Pay off debts before Baby number 2!!

t2rry

Aww!!! Congratulations!!!

:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

OrangeFairy

Congratulations!!! Such fab news!

I hope you are getting lots of rest and people are helping out where they can.

Enjoy your newborn cuddles!! xxx

debtfreeoneday

Congratulations - what lovely news. hope you are all well and enjoying these precious days!

crunch_time

Afternoon diaryland!


Taking an opportunity for an update whilst baby and toddler are both asleep!!


Thank you for all your kind comments and congratulations! We are so pleased that she is finally here!! I have been enjoying lots of newborn cuddles and time with husband who is on paternity leave. Its been lovely enjoying a simple life of feeding and sleeping and watching films together and having lots of visitors. It will feel all very 'back to reality' when husband has to go back to work in a few days time.


Now our family is complete I cannot help but dream even more of the future and being debt free and fabulously frugal whilst enjoying lots of adventures together in our new house in the country.


We have made some progress towards our dream and also met a few challenges in the last few weeks.....


Positives

- Lidl shopping is going well! We are spending £40-£60 a week which is much less than at [EMAIL="s@insburys"]s@insburys[/EMAIL] where we would spend £80 a week! I'm still going to buy nappies, wipes and formula and toiletries from sains but work out a budget for a monthly shop to be delivered.:)


- Music magpie have finally processed the DVDs I sorted a few weeks back so a cheque for £15.89 should be winging its way to me soon!


- Clothes fund - although I am a long way off returning to my pre-pregnancy body, I was so fed up with wearing pyjamas and jogging bottoms along with tired and holey maternity clothes I went to sains and bought some larger than my normal size leggings and jumper dresses to eek me out until I can fit into my old clothes again. I spent £87 and had £68 saved in my clothes budget already and used the rest from my own spending money account. Proof that spending budgets DO WORK!!:T


Challenges


- Formula - long story short (for perhaps another forum ha ha)....im not breastfeeding baby so having to use formula which we worked out with toddler at costing us about £50 a month. :eek: Just going to have to bite the bullet with this one - there is nothing we can do.


- Food money - We only have about £45 left in the food account to last 2 weeks so will have to find another £50 ish from somewhere.


- house move - although things seem to be progressing there is still no new on a date yet so I have no idea what to budget for our new household expenses for December - will we be on new council tax or old for example? My way around this is to save any extra money now into a pot and see what happens over December. Hopefully we wont bet any surprise payments and I can slush the money at debt but I feel this is the best thing to do rather than get excited and use it to pay off anymore debt. The debt pay off is on hold then until we have moved and all bills and paperwork have sorted themselves out. I really hope we are in before Christmas.


What I have decided to focus on then in the meantime....


- ebay - because of the new clothes I have bought I can get rid of some of my old maternity gear so the plan is to get them on this week as by next week I shall be able to comfortable leave the house with a toddler and a baby and walk the mile to the post office without any hiccups!!:rotfl:


- planning Christmas presents - we have £250 budgeted for Christmas presents this year including £50 for my birthday (which is near Christmas) so £50 each including stockings (we are frugal at Christmas and focus on experiences more than stuff). I have started a list for each family member and a ton of ideas on pinterest so I shall get cracking with this this week.


- food - sticking to food budget and meal planning as always.


- Forcing husband to do his expenses/claim for £15 a month broadband/chase HR for his payrise/forcing him to take lunch to work instead of buying it/ etc etc - this seems to be a full time job!!!


- packing up the house - chucking out clutter and selling anything we find on ebay/gumtree.


I hope everyone is sticking to their budgets!! Will catch up with other diaries as and when I can!


Much love
Crunchy xx

fed_up_of_debt

Congratulations

Happymac

:jCongratulations on your new arrival. Your diary is so positive. Hope hubby got his pay rise!! xx

Verbatim

Congratulations! I'm glad you're enjoying the family time.

crunch_time

Evening diary!


And so the count down to my pay day begins (wed). If I have worked my maternity pay out right then I should expect £300 extra after covering my expenses to pay down debt. This was ear marked for the overdraft but I shall put it in our slush account for now until we have moved. It will go towards the overdraft just not until everything has settled down in case we have any unaccounted for costs.


Positives


Petrol costs - I have another 4 weeks of no driving because of c section so no need for any petrol in my car!! I will only need it if we move between now and next pay day so will budget £10 to drive to the new house.


Mobile phone - this currently costs £39 a month but is up for renewal. My current provider has offered a new iPhone 5c and same package for £26 a month for 24 months. I just need to check that I will get a good signal at the new house so will wait until we move and of course shop around before I sign up but this is a significant saving.


ebay - maternity clothes are currently on with a few watchers and 1 bid.


Christmas - I am knee deep in Christmas planning now. We don't know where we will be so planning to have it all sorted so its not such a hassle. Grr Im really hoping we will be in in the next few weeks.


Challenges
Husband - STILL hasn't done his expenses. But he has chased HR about his payrise and collected the broadband bills so he can claim from April onwards. That's another £120 towards debt just got to wait for it to be paid. . I'm going to budget for his old pay for this month as that seems more sensible and then the extra for both months can go towards debt.:j


Me - I'm starting to feel very frustrated in this house and desperately want to start our new life in the country. I'm hoping that this mind set wont lead me back into old habits - spending!!!!


Here's to another weekend of baby cuddles, family time, and NSDs!!!


Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Afternoon diaryland!


Unfortunately our cat got into a fight last week and injured his head and the wound got infected and started oozing. I tried to do my own veterinary nursing and cleaned it with slat water but it got worse and ended up with a weekend trip to the vet yesterday for antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. Guess how much it cost?..... £135!!! It went on credit card but will have to pay it off with some of the £300 extra I will hopefully get when I get paid on Wednesday. If not it will have to come from our new emergency fund. I guess that is what it is there for!


I also had to do a sains shop rather than a Lidl shop as planned. With me not driving due to c section and struggling to make it there at the weekends it makes sense to do sains online shops for the next few weeks. I will try and meal plan really well and use leftovers where I can. Husband is also going to start his £10 a week lunch money this week and toddler and I will just have what is in the cupboards.


Arrggghhh roll on Wednesday!


Crunchy xx

abba1772

Sorry to hear about your cat......hope he's ok xx