Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

Verbatim

You have done amazingly well this year. I'm in awe. Brilliant wreath sales and well done on having a great birthday for your dd but without breaking the bank. I hope January isn't too difficult. (I can't remember but I think your OH already has some work lined up for next month?)

StressedSteph

Morning,

Thanks for the replys.

Feeling a little nervous as the bank balance is at about £200. Hoping hubby gets paid for his turkey work by the weekend as its been two weeks now since a pay check and its beginning to get quite tight.

Still got the mortgage and debts to pay. Should be enough money coming in but it will be very tight. I half hoped that hubby would do abit of work next week before Christmas day but he is so worn out doing 10 hour days plucking turkeys that I feel he may be too exhausted. Its all abit annoying really, he has worked so many hours but as its such crummy pay we will only just bring in what he would usually get on a bad week . Its abit of a family tradition though so I don't like to be the miserable wife and moan too much about it.

Hubby does have a few weeks work to do in January finishing off a kitchen refit he has been doing so hoping that will get us through the January blues. It may take a month or two to recover from Christmas as we will probably be two weeks short of wages (Xmas week & New years week). I'm sure we will get through, nothing is worse than Christmas 2013, so will keep plodding on.

I have managed to get myself a little cleaning job in the village. It will be £10 per hour. 2 hours every Wednesday morning.
An extra £80 cash in hand hopefully so that will get paid against the debts.

Think I may wrap up all the childrens presents tomorrow. i always leave it till Christmas eve and there is enough to do on that night and I am always so exhausted by then and it feels a chore.
If I can get it done before the children break up from school then I can relax and just eat mince pies .

Got to make 5 more wreaths today, then all orders are completed.
I would like to make maybe another 5 just in case anyone extra turns up. My stock of cones, Ribbon, dried fruit etc are running quite low now and not worth buying any extra so will see how far it stretches. Its been really successful this year and definitely worth the effort. I must have sold about 50 now :T.

I nearly died a death last night. the children were playing hide and seek and Ds went to hide in our en-suite bathroom where I have hidden his 4ft punch bag with my night gown draped over it.
when I went up to see what he was doing he was leaning on it :eek:. Thankfully he didn't seem to notice what he was leaning on . Phew......

I might pop into town later, we have quite alot of birthdays happening over Christmas so I need some birthday cards. I also need to get my mum a couple of Christmas presents and its hubbys birthday on Monday. Can't afford to get him anything really but would have liked to get him a little something. Heaven only knows what though.

Ok I have gabbled for far too long. Hope you are all in control and enjoying works parties etc.

xxxx

Puzzcat

Hi Steph,


Well done on all the wreath making and selling.. not to mention the turkey plucking... and now a new little cleaning job as well.. you are a busy lady...!!


Hope you get sorted with the present wrapping and get to eat lots of mince pies..!


Love Puzz. x

mummytogirls

Wow Steph, you guys have got loads going on!!! Im sure January will be ok for you, like you said things won't be as bad as last Christmas.

Did you get your wrapping done?

Cant believe DS was leaning against that present, think id have had a heart attack as well haha xx

StressedSteph

Puzzcat wrote: »

Hi Steph,

Well done on all the wreath making and selling.. not to mention the turkey plucking... and now a new little cleaning job as well.. you are a busy lady...!!

Hope you get sorted with the present wrapping and get to eat lots of mince pies..!

Love Puzz. x

Hi Puzz,

I delivered the last two wreaths this morning and that is me finished. I could have hung out for any last few panic wreath requests, but to be honest I am exhausted with making wreaths and my supplys are nearly run out, so to avoid any panic buying of
ribbon etc and extra stress I have drawn a line under it and am officially closed. Phew.....

95% of pressies are wrapped and un-imaginatively hidden under my bed . There are a couple more small items left to arrive and Ds's punch bag will have to be wrapped in-situ as its huge .

Mince pies are currently in the oven so I feel like I am slowly getting Christmasy and organised.

hope everything is taking shape in the Puzzcat household xxx

mummytogirls wrote: »

Wow Steph, you guys have got loads going on!!! Im sure January will be ok for you, like you said things won't be as bad as last Christmas.

Did you get your wrapping done?

Cant believe DS was leaning against that present, think id have had a heart attack as well haha xx

Hi MTG,

Things are slowing down slowly, still got to go to town tomorrow to get hubby a birthday card. Might have to wait until he gets paid to get my mums small christmas present as the bank account is very low. Might be a stressful Tuesday shopping trip :eek:. Hopefully hubby will be home so I can battle the crowds without the children.

Hope all is well in the MTG house. Will check your diary in abit xxxx

StressedSteph

Afternoon all,

Well today has been a mixed bag.

First thing this morning we popped out and delivered the last two Christmas wreaths and also delivered a Christmas present to Ds's little girlfriend .

Then came home and put the marzipan on my homemade Christmas cake and started making mince pies, which always goes down well in our house.

Then father-in-law arrives to collect some tools from hubby. FIL and his girlfriend have had abit of ill health the last few months, and I have taken my turn in giving him lifts to hospital etc and have offered but been refused to help around their home, and I always finish a conversation with " Do not hesitate to call me if you need anything".

As we are so busy here with hubby working all hours, me working on all my part-time jobs and ventures, dealing with the children. All with no family or support to help, we do not have time to visit them very often. Problem is, whenever we do visit all we get is how wonderful other family members are etc etc, which just makes me feel like they are intimating how little we do for them and that makes me not want to visit again for a long time. aaaarrgghhh. :mad::mad:

Well while FIL was here earlier, he mention how a couple of his lady friends grand children have had babies this year and how he is glad for more grandchildren as he feels like he has lost our two!!!. :mad::mad::mad::mad:.

I have to admit to being lost for words. Its weird because FIL and his lady friends never say those things when hubby is around as they know he will give them a mouthful. They choose their moments when I am alone to drop their nasty comments. I am no good at all at arguing or debating so i just smile and change the subject.

He said that he thought we may have been over to visit before Christmas, I tried to explain how we have both been very busy working all hours and the children only finished school yesterday but it always falls on deaf ears.

Trouble is it makes me not want to visit them, I think I will wait for when hubby is free and go over with him. Its his bloomin family anyway, so I should'nt have to tolerate it. They just make me so mad.

Maybe we are useless non helpful relatives, but we help as much as we can, I truly do not have the time to be over there every week, so we are doing as good a job as we can. It is obviously not enough.

I guess I have one thing to be grateful for......At least we don't have to spend Christmas day with them :eek:

Ok rant over. Sorry guys.

Buffythedebtslayer

You are not useless AT ALL FIL can sod off! Children, farm, school, work, housework, your list is ridiculously long! and you do help out!


I love your diary and think you are amazing.


You make sure you have a good Christmas and ungrateful rude thoughtless family can get stuffed.


XXX

dawnybabes

How rude, they could visit you, why should it always be yiu visiting them.

wantabetterlife

Your in laws sound a bit like mine Steph. MIL is continually getting digs in and I can feel myself getting wound up the minute they walk through the door. It causes quite a bit of tension between me and hubby because when they leave I usually start giving off. It's that feeling sorry for themselves attitude that peeves me off the most. I have every sympathy ...I also think you are amazing!

StressedSteph

Buffythedebtslayer wrote: »

You are not useless AT ALL FIL can sod off! Children, farm, school, work, housework, your list is ridiculously long! and you do help out!

I love your diary and think you are amazing.

You make sure you have a good Christmas and ungrateful rude thoughtless family can get stuffed.

XXX

Thank you Buffy :heart2:

Feel abit silly ranting now, but it really upset me. I worry that maybe we are too wrapped up in our own lives ans are being selfish.

I did distance myself slightly this year as they became a real pain in the bum during 2013, giving me endless errands to do and I remember the "Lady friend" still only talking at me about her fabulous family, so I don't think I can win either way.

Maybe its time I totally distance myself and leave it up to hubby to deal with.

I have no clue what is the best path to take, all I do know is they make it very hard to want to visit because everytime I go there they are too busy moaning at me and praising the lady friends family :(

Thanks so much Buffy for your kind words, yet again my MSE friends pick me up and dust me off xxx

dawnybabes wrote: »

How rude, they could visit you, why should it always be you visiting them.

Hi Dawn,

Exactly, they go into town about twice a week and virtually drive past our house. They don't think about that though, only about how often we visit.

It was dd's birthday last weekend, and today FIL mentioned how he expected to see Dd last week for her birthday but we didn't go round :eek:.

Maybe i am weird but I thought it would be the other way round and them visiting us. Dd didn't even get a birthday phone call.

Eeeugh, they think they are in the right and so do we. So no point getting stressed about it I suppose.

Families!!

thanks for your reply Dawn, hope you are all ready for Christmas. What is Josh hoping for Christmas?. xxx