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

Treadingonplaymobil

Good to know that £400 a week isn't the default setting for teenagers! I used to make a lot of scrambled eggs and baked snacks as a teen - my mother never had things like cereal, crisps, microwave food in the house (can you tell where I get it from? ) but always had 'ingredients' and I'd like to think I'll do the same. We'll see how it pans out though.

Sea_Shell wrote: »

You say you're not planning on moving, and you've admitted you have a "Tiny House". How's that going to work, once you effectively have 5 Adults living in it. Realistically, how sustainable is it for the future??

I can't recall how old your 3 DC's are currently, but they are no doubt all growing fast!!, before you know it, they'll all be "grown up", and wanting to hog the bathroom(s) to get ready. Boys, just as much as the girls (if not worse - ha!!)

Tiny house is a bit of an exaggeration to be honest, but we take lots of inspiration from the tiny house 'movement' in terms of using the space. I think the house will be perfectly sustainable in size terms, once everyone has a space, albeit a small one, of their own. I think having a well designed and thought through space and sufficient privacy, and the financial means to have adventures outside of the house as well as in it is more important for us than sheer square footage. The bedrooms will be small but the living space will be fairly generous (kitchen/diner and separate sitting room), and according to a swift google, the extended house will be slightly over the size of the average new build 3 bed house - it'll be a little under 1,000 sq ft I think. plus our garden is around 80 feet long and we're hoping to build a little office pod at the end too, so another space to negotiate over as they grow up.

DawnW

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Good to know that £400 a week isn't the default setting for teenagers! I used to make a lot of scrambled eggs and baked snacks as a teen - my mother never had things like cereal, crisps, microwave food in the house (can you tell where I get it from? ) but always had 'ingredients' and I'd like to think I'll do the same. We'll see how it pans out though.


Tiny house is a bit of an exaggeration to be honest, but we take lots of inspiration from the tiny house 'movement' in terms of using the space. I think the house will be perfectly sustainable in size terms, once everyone has a space, albeit a small one, of their own. I think having a well designed and thought through space and sufficient privacy, and the financial means to have adventures outside of the house as well as in it is more important for us than sheer square footage. The bedrooms will be small but the living space will be fairly generous (kitchen/diner and separate sitting room), and according to a swift google, the extended house will be slightly over the size of the average new build 3 bed house - it'll be a little under 1,000 sq ft I think. plus our garden is around 80 feet long and we're hoping to build a little office pod at the end too, so another space to negotiate over as they grow up.

Many larger families are / have been brought up in smaller spaces TOPM - there is no reason at all why you won't manage just fine

fraserbooks

I had five children in eight years including four boys. I used to think it was like living with a swarm of locusts as I would open the fridge and find it empty. Boys do take a long time in the bathroom when they start to shave. You do need to have room to store several sets of sports kit.. Children also need somewhere quiet to do their homework. Do you have room for a loft conversion later on?

Treadingonplaymobil

No room for a loft conversion later on - we live in a dormer bungalow and we're already using it!

Honestly, I'm really not anxious about managing the space once we have the extension. I think we need that extra, but I don't think we need more. Obviously I am fully prepared to eat my words in a few years' time, but I think we just adapt to what we have. This house works better for us than our previous, much bigger, rented house, because the layout is better and the location is nicer, so it's easy to get out to do things.

I have been counting down to some childfree time tomorrow and am slightly horrified that DC2 appears to have a cough and a sore throat. I will be underwhelmed if my time of solitude is interrupted by illness, after a 4.5 day weekend thanks to the snow!

Ooh, got paid an unexpected £50 for some extra work today, so assuming my invoices get paid soon for February's work I will be back up to three months' expenses and salary in my business account and I will have £40 to drop into the birthdays budget pot to go towards DC2 and 3's birthdays this month. Hurrah!

Three things to do today
1. Finish cleaning for clients.
2. Get a last minute piece of contract work done (I am so not going to feel like doing that after seeing clients, but needs must).
3. Plan the week ahead - got so little done last week thanks to snow days, so need to knuckle down this week.

Debt repayment:
- £5.80/31 March rounding down pot
- £1,250.93/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 56: Day 1

Morning! Another week. Let's keep fingers crossed all my children manage to go to school this morning and I get some peace and quiet. Just in case, I am trying to enjoy the quiet right now before they wake up, even if I am about to spend most of the time ironing.

Am also keeping fingers crossed that I get paid today for some of February's work - snow days meant my invoices won't have even been seen yet, annoyingly. I know I'll get the money eventually, I just want it in my bank account right now!

Three things to do today
1. Clear the ironing mountain (apparently in my head 'snow day' equates to 'no ironing day').
2. Send a couple of work emails that need doing.
3. Top up food shop from town.

Debt repayment:
- £5.80/31 March rounding down pot
- £1,250.93/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

groovychick69

You are doing so well topm, I’m also putting off the ironing! Re your debt goal of £5000 I notice you are well on your way to this. You could maybe even double it! Is this just overpayments or does it include your usual minimum payment?

joeyjimbles

OK, OK, all this talk of ironing is clearly the universe telling me to just get on with it - I'll go and do it now (sulk sulk).

PositiveBalance

joeyjimbles wrote: »

OK, OK, all this talk of ironing is clearly the universe telling me to just get on with it - I'll go and do it now (sulk sulk).

I've got a few bits that need doing as well while you are at it.

*Hands over small pile*

Thanks! You're a star!

Treadingonplaymobil

groovychick59 the debt repayment goal includes minimums, which I think come to around £4,000 for the year, so my ambitions aren't all that impressive really! But I would be thrilled to pay back more than £5,000 this year if we can.

Got paid for one lot of invoicing today, so am back up to three months' expenses and salary in my business account (which now has a whopping £2,700 in it, which seems incredible compared to a year ago) and I was able to transfer over an extra bit of money for the birthday pot. Which is still only up to £145 which isn't nearly enough, but it's better than nothing, and I should get paid for another bit of work in the next week or so.

Knackered and trying fake an interest in something DH is telling me about work, so probably better go...

Three things to do today
1. Clear the ironing mountain (apparently in my head 'snow day' equates to 'no ironing day').
2. Send a couple of work emails that need doing.
3. Top up food shop from town.

Debt repayment:
- £16.08/31 March rounding down pot (extra £10 sent over to this pot from my business account).
- £1,250.93/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 56: Day 2

Woop, made a payment on the barclaycard this morning, bringing the balance down to £11,613.48. Can't wait to see this card under the £10k barrier, but I'll settle for under £11,500 first.

Feeling slightly ill this morning - sore throat and streaming nose. The younger two DC have something similar (just slight sore throats for them), although both were perfectly happy to go to school/preschool yesterday. Hoping neither of them wake up feeling worse this morning. I'm supposed to be meeting a friend in a nearby city today (trying to work out where we can sit for lunch so I can take a packed lunch and she can buy one from M&S, as it's freezing cold for sitting outside but I don't want to go to a cafe or restaurant and spend money).

Eco news: I made a couple of cloth bags yesterday for storing/freezing my homemade bread yesterday, in an effort to cut down on the plastic waste. We used to freeze them in ziplock bags, but I am experimenting with freezing and storing them wrapped in a tea towel inside a cloth bag. It's pleasingly frugal too, as I won't need to buy any more ziplocks ever again - even though we reused each one a few times, my mum usually ends up taking a couple each time she comes (she will return cloth bags in a way she wouldn't bother to with plastic ones) and it still all adds up. I already had the fabric so it was totally free. I used a bento bag pattern and am also going to try some drawstring ones, and am going to make some more 'tea towels' for wrapping loaves in inside the bags from a load of fine linen/cotton mix I had kicking around.

Three things to do today
1. Confirm dates for DC2 and 3 parties.
2. Sort childcare for a work enquiry for later in the month.
3. Pack orders for smaller business.

Debt repayment:
- £16.22/31 March rounding down pot (extra £10 sent over to this pot from my business account).
- £1,608.78/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.