Single, six kids and going to be debt free!

Seasidegal58

I am now exhausted reading about what you have been doing!

You mentioned you had started doing the PA surveys again. Have you tried a Opinium?  I do these surveys - they're not bad - you get  between 25p - 75p a survey and cash out at £25. I find that I receive the emails quite regularly. 

Mumoffourkids

Kitten868 said:

You don't half like giving yourself work to do. 
I'm going through recycling the sheets that have been completed. I'm not a nice mummy. 
Going to get off my bum and pick up all the rubbish that no one else sees fit to put in the bin. Xxx

I know I’m known for doing this though. I have that in my house as well, why do kids seems to put rubbish on the floor but don’t put it in the bin. It isn’t difficult!

You have been a busy bee

Thank you beanie 💕

Drawingaline said:

Wow! You sound like me with starting something and it turning ibto something else. Although I tend to start things at ridiculous times. Like 7pm 😂

Oh I have been known to do things at ridiculous times as well. One Christmas, the four oldest kids were going to their dads after Christmas for four days so I decided to decorate one of their rooms as it needed a paint. Then I decided, why wait, so I started it before Christmas. However I then also decided to order a new bed which arrived 22nd December. So I started painted on 23rd December and on 24th December I was putting up a triple bunk bed! Nothing like making work for myself!

Mumoffourkids

Seasidegal58 said:

I am now exhausted reading about what you have been doing!

You mentioned you had started doing the PA surveys again. Have you tried a Opinium?  I do these surveys - they're not bad - you get  between 25p - 75p a survey and cash out at £25. I find that I receive the emails quite regularly. 

I am known for starting stupid projects that then turn into major projects. For example my next door neighbour is basically sitting out in her garden for most of the day chilling out. I am in my garden clearing, tidying, planting seeds, painting fence panels. I like doing projects and seeing things change. I couldn’t just sit and sunbathe all day. That has never been me!

I haven’t tried Opinium. I used to do loads more surveys before but they all got a bit boring for the little money that you get paid. I like the prolific ones as they are a bit different. And the pay is reasonable. I will take a look at opinium though. Thanks for the recommendation.

I have decided with the 30 days  cleaning schedule that sorting out my cup cupboard, although would make the cupboard look nicer, it isn’t going to make a massive difference to the clutter in my house which is mainly on the landings and in the conservatory. So what I need to do is set myself a decluttering challenge each day and do this alongside the daily cleaning routine. Then when the kids go back to school, I can do the book from the start as it says. It will be easier to sort out then. And hopefully I can get the main bits of clutter sorted before the kids go back!

Mumoffourkids

So today I’ve had a bit of a tidy up in my room which was needed after my impromptu move around. Apart from that I’ve tried to make the kids do some work with varying degrees of success and I’ve ordered some birthday presents for my eldest who turns 18 in 13 days. I am struggling on what to buy her to be honest. So far I have got a beauty box subscription, a pandora charm and a wax warmer as she loves candles. I usually buy her concert tickets but nothing is happening at the moment so I am really struggling. I don’t want to just give her money as she will probably waste it on food!

I have also done some prolific surveys and a couple of opinium surveys. I am up to £6.85 ready to cash out and £2.49 pending. I am going to leave it until about midday tomorrow and then cash out what I have and put in straight to my emergency fund. 

I have also started feeling really rubbish tonight like the start of a cold. I have hayfever anyway but this feels like more than hayfever! So I’m going to do a to do list for tomorrow and then get an early night tonight.

beanielou

Give her an I.O.U.?

Mumoffourkids

beanielou said:

Give her an I.O.U.?

It might have to be that!

Mumoffourkids

So halfway through the day and I’ve managed two small money saving wins. Number 1 is I managed to cash out £7.64 from prolific this morning. This has gone straight into my emergency fund which is growing nicely. I have am trying to get to £1000 by December 2020 which is just to be used for emergencies! Secondly for some reason I have been getting monthly paper statements for one of old credit cards that was sold onto a debt collection agency and I’ve since cleared it in full. I am still getting paper statements through the post telling me how much I owe. So today I phoned them and the first person who answered said I had to go back to Cabot as it was a closed account on their system. She didn’t understand that it was NatWest that I was getting statements from so Cabot weren’t going to know what I was talking about. In the end she said do you want to make a complaint and I said oh ok then, so I got transferred. I must admit the next lady I spoke to was so much more helpful. She said oh the reason why you are still getting statements is because someone at NatWest didn’t click the on hold button on my account. This apparently stops statements being sent out. She said it was completely their error and she wanted to compensate me by giving me £50. What a bonus. I only wanted to stop the statements coming through the post. She also clicked the on hold button so no more statements and £50 winging its way to me in the next few days. I think I might have to phone my other old credit card because even though I don’t get paper statements I still get an email each month telling me to log in and view my latest statement! If anything hopefully I will stop the emails, but I might get some bonus money!

Right I need to get back on with decorating the 9 year old’s den ready for her birthday tomorrow. I need to paint two small walls white, make a cushion cover and finish off the edges of a blanket. Oh and make her an outfit for tomorrow! Not much to do then.

Honeysucklelou2

Wow well done on the decorating of the den and the £50 bonus.

beanielou

Good news on the 50 quid

Mumoffourkids

So I’ve had a bit of a lazy weekend and I think I needed it. I haven’t had an afternoon nap today so that’s good. I also managed to get a click an collect order today so I’ve been and picked up the shopping today. 

The £50 landed in my account today so that has gone towards the emergency fund. It’s all looking ok on the money front for this month. One reason is that as my eldest turns 18 in 8 days, my dad as part of her inheritance is paying off her car for her. I bought it for her on the understanding that she would pay me back. Well not, long after I got the car, she quit her job and then took a while to get another one. So she hasn’t paid me back that much. But my dad said he will pay me back over four months instead of giving the money to my eldest. It is something I hadn’t counted on so I am making the most of it and putting it away in savings.

I also had a bit of a realisation today as to why I never seem to have any time to do much cleaning, tidying, sorting the house out or me time. So say the school day starts at 9am, I have three of my children who I have to sit with to get them to do their work and I can’t get them to do their work at the same time as they tend to annoy each other. So say I spend two hours a day with each of the older ones and one and half hours with the younger one, then an hour for lunch. It means the school day finishes at 3.30pm and I haven’t actually done any tidying yet. Then I will have half an hour for me to relax. An hour after that to try and do some tidying/cleaning/washing/sorting out etc. Then it’s 5pm and it’s dinner time and tidy up the kitchen whilst I am doing dinner. Dinner over and cleared up by 6.30pm, then I worked out I probably spend a half hour helping any of the kids who didn’t quite get finished with their work. An hour sorting out the work for tomorrow and getting kids to bed. Then it’s 8pm and say I go to sleep about 10pm, that only leaves two hours for me which I am normally not up to doing much so I catch up on tv programs. That day doesn’t leave much time for tidying etc or for me, so no wonder I am exhausted and getting stressed about the state of the house. I explained to my 14 year old and she understood and realised that I do need some help tidying up otherwise it just gets too much.

My oldest boy also understands so he helped me tidy up the downstairs today. It’s looking a lot better than it was and I am hoping that now I realise that I don’t have much time to myself, I am going to make the most of it from now on.