Small steps to reduce a big debt!! x

LittleMissGiggles123

Thanks Mouche, I remember when I was a kid, we would spend hours & hours outside over the summer. My mum would make us a sandwich then we would go over the fields with some of the other kids in the street & be out all day, not going home until it was time for tea. I don't look back & think I missed out on anything & I think it's crazy now how so many parents over the school holidays have to worry about how they can afford to entertain their kids! It's a mixture of us now having rubbish weather & also not wanting our kids to go too far because of safety worries, so parents are instead spending money on cinema trips, softplay centres etc. I'm sure my parents did spend money on day trips sometimes (I can remember trips to London etc) but I equally am fond of the days when me & my sisters would make our own carnival games out the garden out of old cardboard boxes, or having water fights with all the other kids in our street.

LittleMissGiggles123

Hello again


I've been thinking about my 3 lists, financial, home & myself. I've come up with a few things that I'm going to aim to keep doing every month. I'll review them then monthly to see how I have done.


Here are my June goals


Financial
Personal small savings £100
Mortgage OP £100 (starting small so I can increase as I get more money savvy)
Have at least 1 NSD a week (not had one yet this week)


Home
Get washing basket empty (this rarely happens!)
Paint downstairs toilet
Declutter dining room
Declutter master bedroom


Myself
Get a long overdue haircut
Try to go running (or for a walk) at least once a week


That's the list for now as I don't want to be too over ambitious.


x

LittleMissGiggles123

OK so I know it's the beginning of the month & I have loads of time so I am going to post regular progress on the goals that I have set just to motivate myself to push that little bit more.


Financial
Personal small savings £100 - I will have to wait until the end of the month for this, but do have a few pounds flying around in various places that I should be able to put aside.
Mortgage OP £100 (starting small so I can increase as I get more money savvy) - Will definitely do this, not got any payments coming out of the account now until middle of the month but I have already budgeted for them. Just got to complete the form that the mortgage company sent me to make sure they allocate it properly.
Have at least 1 NSD a week (not had one yet this week) - This might have to be tomorrow because I have no lunch with me today.


Home
Get washing basket empty (this rarely happens!) - started on this last night, am down to 2 smallish piles now & some towels
Paint downstairs toilet - hmmmmm??
Declutter dining room - this will have to wait until next weekend
Declutter master bedroom - same as above


Myself
Get a long overdue haircut - might try & get in somewhere on Saturday
Try to go running (or for a walk) at least once a week - will squeeze this in somewhere




On the homefront though I did get in last night & after putting some washing in the machine, I decided to sort out the utility room. We have the washing machine, tumble dryer & fridge/freezer in here. WM & TD are next to each other underneath the worktop, but next to the WM is a big gap between that & the wall. This had become a bit of a dumping ground & was looking really untidy. I thought it would be a massive job to sort but I pulled it all out last night & threw a few things away, rehomed a few things that didn't belong there & now have a nice space for my washing powder etc.


It's ebay night tonight! I have to do it tonight otherwise it'll be another week until I can get any on due to us being out all weekend.


My £1 per day pots are just ticking over quietly. I need to check them actually because I know I overpaid a few days ago so not sure now how much is in there now.


I really need to start eating a bit more healthy too. Got a lovely holiday in August/September & at the moment the thought of a bikini fills me with dread. Have to get on this one as I know I have to do it but always come up with an excuse not to. It's always 'I'll start tomorrow'. So tonight I am going to have a quiet hour to come up with a meal plan, particularly for work & for the evenings (surprisingly my dinners are pretty healthy). Then I'll order the shopping online so I can't go in to the shop & be tempted by any naughty snacks. Will report back on progress when this has been completed.


x

LittleMissGiggles123

I put stuff on ebay last night - woohoo!! I still have loads of other clothes to put on there but I don't like putting too much on because it becomes a nightmare posting when people don't all pay at the same time. So I put some on last night to end a week Sunday & then I'll do the same next week to finish the following weekend.


I checked my £1 per day pots & I'm well ahead this month. Despite it only being the 6th, I've got £11 in each. I'll keep adding to it anyway when I have the spare £1 coins in my purse and when I have the £60 for this month I'll just transfer this in to my hiding place & start July. I've still got May's money in my hiding place so I think I'll keep putting the money in there until the end of August then use that money for our holiday spending money. We go at the end of August so that should give us £246 towards the spending money we will need.


As I said in my previous post, I really need to start meal planning. I was looking in my fridge this morning & there is food in there that we bought without having any real plan of what we would do with it & now it's all starting to reach it's use by date now. I hate throwing food out as it's such a waste! So I'm going to spend some time on Saturday seeing what food has to be thrown out, what food can be saved & used to cook something & what food I then need to buy. The freezer is also pretty full so I'm hoping we can get away with eating out of the freezer a lot too. I'd like to get to a point where it is almost empty so we can then restock it.


My to do list for this weekend is


Sort fridge/meal plan
More washing!!
Start decluttering dining room


I haven't got a long to do list this weekend as we have plans tonight, tomorrow & Sunday so I haven't got a lot of free time in the house. I am looking forward to a weekend where I haven't got plans, haven't got visitors & don't have to go out shopping or anywhere. Then I can just get some stuff done around the house & enjoy the garden if the weather is nice. Fingers crossed I can have a weekend like that next weekend


I am going to have a look at paint colours today too to sort out the downstairs toilet. However, I don't know whether to do it myself or wait a little while as we also need the hall, stairs & landing done. I can't do this myself as we can't reach the height in the hall/stairs/landing area ourselves so will need a proper decorator to come in with the right equipment. So I don't know whether it will just be easier & make more sense to ask him to just whip round the downstairs toilet too. It is a small room anyway so would take hardly any time at all. I might discuss with the hubby later & see what he thinks.


Unfortunately it doesn't look like I'll be getting a haircut this weekend or going out for a run. These are 2 things that will have to be done next week now.


xx

LittleMissGiggles123

Hi All


Well another weekend gone, they go so fast!


Right, lets check my to do list first.



Sort fridge/meal plan - SORTED THE FRIDGE BUT NO MEAL PLAN DONE
More washing!! - DONE BUT THE PILE JUST SEEMS TO GET BIGGER
Start decluttering dining room - NOT DONE BUT INSTEAD I CONCENTRATED ON MY BEDROOM


Ok, so a bit of explaining, really just to justify to myself why the jobs are only half done :rotfl:


First of all the fridge. I did get rid of all the food that was past its date. I did a thorough check of them first though as I notice some things have a use by date but look perfectly fine even when the date has past. This is particularly true for fruit & veg. When we buy fruit & veg in Costco they don't even have use by dates on & I just throw it away if it looks bad, so why did I pay so much attention to these use by dates from the supermarkets?!


Anyway, I didn't get round to doing the meal plan because we had such a busy weekend. However, my fridge is practically empty so I'm going to check fridge, freezer & cupboards tonight, come up with some meals that we all enjoy, put together a meal plan & then order my shopping to come this weekend. My husband is away Saturday all day & night anyway so I can order the shopping for Saturday & spend the day cooking batch meals etc.


The washing - well I don't think I need to explain this as it seems to be a common theme in most people's homes. I have the washing machine on literally every day, sometimes several times a day & on the weekends it's usually running ALL DAY Saturday & Sunday. Admittedly this weekend we were out a lot so I didn't do as much as usual, but still did a few loads & the pile just gets bigger rather than smaller. Very annoying & a little bit demotivating :mad:


As for the decluttering of the dining room, truthfully, I just couldn't be bothered. But then on Saturday I was putting my hairdryer away & the basket it goes in was bugging me because it's crammed full of stuff. So I took it out of it's cubby hole & started sorting, which then resulted in me sorting/decluttering 4 of these baskets, throwing a load of stuff away, finding a few 'treasures' for ebay & even finding more xmas presents than I thought I had for this year. Go me!!


Lately I've been feeling very frustrated with our house. It seems like we live in a constant mess but at the same time I feel like I'm constantly tidying up. It's a never ending circle. So last week I started making a list of things that need doing but then realised that by making a list of every little thing that needs doing in every single room, I was actually feeling worse about it all. So this was a bit of a light bulb moment for me & now I'm going to rein myself in & concentrate on one room at a time. After my marathon declutter on Saturday I've decided to concentrate on the master bedroom first. So I'm scrapping the 'Home' list I put up at the beginning of the month & making a new one.


Master Bedroom
Carry on the declutter - ebay anything that might make a bit of money, chuck the rest. Find homes for anything I'm keeping.
Empty bedside drawers to ebay these & get new (this has been the plan for a while but laziness just gets in the way).
Make a list of the xmas presents I've already got & who they are for.
Buy new drawers for much needed storage (this has also been the plan for a while but without getting the top 2 sorted, I don't know how much extra I need & how much room I'll have).
Find a new home for all the books!!


Now that list looks a lot more manageable than the 2 A4 sided list I had for the whole house :j


One of the things I did have on the previous list was painting the downstairs toilet. I've discussed this with the OH & he has agreed that we might as well get the decorator to do this because we need him to come paint the hall/stairs/landing anyway so it won't be much extra to get that room done. It's also one less thing for me to do, which is always a bonus.


On the financial side of things now....


Still on target to get the mortgage OP this month, maybe a bit extra. I am starting low at the moment to make sure we don't stretch ourselves & also because we have had some expensive months recently. We also have a holiday coming up in August so need spending money.


I've been keeping up with surveys, well actually doing a lot more. Onepoll is £10.50 on one account & about £11.90 on the other. It does annoy me that the payout is so high on this one but they are easy surveys & I do seem to get a lot of them so I will persevere with this. The other survey sites are ticking over too & I'm starting to reach the limits on these ones so should hopefully have some paying out by the end of this month.


I decided with Toluna that I will keep going & not use my current points to claim the Photobook reward. I'd much rather have a £15 Boots or Amazon card than a £5 Photobook voucher. I know I'll get more use from either of those. So I have to keep going but am about a third of the way to one of these now so not too bad.


I'm coming along nicely with Nectar. I've installed the search bar now too so get points when I search for things. I'm always having to search one thing or another in work or at home so this should generate points quite quickly.


I've got to make sure I keep ticking over with the £1 per day pots & Tilly Tidies. They're up to date today but I know there is nothing coming out of the bank accounts now for at least a week so I don't think I'll get any Tilly Tidies until some of our DD's come out again. No big problem though as this little pot accumulates quite quickly & I'm happy with the amounts I've managed to get, which I have then been using for unexpected payments or for the odd treat for the girls.


The ebay stuff I put on last week, I ended the listings early. For some reason they weren't getting any views (well 3 views in 4 days). They are popular items so I think it was just because I put them on with my mobile so it was only basic details entered, rather than using the full website on my laptop. Also I noticed that some of the photos looked ok on my phone & the phone app but on the full site they didn't look as good, so I'm going to retake the photos with a proper camera & list again this Thursday. The items are lovely girls clothes & some of them have still got tags on, so I don't particularly want them to sell for 99p. I know I won't get huge amounts for them but if they sell for 99p it's hardly worth me doing it, especially with the fees & the hassle of taking to the post office. I was actually considering taking a day off work soon to have a day to myself (never get a day to myself unless I do this) so I might coincide this with when the ebay listings will end. If I book it for a few days after my new listings end, I should hopefully have all or at least most of the money paid so can make one trip to the post office on my day off, rather than having to make several trips in between work etc.


x

LittleMissGiggles123

I'm going to set myself a very easy To Do list for tonight, as I'm feeling a bit knackered today.


1 load of washing
Sort out my bedside drawers


And that's it. I know it's not a lot, but my to do lists never include the usual routine of cooking tea, cleaning kitchen, tidying living room, usual bedtime routine with the kids etc. So my set to do lists are just the extra stuff to squeeze in between my daily routine.


Just got to have a think what to do for tea now. Rack my brains, what did I see in the freezer last night when I was rummaging??


x

LittleMissGiggles123

Master Bedroom
Carry on the declutter - ebay anything that might make a bit of money, chuck the rest. Find homes for anything I'm keeping - HAVE STARTED THIS, STILL GOT STUFF TO SORT
Empty bedside drawers to ebay these & get new (this has been the plan for a while but laziness just gets in the way) - DID MINE, NOT DONE OH's YET
Make a list of the xmas presents I've already got & who they are for - NOT DONE YET, WILL DO THIS WEEKEND
Buy new drawers for much needed storage (this has also been the plan for a while but without getting the top 2 sorted, I don't know how much extra I need & how much room I'll have) - NOT GOING TO DO UNTIL ALL DECLUTTERING HAS BEEN DONE
Find a new home for all the books - FOUND ROOM FOR THE BOOKS I'M KEEPING, HAVE REMOVED THE BOOKS I DONT WANT FROM THE ROOM.

So I did get a few things done in the week from my to do list. Still got quite a bit to do though before I concentrate on another room. I've been ploughing through the usual tasks, washing, normal housework etc. I'm hoping to have a restful weekend next weekend as we have had quite a few busy weekends where we've not really had chance to just sit down & relax.

I hope everybody has got nice plans for Fathers Day. I'll go see my Dad in the morning so that we can get back & if the weather is nice again we will hopefully have a BBQ.

On the financial front not much has changed. I've been doing surveys etc to collect as many rewards as possible. I've started entering competitions too but not had any luck yet. Some people I know win loads of stuff but I think I'm just unlucky in those sorts of things.

Still on track to make the overpayment that I have planned for this month. As long as nothing unexpected comes out of the account I will definitely be able to do this.

We have got a lovely holiday planned at the end of August so I have to start sorting that out. Our youngest has got all the clothes she needs but our eldest daughter needs some shorts & vest tops plus a new swimsuit. I'm not really bothered about buying any new clothes for myself as the stuff I already have will be fine for the holiday. I've also got plenty of swimsuits so I won't need to spend any money on myself.

We will also need toiletries like sun cream, shampoo etc but I might use my Boots or Tesco points to buy them. I'll have a think about that because I did want to keep these for Christmas presents, but it does seem a bit pointless spending real money if I've got other means of buying the items.

After that holiday we will be preparing for the run up to Christmas & hopefully putting our plans in place to make much bigger overpayments next year. 2015 is going to be a big year for us in the overpayments department, as we want to pay off big chunks of it. We might have to put some of the 'overpayments' in to savings though because we will still be on a fixed rate so will have a limit on overpayments we can make. So we will probably save the extra money in an account until the fixed period is over & then pay a lump sum.

I'm going to have a think tomorrow about what I want to achieve next week. I've got a pretty busy week in work but I want to set myself some tasks to get done at home, so that next weekend can be a bit quieter for us.

For tomorrow I'm going to set a fairly small list because it's fathers day so I'll be pretty busy.

Clean bathrooms (cleaned the sinks & toilets today, just need to clean bath & showers)
Put clean laundry away (have unfortunately let this pile up this week)
Declutter at least one basket in bedroom

Well thats it for tonight. I'm now going to read my book for a bit & then go to bed. I used to love reading when I was younger but don't read enough these days, even though I buy books quite frequently. So I've now decided I'm not going to buy any new books until I've read all the books I have. The book I'm reading now is part of a series that I really enjoy (I've read 3 out of 5) so I'm getting through it very quickly.

Goodnight & hope everyone has a lovely day tomorrow.

x

LittleMissGiggles123

I didn't do any of my to do list yesterday :mad:


It wasn't even because I was especially busy or anything. I visited my Dad & then got back home at around midday, so no excuse not to get a few things done.


Financial side of things are the same as they were last week. I've kept on with my £1 per day pots, surveys etc. Nothing has come out of the account, there are a few DD's to come out at the end of next week but there is plenty of money to cover them.


I finished my book that I was reading. I was up late reading it but it's the only chance I get!! I've got 2 more books out of that series to read but only have 1 in the house, haven't bought the other one. I am NOT going to buy the one I haven't got though. I will finish reading all the other books I have cluttering up the shelves in my bedroom first & once they have been read & I've got rid of them, I will then treat myself to the final book of that series.


Feeling a bit demotivated lately. Finances are fine but just don't move quick enough for me. I know that won't change really because there is only so far a months salary can stretch each month, but at the moment it feels like I'm constantly waiting. Waiting for the mortgage amount to update, waiting for all DD's to leave the account so I can allocate the overpayment, waiting for targets to be met on survey sites etc. I am just very impatient.


Also feeling a bit blah about everything else. I work full time so just feel knackered most days when I get home, so by the time I've done the usual daily routine of washing, cooking etc I don't feel like I have got the time or energy to get anything else done. But then I get frustrated when these things pile up. I guess sometimes it just feels like it's all too much & I could do with a hand with some of it. I would love to be a stay at home mum & if I was then of course I wouldn't expect any help with the housework etc, but as it stands we can't afford for me to stay home so we both work full time. But the way it usually goes is I leave work, pick the children up, get home, sort tea, homework, uniforms etc, but then when OH gets home he eats & then sits down. But if I say anything, at best he gets up in a huff & does a little bit of housework or the usual scenario is I just get told it'll be done on the weekend/stop nagging/it's fine.


Then following on from this feeling of no motivation & being knackered, I don't get any free time to go do any exercising so getting annoyed with myself about that. The odd occasion in the last few weeks that I've found myself with half an hour, I feel so tired & fed up so I make an excuse or 'find' something else to do. I need a kick up the @rse really


I just seem like I'm moaning now. Just needed a little rant. I know I could definitely do with a bit of me time, I actually can't remember the last time I had an hour to myself with no kids or OH around to harass me :rotfl:


Anyway, that's my moan over with. I guess moaning never solved any problems did it, so I just suck it up & get on with it.




My To Do List for today will be fairly short again, don't get enough time during the week to do a lot outside of the usual routine.


Clean bath & both showers
Plan a few meals for this week
Sort some of the clean laundry out
If I have time I WILL go out for a run


x

giblet1979

Hi lmg,

Just catching up with diaries...it sounds like you're doing so well. I'm sorry that things feel frustratingly slow at time, I can definitely identify with that feeling. It is all adding up though, and when you look back on what you've achieved over a few months, it's really noticeable. You're doing great - maybe take that day off work but do 'nothing' that you feel you should do, and only what you would like to do. A little break can really help recharge the batteries, and it does sound like you have a very busy life without all the extra. You deserve a bit of you time
Sending positive vibes and looking forward to hearing more,
Gib x

LittleMissGiggles123

Thanks Giblet, it's good to have a moan sometimes & just get it all out I know that I have it very easy compared to some people though, I saw a facebook page earlier of a poor little girl, only 3 and a half, was diagnosed with cancer about 2 years ago & is now in hospital with the doctors telling her family that they can not do anymore for her. Puts it all into perspective. Makes me cry when I read things like that.


I have a busy work week this week but am trying to change a few appointments next week so that I can have a day off next week.


Just reading your signature I thought your window fund was a 'widow' fund. Oh dear, I really do need some time out!!


Your savings are going extremely well, you must feel so good having that cushion there. Nice to have that bit stashed away so you know you won't have to get in to debt to pay for an emergency.


x