Last few steps of my journey need somewhere to keep focused

DebtFree2012

Easy for me to say but keep your chin up and it'll blow over. I'm sure your Grandad wouldn't agree with them and after all, that's what matters. Well done on staying focussed and getting your debt total down and especially on being graded well at a time when life was testing you. What do you study? Keep smiling

LastFewSteps

Thanks debtfree2012 it's frustrating when people only see things from their viewpoint
I'm studying for an art history degree with the opn uni, all done from home, I tried going back to college but it was impossible to fit everything in with the children so studying from home has been much easier for me, at the end I intend to do a teaching qualification and then fingers crossed get a teaching job Growing up I wanted to teach art but then ds1 came along and I couldn't bear to leave him so I dropped off the uni course I was about to start and have been sahm with a dream ever since got a couple of years left yet but I'm really enjoying it and it doesn't cost anywhere near the amount I'd have had to pay if it was a "real" university I've been lucky so far the costs have been covered by a grant that doesn't have to be paid back so hopefully that won't change yet

LastFewSteps

Well today turned out to be a good day after an upsetting start, pulled myself together and got on with it

My washing basket only has four things in it :eek:

Housework all work done and nearly everything on my to do list completed
Only spends today £5 lawns £4 karate (not me )
No other xtra payments to debt, still waiting for ebay to finish then will transfer all in one go and got dh expenses to come in anyday
Made enough macaroni cheese to put three meals in the freezer for next week and as usual cooked too much rice so that's part of tomorrow's tea done I'm getting the hang of this cooking malarkey, my grandparents are Italian and while I did inherit the love of family and food I did not inherit the cooking ability ! but I'm getting there slowly

Had a lovely walk with dh and the dogs this evening, we passed the house I like so I telepathically sent it lots of "please don't sell yet" vibes, perhaps I should look into witchcraft or something :rotfl:

Snuggle on the sofa with dh and eastenders now,
happy with what I've got

LastFewSteps

Good morning
Another beautiful sunny day and I'm happy happy happy

Did nearly all of yesterday's to do list so today I only have to :
Collect ds2 prescription and drop of dh's
Post ebay bits
Look through garage for any paint to do garden walls and railing
Put wine in fridge for dh and me to have a glass in the garden after work ! - I forgot to do this yesterday but we were too tired anyway !
Get a lottery ticket - don't usually buy one of these but we thought we'd have a go
Pop to shop for ham

I've realised this diary was supposed to be a weekly debt list, but I've found it very helpful being more of a place to have a conversation with myself so that I've got something to keep me on track day to day - that might sound a bit loopy :rotfl:
Anyway one thing I'm really really grateful to the mse diaries for is this :
I have always felt extremely guilty when I spend our money, if i buy something that I would consider a treat, something not on my grocery shopping list, or if we have a day out or a holiday and spend our money instead of putting every penny towards our debt I feel so bad and always get annoyed and disappointed with myself.
Reading through the diaries has made me realise that it's ok to spend our money on ourselves and that we are still entitled to a life while we are paying our debts back, so thank you mse ( I'm now off to the shops :rotfl: )

Spend so far
£20.01 diesel - why can't I ever get it spot on !!! :mad:

One other thing, because of kiddies after school clubs etc I'm very rarely going to get a no spend day as I think there is only 2 days of the week that we aren't going to something or another, so to stop me getting fed up of that I'm going to have a "no unexpected spend day", NUSD so anything I spend in a day apart from my normal expected spends of diesel, club fees, bills, grocery shopping(mon and fri) will now be classed as a spend - confused

So I had a NUSD yesterday but today because of the ham and lottery ticket I'm not going to get one :rotfl:

And I'm happy because:
Didn't snack on anything yesterday that's day 2 of my only eat at meal time diet
I've got some more work lined up to bring in extra pennies but not sure when it starts
Pleasant drive to school this morning, the kids didn't argue for a change :T

Right then off to get on with my lists,
Another day down another day closer, October 2016 I'm on my way

LastFewSteps

Ooh it's been a long day !
Got lots done today still lots to do but at least I'm getting through my to do lists

Didnt do too well on the diet front, I didn't snack between meals BUT I did have Jaffa cakes and haribos for lunch :eek:

Few more bits sold on eBay and rest should all be ending by Sunday then I can transfer to P@yPal and straight off CC1
My dining table is FULL of eB@y stuff ! lots of piles : piles of things to list, things to relist, things that are listed, things to decide if I'm going to list them , I really need the free listings to come around much quicker so that we can eat our meals properly !

Finally got to sit in the garden today, lovely sunshine, was only 5 mins but better than nothing

Dinner went down well tonight, I used up last nights leftover rice with red and yellow peppers and spring onions added which all needed to be used today, sweetcorn, sweet chilli chicken from ald1 which is the first time we've eaten their meat and it was absolutely delicious and two potatoes cut up into wedges and cooked in with the chickens, am very happy as I usually throw away left over rice so will definitely do this again, tomorrows dinner is beans on toast :rotfl:

Signed up to swagbucks today, I didn't have a clue what it is but I'm slowly figuring it out, I'm not sure how worthwhile its going to be but will give it a try and as my favourite saying goes "every little helps"

Had a lovely glass of wine with dh and watched only fools and horses, really love watching these they always make me feel happy

Off to sleep now, got to play that pesky pet rescue first, its so addictive ! At least its free

DebtFree2012

Well firstly I wanted to say ever time I see your diary name pop up in my subcribed updates list it makes me smile, as we have similar deadlines and it means that I am on my last few steps too. Something which I'd never thought until I saw your name so thank you

I can sympathise with ebay items taking over. Between than and ironing my house is losing its identity to it all!

Also Jaffa cakes are my treat when dieting. I have one or two a day to satisfy the sweet tooth I have and it does the job

I do swagbucks too, took me ages to get into it and I must admit I've not done it properly for ages but I was taking £20 a month out for a couple of months.

Also we enjoy watching only fools too - Del is probabl; not too far away from feeling how we feel sometimes!

Take care x

LastFewSteps

Oh thank you debtfree2012 that made me smile

whenever I get a bit fed up and overwhelmed by it all my dh always says to me, we need to take these steps before we can take the next steps, and now finally (after what seems like a whole load of steps equivalent to the Great Wall of china) we are on our last few steps before we are settled in our new home, so that's where I got the name from
It's true though, life is like a series of steps, we always have to take one before we can get to the other and I find it makes things simpler thinking in that way

I know what you mean about ironing ! it's never ending ! no sooner have I ironed a huge pile another one is growing, it's like weeds :rotfl:

Few more packed eb@y parcels going out the door today so that will free up a bit of space for the next lot, so far made just over £20 and when the last few end on Sunday I will transfer the money onto a debt, I can't wait :T

So payday tomorrow and unfortunately today is going to be a bit spendy, was hoping to put it off until tomorrow but we've nearly run out of milk :mad: also I've promised the children for months we will go swimming after school on a Thursday and for some silly reason I'd picked the Thursday before payday to start ! also ds1 is joining the local gym (while we are swimming)but this won't cost me a penny, the kind man on the telephone told me there is a voucher on their website making it free for 7 days :j instead of £17 induction and £5 per session :eek: thank goodness I phoned them first I would have had a bit of a shock at that price :eek: taken me most if the morning to make the laptop behave, find my internet connection which decided to leave the area, find the voucher and print it off, if it wasn't a freebie I'd have given up !

Checked into sw@gbucks, I'm figuring it out now, did a couple of surveys, while I was driving ds1 clicked onto some videos on the way to school for the extra points (didn't watch them just kept pressing play it all adds up

I've finished most of my to do list just need to check the bank and make sure next month is in order, we've got a big family meal for 3 family birthdays all one day after the other so that's going to cost a bit and we're off camping at the end of May (just before payday again ! ) won't spend very much though, we've paid half of the pitch already and we have the dogs with us so won't be going out for meals or anything like that and the site is right next to the beach so we will just enjoy relaxing and I will pack lots of easy to make foods so the weekly grocery shop will allow for that, and the kids are happy as long as they've got a ball and a field just praying it doesn't rain !!

Off now to do my last few things before I get ready for swimming, hope my costume still fits :eek:

In the words of Del Boy "This time next year we'll be millionaires"
Or in our case "debt free"

LastFewSteps

Just realised I've said its payday tomorrow but it isn't, it's on Monday ! my brain is fried ! it must be the thought of squeezing into my swimming costume :rotfl: Honestly the things I do for my children

LastFewSteps

Well this afternoon didn't quite go as planned,
ds1 wasn't allowed to join the gym without a doctors letter because of his allergy, and the swimming pool was closed :mad:
found all of this out after wasting diesel getting to the leisure centre, then being diverted because of roadworks wasting even more diesel, filling out all of the membership forms, how the man i spoke to on the phone this morning didn't know the pool never opens on a thursday i don't know maybe they need a new receptionist :rotfl:
the children were a little bit grumpy after all of this so I said "when I pop into Ald1 for milk do you all want some chocolate to cheer you up"
£15.59 later we had crisps, sweets, nuts, yogurts, cream cakes and no chocolate :eek:
So now we have to wait for a dr letter before ds1 can do anything, that could take as long as finding out what his allergy is (which we still don't know) but on the bright side it's saving my pennies for a little while longer

I also really need to find a different route when walking the dogs in the evening, I keep passing the house I like, I'm going to fall over soon because I'm not looking where I'm going I'm too busy nosing into the garden deciding what I would do if we bought it :rotfl:
Oh well I can dream
This time next year ill be even closer to my dream

LastFewSteps

I've been grocery shopping this morning, and for a change I was happy to pay the bill !
Just last year I used to be the type of shopper that would do a shop everyday ! Always popping in for something I'd forgotten, setting a budget and blowing it in the first two weeks of the month :eek: then at the beginning of this year I thought back to when I was small and how my parents would do a big shop once a week and when something was gone that was it, no popping to the shop, we'd have to wait until the next weekly shop.
so with that in mind I decided to do a big shop every Friday, that way there was plenty to keep the kids going over the weekend, and a top up shop on a Monday for essentials like bread, milk, loo roll and lunch box bits for dd if ds2 had already gobbled them all
I've been doing that for a few months now and I'm quite proud of myself that I've stuck to it and only a couple of times have I run out of something midway through shopping days (usually because we've had a visitor that I hadn't planned for)
I've always shopped at M rrisons and Te$co and although I know they are expensive I'm not the type to buy the big brands and I always look for the best deals, bargains and savings so I thought I was already getting my shopping for a good price, well that was until I found the diaries and I noticed that everyone was talking about ald1 and l1dl, so last week I gave it a try and although I did make a saving I wasn't completely converted.
Today I needed to do a bigger than normal shop so I thought I'd give them one more try and thank goodness I did ! Between the two I spent £65, I managed to get everything on my list and also dd and ds2 baking ingredients (they're making a lot of cakes this weekend) some weekend treats, pizza for tea, some good deals on fresh meat and fish and quite a few other bits I wouldn't normally buy. I honestly can't believe the price ! I know if I'd bought all of this at my usual two, bearing in mind that it would have been without the weekend treats and pizza (they weren't on my list I put them in my trolley because I couldn't believe how much I was saving) it would have cost me well over £100 :eek:
My cupboards are all full, I can't get anything else in my freezer or fridge, I thought I'd have to turn the one in the garage on !
So I just had to write this all down, if anyone reading this was like me thinking they were already getting a good deal and not really wanting to change your shopping habits please give it a go and if you don't like it the first time give it a second chance, if I take out all of the treats I got today I think I can get our weekly shop down to £55 that would be an amazing saving for us !
So all I need to do next Friday is try not to have a heart attack when the cashier whizzes the whole shop through the till before I've even opened my carrier bag :eek:
The only bad thing was that I couldn't fit everything in my boot and I've got a big boot, I had to put a bag full of shopping on the back seat and when I slammed my brakes on at the roundabout because of some idiot that shouldn't have passed his test the bag flew upside down onto the floor, food everywhere and the packet of cherry tomatoes exploded ! I'll be finding them for weeks I bet !
I've also changed my route to shop at these which means after I've dropped ds1&2 at school I have to take the road that runs alongside the beach, it's such a chore but someone's got to do it :rotfl: