Debt Free by 40 - let the countdown begin!!!!

seahorsey

I'm back :wave:
Lovely morning with DS who is now fast asleep on top of me! As much as I'd had plans for a productive afternoon, I can honestly say that I don't mind being pinned to the sofa by a 2.5 stone toddler. They'll come a time where I miss these moments - he's growing up so quickly- so need to cherish and make the most of them.

So, had a lot of thinking time whilst he's snoring. I need to set myself up for success with this whole taking back direction of my life lark and hopefully this diary will help me do that. So, four key areas of focus for me - finances (obviously :money:), home and family, mental health and physical health.
Finances have been well documented throughout this diary - need to spend, less, save more and payback what I owe.
Home and family - the house seems to be in a constant state of chaos , even more so since the wee man arrived. It's a constant source of stress for me. Need to get on top of the housework and stay on top of it.
Mental health - at times I suffer with low moods. Nothing major, I just go through periods where I struggle to see any positives. I also lack self confidence and am pretty socially awkward!! I'm a lot better now I'm more aware of it all and able to keep myself pretty even, but there are times where everything gets on top of me and I could just run away from everyone and everything. Work has a big impact on this but at the moment I'm in no position to leave the company.
Physical health - weight, need to lose 2 stone, fitness needs to improve, as does overall diet. I feel constantly drained and would love to see 10pm once in a while! That said I have a lot to be grateful for a I'm generally in good health.

So here's the plan - I need to check in here daily and record my progress. Each day I will aim to list 3 things I've done to help improve the above 4 areas plus 3 things I am grateful for. Doesn't matter how trivial they seem, it's the little things that add up to make the big differences. Will be back later with today's highlights

seahorsey

Fell asleep last night before I had chance to make it back with yesterday's highlights, so here they are:

Financial
1. Small eBay sale (£3.99)
2. 5 x eBay listings
3. Saved £2.50 on pony's feed supplement

Home and Family
1. Lovely day with DS
2. Finally found the bottom of the washing basket - yes it does exist!
3. Mum and sisters Christmas presents sorted

Physical Health
1. Walk with the woofs
2. 12,000 steps
3. Struggling with no. 3!!!

Mental Health
1. Mindfulness app done
2. Lovely chilled afternoon while DS slept - very much needed.
3. Massive brain dump in mse - helped clear my mind of a few things

Reasons to be grateful
1. Lovely day spent with DS
2. Unexpected visit from friend
3. Yummy tea cooked for me by OH

All set to make today the first of my 12 nsd. Lunch is all packed and ready to take to work. Half tempted to leave my purse at home to make sure it happens!

Have a good day x

seahorsey

Good morning, so once again I crashed out on the sofa before I had chance to post yesterday's highlights (do you see some kind of pattern emerging here :rotfl:). I'm always the same at this time of year when the clocks change. I always used to blame the fact it was the time of year that I started stabling my big lad over night and therefore I was up earlier to sort him and my physical work load at the yard increases. However, after sadly losing him 18 months ago, I'm realising this isn't the case and it's just the way I am. Need to improve the diet and pop the vitamins to see if that helps.

Long day at work yesterday, did manage to clear a lot of stuff that had been hanging over me for a while and bank a couple of hours flexi time for Christmas hols in the process, so there were some positives. The flip side though was I was in the house awake for the grand total of 2.5 hours :rotfl: enough time to put the clean washing away, get DS to bed and eat dinner. Not a massively productive evening :rotfl:

Yesterday was my first of hopefully 12 NSD for the month. It did feel good. It's the old saying take care of the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. Pretty much sums up what we need to do. We don't make many big extravagant purchases or expensive days / meals out (usually, last month with DSs birthday was kind of an exception), but we think nothing of buying drinks and snacks when out, or the odd £5 here and there on something for DS or one thing in home bargains and the like turns into £20 spent!!! So I'm hoping we can nail this NSD lark, after all 12 days is almost half the month, it's got to have a positive impact! Unfortunately they'll be no opportunity to add to the NSD this weekend. DS needs new shoes, small fresh shop for OH lunches for the week and fireworks tomorrow (already paid for, so hopefully should be minimal spent).

So highlights for yesterday.....
Financial
1. NSD 1/12
2. £36 in eBay sales :T
3. Phoned up to reinstate my nectar card as this had been blocked and I've got points on it!

Home and family
1. All clean washing away
2. Early morning snuggles with DS
3. OH did a load of washing :rotfl: wasn't even sure he knew how to use the wahing machine :rotfl:

Physical Health
1. Walk with woofs before work
2. 2 litres of water drunk
3. Vitamins taken (a little thing but I'm useless at remembering and they do help me!)

Mental Health
1. Wrote in journal
2. Spent lunchtime at work reading rather than working
3. Completed tasks at work that had been worrying me for a while - feel like a weights been lifted.

Reasons to be grateful
1. Lovely sunny day
2. Opportunity for an early night to recharge the batteries
3. Being told by OH that I'm an amazing Mummy. Not sure what he was after but it was really appreciated!

seahorsey

Arrgh! It's Monday again already! Why do the weekends go so quickly??? Unfortunately been a spendy one. Shopping for shoes for DS was never going to be cheap, but fortunately we went to a local 'designer' outlet and managed to get two pairs for what we would have paid for one in town. Then had to do some food shopping yesterday, so all in all my bank balance has taken a hit.

The weekend was rounded off nicely though with a trip to a fireworks display which DS especially enjoyed. So back to work it is for a break 🤣

A few eBay sales have added up nicely over the weekend. At the minute the money is sitting in a separate bank account as I'm unsure how to best use it. I think in all honesty it can sit there for the time being so that I've got a buffer come the count down to payday, when no doubt I'll once again be robbing peter to pay Paul. If by some miricle this month is different, I can use it to get some of the few remaining Christmas pressies knocked off the list.

So highlights for the weekend...
Financial
1. Good saving on DS shoes
2. Another £36 in eBay sales :T (and more clutter cleared!)

Home and family
1. Lovely (albeit speedy) weekend spent with the family
2. OH tidied the bedrooms and hoovered upstairs whilst I was at the yard (not sue what's going on there - very out of character :rotfl:)

Physical Health
1.Total of 28,000 steps plus 5700 calorie calories burnt.
2. Vitamins taken (and beginning to feel a little more human!)

Mental Health
1. Badly neglected! Must make this a focus this week as can feel my mood dipping and me getting prickly over silly things.

Reasons to be grateful
1. The weather staying dry for fireworks after rain had been given out for it all of last week.
2. DS doing amazingly well with his potty training and has had no accidents despite being out of the house all weekend.

seahorsey

So, it's been a week since I last posted and a fairly manic one to be fair! Don't seem to have had 5 minutes to myself to log in and get a grip on things.

So last weeks highlights for the week included OH hoovering - never again!!!! He's some how managed to blow the hoover up! Fortunately I'd got some vouchers put to one side, so a nice shiney new vacuum cleaner (and the one I've been secretly after for a while :rotfl:) cost me the total sum of £19.99. Isn't it sad that I'm actually quite excited to have a new one!!!

eBay /fb sales have been good at £55 for the week. Need to get sorting through DS old clothes later and see what's sellable.

Christmas wise, I've started writing cards and wrapping a few bits. Want everything wrapped by 1st December so that I can sit back and enjoy all our Christmas plans without the panic.

DS and OH are still asleep so I'm going to sneak off the sort the ponies x

seahorsey

Morning! I've really been very lapse at updating this diary. I guess at the minute I'm more in 'let's get Christmas out the way' mode rather than debt busting mode. Payday is 6 days away and fingers crossed all should be ok. On the Christmas front just the in laws to buy for now and everything is pretty much wrapped and statshed! For once I'm not going to be under pressure wrapping through December. And the other positive is that DS has no big toys that need building, so no reply of the Christmas before last with staying up til 1am (way past my bedtime!) swearing at lumps of plastic :rotfl: .

Have sorted loads of DS old clothes to sell. Already got rid of £30 worth on fb so will be carbooting (indoor ) and charity shopping the rest. eBay sales are also ticking over nicely.

Right - going to grave the cold and walk the woofs. Happy Friday x

Thick_n_Thin

Just popping in to say hello! Food shopping and top up shops are my weak point also and I struggle a lot in this area, one thing I have recently done is a meal plan and a shopping list and it’s been the only time I’ve come under budget with virtually no food waste, give it a go? I’ll be following your journey, good luck!

seahorsey

Thanks Thick n Thin. I do think meal planning would be a big help especially with me trying to lose some weight too. One of the key issues is that we're essentially cooking 3 different meals a day. I'm veggie, OH is extremely fussy (meat and two veg and that's pretty much it - no sauces, no mixed up food etc) and DS who eats earlier than us in the evenings (and is also very fussy!!!). I'm fairly sure I could plan for the next 2 weeks for myself using just stuff we have in cupboards and freezer. That can be my first challenge!!!

The countdown to Christmas has officially started! The tree is up, so we have one very happy (and excited) toddler! OH gets paid a week early in December, but we need to be good and make sure that this doesn't get touched until what should be payday.

I've been very lapse in reporting in here, partly because until Christmas is done, there's very little spare cash to throw at payments and partly because I'm trying to cut down on the time I spend online and actually get stuff done in the real world!!!

I sat down and gave myself a good talking to last week after the realisation that I live my life in complete chaos! Several hours wasted playing hunt the car keys was definitely a wake up call! No matter what time I'm awake, it is always a massive rush to get DS and myself out the door on time. Sooo, time to get organised!!!! I dabbled with a bullet journal last year and did find it really helpful. Did find it and try again a couple of weeks back but decided it needed a bit of an overhaul to make it more relevant. So I've invested a bit of time in creating a new of one which covers everything. Pages have been set up for debt payments, house work tasks, diet etc, in the hope of taking back control. My moto of the next year is to be my future friend (thanks to the organised mum blog for that one!). Let's give this a go!!!

seahorsey

Morning! By some miracle DS is still asleep - sleeping past 7am is practically unheard of for him. We're all full of colds and chest infections at the minute, so that probably explains it!!! The extra zzzzzz will do him good.

NSD yesterday (seem to have lost track of these :mad: ) Hoping for a nice low spend weekend fingers crossed. A couple more pressies to sort and we're done. Most of which is either cash in a card or can be done on line - we're very nearly there!

The list and gift budget for next year has already been plotted out in my bullet journal, so will pick things up during the year when I spy a bargain! Despite being pretty well organised this year, there has stil been more of a drain on Nov and Dec pay than I would have liked.

There's very little to report money wise as the real fun will start next payday. Plans are in place for a debt busting year.

In other news, I am crying out for some me time. I can feel my mental health taking a dip again, and feel as though I'm a right grumpy bum and not a very nice person to be around at the minute! Work is mega busy and due to my working pattern I only have five shifts left til I finish for Christmas but enough work to fill at least five times that! I know I need to take that tact I can only do so much and it's more reflection on poor organisation from above and resource issues (a full time member of staff left in Feb and I've had to pick up all of his work along side mine, in 3 days a week :mad: ) but when you take a pride in your work it's difficult to leave goals unmet. I've also not run or done any exercise since my last half marathon in September. Running was my space and my me time but it's just been put on the back burner as life has taken over. I need to give OH a kick up the bum too as at the minute he appears to have gone on strike and left me shouldering all the family life burden :mad: I appreciate he works full time to support us and needs a bit of downtime to unwind but for the last few months he has literally thought of himself and nobody else. He comes home and is straight on his pc playing games. I've sorted all the Christmas presents ad wrapping, trips out, cards etc with no help or interest from him at all. Likewise with the housework - it's all falling on me. He gets up, drops DS off twice a week, goes to work, comes home, plays games, may cook a couple of times (but never washes up after!) or put DS to bed and that's pretty much it. The only thing he has to worry about is his packed lunch for work. And he wonders why I'm a grumpy bum :mad:

Anyway rant over!!!!

Have a good weekend :beer:

seahorsey

Morning - Monday again!!!!!
Not a massive amount to report. Had a very lazy weekend as everyone is still feeling under the weather. Food shop done yesterday - needed a few bits for the freezer as stocks were low, it came to a whopping £92 :mad: I wouldn't mind if there were loads of goodies, but it's just boring, run of the mill staple stuff. I'd meal planned for myself and only bought the necessary and avoided the aisles I didn't need. Going to have to have a mega change of strategy I think. I have however made a delicious brocolli and cheese soup for work out of broccoli that was lurking in the back of the fridge - like this somehow makes up for it :rotfl:

Need to check when the 0% deals on cards are ending as I have a feeling one is in Feb. Will double check in a mo.

Have a good day x