On a Mission

Mummy_bear

Today the twins officially exist and their births have been registered. I can now get onto completing the child benefit forms.

Still can't get over the amount of attention I get with twins. I'm not comfortable with the attention tbh as I'm not one for small talk with people I don't know

No updates on the debt figures today. Just waiting for the MBNA and Lloyds CC statements to come through and then I can make those payments.

Totals as of 16th July

Lloyds CC £5343.09
MBNA CC £4023.15
Barclaycard CC £834.5
Tesco Loan £7669.44
Santander Loan £4818.9
M&S Loan £6359.44
Littlewoods £82
Next £25


Total debt as of 9th July £29736.88
Total debt as of 11th July £29684.01
Total debt as of 14th July £29524.01
Total debt as of 16th July £29155.52
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monthly Challenge

Definitely getting back into the surveys now. ..although PA is offering alot of tiny nominal amount surveys

Earn £30 payable from survey sites

£25.24/£30

VO is now up to £9.60
PA currently has £0.30 payable and £2.22 pending. I got a £4 survey last night which approved straight away so I quickly went for cash out so I could get the money through today. This goes straight into the annual bills account.
Onepoll currently has £18.30 in there.
Yougov currently has 1035 points in there.
E.Rewards currently has 4175 points in there.
Qmee has £10.58 in there I'll cash this out at the end of July and pay it towards a debt

Reduce debt by £850 £586.85/ £850

Walk 290,000 steps in July 133,735/290,000

Grocery budget £250 £118.56/£250



MB

Mummy_bear

The twins are 4 weeks old today. How has that happened?
Looked at myslef in mirror this morning and barely recognised who was looking back at me. I appear the have aged drastically. I'm so very very tired, understandably so. But I've not slept well since finding out I was pregnant last November and it's taking its toll.

The twins are clearly going through a growth spurt and want feeding all the time. I can often be found topless, stuck to the sofa feeding for hours. The impact is the house is looking untidy. If I manage to get some cleaning done the tornado toddler is not far behind undoing my efforts

When DH gets home of an evening I hand him the babies and get cleaning before bed. I like to wake up to a tidy living room and kitchen so that I can relax for the hour I get to myself each morning.

The demands of the twins at present has meant I've not got round to sorting their child benefit. ..That'll be a weekend job methinks.

In fact I need to write up a list of jobs that need doing round the house and aim to achieve something on the list each day just to feel accomplished.

MB

Mummy_bear

Afternoon,

Currently writing this, child free, in a bath! Bliss:D

Been day dreaming about being debt free today. Realised I haven't looked at potential debt free dates this year. What with the unexpected, unplanned twin surprise and the knock back on debt busting that that had, any original DFD had been blown out of the water.

Based on my aim of a minimum £850 a month for the rest of this year I hope to be in the region of £24630.40 in debt by 1st of Jan. Hoping to be below that figure though. Having said that the interest free deal for the Lloyds CC debt ends in Jan, so a balance transfer will be sought at end of Dec which may incur a fee.

Then next year I'll be looking at minimum £850 a month until June, and from July next year £1000 a month. So that will be a figure of £13530.40 by Dec 2019. If I keep up the £1000 a month a DFD is potentially Feb 2021. However, with some of those debts being loans (of which the Tesco one I know I can over pay) any overpayments will reduce their term due to less interest being paid overall.

I'll be digging out some paperwork and using the snowball calculator to get a more accurate idea of a DFD.

Ultimately once we're close to the DFD well be looking to move to a bigger house. This is our incentive.

Totals as of 21st July

Lloyds CC £5343.09
MBNA CC £3973.15 £50 paid off. Now under 4k :j
Barclaycard CC £834.5
Tesco Loan £7669.44
Santander Loan £4818.9
M&S Loan £6359.44
Littlewoods £82
Next £25


Total debt as of 9th July £29736.88
Total debt as of 11th July £29684.01
Total debt as of 14th July £29524.01
Total debt as of 16th July £29155.52
Total debt as of 21st July £29105.52
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monthly Challenge

Definitely getting back into the surveys now. ..although PA is offering alot of tiny nominal amount surveys

Earn £30 payable from survey sites

£25.24/£30

VO is now up to £9.60
PA currently has £0.30 payable and £2.22 pending.
Onepoll currently has £18.30 in there.
Yougov currently has 1060 points in there.
E.Rewards currently has 4175 points in there.
Qmee has £11.32 in there I'll cash this out at the end of July and pay it towards a debt

Reduce debt by £850 £636.85/ £850

Walk 290,000 steps in July 133,735/290,000 will update another day

Grocery budget £250 £118.56/£250 done my weekly shop just need to dig out the receipt and update this



MB

Chrystal

Great that you've got some 'me time' and sounds like you've got a plan sorted for debt busting

Well done you X

enthusiasticsaver

Sounds like a plan. Impressive grocery spend for a family of 6 although if you are breastfeeding I guess it is just 4 of you.

Mummy_bear

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Sounds like a plan. Impressive grocery spend for a family of 6 although if you are breastfeeding I guess it is just 4 of you.

Yes it's really only for a family of 4. The budget will go up in December when they start solids. Think their first meal will be Christmas day as they'll be 6 months and 3 days by then.

I haven't updated the grocery budget spend though as I did my weekly shop which was just over £60 yesterday.

Spending more than I'd like to to be honest and think the £250 budget for the finacial month will be blown however, the budget does cover things like toiletries, laundry products, nappies.

Hopefully in a couple of weeks the twins will fit their reusable nappies I've got which will drastically reduce nappy spends and the tornado toddler will hopefully be well on her way to being nappy free as I tackle potty training in the summer holidays.

I've also been using this maternity leave to cook meals from scratch and try all the recipes I've been pulling out of supermarket magazines and abundance of cookbooks :rotfl: some have been hits and some have been misses but ultimately I think it has increased my grocery spends whilst I've been experimenting.

A hit was homemade naan breads...a recipe from BBC goodfoods, oh my days...never will I buy premade naan again.

MB

Mummy_bear

Chrystal wrote: »

Great that you've got some 'me time' and sounds like you've got a plan sorted for debt busting

Well done you X

Due to living in the area where the hosepipe ban is being put in place I felt a last minute hot full bath was in order anyway :rotfl:

warby68

I chanced upon your diary this morning for the first time and can I just say that you are rather magnificent Mummybear

Unplanned twins, supporting husband changing jobs and with illness, working, planning to keep working and STILL busting your debt AND building good habits. I think its fair to say that an unexpected twin pregnancy with 2 other little ones would have rendered me fairly incapable of dealing with ANYTHING else for rather a long time.

May I give you a very large pat on the back (or whichever body part doesn't currently have a child claiming it)

Whatever got you into significant debt before your diary is being very firmly knocked on the head now.

You sound like a lovely family that really deserves to succeed (perhaps 4 children will even knock OH's boy treats on the head for good)

enthusiasticsaver

How old is the tornado toddler? My DD started toilet training her 2 year 10 month old DD last Sunday and she is 99% dry now. They tried about 5 months ago when she was about 2 and a half and got nowhere as she got too stressed to sit on a potty. Saves a fortune on nappies.

Mummy_bear

Thanks for taking the time to read my diary Warby

Honestly have no idea how I've been coping so far, well a large strong coffee and a packet of biscuits for breakfast has helped! ! Alcohol is not an option..Breastfeeding aside...it's what resulted in the twins in the first place lol

The biggest test will be the summer holidays (although the lack of a school run is welcome). So far I'm looking forward to spending more time with the kids as I usually work through the holidays. I do forsee breaking up many arguments though :rotfl:

DH has been better with spending. Mainly as I have his bank card :rotfl:...needs must. But actually he's not wanted to buy random stuff and has now set up his own little savings pot for his treats...very proud.

enthusiasticsaver tornado toddler is 2 1/2 and sporadically uses the toilet and potty already. I just haven't committed to doing it full time due to having to leave the house so much for school run etc. Therefore, whilst off in the summer holidays, I'll be setting aside a few days where we'll do home activities so she can be trained fully. My son was much later taking to this process, he was nearly 3 when dry in the day. However TT is eager to use the toilet so seems more than ready.