Single, six kids and going to be debt free!

Mumoffourkids

So been doing little and often on lots of different things. Although I have been sewing loads and tidying up the house loads. 

Ten year old daughter refused to go to school on Monday and then today she wasn’t in anyway. I am hoping to get her in to school tomorrow. She has said she will try and go in. I don’t know what’s bothering her but the school are going to try and find out if there is something that she doesn’t like happening at school. She was so happy last week, I’m really not sure what has changed. She hasn’t done any of the work set by the school but I asked her what topic interests her and she said mermaids. So she is currently doing a project on mermaids at home on her older sister’s laptop. I am trying to get her learning without her realising that she is learning. 

In money news, this month, I have so far made £165 from sewing. I currently have four memory cushions to do and some normal cushions to make for someone else out of leftover curtain fabric. I should get at least two of the memory cushions made this week, and then hopefully two more over the weekend. My aim for the month was to make £100 from sewing so I have made that target. I know that I could do so much more sewing but that would mean doing less housework and sorting out and I know I’ve got to keep going with sorting the house out. 

Today was kitchen deep clean day. I have gotten down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the baseboards and the floor and the lower cupboards and it looks so much better. Tomorrow is bathrooms deep clean day. Monday was living room which always needs doing after the weekend as the kids tend to trash it with their toys. 

I am still keeping up with the running. Next run is tomorrow and that is day 1 of week 3 which is a real step up. 

I have had a bit of a nightmare with amazon deliveries when they use other carriers. I ordered a step ladder which apparently was going to be delivered yesterday by Hermes. Well it never arrived and now is showing as delayed and they are hoping to get it on the move again soon. The last time this happened, my parcel never showed up and I had to get another parcel delivered. Then yesterday I was also expecting a sander and jigsaw to arrive by dpd. I had a time slot of one hour in the afternoon and for the last half an hour of that slot, I was in the front garden trimming the hedge. Guess what no delivery. So I checked amazon and according to them I had refused the parcel and it was being sent back to amazon and I would receive a refund. So I was straight on the live chat and explained that no delivery had been attempted and I was definitely in. So they agreed to send out a new sander and I got a refund on the jigsaw which I have now ordered again, let’s hope the new items arrive. I also have to chase up amazon on my step ladder tomorrow as I have a feeling that has gone missing. This does mean that project caravan has been held up slightly as I haven’t got the tools needed!

beanielou

Amazon are just dire sometimes.
Have had exactly the same issue & the tracking was wrong.
So frustrating & such a waste of time & energy dealing with it.
Dont ,even mention their non materalising 'special' offers.
Bah.

Mumoffourkids

So stepladder arrived today which was surprising as I wasn’t expecting it. According to the tracker it was delayed. And replacement electric sander arrived today. So I have made a start on the caravan by sanding the desk and painting it in a duck egg blue. It has had two coats already and looks lovely. I might have to wax it though to finish it off. I also painted the table that converts into a bed with two coats of the same paint. It looks beautiful and so much better than the brown. I also painted one cupboard door to see what it looked like. The doors to the cupboards are all going to be duck egg blue and the surrounds are going to be vintage white. I am pleased I have made a start on it even though I was sweating in the caravan because it was so hot today. Next thing to do in the caravan is to recover the seat cushions. 

I have also managed a run today, week three, day 1. That was hard going especially as it was so hot today. But I am still going! Also managed to cut out one cushion ready and another one is half done. This is was doing whilst watching the final of the sewing bee. I am pleased who won.  It I am sad that it is finished as it does inspire me to sew more.

Finances are looking ok, I am almost funded into next month now. I just have rent to put to one side and £130 of grocery budget. However I don’t think I am going to spend anywhere near my £500 food budget for this month. So anything that doesn’t get spent, will get transferred into savings of some sort.

bd80s

Please can you send me some of your energy!!!! Tidying a bedroom at 10 pm??? lucky if I am awake at that time

Mumoffourkids

That’s not a normal occurrence Bd. Normally I am fast asleep by then, but this hot weather is not good for me. I struggle to do anything during the day and then have a load to catch up on when it gets cooler in the evening.

Yesterday my friend wimped out on our run, but I went and did it by myself anyway. I am proud of myself as I was thinking I could very easily just relax but that’s not going to help with the weight loss! It was hard going especially as where I live is a bit hilly. Where my friend lives is nice and flat so I’ve been used to running on the flat. 

It’s a lot cooler here today so I am going to catch up on the housework today and tomorrow and also try and catch up with the washing. I cashed out £6.07 from prolific yesterday. It’s getting a bit slower to get to cash out point recently. I only have another £1.10 pending as well. Whereas about a month ago, I would cash out when I got to £5 and would almost have another £5 waiting in pending.

I haven’t done anymore to the caravan either as it has just been too hot. Although I did order some samples for upholstering the cushions. Thank you trix-a-belle for the recommendation. I was going to use, fabric I already had, but then it is probably best I get proper upholstery fabric to make it hard wearing. I don’t want to have to recover the cushions again in a years time. The fabric samples are just gorgeous and now I have to pick which one I want. There are two definite no’s but I still have four to choose from.

Right I have another cushion made and ready to be picked up and one cut out, so I am going to sew that up, then put some washing on, then do some housework. I need to do a couple of tip runs next week but can really only do that once the caravan has been moved to its final resting spot. Then I can sort out the garage and get some more storage for my new power tools.

Mumoffourkids

So the last couple of days I have definitely got a lot more done now that it isn’t as hot. I can definitely see an improvement in my productivity now it is cooler. Today I have managed four loads of washing and dried three of them, I’ve had a shopping order delivered so I’ve put that away and sorted out a meal plan for the week. I’ve also tidied the large kids bedroom and hoovered it and also hoovered my room and the top stairs. I had tidied the floor of my room yesterday so it was ready to be hoovered today. I did have helpers when hoovering, my youngest two seem to love helping me hoover. They aren’t too bad, but I do have to do it again a little bit round the edges. So I’m feeling a lot better about the house. Tomorrow is living room and conservatory and I also need to start sorting out the toy boxes spread about the house! Just doing one a day should get them all sorted in a couple of weeks.

Its almost the end of the month and I have done so well with my food budget. It just shows how much I spend on food when the kids are at home and also shows how much my eldest was eating. My budget for this month was £500 and so far I have spent £370 with only two days to go. I think I can quite safely keep £10 for bread, milk and fruit and then the rest can be put somewhere else. Now just to decide where to put it. I could put it to my savings which includes saving for a new phone, or I could put it to my next wish list expense which is a new microwave. Or I could use it to treat us to a takeaway which actually wouldn’t cost us that much as even takeaways I am really careful about. As of tomorrow I should be fully funded for July for bills, food etc and almost all the rent for the end of July. The only thing I will have to budget for in July is August’s nursery fees and then my savings pots. So I am almost one month ahead as long as you don’t count savings pots. By the end of July, I will be one month ahead including rent and I might try and get one month ahead including savings pots if I can. Then I think I might try and build up a pot of cash for my sewing business. I already save for my tax bill but I want to set up a YNAB budget for my sewing and then keep a cash float in there and pay myself either weekly or monthly.

Honeysucklelou2

Very impressed by your grocery savings.  Still struggling to get the weekly food budget under £100 a week.

Bluegreen143

I’ve subscribed to your diary 🙂 tried to read it from the start but realised I would never catch up as there’s lots to read so thought it was better just to read the last couple of pages then pop on and say hi! Impressed by all your sewing. I can knit but I really can’t sew at all, shame as it’s such a great skill to have! You do so well on your grocery budget as well, which I definitely need to take note of given there are only four of us and we spend more than you!

Mumoffourkids

Honeysucklelou2 said:

Very impressed by your grocery savings.  Still struggling to get the weekly food budget under £100 a week.

I think it’s a case of the kids being out of the home during the day, so I haven’t had to do top up shops. And the youngest being at nursery means she gets fed there four days a week, although she does tend to have dinner with us in the evenings in addition to tea at nursery. She eats so much but is tiny still. She is four in two months and still wears age 18-24 month clothes. Age 2-3 clothes are far too big for her unless I have washed them loads and they have shrunk a bit in the tumble drier. 

Bluegreen143 said:

I’ve subscribed to your diary 🙂 tried to read it from the start but realised I would never catch up as there’s lots to read so thought it was better just to read the last couple of pages then pop on and say hi! Impressed by all your sewing. I can knit but I really can’t sew at all, shame as it’s such a great skill to have! You do so well on your grocery budget as well, which I definitely need to take note of given there are only four of us and we spend more than you!

Thanks for subscribing. In a nutshell, I started the diary when I had debt. In total it was around £23000 but I got lucky and £5000 on one credit card seemed to disappear, not showing on any credit report and I did write to the company but got no reply. Then £7000 from one bank, they decided not to chase me. So I paid off £11000 in 9 months by putting every spare bit of money towards my debts. I sold things, did PPI claims, did surveys, any money saved on my strict budgets went towards my debts. I got used to not having money when my tax credits got stopped for 7 weeks when I went from a joint claim to a single claim. I got used to spending very little and just carried it on. We did go on holiday in that year but only to Cornwall in the May half term. Then I went awol from the forum for a bit and I got a bit lax in spending money. I had spreadsheets mapped out for the year but I wasn’t saving as much as I could as I didn’t really have a goal in mind. When I paid off all my old debt, the first thing I did was to save for a trip to Disneyland Paris for me and the kids at new year. It was amazing, busy but good. And we are definitely going to go again.

So now I am back, using YNAB and have goals for my money. I was spending too much before on general rubbish and although I wasn’t getting into debt, I wasn’t saving as much as I could. 

missymoo81

Hey mumof4kids, you’re doing so well. I’m still working my way through your diary! I think I’m going to try YNAB. I’d love to save up for DisneyLand!