I want to be Debt and Mortgage Free by 35!

lorriedriver1988

lorriedriver1988 wrote: »

Back again.


I thought I would make a list of items I need to buy:


* Moses basket and stand -£40
* Moses basket mattress - £15
* Cot- £90
* Cot Sheets- £10
* Steriliser- £25
* Sleepsuits x 16- £25
* Vests x 16- £14
* Blankets x 3- £20
* Cardigans x 3- £20
* Cot Mobile- £15
* Buggy for DS1 - £50
* Phil and Ted's Cocoon- £60
* Sleeping Bags- £25
* Bottles- £20
* Other necessities: £30
Total (if all brand new) = £469


Ultimately, I would like to only £200 hard cash.


So far I have:


* Got Tommee T bottles for 0.99 x 4 from T*ys r us using £5 voucher - saved £11 on cheapest set that was on half price offer for £12.05
* Bought second hand cocoon from bay of e for £20.64 including postage- saving just under £40 for brand new one. Just need to wash it.
* Steriliser- hopefully will cost £7.49 with use of vouchers and nectar points.
* Moses basket mattress- ordered on b**ts using points- was cheapest on all sites I checked.
* Have been researching cots and t*ys r us is the cheapest and have some money off vouchers that I use once savings are at adequate level to pay for it.
* Used Mr A gift card to buy pack of 3 sleepsuits for £4 reduced from £7



Total Amount Goods cost or could have spent= £75.49
Actual Cold Hard Cash: £21.63
Money Saved: £53.86


Items bought so far:


* cocoon for P&T pushchair
* moses basket mattress
* bottles x 4
* sleepsuits x 3


Vouchers I have


* Various money off vouchers for T*ys r us and Argos
* £5 off £15 Mr T clothing voucher- needs to be used 29/03
* £14 left on Mr A gift card
* £30 Amazon gc credit
* £10 b**ts voucher
* £40 N**t gift card
* £50 compliments vouchers


Hopefully these will offset the cost a bit :-)


Checked credit card balance, it currently stands at £412.00. So with 8 days to go I have £88.00 left.

So today I have bought the electric steriliser from Ar**s.


Its original price was £59.99, but is currently on offer at £29.99.


Unfortunately I could not use the Emma's Diary voucher. Luckily I took two vouchers with me from surveys, I used these which reduced it to £9.99. I then used £2.50 worth of nectar points. So after all that it cost £7.49.


Total Amounts of Goods or could of spent: £135.48
Actual Cold Hard Cash Spent: £29.12
Amount Saved: £106.36

lorriedriver1988

Evening DFW's.


Well today has been a bit of a spendy day, but all in true MSE fashion. DH and I went around A**a and Morri's this morning with shopping list copied from Mr T online shop to compare prices. We bought a few bits that were cheaper. We spent just under £15, though I estimate we saved around £3.


Since this morning I have amended our online order to take off any items we bought today that were cheaper in Mr A and Morri's. I will work out how much we spent in total tomorrow. I am hoping to come in under budget, so that I can treat DH to a nice dinner for his birthday next week.


MSE activities completed over the last couple of days:


* Completed all surveys available
* Had free lifts everywhere off my mum to appointment for DS1 and a lift to work.
* Used weekly bus tickets on all other journeys
* Collected moses basket mattress from B**ts that was bought with points.
* Returned bottles that worked out more expensive to B**ts- refund of £12.05
* Used Mr T clothing money off voucher to buy baby clothes- see post below.
* Did washing at 30 degrees and put on airer.
* Trying to be strict with DH over food budget.
* Finally sent off new life insurance documents- £5 per month saving on old policy
* Sent off form for Morri's match and more card.
* Constantly researching baby stuff for offers.

DawnW

Just a thought, but why not buy used baby items from ebay? Much cheaper, and they grow out of things so quickly when they are very little.

lorriedriver1988

lorriedriver1988 wrote: »

Back again.


I thought I would make a list of items I need to buy:


* Moses basket and stand -£40
* Moses basket mattress - £15
* Cot- £90
* Cot Sheets- £10
* Steriliser- £25
* Sleepsuits x 16- £25
* Vests x 16- £14
* Blankets x 3- £20
* Cardigans x 3- £20
* Cot Mobile- £15
* Buggy for DS1 - £50
* Phil and Ted's Cocoon- £60
* Sleeping Bags- £25
* Bottles- £20
* Other necessities: £30
Total (if all brand new) = £469


Ultimately, I would like to only £200 hard cash.


So far I have:


* Got Tommee T bottles for 0.99 x 4 from T*ys r us using £5 voucher - saved £11 on cheapest set that was on half price offer for £12.05
* Bought second hand cocoon from bay of e for £20.64 including postage- saving just under £40 for brand new one. Just need to wash it.
* Steriliser- hopefully will cost £7.49 with use of vouchers and nectar points.
* Moses basket mattress- ordered on b**ts using points- was cheapest on all sites I checked.
* Have been researching cots and t*ys r us is the cheapest and have some money off vouchers that I use once savings are at adequate level to pay for it.
* Used Mr A gift card to buy pack of 3 sleepsuits for £4 reduced from £7
Update as of 07/04

* I have bought more items using giftcards from Mr S taking advantage of the 25% of and paid using giftcards
- 1 pack of sleepsuits x3 = £5
- 1 pack of vests x 3 = £2.75
- pack of 3x t-shirts reduced from £8 reduced to £2.60
Should of cost at full price =£15.75 with sale prices + 25% discount it cost £7.76 but used gift cards which made it free.


* Last week I went to Mr A where I bought 2 packs of sleepsuits reduced from £7 to £4 and 1 pack of vests= £2.75. It should of cost £16.75 but I bought reduced items and paid using gift cards.


Total Amount Goods cost or could have spent= £75.49
Actual Cold Hard Cash: £21.63
Money Saved: £53.86


Items bought so far:


* cocoon for P&T pushchair
* moses basket mattress
* bottles x 4
* sleepsuits x 12
* vest x 18

Vouchers I have


* Various money off vouchers for T*ys r us and Argos
* £5 off £15 Mr T clothing voucher- needs to be used 29/03
* £14 left on Mr A gift card
* £30 Amazon gc credit
* £10 b**ts voucher
* £40 N**t gift card
* £50 compliments vouchers


Hopefully these will offset the cost a bit :-)

Today I used the Mr T clothing voucher I had, spend £15 get £5 off.
With this voucher I bought:


* 2 packs of 3x vests
* 1 pack of 2x sleepsuits
* 1 blue hoodie: reduced from £9 to £5


Total: £16.50
Take off 10% discount: £14.85
Minus £5 off voucher: £9.85
Minus Price Promise voucher 0.53p: £9.32


Original total: £16.50
Amount Spent: £9.32
Amount Saved: £7.18


Total Amounts of Goods or could of spent: £192.98
Actual Cold Hard Cash Spent: £38.44
Amount Saved: £154.54

lorriedriver1988

DawnW wrote: »

Just a thought, but why not buy used baby items from ebay? Much cheaper, and they grow out of things so quickly when they are very little.

Thankyou Dawn W for your comment.


Ebay is brilliant for stuff. I have bought in the last few weeks a cocoon for my tandem pushchair second hand on ebay. It was £15 excluding the P&P, instead of £57 for a new one. I will start looking for clothing bundles on there, I have a lot of clothes left over from my two older boys.


Unfortunately my husband has a very cynical attitude to buying cots off ebay as we had a bad experience. His attitude suggests he will only accept brand new. I am trying desperately to persuade him that maybe the local selling pages on gumtree and netmums might be better for cots, and cheaper. Unfortunately he is very stubborn.

lorriedriver1988

Evening DFW's,


I am feeling really positive today.


I went for a private scan, but it was utterly worth every penny of the £80 I spent.


MSE things today:


* Used ID on bus for reduced bus fare. £2.20 spent in total, rather than £5 for an explorer ticket to get to next town


* Got treated to lunch, cake and tea x 2 by my mum.


* Spent 58p on 2 Birthday cards for DH from me and DS's.


* Shopping came to £44.81 for the week, under budget.


* Decided to reduce next week's food budget to £35, wish me luck


* Trying to come up with ideas to pay more money off car loan.


* Completed all surveys available.


* Paid £50 populus cheque in.


* Looked on ebay for baby clothes bundles within local area.


Have a good evening all.

abba1772

You sound very determined well done on saving so much money for your extension that must be a fantastic feeling xx

killerpeaty

Hi Lorrie! You sound like you're doing so well.

What's the plan to get your food bill to £35?

It's a shame that you can't get hubby on board with the ebay cots, is there no way of getting some bits from charity shops?

debtfreewannabe321

Hi, do you not have any baby bits from your other two boys that can be reused rather than buying new? We have local FB selling pages here that often have baby bits for sale brand new, perhaps try those too? Good luck

lorriedriver1988

abba1772 wrote: »

You sound very determined well done on saving so much money for your extension that must be a fantastic feeling xx

Thankyou Abba for your comment :-).It is nice feeling to know that I saved the money to pay for the extension without having to increase the mortgage. Unfortunately, its not such a nice feeling when the money disappears to pay the builder.