Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

StressedSteph

Hi all,


Managed a NSD today. Been home all day, I haven't achieved a whole lot, except sanding down and repainting our indoor door frames. (long story but we bought cheap door catches that have periodically malfunctioned and we have had to hammer a chisel into the gap in the door frame to open the seized up door and thus scratched and chipped the paint on almost EVERY door frame). They have been annoying me for ages so now they are sorted.


Things left on my jobs this week:-


Sort out Utility storage cupboard.
Polytunnel
Sort out fireplace


The polytunnel has had to wait this week as the weather has been too hot to get any major work done. But I am quite glad of this break in the sunshine and plan on getting down there tomorrow to blast the weeds away and get it looking loved again instead of abandoned.


The utility cupboard can be tidied easily one evening and got to chat to hubby about how to sort out the fireplace. We had a chimney leak last winter, which is all sorted now, but the rear wall behind the woodburner is all stained from the soot filled water that ran down the chimney. guess I just need to wipe them down and then repaint, but will check with my builder husband .


That will conclude an extremely productive week. Will move onto my list for next week, always tonnes to do round here.


No move on the money front. Hoping to make the last payments this weekend.


xxx

First_Trouble

I am now addicted to Dave Ramsey spent most of work listening to his archive.

Monday I officially pay off the last of my Very account whoohoo! so excited as I have been paying this off for years and i can see the end.

I have been desperately raking my brains on how I can save more money and have come up with the following:

i have decided to make my own cleaning products to save a bit of money also it will be easier to clean around the pets without me worrying that they might burn their paws.
I will be resurrecting my slow cooker (any suggestions on summer friendly slow cooker recipes will be greatly appreciated)
I will also be making my own bread again have got some wholemeal flour coming in the end of month shop so can make both white and brown now.

any suggestions on how I can make/save more in my budget?

StressedSteph

First_Trouble wrote: »

I am now addicted to Dave Ramsey spent most of work listening to his archive.

Monday I officially pay off the last of my Very account whoohoo! so excited as I have been paying this off for years and i can see the end.

I have been desperately raking my brains on how I can save more money and have come up with the following:

i have decided to make my own cleaning products to save a bit of money also it will be easier to clean around the pets without me worrying that they might burn their paws.
I will be resurrecting my slow cooker (any suggestions on summer friendly slow cooker recipes will be greatly appreciated)
I will also be making my own bread again have got some wholemeal flour coming in the end of month shop so can make both white and brown now.

any suggestions on how I can make/save more in my budget?

Hi First trouble,


Soooo glad you enjoy Dave Ramsey, I absolutely love cleaning the house whilst listening to him through headphones. He is so inspiring and fun and I also end up with a clean house.. Bonus!


If you haven't got lots of recipes for homemade cleaning products, check out my favourite blog. Downtoearth.blogspot.
It is written by an Australian woman called Rhonda Hetzel and she has written loads of recipes for cleaning products. I have made them before and they are very good.
She is very inspiring for giving you enthusiasm for keeping a nice home and looking after your family. Between her and Dave Ramsey they keep me going


I make my own bread, I do cheat slightly and use a Bread Machine to knead and mix the dough. I set it to mix while I am cooking dinner and then it is ready to be lifted out and shaped after the children have gone to bed.
We are going through a rolls phase at the moment, but will be back to sliced bread soon. I worked out a year or so ago that 1 homemade loaf cost me 34p!! :T. such an amazing saving and no nasty preservatives in it.


Good luck let me know how you get on xx

StressedSteph

Morning,


Boy do I feel tired today. Probably the result of such a busy week I have had.


My plan is to go down to the polytunnel today, but have come in for some breakfast and probably 2 coffee's first. I am lacking the willpower, but will see how the morning goes.


Nothing to report, just a couple of planning direct Debits gone out today.


Should be another NSD, although I do need to figure out what is for dinner tonight.


I have some sausages defrosted so it may be toad in the hole. I know my young guest likes that so will be a winner.


Got to persuade hubby to sit down and do some quotes with me tonight. He has been to see a few people about small building jobs recently, but if I don't keep onto him he forgets to write up the quotes and I either end up embarrassed with people ringing about it or he loses the jobs. Very annoying. Especially as we need all the money we can get.


Hubby has a tiny job to look at tonight, which he huffed and puffed about, but he forgets that he is hoping to go on a Village Golfing away day at the end of July which is going to cost at least £100. I told him I have no hope of finding that amount out of nowhere for him so he has 1 month to maybe bring it in with little extra jobs. Can't say I haven't given him fair warning.


Not much else to report really. Raining here this morning

debtfreewannabe321

Morning Steph, I'm lacking on the motivation part today too. Feeling so run down though and tired so I think cuddles with ds2 is all that i'll be doing today (he's off sick). Hope you get DH to do the quotes, every little job will add up xx

StressedSteph

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Morning Steph, I'm lacking on the motivation part today too. Feeling so run down though and tired so I think cuddles with ds2 is all that i'll be doing today (he's off sick). Hope you get DH to do the quotes, every little job will add up xx

Hi DFW


Sorry to hear your Ds2 is poorly, hope it passes soon.
As you can see, I am still here, finding anything to do EXCEPT gardening :mad:.
I have a coffee made, and my headphones to listen to Dave Ramsey so I will go after this post (I promise). Even if I just do an hour, I know I will feel happier with myself. Will do the majority of it over the weekend.


Enjoy your cuddles on the sofa. xx

First_Trouble

StressedSteph wrote: »

Hi First trouble,


Soooo glad you enjoy Dave Ramsey, I absolutely love cleaning the house whilst listening to him through headphones. He is so inspiring and fun and I also end up with a clean house.. Bonus!


If you haven't got lots of recipes for homemade cleaning products, check out my favourite blog. Downtoearth.blogspot.
It is written by an Australian woman called Rhonda Hetzel and she has written loads of recipes for cleaning products. I have made them before and they are very good.
She is very inspiring for giving you enthusiasm for keeping a nice home and looking after your family. Between her and Dave Ramsey they keep me going


I make my own bread, I do cheat slightly and use a Bread Machine to knead and mix the dough. I set it to mix while I am cooking dinner and then it is ready to be lifted out and shaped after the children have gone to bed.
We are going through a rolls phase at the moment, but will be back to sliced bread soon. I worked out a year or so ago that 1 homemade loaf cost me 34p!! :T. such an amazing saving and no nasty preservatives in it.


Good luck let me know how you get on xx

I will have to check her out thanks Steph.
I do own a bread maker but have only made white loaves in it so far but my hubby is going through a 'we' prefer to eat brown right now phase. I don't really eat bread so when I do I tend to eat whatever is in the house. I'm not fussy. But hubby can quite easily get through a loaf in 4 days on his own. Interested to try out some rolls, which I assume freeze quite well.

Skint_but_Optimistic

Its not quite raining here yet, but its fairly gloomy. its always hard to feed other peoples children. My DD2 is off to Glastonbury. I hope shes ok, havent heard a thing since Wednesday.

I suppose this weather means doing decorating in the upstairs loo. rather than doing the garden !!

First_Trouble

So excited but knew all of you would understand.

Well noticed that my wage went in a bit early so have phoned up Very made a full payment on my account and closed it. Should be official in 7 days and will receive a letter confirming this once closed!! Doing a little victory dance now. Now onto the next one

StressedSteph

End of June Report


[STRIKE]Argos £395 / Barclays £850[/STRIKE] / Next (£1972) - £889 / Co-op cc (£1852) - £1377 / Littlewoods (£2479) - £1479 / OD (£3264) - £2674 / Tesco CC (£5336) - £4565 / Virgin CC (£4371)-£3583 Nov 2013 £20519 - £14567 - June Goal - 14.5k June £794./£1,000 Pay10k in 2014 - 59% paid / YNAB, M Lewis and Dave Ramsey fan


Just managed to pay off £200 to Virgin and £100 to Tesco Credit Card.


Totalling only £794 paid off this month, disappointing but its been a challenging month with all the added car costs.


July is going to be a tight month as I have to pay for £165 car tax out of it but I am firing up my crafts so I am hoping upon hope that I can get some sales coming in.


xxx