*~*~OrangeFairy is nearly there...just a couple of hurdles left~*~*

mummytogirls

Evening OF,

If I were you I would get a new WM, if it carries on putting holes in things you will end up having to replace clothes too!!

I know what you mean re not wanting the girls sat in front of the TV at MIL's, if it helps you save money though its an option isn't it xx

abba1772

It's only another month at least you know it won't be long til you're debt free xx

Happytogetdebtfree

OF I agree get the new washing machine whats another month you have done super x

OrangeFairy

Hi all,

I hope everyone is well, I have been soooooo rubbish

Well I am not quite debt free but very nearly!

Things have just cropped up out of out control and while we probably have enough to pay off the last £265 we are mindful that it is the kids summer hols and we don't want to be too short that we can do anything with them.

Twice now people have asked the girls how their holiday is going and my eldest has answered 'it's alright...we haven't really done anything!' which has made me want to cry

They have done some bits but hubby and I haven't had our week off yet so they have been farmed around. The first weekend of the hols hubby took DD1 to Cornwall to camp in his new tent and they visited a few places and ate out so she had a lovely time then. The same weekend DD2 and I flew to Manchester to meet my online mum friends who I have known for 10 years so had a fab time. Though I reckon these two trips combined cost us around £500 :eek:

When we are off in a weeks time we are camping Monday to Friday on Dartmoor and originally we wanted to mostly stay on camp with walks and geocaching thrown in so we didn't spend much. However my guilty mum voice now wants to ensure we have proper days out and a couple of pub meals to make sure they have a great time. DD1 said she was really looking forward to it.

The other pain in my bottom is school uniform at the moment which is costing a fortune- DD1s secondary school has changed her uniform completely so she has only had one year of use out of her current uniform which is a little annoying!

Other news- we went to view a couple of houses to buy last weekend. Though we are not ready yet as we don't have a deposit the two houses had a lot of potential so if we fell in love there was a possibility of asking family for help.

However one needed far too much work and money to do it and the second I loved but hubby just liked. And in hindsight I want to have my deposit saved first. Otherwise we will end up buying a house which is higher mortgage payments than our rent, on top of that we would have to pay a deposit back to someone and also want to have money to spend on a house so money would be incredibly tight and I don't want to go there. DDs are 12 and nearly 10 so I don't want the last few years of their childhood to be scrimping and not being able to do anything nice.

The good thing to come out of it is that it has got us both more motivated to get ourselves sorted!

We didn't buy the washing machine as the cash back deal only went to the end of July and the graphite colour we wanted wasn't in stock!

Other news that probably isn't MSE but is exciting to us and fits with current plans is that we are looking to lease a new car. Though it might be seen as throwing money away it just suits us. Our car is about to die on us so we need a new one, hubby loves cars so won't pick up a cheap one which means borrowing money and spending the next 6 months to a year paying it back and not getting on with our deposit saving. This deal means we get a brand new car with monthly payments of £211 a month which isnt too drastic at all and the term is only 2 years so then if we are happy paying out that money each month we can get another one and continue leasing. But it means we can sort the house deposit and defer our car issue for a couple of years.

Selfish spends this month include a fitb1t bought for myself. I had a £10 off voucher and a £17 top cash back amaz0n voucher so only cosy me £27. It definitely motivates me to get moving to get my steps up so I am pleased so far!

Hope everyone is well

OF x

crunch_time

Aw you are doing so well orange fairy it's ok to have fun over the summer hols. The last debt can be paid in the autumn then you can get cracking on a deposit. What is one month.

I too have ben thinking about lease cars and the pros and cons of them. Not for this year but for next year. I budget £200 a month for servicing, m I t and cat tax and it is still not enough. I've heard that some leasing does include servicing too so it might work out better financially.

You are so close now I'm very jealous. Xx

mummytogirls

Hi OF,

I know what you mean with the guilty mum thing, you shouldn't feel too guilty though as you did take them on holiday earlier in the year and you've your camping trip to come.

With the lease car does this include all the servicing etc? Was just thinking maybe you could get a finance option of a similar amount with the car being yours at the end of it? Ive never leased a car so not fully sure how it works.

Have a great holiday xx

OrangeFairy

Evening all!

I'm now off work for 11 days! :j:j:j:j:j

The kids have been grumpy this week so I think they are ready for time off with us rather than being farmed off everywhere!

MTG- the thing we like with leasing is that it will be a brand new car and only a 2 year commitment. To take out finance on a car hubby would want would likely be for 5 years which would interfere with a mortgage application in a worse way.

Our blooming car has cost us £400 on brakes this week I've blamed hubby for talking about the new car while we are driving it....it feels like it is punishing us :rotfl:

Other than that we are just waiting for payday at the mo. I have spent a bit on DD2 for her birthday in sept. My mum got the kindle fire for me with her discount from Mr t so the 7 inch 16gb one was £98 which isn't bad. I also bought tickets to watch England vs Australia in the netball in January at the Olympic village. It was getting them anyway but as her birthday is so close I'll wrap the tickets up as a present. £101 for the 4 of us to go, we will have a nice weekend away in London around it which will be nice.

This weekend I have a shop to do for camping food, we need to pack, I have a girls meal out and then I also want to declutter under the stairs which will be a big job!

Last weekend we had a lovely weekend to Dunster and Minehead and went on the real steam train. This weekend will be a little quieter.

Hubby is about to cancel sky to save us £45 a month. I am a little gutted as I like the sports channels for f1 and golf but he reckons he can stream these for me to watch. I have decided we watch too much tv as a household so this will help....more reading, games, diy and getti b out I think! Sad times but MSE driven!

I also have things to sell online so I need to get moving with these!

Money is a little dire now.....just £120 to my name!

Happytogetdebtfree

hi of, hope you have a lovely holiday. When do you get the lease car ? yay on owing $261 that will soon be gone. I am using all my extra money to save a deposit so no overpayments as yet x

OrangeFairy

Hi Happy, I hope you are well. Car has been orders so could be about 10 weeks until we get it...just hoping our car lasts the next couple of months.

We have had a lazy couple of days which I feel was needed and I don't mind seeing as we are off camping tomorrow.

However looking at the weather I am a little worried it is going to be such a horrid week It is showing rain everyday, my favourite part of camping is sitting round a camp fire in the evening - I will be miserable if we are stuck in the tent the whole time. Fingers crossed.

Good food for camping yesterday, so we have a sausage dinner, pasta night and a night out at either wethersp00ns or p1zza expr3ss which covers the 3 nights we are camping at River Dart. We then move up to the top of Dartmoor to Drewsteignton to be joined by BIL and SIL with our nephew to camp there for 2 nights.We will have a bbq night and one night out I think.

Dinner out with my two best friends tonight....best go get ready actually. I am taking a £20 and I will not be spending any more! At least for one they are coming to my village rather than me going to their town to meet them - especially when I don't drive so have to bus it back after and they could be drive home!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend

OF x

OrangeFairy

Hi all,

Wow I haven't posted since my camping trip.

As we had feared the camping trip was a wash out. We arrived Monday and had a lovely day but it rained overnight and our tent started leaking so the tuesday we went out for the day and came back with duck tape to repair any problem seals. When we arrived back the tent was full of water...we had to stab holes in the bottom of the tent to get it out. So we taped up lots of the seams and dried out the tent and our beds. We went to bed that night and the weather was even worse...hubby and I barely slept as we kept checking on the kids and water was dripping on my shoulder Then at 5.30am I looked in on DD2 and she was lying with her pillow saturated and her head dipping in a puddle...DD1 also had a wet arm and sleeping bag. So we got them up shoved them in the car and drove home a day early after throwing our tent in the skip. It was really sad as we had been really looking forward to it.

We had 2 nights at home and then went camping for one night with SIL and BIL with our nephew and had a lovely time. DH and I slept in our 2 man tent and the girls went in with SIL as they have a 6 man. SO made up for it a little.

We are still not debt free :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Hubby has the deposit for his new car on a credit card which we need to shift. It was £1000 and then £400 to repair the brakes on the car..when we sell the car we can use some of this money to pay it back.

Then as if camping wasn't enough on the Sunday our fridge freezer died on us! So £372 on CC to get a new bosch one. It was a £499 one plus £10 delivery but we got £70 for recycling our broken one to them, a £20 voucher code and then it arrived scratched so they offered me £47 as an apology to keep it which I agreed. You can't see it when it's in place.

It is all manageable but I feel like we have stepped far away again...I'll update my figures at the end of the month when everything has settled on the cards.

I did pay off the sofas though which is good news!

Hubby has been away this weekend so I have been decluttering. I have challenged myself to declutter 100 things in September.

Here is my list so far to keep track;

[FONT=&quot]Decluttering 100 in September! [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]1. Body shop body lotion [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2. Horrible shampoo [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3-4. 2 carrier bags full of rubbish from DD2s room [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]5. Return bag of bits to mil after 5 months[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]6. Present to friends son- one month late! [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]7. Old umbrella [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]8. Rubbish kite[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]9. Paperwork from calendar[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]10. Old paint sample pots [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]11. 4 old CDs scratched [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]12. Broken radio car link thing[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]13. In car charger [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]14. Tonnes of out of date kids active vouchers (shameful) [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]15. Broken goggles[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]16. Old Torch [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]17. 2 unused bags[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]18. Packaging from a present dumped understairs[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]19. Old badminton bag[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]20.DD1 old school bag[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]22. DD2 old school bag[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]23. Old next catalogue [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]24. Unknown black plastic sheet[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]25. Navy cap [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]26. Another old next catalogue [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]27. Old handbag [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]28. Another misshapen umbrella[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]29. Mobile phone [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]30. Broken bulb for tortoise [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]31. Backpack- broken zip [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]32. Another next catalogue!!!!! [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]33. Handbag [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]34. Ties backs I'll not use[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]35. Carrier of rubbish and other carriers! [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]36. Thin picnic mat[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]37. Gardening set DD won't use [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]38. Guitar hero guitar [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]39-41 fridge parts [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]42. Old atlas [/FONT]

Most of this was from under the stairs! I have been through DD's clothes so I have tonnes on the landing for eb@y and charity shops but I can't count it until they have shifted out of the house! Might have to up the challenge to 200 items!


I'd better get to bed! Its 1am. Hubby has been away 3 night and this is the third night I've been up till 1am....I'm getting up early too!

Catch up soon

OF x