Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

abba1772

I've seen the unicorn looks great but I'm thankful my daughter is 16 otherwise she would have wanted it as she's obsessed with unicorns xx

jwil

Sorting toys is a flipping awful activity!

AdventureWanted

Morning,

Didn't manage to get on to update diary last night. Yesterday I had a lovely day visiting my mum with the DC. We popped to a local town and had a good look round. Managed to pick up a couple of cereal storage containers, new drink bottle for DC1 (the old one broke), peppa pig tumbler (putting aside for DC3s birthday) and a storage tub for inside our Ikea boxes. Really pleased about the storage tub, as it's the perfect size to fit inside the fabric boxes on our kallax unit, whilst still having space on top for other toys. Annoyingly I had planned to put DC3s megabloks in it, but they won't fit - I might have another go today by stacking them all together to see if it can be jigsaw'd into place!! Paid £4.83 to CC3 yesterday.

Today I've paid £3.17 to CC3 and the £130 dd for cc4 has come out. Balances now at £8,792 and £11,700. Debt total now £20,492. Getting ever closer to the £19ks.

AdventureWanted

Had a brilliant day yesterday. Had friends over and all the kids had a go at tie dying tshirts. It was really good fun and they love their new tops. I even dyed one of DC2s dresses which had a huge stain on it, so I'm pretty pleased that she can wear it again, as I had planned on binning it.

Today my car is in at the garage, so I'll find out later how much it's going to cost. Luckily they've collected the car and will drop it off later, so I don't have to spend the day walking around the shops being tempted to buy things.

I sold a dress on eBay last night, so need to package it up ready to send. Hoping some of my other bits on gumtree start selling soon.

Rounded down the bank account today and have sent £7 to CC3 and 19p to debt savings.

AdventureWanted

Argh the car is going to cost a fortune :mad:. It needs a new pump so is going to cost an eye watering £632 :eek:. Currently have £371 in the car account. I know I've got enough in the EF, but I really didn't want to spend it!! They can spread the payment over 4 months at 0%, but not sure whether to bother or just pay it outright. DH thinks we should do the finance, but I'm not sure.

abba1772

It's what your emergency fund is for and you'll recoup the money fairly quickly xx

jwil

To the car. I'd pay it out of the EF and pay that back over the 4 months rather than take the finance.

AdventureWanted

Thanks Abba and Jwil. You're both completely right I should use the EF. It still seems a bit alien to have money available to use, but it definitely makes more sense to repay the money used over the 4 months rather than take finance. It actually feels like quite a big step to be able to cover this with savings rather than pay on a card and worry about it later, which is what we used to do.

The Kids tennis lessons were cancelled this afternoon, as the heavens absolutely opened. Annoyingly we'd already arrived before it rained heavier and the decision was made. Me and the DC had a quick walk around the park in the rain before going to a local garden centre to have a look round. Bought some grass seed to attempt to fix the many bald patches in the grass that the hot weather caused. It's been so much nicer being cooler the last couple of days. The DC really enjoy the rain and it's so lovely to watch them playing in the garden in the rain (obviously wearing all in one rain suits and wellies). DH is Home late tonight, so I'm hoping we might be able to go for a nice walk somewhere this weekend. Usually on his days off there's loads of diy jobs to do (which is still the case), but he's home so little at the moment it'd be nice to have a fun day out together. Will have to see what the weather has in store for us tomorrow.

Moneywise, I've made a payment of £25 to CC3 today. Need to look at my annual expenses this weekend (including all the home ed subs) and check I'm on schedule with them. I'm hoping some of the kids groups I may be ahead of schedule due to the summer holidays and might be able to use some of the money to put towards the car or to CC3.

AdventureWanted

Can't believe the weekend is almost over :sad:. It's absolutely flown by. DH goes away again tomorrow for work - luckily it's only for 4 days this time. I spent my evening last night being incredibly sad and comparing food prices! I prepared a Tesco online shop and then tried to compare prices with aldi online. We popped to aldi today (I took my tesco list which included the prices) and anything cheaper at aldi we bought. DH doesn't seem to think it's worth doing, as it's lots hassle and he doesn't think there is much of a saving. I need to work out what the price difference is tomorrow. Will be really interesting to know. My grocery bill this month is already £277.95 :eek:. A lot of the ingredients I bought today will prepare at least 6 meals (3 dishes twice), so in theory the food shop will be a lot less next week (mainly milk and bread). I will be really fed up if I once again go over my food budget (£375). Even though it's a longer month I'm really hoping to scrape by.

Yesterday I made a pad of £3 to CC3, but I haven't made any payments today. Not 100% sure if the dd for halifax (CC3) will be coming out this month, as I've made additional payments so I don't want to pay too much just in case the dd comes out and leaves me short.

We should hear in the next week (hopefully) how much longer DH will be working away for. Really want to know soon so that I can work out his shift and estimate the income we have coming in to the business and therefore whether I can make any extra debt payments.

AdventureWanted

Morning,
Paid £7 to CC3 this morning. I've got friends and their toddlers over today, so I'm going to have a house full. Need to start tidying the house in a minute. Hoping the rain holds off so that the kids can all play in the garden, but I'm not sure it will. Hope everyone has a good day.