Single, six kids and going to be debt free!

Honeysucklelou2

Hope you have a fabulous day. What a good idea to show your DD YNAB. My older DDs are quite savvy with their budgeting albeit notebook and pen style, but can’t get DS1 to even look at a budgeting app.

Drawingaline

My teens and 11yr old all have their own budget on ynab. It's really help my older son. He is much more focused with his spending now, even though I don't think he will ever be a saver! 

Mumoffourkids

I am hoping that’s what will happen with my eldest. She just seems to spend all her money and then wonders why she has nothing left. She also doesn’t budget for things that she needs to buy and used to borrow off me. My 14 year old on the other hand is a saver. She earns money babysitting and saves it all up. She even lends her older sister money occasionally! At the moment she has nothing she wants so she is saving her money for nothing. Although she isn’t currently babysitting at the moment but will hopefully be back doing that in the summer holidays.

jak

I’ve read your whole diary and I think you are doing a superb job! I’m sorry your mental health is causing difficulties. Have you thought about applying for pip? There are no face to face assessments currently if that helps. Also if you do get enhanced care pip then there is a shared ownership scheme called hold (home ownership for long term disabilities) you could apply for. Im poorly so get pip and  able to apply for it. Just a thought perhaps for the future. All the best, jak x

Mumoffourkids

Wow, thank you for reading my whole diary and for commenting. I hadn’t really thought that I would qualify for pip but I might look into it. Also about the shared ownership schemes. I will take a look at those as well.

So today I have claimed another £5.02 from prolific and have another £4.56 pending so am hoping for a couple more surveys and another £5 will be winging its way to me. Three of the kids are in school today so I’m having a chill day sewing and spending time with my youngest. Not much more money saving going on at the moment. I am slowly budgeting on YNAB and am trying to get ahead so that I can budget the entire month in one go rather than budget every time I get a little bit of money in.

jak

No problem. A lot of people think they won’t qualify for pip if it’s a mental health illness but that isn’t true anymore. I help people with the forms where I am as a volunteer and always say to fill it in anyway and see. A lot of the time they get some sort of award in my experience. Xxx

beanielou

Good shout on the PIP application.

Mumoffourkids

So I have made a start in applying for both ESA and PIP. The forms are on their way to me.

No sign of the cheque from Tesco yet but I suppose the post is delayed.

I have today found a house that would be perfect for us. It is a lot bigger than the one we are currently in, it has a bigger garden, no shared driveway and parking for two cars. It is also only £200 a month more than what I pay at the moment. The only downside is that it would mean driving the kids to school each day. But it would mean that I can easily afford it and we would be nearer the seaside. I have registered my interest and am hoping that it is suitable for us. They even say they would consider pets which most rental properties do not say. So our dog can come with us.

Today, being inspired by HSL2, I have tidied and sorted out the hallway and the landing. I have ten bin bags of rubbish to go to the tip when it re-opens on Monday. This wasn’t all from the landing and hallway as my eldest decided to reorganise the kitchen today whilst I was upstairs sorting the landing out. So today we have cleared the kitchen counters, moved bits around and sorted out three of the kitchen cupboards. We cooked dinner between us and then as what always happens, there is always the last bits of tidying to do after you have had a major clear out. Well that was left to me, so I roped in DS1 and between us we tidied and cleared the living room and kitchen. The only thing I left was the washing up which I will do in the morning. I feel a lot better and tomorrow, me and DS1 are going to sort his bedroom out. He has the smallest room in the house but it does get messy very quickly. So we are going to sort that out in the morning. Then the main rooms which need a tidy up and clear out are my room, the top landing, my en-suite and the room of doom - the conservatory. Oh and the many boxes of toys scattered around the house. These will get done one at a time but eventually we will have a clearer house and this needs to be done, especially if we are going to move.

I have also been going great guns on the growing seeds front. I seem to have an absolute load of tomato plants, so I am going to try and put them in separate pots and try and sell some at the front gate. We are on a main road and loads of people walk past our house to get to the shops, so I am hoping we might sell a few. Then I might also try peas as they seem to be growing really well as well. The flower seeds we picked didn’t seem to do as well though, but I really need to have a day of sorting out the seeds and small plants, if not tomorrow, then definitely Monday. I am definitely in the right frame of mind to get sorting and clearing this house though. Doing the landing was a big thing as it was getting me down, how cluttered and messy it was. But it’s done now and I can get one with the next big thing, which is the top floor of the house!

Honeysucklelou2

How exciting to have found an ideal house. Will you have to wait long to find out if you are able to move there?  Well done on getting the landing sorted. I’ll be glad to see the clothes recycling banks reopen...I’m starting to accumulate quite a lot of clothes recycling.

Hope you are successful with the tomato plants.

beanielou

All sounding good. . 

If you need any advice on PIP/ESA forms give me a shout