pickle me's diary

daggy37

Hi just had a quick read- you're off to a fabulous start ! Good luck on the rest of your journey

Countingdownthedays

You're doing great! And yes totally know what you mean about nursery payments, my daughter started school in September and it was such a relief!!!

pickle_me

daggy37 wrote: »

Hi just had a quick read- you're off to a fabulous start ! Good luck on the rest of your journey

Thanks daggy :kisses3:

Countingdownthedays wrote: »

You're doing great! And yes totally know what you mean about nursery payments, my daughter started school in September and it was such a relief!!!

Oh I am counting down the days (see what I did there? ) until youngest starts school. I work term-time and school hours only so once she starts school I will have no childcare costs at all - imagine!

The annoying thing is that pre-LBM I had been looking forward for ages to next month because I'd finally have a bit of spare cash to spend on myself. I've been in this job for 18 months and have been working for nothing, effectively, because of paying childminder & nursery (but it was worth it because I need to work for my sanity, and it's keeping my career going). Then I discovered the extent of our debt so now I have another 16 months or so of working for nothing (or not much at any rate) before I really have much disposable income to call my own.

But there's no point dwelling on it and I keep telling myself that it's setting us up really well for the future because our finances will never be in a mess like this again! Gotta think positive

Countingdownthedays

Exactly, this is it - one long slog and then its done I keep imagining how much we will value a cup of tea from costa without the guilt!! Or going on holiday and knowing it is all mine and paid for!

pickle_me

God, absolutely. I have such plans for when we're debt-free - plans that all involve saving up for things we want. I really want to take the girls to Disneyworld in a few years - I went when I was 6 and it was such a fabulous holiday, I've never forgotten it. And also, as you say, just going out for an overpriced coffee and knowing it's all budgeted for, will feel lovely

I've got daughter's and nephew's presents, thanks to Argos doing 2 for £20 on board games. I bought a few extra cheap & cheerful bits from Wilkos for my daughter, too. She's only (going to be) 3 and has far too many toys already, plus my husband will go off piste and buy, as he puts it, 'a few bits and bobs' (I find it hard to resist buying things for the children but I'm positively restrained compared to him). So I'm happy with that.

Now I have to work out what the hell to get my sister, who earns 5 times what I do and seems to get harder and harder to buy for. I find buying presents hard at the best of times, as I get obsessed with buying the 'perfect' gift and therefore often leave it until the last minute to buy something as I'm always convinced I'll find something better. I think this may be the worst part about DFW-ing, for me - I don't like cutting costs on presents. It makes me feel mean

Countingdownthedays

I know what you mean! This Christmas was the first one where I absolutely stuck to budgets, and panicked that I was spending too little but I did it early and found some really thoughtful presents and they were well received! Even my Mum who I really panic about!!

Countingdownthedays

Good work on the present buying btw!

pickle_me

Day off sick with a stinking, streaming cold, bleurgh. Nice to have the opportunity to lie in bed all day (well, for 6 hours in between school drop-off and pick-up) for once, at any rate. I've just had a very MSE dinner - Sainsbury's value spaghetti with a very dubious batch of homemade bolognese sauce from the freezer. It didn't taste half as nice fresh as it usually does so I wouldn't feed it to my family again, but it'll do for me - can't taste much through this cold anyway!

I have nothing to report on the debt-busting front really. The credit card direct debits go out at the start of the month so by the end of the week the debt will be down another £500, but I'll wait until I get the statements through before I change my signature. Funny how much I love getting those statements now - love seeing the debt go down in black and white.

I'm braving the local hair & beauty training college tomorrow to get my hair cut. I haven't had my hair cut for about 9 months - this is not unusual for me as I've always resented how much it costs! Apologies to any hairdressers who read this, I know they're trained professionals and they have to earn a living too but it just seems so pricey - I can't believe some people go every 6-8 weeks. Tomorrow's cut however will be costing me the princely sum of £10, which is much more within my price range at the moment My hair is pretty straightforward anyway - very straight and I have it all one length so I can't believe it'll be hard to cut, even for a trainee. Obviously now I have jinxed it and will be back tomorrow evening with a paper bag on my head ....

pickle_me

No paper bag here I got a great haircut, I'm delighted with it and it actually cost me £8 (would have been £10 for a restyle or something more complicated). I gave an extra £2 as a tip though. The trainee hairdresser was lovely, really sweet and as we got chatting we discovered that our kids are similar ages, so we had plenty to talk about. She started training in September; I asked how long it took before they were allowed to start cutting real people's hair and she said 'You're my first' :eek: (appropriate hair-raising smilie there!) I wasn't worried though, and I was right not to be. She did a fantastic job - towards the end her tutors and fellow students kept walking past saying 'wow, that looks great' which was nice for her and me!

I'm tempted to go back and try some beauty treatments - a massage perhaps? Not sure I'd risk a bikini wax with a learner though

pickle_me

What a great weekend

Yesterday we went off to the children's farm nearby as a birthday outing for my littlest, then back home for tea and birthday cake with family. I looked at the BBC Good Food website for a good chocolate cake recipe - despite having loads of cookbooks I never seem to have just the recipe I need - and the one I tried was a winner. (And best of all there was some left over so we've both been nibbling little slivers off it all day today :rotfl: ) My parents stayed on to play with the kids and help put them to bed, then we had a takeaway from our local Indian. SO delicious and an indulgence, but it's the first we've had in months so I can justify it

I was supposed to be running a 10k with a friend this morning - was in two minds about it as I've been very slack on the running front since the new year, and I'm shaking the last bit of this cold. Then yesterday an email came through from the race organisers to say that the race was being postponed due to the flooding on the course. Result

I've worked the last two weekends so was very glad to have a quiet day at home today doing domestic stuff. Quick trips to Lidl and Sainsburys where I spent bang on my grocery budget of £60, which included a pizza bake kit from Lidl. We've been loving our homemade pizza but struggled a bit at first to get the base properly cooked on an ordinary baking tray. I dug out a bit of stoneware I had in a cupboard, which does the job fairly well but is only big enough for one pizza at a time - so when we have pizza, we have to take turns cooking them and can't eat together. A bit sad! This clever kit goes in the oven, replaces the oven shelf and has racks for four pizza trays at a time (also in the kit). I hope it works! And at £6.99 it was quite a bit cheaper than the ONE pizza crisper we were thinking of getting from Lakeland.

It's a pain doing a double shop but I plan my list carefully so it doesn't take too long and it does save so much money. I'm such a Lidl evangelist now, I love it. I'm also buying more and more Sainsburys basics products, to the point that I think I'll carry on buying them even when the debt is gone. Things like bags of crisps for the kids (er, and the big kids), tissues, sweetcorn, baby wipes, fishfingers (the basics ones are yummy and taste EXACTLY the same as the 'premium' ones), grated mozzarella for pizza - they do the job perfectly well and at a fraction of the price of the 'premium' products. I've always gone for supermarket own brands rather than named brands anyway so I don't find it too much of a challenge going down another brand level.

I do have a few compromises I'm not prepared to make. Ham is my big sticking point (how weird :rotfl: ) I just can't bear wet plastic ham. I've tried lots of different sorts and I keep coming back to the wafer-thin, no-added-water sort that I love. It's pricey but I refuse to eat anything else. Some standards must be maintained!

This afternoon I went for a walk with the littlest to feed the ducks. What a rare treat to see some sunshine and blue sky. It's been a long time coming and I know the rain isn't over yet ...

I'm feeling quite positive about money at the moment. I got an unexpected sale on ebay today - I'd listed something on a 30-day 'buy it now' offer a few weeks ago and forgot about it. I usually do one week auction listings. It's not a huge amount of money, under a tenner but it all helps and I didn't think it was going to sell so I'm disproportionately pleased!

My Paypal money is intact so far as I paid for daughter's and nephew's birthday presents out of my current account. Expenses still to follow for February are:

Petrol - at least £50
Birthday present for a party the girls are going to - £10
Postage, sending books to a friend - £5?
Train ticket and lunch with a friend during half-term - £20
Sister's birthday present - max £50

With a bit of luck, and my Paypal money, I'm staying out of my overdraft. Although there'll be something else I've forgotten about :rotfl: oh, like extra half-term activities for the girls, but the things I've planned so far are either cheap or free. Child benefit gets paid in the last week of the month so I have that as a buffer if I need it, although I'm trying to keep it as emergency money.

Kids are hovering around me, darn it, and I'm on a roll. I'll have to finish this later.