Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

StressedSteph

Afternoon all.

A little update from this morning.

Not been a crazy hectic day, but with hubby back at work and children still home, a large percentage of the day gets taken up with answering questions, letting them help, helping negotiate disagreements, getting them bathed and showered, etc etc ;)

I have made a large chocolate cake and a homemade pizza in ready in the oven.

Washing machine has been going all day and school bags & PE bags are sat ready waiting for the inevitable panic tomorrow morning

I have seized the day slightly with hubbys hernia and i have booked him in for a Dr's appointment this afternoon at 5.30pm.

He was reluctant but until he goes to the Drs we won't completely know what we are up against.

I have figured that I will never look at the bank account this year and think, oh yes we can afford hubby to have upto two weeks off work, but he HAS to have the op this year, so think its just best to go for it and we will stumble by somehow.

I would rather get it done early in the year and then we won't have it hanging over our heads and can get on and concentrate with the debt busting. Everytime I think of putting extra against a debt, I keep feeling guilty that I should be saving it up for hubbys op.

I will update you with the outcome.

Got to get the kiddies fed and then we will set off at 5.30ish to take dd to Gymnastics.

And the chaos begins

abba1772

I think it's best your hubby gets his op as soon as possible as you don't want the work building up to a point there's no way he can get out of working to have his op if you know what I mean xx

Verbatim

Yeah and it's a pretty quiet time of year too. Can your oh ask for the tapp procedure? It's hernia repair bykey hole surgery and recovery is much quicker.

StressedSteph

Morning,

Ooooh peace and quiet in the Stressed household today. Bliss......

This morning all went smoothly, everyone was resigned to getting back into the old routine.

Hubby Drs appointment went as expected. We have booked him in for his pre-op consultation on the 2nd February. I expect it will be getting on for March before he actually has the op. This gives me plenty of time to make sure I have set aside some money to cover around two weeks off work.

I'm going to sit down in a minute and work out a healthy meal plan for the rest of the month, including breakfasts and lunches.
I am starting to worry about Ds getting abit podgy, he is currently borderline and I want to be conscious of it to hopefully slim him down without him being aware of it happening.

What I am wondering about is someway to include abit of exercise into our household. Ds isn't overly into sport, although he obviously does Pe in school and they have swimming lessons on a Friday.

I am wondering if I can enforce maybe a bike ride down the lane after school every night or if i am going overboard. Ds's default position is on his xbox .

I'm off to do abit of googling. If any of you have dealt with this with your children I would value your advice.

Hope you are all well. xxx

dawnybabes

I'm having this issue with ds, before we knew he is coeliac we never used to restrict his diet at all, I couldn't get food in him long enough to do any damage. Now he eats gluten free he has slapped weight in and has put too much on. He doesn't seem to feel full, this could be linked to aspergers as he is on the spectrum and I now a few kids with this who eat and eat. I have started cooking some pasta in Tom and onion sauce and leaving this in the fridge, when he complains he's hungry (every night) I give him a bowl of this. I'm dragging him out for dog walks (under protest but he enjoys it when he's out) and can't wait for the weather to perk up a bit to get him (and me cos I couldn't last year) back on the trampoline. We've got an indoor trampoline park opening soon (google gravity) I intend taking him every week. I'm trying not to you've him too much fruit (as he will eat and eat it because of the sugars so giving him corn on the cob, bowl of frozen peas as snacks.

misstara

Morning Steph

Just catching up with your diary - glad everything went smoothly this morning Regarding Ds could you get him to help out with digging etc in the garden as that is good exercise without thinking about it. Or maybe a long walk as a family at the weekend.

StressedSteph

Thanks for replying Dawn & MissT

Ds does seem to be hungry all the time, so I have started my list with Veg sticks & hummus and fruit salad.

Ds is pretty good with drinks as he only drinks water.

I do think he is a fridge raider in the mornings though and I have also stopped buying biscuits as I started to notice the biscuit barrel contents going down when I hadn't given any out for a while.

I have sent Ds to school today with a slimmed down lunchbox:

Ham salad on HM brown bread
Dried Apricots
1 Actimel Yoghurt drink
Pot of grapes & baby tomatoes
1 small slice of HM chocolate cake

I left out the bag of crisps, don't expect that will go down well.

I am wondering about getting our bikes dusted off and maybe giving them a choice when they get home:-

Bike Ride down the lane or Dog walk.
or if raining I will think up 15 minutes of fun exercises.

i need to kick myself to join is otherwise none of this will happen.

Ds will be extremely reluctant as all he wants to do is play on his xbox.

I will plan on trying to pull more veggies into our evening meals, we have a bad habit of eating too many pasta & rice dishes.

xxx

mummytogirls

Evening Steph,

Im glad you are all back into the swing of the routine? How old is DS? I always notice my DD1 seems to put a bit of weight on over winter even though she does swimming and gymnastics, but in summer she loses it so quickly when shes playing out etc. Could it be that reason? xx

StressedSteph

Morning all


Been out for the first time to my cleaning job this morning. Tiny little house and lovely old lady. I flew through her jobs and helped her pack away her decorations. I now have £20 in my pocket :T.


I want to somehow squirrel it away so that it can go towards a debt payment or something. Not over sure what to do with it, but I do know that I don't want it swallowed up on misc items. So not going to put it in my purse. I will hide it somewhere.


Thanks for replying yesterday MTG, Ds is 10 and has always been a well built lad, he will never be skin and bones but he is just slightly tipping over into chubby atm.


I am to going to panic, both hubby and I are not overweight, I took all our heights and weights last night in a lets have a New Year measure up kind of way, and Ds apparently according to some kids weight checker online, the upper end of normal.


He is 9lbs heavier than the average child, so I am just going to be conscious of not having any biscuits and chocolates in the house. I am also going to make sure that I have lots of carrots, peppers, cucumber, celery etc with some hummus in the fridge so if he wants a snack I can offer him a healthy option.


He seems hungry all the time and I am not sure if it is him being greedy or if its because he is growing. He isn't going to waste away so when he nags that he is hungry etc I can avoid the "No" word that always gets a bad reaction and offer him veggie sticks or fruit.


I have another treatment booked for Friday afternoon, so my weeks earnings will be £90. Not a bad start to the new year.


I promised Dd that I would tidy her bedroom today. Not over sure where to start as she has way too many toys in her room.


Going to have some lunch and a sit down and then I will go up and have a look at what can be done :eek:.


Nothing major to report financially. Direct Debits all going out, Hubbys first wage will go in this weekend, but still not able to make debt payments yet I don't think. that will probably have to wait until the following weekend.


Take care all xxx

StressedSteph

Oooh I forgot to say. when we got home from school yesterday, I managed to get a reluctant Ds out for a bike ride. Dd was excited she enjoyed it and Ds actually remarked how it was good fun when we got home.


Me on the other hand was nearly dead. Phew I am so unfit.
Hoping we can do it again tonight or a dog walk.


If I can be careful on what ds eats and also occasionally up his activity levels then hopefully he will slim down slightly without him realising it