Finally I have woken up

sillyinthepast

Well we have truly been battered by the winds. The fence is down and Dh has been to see next door. When the wind dies down they are going to put some brackets on it to keep it up. It's only a short term solution though. The fence is ours so we will have to replace it.

My capital one bill came in and it's £827. The minimum payment is £27 I was going to pay £50 off it today but I'm going to have to do the minimum as we have no money to sort the fence and I need to put some money by for that. I have been busy with the Toluna surveys and have done quite a few. I am hoping to get Amazon and PayPal vouchers with it. My aim which may be a bit off but I would like to pay for Christmas this year by using survey money and vouchers only.

I played with some numbers last night and I think we can get the capital one and the debenhams card payed off completely this year. If Dh goes back to work I can include the Argos card and an extra £800 off one of the cars.

I made a few cards yesterday and I am thinking of maybe setting up a Facebook page selling them. Even if I sell a couple a week it would be an extra few quid that could go straight on the debt.

I also started a premature baby blanket for a charity yesterday. I had to cancel charity direct debits as unfortunately I just couldn't afford them anymore. I have more time than money so I am hoping to make a couple of blankets and some baby hats. I have more than enough wool so I will only have to pay postage. Even though life is pants for us at the moment we have it so much better than many others and I feel I need to help in someway.

I cut out the squares for the quilt and I will make a start in it this week. I feel very lucky that I have skills to be able to make things. It's something I am trying to teach my children.

Today will be another day in the kitchen after I have out the Hoover around. I want to make granola bars for snacks, a cake of some sort and I need to make some pies with all of the leftovers. I should have enough for 3 family pies. One will be for tonight and the other 2 will go in the freezer. I also need to package up some books as I ziffit are collecting some on Wednesday I have made £23 from a few cookbooks that I don't need. As soon as the money goes in I will pay it to capital one.

Today is a NSD and part from milk tomorrow will be too. The landing is in desperate need of decorating and I have the paint here ready and waiting so if I get time I am going to give that a start. I have seen some wallpaper for one wall that I like and its reduced to £6 a roll. I need 3 rolls but I'm sat on my hands not wanting to buy it as it doesn't feel like a necessity. I need to think about it.

parsniphead

Good luck with the journey, sillyinthepast.

I think you're right to start living how you want to. It's what you do, not where you live...........although a smallholding would be wonderful. It's a dream of mine too.

Lamb drool:, so expensive but delicious.

sillyinthepast

Thank you parsnip head. The lamb was lovely a real treat.

Well today I feel like pants. Dh had 'man flu' last week and I took the mock quite a bit. Well karma has bit me right in the bum and I feel awful. I woke at 5 with a tight chest and a runny nose. I got up and managed a few jobs but I have now come back to bed feeling 100x worse. Luckily the boys are all going out today with various friends and one of them has a sleepover so at least I don't have to entertain them today.

Dh is on the phone putting a claim in for esa. When I spoke to a financial advisor last week they said that his work should of sent a form out a few weeks ago. When I rang his work to query this they had. Never heard of esa! Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly. He got paid today so that's one less worry but it's his last statoury sick pay wage so I'm now worried about the esa not going through.

The fence is fixed Dh used some ikea brackets on it that we had from fixing units to the wall. It seems solid but I don't think it will last another storm like we had in the weekend. I have no idea how much I need to save for a fence, it's 5 panels does anyone have a rough idea?

Today will be another NSD. I will not be getting dressed or leaving my bed hopefully. It's going to be a quite day full of crochet, box sets and naps. I will do a few surveys but that's it. If I get the energy I will take photos to put stuff on eBay.

Life2short

good luck on your journey too!! im subscribed!!

sillyinthepast

Thank you life2short.

Today hasn't been a good day. Every time I think of money I get really anxious. Dh seems to be in complete denial and thinks if he buries his head in the sand it will all go away :-(. He may be coming into a small windfall soon but there is no guarantee and I don't think we should be counting on it. He's just a bit never mind it will all be ok. I feel sick with worry but also frustrated.

I spent some money today. I went over to b&m to get some bits I needed. They are having a massive clearance. I bout 3 bottles of Britney Spears perfume for £1 a bottle. It smells lovely and I am saving it for Christmas gifts. They also had a deal on finish dishwasher tablets 110 for £7.99. My dishwasher is fussy and will not clean with cheaper brands.

We have friends visiting with their children tomorrow. I am doing lunch. They mentioned us all going for a meal but for my family it will be £60 minimum and I just can't justify it. I'm thinking of making quiche, jacket potatoes, salad, and coleslaw. I may do some homemade pizzas for the children. I have the ingredients for a lemon tart too so I will get that made.

I counted my penny challenge today and we have 28.47 which is lower than it should be but every penny helps. I have also done some surveys and have 7500 on Toluna so far. I am hoping to build it up enough for £35 PayPal. It should take another a month or more to do that though.

Saira51

I'm sorry you've had a pants day, try not to get anxious, you're doing all the right things. Some days will feel worse than others, just take each one as it comes xx

Huskyrunner

it does take ages on uk toluna too get too 185000 make sure you have the ap on your smart phone check it 4-5 times a day the daft little points surveys can help.

I love the 35 quid i hate the waiting weeks for it

MERFE

Sounds like we have similar dreams. OH has got himself an allotment so we can make a start with it but this year is the first year with it so a bit trial and error to see what works. We just got 4 rescue chickens last week who are settling in lovely there at the moment but I am struggling with the early early morning to go and let them out.

I only do 3 survey sites, I gave up loads of them after they dwindled a bit, yougov took me 4 years to reach payout, not sure if they have improved but once I got to the £50 I didn't do another survery with them.

Good luck with your journey x

juliejim

I find Prolific Academic are good for surveys and you don't get screened out.
Do you use swagbucks? That can be fairly easy for getting vouchers if you have time.

Good luck

Jue

sillyinthepast

Thank you for the comments it's very kind of you to read by diary.

Today was a great day. We had a wonderful time with our guests and they bought me a huge bunch of flowers which is wonderful as I am really missing fresh flowers. We all got talking about things and it turns out they had got themselves in a lot of debt a while back and gave us lots of things to ponder over. One of them was to remortgage but I need to look into that a bit more. It's seems rather drastic. That's what they did and also took their mortgage out over a longer period. As they now only have the mortgage payment which is obviously higher they are concentrating on overpaying when they can. I'm not sure if this is what we want to do or even if we can. Dh and I talked tonight and it's something we will look in to but it all seems a bit simple and easy to me which I find worrying.

In other news I put my name down for an allotment today. Apparently they issued one to someone last week so I am at the top of the list. They are going around in the next month to check the allotments (there is 2 sites in our village) and if people don't look after theirs they get a two week warning to get it sorted or it gets taken off them. Fingers crossed I may get one quite soon.

When our friends had gone I spent a bit of time in the garden and planted a few bits and have also started a few things in the windowsill. I am aiming to have some cut flowers this year as I can't afford to buy fresh ones every couple of weeks.

I run out of butter this morning so I nipped to lidl and also managed to get some beef chunks reduced. So I have popped them in the freezer.

I don't have to cook tomorrow as the in laws are coming down and called and asked me to book a table for my sons birthday. They always take us for a meal when it's one of our birthdays and I am extremely grateful. I have some homemade jam and marmalade ready to give her as a thank you. She refuses any money off me but asks me to make her preserves.

I am in bed at the moment as The males are downstairs watching some kind of action movie. I am about to finish a crochet dishcloth. I have lots of pure cotton and I have made a few so far this year and they hold up so well. I know it would be cheaper to buy some but I already have the cotton so it's not costing anything. I will also be giving some crochet flannels with homemade soap to my girlfriends this year. I have a stock already so I don't need to worry about anyone's gifts. Luckily most of my friends are all handmade/arty type so they will really appreciate the time and effort put in. Have a good evening.