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

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 56: Day 4

I'm feeling about 3% less horrific than yesterday, and have to drive 90 minutes to spend the day working hard with clients today . I am going to be taking All The Drugs (erm, legal ones, obv) to get through this one. And I have awful period pain, for added fun.

Annoyed at being ill - between the snow last week and illness this week I am miles behind on hunting down any work which might earn extra money. Not going to be an impressive income month.

In fractionally brighter news, some stock I ordered was less expensive than expected, so I had another £38 to put towards the DCs' birthday pot, which now sits at £166.

Three things to do today
1. Order stock for work.
2. Try not to collapse in a small tired heap on the floor.
3. Email some info to the architect that he needs

Debt repayment:
- £18.22/31 March rounding down pot.
- £1,608.78/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Onebrokelady

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Well my self-pity party is still in full swing over here. Can't remember the last time I felt so thoroughly rough. I don't usually take medicine - I find if I do I carry on doing everything and don't rest, and end up even more I'll - but today has had me heading for the (Sainsbury's own, no pricey beechams nonsense here) cold and flu remedy.

In slightly less dreary news, the architect came this evening and all seems really positive. He's got an idea for creating a little more space that I hadn't thought of, so the next step is for him to sketch up a few ideas and we'll see whic one makes the most sense to move forward with. We also crawled into the eaves space (currently inaccessible except through a hatch, and unfloored) and it is MASSIVE. Really shows how much unused space there is even in our titchy little house. It's also nice to know that we have £600 in our extensions savings pot ready for his next bill, and that is going up by at least £285 a month.

Made beef stew and dumplings for dinner tonight - so rare for us to have meat, it felt like a real treat! I decided we all needed a bit of extra nourishment so bought 1.5lb of beef skirt at the butchers (which was shrink wrapped. Why?! When they butcher their own beef! Going to try another butcher next time) and made a huge stew with loads of root veg - we've only eaten half, if that, plenty left for another day. Also had a first attempt at the sourdough crackers while I had the oven on for flapjacks for the DCs. SO GOOD. I ate the whole of the first half dozen straight out of the oven!

Three things to do today
1. Sort childcare for a work enquiry for later in the month.
2. Pack orders for smaller business.
3. Clear work emails.

Debt repayment:
- £17.38/31 March rounding down pot.
- £1,608.78/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Our local butcher has some meat delivered from outside so that might explain the shrink wrap and after sitting on the bus watching them bring the pigs in from the lorry Im not sure I would want it not wrapped,the man had the pig on his shoulder and it was pressed up against his very spotty face as he was carrying it in :eek:
Hope you all have a swift recovery from the lurgy,there are some nasty bugs doing the rounds at the moment xx

Cherryfudge

Onebrokelady wrote: »

the man had the pig on his shoulder and it was pressed up against his very spotty face as he was carrying it in :eek:

Urgh. Just the sort of thing they do cartoons about to illustrate bad HACCP practice!

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi

Hope you dont mind but I stumbled across your diary, read a little and was inspired. We are hugely in debt too, have had several small lightbulb moments over the years but the last six months or so have made me realise that big changes have to be made.

You sound so positive, this is what I struggle with - not allowing it to get me down. At the moment I am really tackling my "its only a fiver it doesnt matter" mentality, every penny really does count when you are in debt.

So if its not a bit strange I would like to say thank you, you made me feel a bit better about things.

mfmaybe

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Well my self-pity party is still in full swing over here. Can't remember the last time I felt so thoroughly rough. I don't usually take medicine - I find if I do I carry on doing everything and don't rest, and end up even more I'll - but today has had me heading for the (Sainsbury's own, no pricey beechams nonsense here) cold and flu remedy.

Worth knowing that the Aldi cold and flu was very good (and cheap!) DH and I both had awful lurgy recently and bought this in desperation. I am converted.

joeyjimbles

I second the Aldi medication recommendation - if you look at the ingredients they are all much the same once you are comparing similar products.
Hope you get better soon TOPM, some of these lurgies seem to have such sticking power.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 56: Day 5

Well I survived yesterday, more or less. Just need to limp through today, then have clients tomorrow (waaaah) then I can collapse in a messy heap and rest again. This is the downside of self employment, particularly client facing and particularly when you don't have childcare on tap - there is no real opportunity to take a sick day unless you can afford to cancel and refund clients, which I can't, and when you are sick you might also have the added joy of looking after a poorly child too, so even less time to slow down and rest. I know that if I'd been able to just STOP at the beginning of the week, maybe take to my bed for a day or two, I'd be better now. Instead I'm limping through, and can feel my usual post-cold sinus infection kicking in (I always get these after any form of congestion) so I will have a horrible exploding head feeling for a few days once all my other symptoms subside. Urgh, I hate being ill. Lucky it happens so rarely, I don't think I've even had a cold since the autumn.

MS news - not much really. Haven't made any impressive sums of money this week, haven't really spent wildly either, budget is just ticking along. Need to order DC2 and 3's presents in the next few days, then see how much budget there is left for party stuff. Hopefully I'll make a little more money and be able to send some more over to the party budget pot before I need to spend it.

Three things to do today
1. Pack orders for smaller business
2. Email info to architect.
3. Prep for clients tomorrow

Debt repayment:
- £18.38/31 March rounding down pot.
- £1,608.78/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Cherryfudge

Keep up the fluids and plenty of vitamins... hope you are feeling better soon. x

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 56: Day 6

Morning! Finally feeling a bit more human, thank goodness. Not at 100% by any means, but definitely feel I'm on the mend.

Slight irritation this morning - was reconciling receipts and noticed that DH is buying sandwiches and snacks when he fills up the car, at maybe £4 a pop, affecting both the diesel budget and his waistline. I was going to go and have a big go at him about it, but I have done that before to little effect (he struggles with his weight, and this picking up of huge unhealthy snacks at random moments is historically one of the key reasons why). Instead I am going to keep checking the receipts and assigning any food he buys to his personal kitty, and when he asks why it's all depleted in a few weeks time I will tell him. I think that will actually make it hit home for him much more than just nagging over a couple of quid here and there. He is theoretically saving up for new clothes, but between the vending machine at work and these £4 food outlays when he fills up the car, he has already spent almost a tenner of his kitty this month, and he only gets £40, of which a tenner goes on apple music. Irritating, but he needs to see the effect to understand why I go on about these little spends I think.

Also, I would actually like to up our food budget - the increasing food prices are really affecting what we can buy, and I have really noticed the increase in DC1 and 2's appetites over the past year - DC1 now eats almost exactly what I do, and DC2 isn't far behind. We are eating really not as much variety and interest as I would like. The DC are just plain bored of the endless vegetarian/lentil soup/stew meals, (although I'm quite happy with them!) and I think need a little more variety, as it has got to the stage where they are choosing to not eat their evening meal more often than I would like (they know not to complain, but really I would prefer it if they took more joy in our family meal together). If the diesel budget is being partly used up on DH's snacks, then the reduction in that if I assign snacks to his personal spends might allow for a slight increase in food budget. Our current food budget is £400 a month, which is only £2.67 per person per day in a 30 day month, or £80 per week for all five of us (including toiletries and cleaning products too, although those will be separated out from March onwards). I think upping it to £450 would be ideal, but even £425 would be manageable as it would allow for one or two slightly more interesting meals a week, like a piece of fish each with veg and potatoes, rather than stretching two tins of fish found five of us with fishcakes or similar.

The food budget debate is interesting for me, as I feel like I have 'proven' I can do a lower food budget (£2.21 per person per day in Feb), but I also feel it's turning out fairly joyless for us, and actually just getting the food budget to come in lower and lower isn't necessarily the right thing to do. But the process of getting it down to properly low levels has taught me a huge amount, and I'm perfectly happy with all the cooking from scratch we do.

Clients coming today so need to get on and get the house (and myself ready)!

Three things to do today
1. Get house ready for clients.
2. Menu plan for next week.
3. Plan work for tomorrow - SO much to catch up on after snow and illness.

Debt repayment:
- £18.38/31 March rounding down pot.
- £1,608.78/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Sea_Shell

What I've noticed amongst friends with pre-teen and teenage DC's is that they really start to become un-interested in "Family" activities as they get older.

They no longer want to eat together, play together, go out and do activities, together, and want to just be off doing their own thing (which almost always involves extra ££'s)

I think so far you seem to have given the kids an idyllic childhood, with lots of activities and family time...but that will start to ebb away over the next few years, and you need to let them "find themselves". Your instinct may be to try to "hold it all together" but its easier said than done.