Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

mizmir

Great news on the extra money - and covering the oil. That must be a huge relief. And so good that now you are on top of things you immediately knew that money had a job and wasn't just a windfall! :T

We spent yesterday morning cutting up more of the old shed so we now have a full log store which should keep us going this month - and we still have a pile of planks and 2 pallets to chop up. Am hoping this lot will keep us going through the winter. We are trying to minimise the heating - the house is pretty easy to heat except the kitchen where the dogs sleep and I work - which has no insulation (70s extension!). So the thermostat is set at 12 and the upstairs radiators are switched off apart from the bathroom. The heating only kicks in if it gets really cold. But the heat from the wood burner rises so we are generally warm enough upstairs too. One advantage of moving to a much smaller house!

Enough rambling. Have a great day!

StressedSteph

mizmir wrote: »

Great news on the extra money - and covering the oil. That must be a huge relief. And so good that now you are on top of things you immediately knew that money had a job and wasn't just a windfall! :T

We spent yesterday morning cutting up more of the old shed so we now have a full log store which should keep us going this month - and we still have a pile of planks and 2 pallets to chop up. Am hoping this lot will keep us going through the winter. We are trying to minimise the heating - the house is pretty easy to heat except the kitchen where the dogs sleep and I work - which has no insulation (70s extension!). So the thermostat is set at 12 and the upstairs radiators are switched off apart from the bathroom. The heating only kicks in if it gets really cold. But the heat from the wood burner rises so we are generally warm enough upstairs too. One advantage of moving to a much smaller house!

Enough rambling. Have a great day!

You are so right about the budgeting. Pre-YNAB I would have just seen that as treat / go crazy money or during a post go crazy session this would have been swallowed up just paying regular bills etc.
No with YNAB I knew immediately that we can manage ok to pay all bills this February (Just), but as we are being sensible and not misc spending. I know that it is safe to allocate that £300 to Oil.

Hubby has just been called out by the farmer that paid the £300 again as a tractor has hit a wall and it is half falling down, so hubby has been called out to make it safe and will then have the job of re-building it :T:T:T:T.

Spent a nice day out in the sunshine with hubby, tagging animals and we actually started clearing our garden. I did'nt do any cutting back and clearing away in the autumn so it was abit of a mess.
Was really nice to do a job at home together. I get quite demoralised trying to do it all myself on my own during the week.

Well, roast is finishing off in the oven, chocolate cake is cooking in other oven. sandwiches for tomorrow are made and in the fridge. trying to get organised as we will have a manic morning tomorrow. Loading animals and then having to take the children with us, to then drop them at school on the way back. Not a nice start to the day for a 6 & 9 year old, but they are used to the farming way of life.

Ok off to check the cake. xxx

StressedSteph

Phew. Had abit of a hectic day today.

Got up early to get children ready for school and pigs & sheeps loaded into the trailer.

Got to the abattoir at 8am, we were in a queue and did'nt get processed and home till 915am. Dashed the children into school quickly with lots of apologies.:o.

Then I had to drive a 30 mile round trip to bank a £300 cheque into the bank. We have just about enough to survive on till the end of the week, but with not knowing when hubby will get paid for last weeks work, I felt it was important to get it into the bank asap. Especially as cheques take 5 days to clear still :eek:. ridiculous nowadays with electronic banking .

Got home and had to meet up with a woman from school. We share the secreatrys job for the PTA, and we had to meet to discuss the meeting we had last week. Got home at 1pm, then had to type up the minutes from the meeting and that is about all I have achieved today.

DD has Brownies again tonight, so will have to be some quick homemade pizza.

Hoping to get some sewing done tomorrow fingers crossed.

Been a non spend day though. Quite please with myself that I walked all the way through town, banked the cheque and then left. Did'nt dare walk in a shop in case I gave in to tempation

debtfreewannabe321

So pleased the ynab is working so well for you! It sounds like you're totally on top of everything! Oh and well done for avoiding the shops whilst banking the cheque

StressedSteph

Morning


Thanks DFW, Feel like I am getting there. bit by bit .

Quiet day today. Had to spend some money on supplies for the butchering of the animals this weekend. (sausage skins, string, plastic bags, salt, seasoning etc). annoying having to spend money but then it will set us up with a lovely full freezer of food, so has to be done.

Thankfully hubbys employer from last week paid up this morning. phew.

DD was at Brownies again last night and got a moaning from her afterwards, of her wanting me to get her the uniform. I checked out #bay this morning and found the whole uniform second hand, but good condition for £18. Decided to go for it because it was such a good deal. All else I could see was a lot of individual items but when you add on the separate postage costs, but came to over £45. Have a £300 surplus to carry over to next weeks budgeting, so felt I could afford to get this one off cost so that DD could fit in with the other Brownies. (she will be so happy)

Not much else to report really, my little Mr T delivery has just arrived. £60 doesn't look like much unfortunately, but I know its enough to do 7 nights meals and cover the packed lunches.

Hope you are all having a great week. xx

mizmir

All looking good. Brownie uniform sounds like a bargain - and it is important for kids to feel part of the thing so a good decision I think.
Also the butchering supplies - a need - something that you have to have in order to save money along the way. You can always do the calculations - money spent on this, the livestock etc divided by the number of pieces of meat/meals you will have in the freezer vs the cost of buying these outside. I suspect you will find your way very MSE as well as a lot healthier. You know what is in your meat and how it has been reared/butchered. People of course pay a premium for that.

mfmaybe

mizmir wrote: »

All looking good. Brownie uniform sounds like a bargain - and it is important for kids to feel part of the thing so a good decision I think.
Also the butchering supplies - a need - something that you have to have in order to save money along the way. You can always do the calculations - money spent on this, the livestock etc divided by the number of pieces of meat/meals you will have in the freezer vs the cost of buying these outside. I suspect you will find your way very MSE as well as a lot healthier. You know what is in your meat and how it has been reared/butchered. People of course pay a premium for that.

Absolutely. Even if this way isn't the cheapest, it is so much more sustainable, cruelty free, and healthy too. I keep swithering about it, but I'm such a softie I worry I'd never put anything to slaughter and would just end up with a field full of annoying pets :rotfl:

Nice one on the brownie uniform too, that does sound a good deal indeed.

StressedSteph

mizmir wrote: »

All looking good. Brownie uniform sounds like a bargain - and it is important for kids to feel part of the thing so a good decision I think.
Also the butchering supplies - a need - something that you have to have in order to save money along the way. You can always do the calculations - money spent on this, the livestock etc divided by the number of pieces of meat/meals you will have in the freezer vs the cost of buying these outside. I suspect you will find your way very MSE as well as a lot healthier. You know what is in your meat and how it has been reared/butchered. People of course pay a premium for that.

Hi Mizmir, yes I think the Brownie uniform was abit of a must.
During the cut backs last year Dd quit her horse riding and Ds quit his Tae-Kwon-Do. Both of these hobbies were VERY expensive.
Dd seems to be loving Brownies and Ds is on the waiting list for cubs. They are good clubs because they are only about £20 per term which is a fraction of the cost of their past hobbies.

Yes the butchery supplies are a must if we want sausages, ham and bacon. We will have at least a years worth of pork and lamb in the freezer which takes the pressure off my weekly food bill. It feels really good through hard times that with my full freezer and the veg plot that no matter what happens I can put a meal on the table.

Off to check out some diaries, see you at yours xx

mizmir

StressedSteph wrote: »

It feels really good through hard times that with my full freezer and the veg plot that no matter what happens I can put a meal on the table.

That is HUGE! Almost self sufficient. :T

StressedSteph

mfmaybe wrote: »

Absolutely. Even if this way isn't the cheapest, it is so much more sustainable, cruelty free, and healthy too. I keep swithering about it, but I'm such a softie I worry I'd never put anything to slaughter and would just end up with a field full of annoying pets :rotfl:

Nice one on the brownie uniform too, that does sound a good deal indeed.

Hi MFmaybe,

You get used to it. The children used to cry when it was abattoir day, but now they know when these animals arrive as babies, where they are destined to go and that they have happy lives whilst they are here.
We thankfully had no tears yesterday. My children are lamb chop addicts, so get over the heartache pretty quickly when they arrive on the plate :rotfl:

mizmir wrote: »

That is HUGE! Almost self sufficient. :T

I got abit evangelical about it last year, proudly annoucing every night that EVERYTHING that was on the plate came from our farm :T. I find that easy during the summer months but haven't managed to keep things preserved, stored, frozen etc to last all the way through the winter. Got to get myself abit more storted on that side. Feels good though xxx