A family of five

lynneee

Hi! I am Lynneee and I have been a member on here for a long time. This site has helped me in so many ways over the last 6 or 7 years but after 8 years of being a stay at home mummy to 3 children it is now time to sort our finances out and get back to financial security.

A little bit about us - my husband and I are parents to 3 kids, daughter (8), eldest son (6) and youngest son (3). My husband is manager of a supermarket and works very hard. I used to work in food retail too, that's how we met. Since having children I have stayed at home to raise them. In this time we have also got married and I have been studying for an English lit degree with the Open University. Also this year I am doing level 3 NVQ Teaching assistant. Both courses finish this year, so its kind of the end of one journey and the start of another.

Hence this diary.

After 8 years of one salary we have worked really hard, lived frugally and survived on not too much to try and stay happy and live within our means. This has taken its toll now and we are now in a bit of debt so I need to clear it. Here I will write all the things I am doing to get us sorted and keep me inspired.

Hubby and I will be sitting down together tonight to sort out our finances to see exactly where we are at (I have a very good idea but need exact figures!) and put a plan in place to get sorted.

NHS_worker_bee

Good to hear from you lynneee. I wish you the best of luck with getting your finances sorted - as a long time member, I don't need to tell you that you've come to the right place for no-nonsense, good advice!

I too aim to be debt free by the end of 2015. This forum has helped immensely.
I look forward to hearing about your plans and progress

lynneee

A lot of the things I have done over the last few days have not generated any money as such, but will ensure that my spending will be kept at a minimum.
Over christmas I made sure that food wastage was at a minimum, and I have frozen all sorts of things to keep us fed during January and keep my food spend to hopefully £100 :eek: for the 5 of us for the month. (a big challenge!) I have made soup with anything that I could, some of which I have frozen, some I have eaten! We are also getting back to having cereal for breakfast (already have 3 boxes in the cupboard) and this means that we are not constantly spending on bread for toast. Also had crackers and cheese for lunch, again saving the need to go to the shop and buy bread. (if I'm not in a shop i cant spend!) Also giving everyone just slightly less food at each meal will also save us ££ and lbs!;) So far no one as noticed yet so its all good!!:rotfl:
I have turned the heating down by 1 degree to save on bills in the future. And also managed to turn it off for a couple of hours during the day as the sun has been shining and warmed the lounge up. (we have a huge bay window and it makes such a difference opening the blinds completely!)
I have also sorted out the children's wardrobes, found out what they have grown out of, moved some clothes from eldest son's to youngest son's and now have a pile of clothes to sell on my local facebook site.
So a useful start to the new year so far! :T

MrsR68

Good luck with your journey lynneee.:)

lynneee

Thanks NHS Worker bee, to be debt free by the end of the year will be amazing and I hope with both achieve our aims!

lynneee

thanks Mrs R68

lynneee

Just been uploading pics of the childrens clothes to sell to my facebook page, so fingers crossed someone will want some cheap clothes! Also had a look on greenmetropolis and found that I had £16 sitting there so cashed that out! Should be in my account next week Going to have a look on any of the survey sites I am a member of to see if I am close to cashing out on any of them!
A productive afternoon

cazzyd

good luck lynneee

lynneee

thanks cazzyd

MrsR68

Good luck with your selling. I did hope to put some stuff on Ebay this afternoon but the universe had other plans for me,a flooded kitchen. Maybe tomorrow.

lynneee

Oh no, flooded kitchen does not sound good, hope it's nothing too drastic and doesn't take much clearing up. Not what you need to be doing though...