£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Treadingonplaymobil

Spends:
No spends today! DH went food shopping, which I'll log when it clear the bank account tomorrow, I have no idea what he spent.

To do today
1. Work work work. Done.
2. Plan next week. Done.
3. Make some packed lunch stuff (or get DH to do it). Not done, as DH said he would do it and didn't. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow.
4. Laundry. Done.
5. Clear the ironing. Not done.
6. Do yesterday's ramen dish, including deep frying the tofu. Done.
7. Some decluttering with the DCs. and DH. Done, although not as much as I would have liked.
8. Juggle the menu plan as I'll be away for one evening meal so it needs to be a quick one for DH or my mum to whip up. Not done.
9. Birthday cards for a couple of friends' birthdays coming up this week. Done.

To do this week
1. Mega decluttering - stuff needs to leave the house, as it's at the stage it's hard to get tidy.
2. Start brainstorming ideas for the architect - I want to be really clear what we want by the time he next comes in March, as each revision once the initial drawings are done after that will cost about £300.
3. Plan any handmade gifts for birthdays/Christmas 2018 so I can ensure they are done well in advance.

To do in January
1. Review 2017 spending and try to improve 2018 plans by being more prepared - plan big spends like holidays and Christmas now and be realistic about the cost. Done with DH before doing SOA.
2. Redo SOA once the remortgage is through. Done.
3. Make a 2018 business plan that is less frenetic than originally (I think I had too high expectations of myself, leading to much stress in Nov/Dec). Done.

ellen_vannin

2 ideas for you - I too like presents and parcels arriving through the post - so I have taken up entering competitions.
Lots of comps listed on this site - and now and then a free parcel will turn up - I use the time I would view TV. I used a few runners up prizes for small nephews Xmas presents etc .

Second idea - if you are having a clear out save the better stuff for a car boot sale.

Keep up the good work on the debt busting front .

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 50: Day 2

Morning! I have my housekeeping day today, so naturally my to do list is 17 miles long.

Ellen vannin good idea about the competitions, hadn't thought of doing something like that.

Nothing major to report, apart from the fact I have added a savings portion to the 'spends' list below to enable me to keep track of how any saving for overpayments is going. I worked out that sticking to our budget as it is, we will make payments of approximately £4,380 this year, so I've given us a slightly more ambitious goal of £5,000 to pay this year. That won't actually knock £5k off our debts because of the addition of some interest, but hopefully that will only be for the next month or two then we'll get everything on 0% again.

Savings/Spends:
- January 'rounding down' overpayment pot = £1.81/£8 (£30 per month pro rata for the rest of Jan )
- 2018 debt repayment goal = £656.48/£5,000

To do today
1. Make ghee.
2. Bake sourdough.
3. Make soup for client tomorrow and dinner for us on Wednesday.
4. Make leek risotto for dinner tonight.
5. Make an extra quiche or something for packed lunches.
6. Make homemade baked beans for dinner later this week when I'm away (so today I will mainly be cooking then...)
7. Post orders for smaller business, which has, astonishingly, not ground to a total halt since I put prices up. Also post birthday cards.
8. Do my gel nails.
9. Start to plan summer holidays - need to book the campsite in Wales we're planning to stay at for a week or more, as apparently it's quite popular.
10. Have a think about the architect plans - really want to spend plenty of time over this.
11. Continue the big decluttering mission. Need to pack away the things the DCs said 'maybe' about - we agreed we would put them away for a month and chuck if not wanted then. Also make a start on our room.

To do this week
1. Mega decluttering - stuff needs to leave the house, as it's at the stage it's hard to get tidy.
2. Start brainstorming ideas for the architect - I want to be really clear what we want by the time he next comes in March, as each revision once the initial drawings are done after that will cost about £300.
3. Plan any handmade gifts for birthdays/Christmas 2018 so I can ensure they are done well in advance.

To do in January
1. Review 2017 spending and try to improve 2018 plans by being more prepared - plan big spends like holidays and Christmas now and be realistic about the cost. Done with DH before doing SOA.
2. Redo SOA once the remortgage is through. Done.
3. Make a 2018 business plan that is less frenetic than originally (I think I had too high expectations of myself, leading to much stress in Nov/Dec). Done.

Busy_Mee1

I would recommend you read ShanghaiJimmy’s diary over on the mortgage free wanabee thread. Jimmy also has three children and does lots of great things to pay his mortgage down. One of the things he does is ruthlessly eb@y clothes and toys that are outgrown. The money he makes sits in the PayPal account to allow his wife to buy new stuff and pay for the kid’s birthdays.

Now I know you don’t like eb@ying ( I don’t either - but needs must sometimes !) This would however give you access to extra funds that you could spend guilt free and satisfy your shopping urges.

Misslayed

Just a quick thought for you, we pay our council tax in 10 monthly instalments, so we get two months ‘holiday’ in February and March, which I always forget, so I suddenly feel rich! Does yours work like that?

Treadingonplaymobil

Misslayed wrote: »

Just a quick thought for you, we pay our council tax in 10 monthly instalments, so we get two months ‘holiday’ in February and March, which I always forget, so I suddenly feel rich! Does yours work like that?

Sadly no, ours is split over 12 months!

Busy_Mee1 wrote: »

I would recommend you read ShanghaiJimmy’s diary over on the mortgage free wanabee thread. Jimmy also has three children and does lots of great things to pay his mortgage down. One of the things he does is ruthlessly eb@y clothes and toys that are outgrown. The money he makes sits in the PayPal account to allow his wife to buy new stuff and pay for the kid’s birthdays.

Now I know you don’t like eb@ying ( I don’t either - but needs must sometimes !) This would however give you access to extra funds that you could spend guilt free and satisfy your shopping urges.

I will have a read, sounds great. The problem with ebaying (and surveys, on a similar 'making extra money' note) is that I just don't know when I'd find the time to do them. My work more or less works out as 22hrs per week during term time (18 per week over the course of the year, but I work very few hours during holidays), then in between it's rushing around for kids clubs in the evenings, cooking/housework, working a shade under 50% of weekends and probably away for another 25% of weekends. The remaining 25% I don't want to fill with ebaying etc! I go to bed early (9pm) as I get up at 4:30am for yoga.

Busy_Mee1

I agree your schedule is exhausting and a bit alarming ( up at 4.30 !!) What I would observe is that you put enormous pressure on yourself to provide a quality of life that is normally the preserve of SAHMs (baking all your own bread, cakes, cooking from scratch, knitting, making candles). You are not a SAHM, you are a working Mum who happens to work from home. I know no other working Mum’s who do all the things you do all of the time ( baking etc normally reserved for days off and weekends).

I think the problem is that you are not identifying what is essential and what is not. You desperately want to do it all, but I worry that you are going to break. A lot of the things you do are a choice and I think you need to really think about everything on your lists and ask yourself “ is it really essential ? You could give yourself a break and buy bread a couple of times a week and buy baked beans ! How about having one night a week that is an easy tea and a couple of lunch’s that are the standard sandwich/crisps/apple varieties.

I am not criticising what you do - your work ethic is impressive, but I have been exactly where you are and tried to do it all and believe me it does no one any good. .

What I am saying is make a conscious choice about all the extra stuff you are doing.. You actually could free up time to make a bit more money but it needs to be a choice if you want to be able to spend more.

If you choose to carry on that is fine too, but you have to resign yourself to a more restrictive budget to enable that.

mjb-is

I appreciate your pain in trying to go from a certain spending mindset and cutting back. I ran my own business through the 2008 bank crisis and things were very good before 2008 so money flowed freely and we were well off. After 2008 things got tighter and eventually I went back into employment as the business couldn't keep going due to late and non-payments of significant amounts. I had a lot of, at the time sustainable, borrowing plus I'd guarantorred the business overdraft. I'm literally 24 hours from being completely out of debt after 10 years of a tight belt.

There is a lot if inertia to overcome but with time you CAN do it. It will be smaller gains to start until you start to see the benefits. The first mindset to overcome is that you CANNOT afford the holidays and expensive activities any more, no matter how small a cost you think they are or how essential at the moment. Many people think they 'have' to have a holiday or they 'deserve' a holiday, or the kids shouldn't suffer by not having a holiday, but not if you can't afford to pay for it. It's a hard thing to admit but you have to if you want to spend money on essentials only; you have to re-educate yourself as to what is really essential and what you have come to expect as essential from your current (financially unsustainable) lifestyle.

The quick wins I can see, looking like maybe some seem cruel observations but you will eventually see them as true if you want to get out of the current situation:-

Holidays need to go, you can't afford them and this can save you a significant amount to balance your budget

Weekend activities like heritage visits etc, stop paying the membership and go to free parks and attractions

Food - £500 a month is a lot. I don't know where you shop but I suspect it's like I used to, Tesco, ASDA etc. Try Aldi and Lidl, you'll be amazed at the quality of produce now and the savings you make. Most big brand goods have an Aldi equivalent and Lidl bakery is excellent. I think you should be able to easily cut £200 off your food bill and get back in budget if you do this. Also do a BIG single shop once a month and only by small things like Milk/Bread/Eggs when you need them. You'll save money if you do this and condition yourself to use what's in the freezer and cupboards instead of constantly re-stocking and not using half of what you have in the house.

ALWAYS shop around each year foe car insurance and energy accounts. You can save a LOT of money like this. I saved Well over £100 a month of original costs by doing this simple thing.

You CAN do it, but you have to re-train yourself to be more frugal. It's hard at first, but after a while it becomes normal and, dare I say it, fun to see how much you can save with attention to detail.

Good luck on your journey and be assured that if you keep going then you WILL get to the end and the feeling will be worth it.

EDIT: Also, look at those mobile phone bills and reduce or get rid of the contacts as soon as you can. You don't NEED a new phone every 12/18/24 month, it's a luxury and status thing, and you can get a GiffGaff Sim for a fraction of the price once you are out of contract.

Treadingonplaymobil

Didn't get a chance to pop back on last night, so just crossing off my lists...

Savings/Spends:
- January 'rounding down' overpayment pot = £1.81/£8 (£30 per month pro rata for the rest of Jan )
- 2018 debt repayment goal = £656.48/£5,000

To do today
1. Make ghee. Not done.
2. Bake sourdough. Done, four loaves.
3. Make soup for client tomorrow and dinner for us on Wednesday. Done.
4. Make leek risotto for dinner tonight. Done.
5. Make an extra quiche or something for packed lunches. Not done.
6. Make homemade baked beans for dinner later this week when I'm away (so today I will mainly be cooking then...). Done.
7. Post orders for smaller business, which has, astonishingly, not ground to a total halt since I put prices up. Also post birthday cards. Done.
8. Do my gel nails. Done.
9. Start to plan summer holidays - need to book the campsite in Wales we're planning to stay at for a week or more, as apparently it's quite popular. Not done.
10. Have a think about the architect plans - really want to spend plenty of time over this. Done.
11. Continue the big decluttering mission. Need to pack away the things the DCs said 'maybe' about - we agreed we would put them away for a month and chuck if not wanted then. Also make a start on our room. Done.

To do this week
1. Mega decluttering - stuff needs to leave the house, as it's at the stage it's hard to get tidy.
2. Start brainstorming ideas for the architect - I want to be really clear what we want by the time he next comes in March, as each revision once the initial drawings are done after that will cost about £300.
3. Plan any handmade gifts for birthdays/Christmas 2018 so I can ensure they are done well in advance. Made a start.

To do in January
1. Review 2017 spending and try to improve 2018 plans by being more prepared - plan big spends like holidays and Christmas now and be realistic about the cost. Done with DH before doing SOA.
2. Redo SOA once the remortgage is through. Done.
3. Make a 2018 business plan that is less frenetic than originally (I think I had too high expectations of myself, leading to much stress in Nov/Dec). Done.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 50: Day 3

Two days before payday and a full week before the end of the month. My business account looks excellent, our joint account has a whopping £50 in it. Going to be a squeaky few days!

BusyMee1 I agree I put huge pressure on myself. The trouble is that all the 'optional' things are the ones that are really important to me as a person and a mother, so dropping them feels like a massive lifestyle compromise. I've cut my hours dramatically since the start of the year, so we'll see where that takes us over the next few months, and I'll have to make more changes if things still aren't right. I suppose it's partly that I've had the odd period of being a SAHM, and I loved the things I was able to do (although nearly died of boredom with a baby at home), so I want the best bits of both worlds.

mjb-is thanks so much for stopping by. You're right on things like holidays, but we have already reduced our holiday expectations from a £1k one to various UK camping trips, and that feels like as much as a compromise as we're ready to make right now. Food shopping is already Aldi/Lidl with things we can't get there coming from Sainsburys (some weeks just dried beans etc, some weeks it's a lot more - DH usually does it and I don't keep a mega close eye on the division). The phone has been discussed many times and has been a sore spot on this diary - I use the good camera on my phone for work and claim part of it as a work expense on my tax return, but budget it as part of household expenses. It's still a bit of an indulgence (although I would need to buy a camera if I didn't have it). DH has a fairly old phone and is contemplating going sim only, but I feel like that has to be his choice, as I'm sat here with a really new phone on a big contract. I still feel like we're 'turning the tanker' and finding out what we can compromise on and what we can't. Insurances etc we have always shopped around.

I have a couple of days of clients now before relaxing again (a bit!) on Thursday with just a normal working day. Feel like I've had enough of being nice to people! But I know I won't be thinking that when the client influx dries up in a month or so.

Quite a few spends on the list as there are things I didn't note on the weekend that cleared from our account today.

Savings/Spends:
- January 'rounding down' overpayment pot = £2.11/£8 (£30 per month pro rata for the rest of Jan )
- 2018 debt repayment goal = £656.48/£5,000
- £54.06 (DH) in Lidl on weekly food shop.
- £27.75 (DH) in Sainsburys on weekly food shop (this seems high, but I can't find the receipt to see what was bought there).
- £9.99 itunes - apple music subscription (DH has just had a free trial which has ended). I think DH wants to keep this on as part of his monthly kitty spends, which will make his clothing budget even tighter. He is a grown man and it's his budget though.
- £12 (DH) in bakery with the DC. Turns out this was instead of Saturday sweets (£3). Sigh.
- £1.99 (DH) in WHSmith - magazine.
- £60.16 on diesel.
- £6.62 on top up food shop because DH forgot to buy unsalted butter to make ghee.

Not DH's finest spending hour!

To do today
1. Finish getting house ready for client.
2. Pack overnight bag for staying with friends tonight - I have a client two hours away tomorrow and friends who live near there.
3. Try to find something to take as a thank you to friends - I think I might have a spare candle kicking around - rather than buying something.
4. Organise DC for cubs/beavers trip tonight before I leave.

To do this week
1. Mega decluttering - stuff needs to leave the house, as it's at the stage it's hard to get tidy.
2. Start brainstorming ideas for the architect - I want to be really clear what we want by the time he next comes in March, as each revision once the initial drawings are done after that will cost about £300.
3. Plan any handmade gifts for birthdays/Christmas 2018 so I can ensure they are done well in advance. Made a start.
4. Plan and book some campsites for summer hols.
5. Continue thinking about extensions and playing with some ideas.
6. Check the un-allocated spends with DH and find out what they were.

To do in January
1. Review 2017 spending and try to improve 2018 plans by being more prepared - plan big spends like holidays and Christmas now and be realistic about the cost. Done with DH before doing SOA.
2. Redo SOA once the remortgage is through. Done.
3. Make a 2018 business plan that is less frenetic than originally (I think I had too high expectations of myself, leading to much stress in Nov/Dec). Done.