'm hoping to have around £100 left in my account at the end of the month to put towards the CC debt. I have no more plans, so should be OK to just spend my £20 a week pocket money which is already accounted for in my budget. The biggest challenge will be keeping next weeks shopping bill down! As we haven't been this week the cupboards are starting to look really bare and we are running out of a lot of storecupboard essentials etc. On the plus side though I have quite a bit of meat in the freezer!



Once I get home on Sunday I am going to start doing some MSE things. So far the plan is to:

• list some things on e-bay
• email the language school to enquire some more about hosting students
• Price comparisons for energy bill as mine is up at the end of the month
• Start planning a new budget that incorporates the advice provided by you lovely people from the SOA that I did
• Create a meal plan for next week and use that to write my shopping list to help keep the cost down

That's it for now, but I will probably be knackered when I get home, so I doubt I will get much of it done on Sunday, but it will keep me occupied next week!

Will "see" everyone on Sundat evening

debtfreewannabe321

Hope you are having fun at your nan's birthday party

Eyebright

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Hope you are having fun at your nan's birthday party

Hi DFW231,

Yes I had a lovely time with my family and I think my nana really enjoyed her birthday meal out surrounded by her family. The best thing was I had budgeted £50 for the cost of the weekend, but only spent £30! Very pleased with that, though it was mostly due to my parents being lovely and refusing to let me buy much!
The £20 I have left will be used for my pocket money for this week, saving me £20 out of my budget, which I can put towards the CC at the end of the month with anything else I have left over.

This is the list from my previous post of MSE/DFW things I want to do this week. I'm pasting it here so I can keep a closer eye on it!

list some things on e-bay
email the language school to enquire some more about hosting students
[STRIKE]Price comparisons for energy bill as mine is up at the end of the month[/STRIKE]
Start planning a new budget that incorporates the advice provided by you lovely people from the SOA that I did
[STRIKE]Create a meal plan for next week and use that to write my shopping list to help
keep the cost down[/STRIKE]

I've half started the shopping list/meal plan, so making slow progress! I've also sorted out some things to list on e-bay, so I need to actually put them on one night this week! I also need to sort out my rucksack from the trip away, do some ironing, tidy up the house and go shopping tonight, so e-bay may not happen this evening. I will try for tomorrow instead.

Be back later, need to head off to work in a minute!

Eyebright

I've been energy price comparing all evening, and after remembering joined Martin's Energy Club, as my price fix runs out on 01/06/13. I'm struggling though The only company who can save me any money (£46 a year) is Spark Energy and they have a terrible customer service record, and you can't manage your account online. The next best is Sainsbury's Energy (who knew?!),
but they still aren't great according to a few comments...though you do get £30 cashback through the energy club, and I can manage my account online.
I think I'm going to leave until June first and then try it again. It doesn't help that when I looked on the E.ON energy tracker on the website our gas consumption is up 37% on last year and £12 for electricity :( why does everything have to be so expensive? I'm going to have to look into how I can be more energy saving savvy!

On the plus side it's been a NSD today. I did want a chocolate bar after work but I couldn't bring myself to break into my £20 note. Proud of myself for that minor bit of restraint!
Also the meal planning brought my shopping bill down tonight from £65-£70 average to a much nicer £53.41. Obviously I can do better, but this is a great start, and I'm really pleased with myself. Aiming for another NSD again tomorrow, as I have stocked the cupboards with plenty of lunch options for work. Gym after work for a couple of hours, and will take water with me so I don't use the vending machine.

Have a good evening everyone. xx

Eyebright

Aiming for a NSD day today. Have made my lunch for work- pitta, houmous, yoghurt, grapes and a bottle of squash.
Also hoping to go to the gym after work, but that shouldn't cost me anything either as I bought the membership for the year up front (on my CC ), and I will take water with me.
Dinner will be chinese curry with rice (got the beef out of the freezer this morning).

Thinking about it I shouldn't have to spend anything Mon-Fri so long as I take lunch with me to work and a snack for the bus home. I'm going to make a mini-challenge for myself that I don't break into my £20 note all week, then I can use it to go to the Farmer's Market on Sunday which I love going to! I can do this!

Right off to work I go, have a lovely day everyone xx

Eyebright

Wow I'm exhausted! Skipping the gym for 3 weeks hasn't done me any favours...:o

Good news is that today WAS a NSD, yippee! I haven't done anything around the house though this evening which isn't so great. I need to iron, tidy up, put some washing on, write up some CPD as that needs submitting in June and loads of other bits and bobs :eek:
I need a Time Turner like Hermione had in the Harry Potter books to give me some extra hours each day.
I'm seriously knackered now and beginning to ache ALL over, so I'm going to dry my hair and hit the sack.

Good night all xx

Mara_uk7

Arghh June is almost here, I have CPD to do too !! Cant really be May already, We havent had spring yet !

Eyebright

I know, right?! It tipped it down here most of the day yesterday, and it is seriously cold! OH wanted to put the heating back on but I squashed that straight away and told him to put a jumper on hehe.
I have planned out most of my CPD entires now, I just have to sit down and type them up. That's the part I don't like!! Though I reckon it will only take a day to sort it all out. I think I might devote Saturday to getting it DONE, so I can go back to forgetting about it, and hopefully make it a NSD!

Aiming for another NSD today. I've packed my lunch, and some grapes for the bus home as I usually crave something snacky for the bus ride home, which used to lead to visits to the hospital shop...tut tut naughty EB!

Have a good day everyone xx