AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

aimeemum

Plan for today - Friday

1. Get kids off to school - remember eldest's cookery ingredients (he's making Apple Crumble today) DONE
2. Breakfast, bath and watch latest Discovery episode! DONE and WOW!!
3. Bathrooms, Make beds, Washing sorted - Did the beds but stalled at the bathrooms and laundry - added to tomorrow's list
4. Vacuum/sweep downstairs and clear floors. - Again, cleared floors but didn't vacuum as not needed. Added to tomorrow's list also.
5. Ironing - not done yet....may add onto tomorrow but don't need to do until Sunday night really.

That's my plan for today. I woke up this morning thinking it was Saturday so it was a bit of a disappointment to have to do school runs....but still, only one more week until the Easter holidays

If I get time after doing all of that/have the energy this afternoon I may spend some time clearing the MB and sorting my desk and maybe I'll find some time and inclination to do some writing. We're going on our first historical day out of the year on Sunday so I need to get back into the swing

Update: I did some of the chores, cleared my desk and sorted some of the clutter in the MB. Managed to write a blog post and got some ideas for my next few weeks too which is good. Feeling a lot more enthused about it! Also cooked a batch of Veggie curry for hubby's tea and some lunches for the freezer for him too. Tomorrow I'm doing a tagine in the slow cooker. Yummy! Kids are all shattered, so I think an early night is in order....for everyone. Tomorrow's to do list needs writing before I lose momentum. :rotfl:

aimeemum

Saturday - Plan for today

1. Dressed, breakfast etc
2. Sort and clean kitchen while the kids are having their breakfast
2a - Put a tagine in the slow cooker for tea
3. Get kids to help tidy and clean living room and hallway
4. Tidy their bedrooms:eek:
5. Swish and Swipe Bathrooms
6. Ironing

If I get all this done (which shouldn't actually take that long! I reckon less than 2 hours for the lot!) then we'll go to the softplay (for free) after lunch.

Hubby used the voucher to get fuel yesterday....got £1.75 of free fuel so I've added that to my total for this year. I may not have much on there so far (think it's £72) but I'm going to be keeping track of all the EH usage for days out, and also the FL passes are worth over £500 so that will be a massive boost to my target. I think I'm going to have to wait until May to do the car boot sale....April is proving altogether too busy!!

UPDATE: All done except the ironing. I will have to make the tagine on Monday as I forgot to buy some of the main ingredients - honey and a sweet potato. Ironing will be done after we get back from soft play.

aimeemum

I'm not feeling very happy this morning. We had a lovely weekend - really relaxing and the boys had a great time. When we got home youngest's teeth and ear started playing up (he's off school today to make sure they're not going to flare up again - he has a cracked back tooth which I was told last year would be fine to stay as it is until it falls out naturally as it's a baby tooth.) - we moved here 3 years ago and much shame to me, we've never registered at a dentist. I desperately need work doing (I have a massive cavity in a back molar that really needs just taking out if I'm honest) but I've never a. been able to find a dentist to register us with, and b. I can't afford it, even with the NHS subsidy, £80 to be seen and then get a filling or even worse the £250 to get it removed is just not in our price range right now!

Anyway, this morning I've called 3 different dentists hoping to get at least my son in to be seen as an emergency - nowhere has space for him, let alone me and the 3 kids (hubby hates Dr's and dentists and refuses to go most of the time!). I'm going to keep trying as he needs it sorting but it's causing me so much stress right now. :mad: If I can't get him in at the 2 I'm waiting to speak to (their phone lines are constantly busy) I'm going to call 111 for him I think...problem is that last time I called 111 for my tooth in December, they wanted to send me to an emergency appointment 70 miles away!!!

As for everything else, I've got the normal Monday routine to do, and then I'm putting myself in a hot bath! I need to chill out a bit as I feel awful!!

Update: I've found somewhere 20 miles away (in Whitby) that is taking on NHS patients and they can see all 3 children next Wednesday the 17th - that's the earliest. We're all registered with them now too. It's taken me so long and I've never though to look out that far away from home before but it's time we got seen as I think my eldest is going to need orthodontics and he's 10 this year.... I'll need to drop hubby off at work that day too so the kids will hate me getting them up that early then traipsing all the way over the moors to get to Whitby for 10am, but hey-ho. Lots of teeth brushing between now and then!!

aimeemum

Quick update - I've rung the Dr's and got my results from last week's tests. All back to normal so no further action.

Youngest is back to normal pretty much but he's very subdued for him so I think it was a good idea keeping him off today. Only 4 days until they break up for the Easter holidays.

Got my CC statement through. Balance is 69p more than I had on my spreadsheet so I'm going to send a payment of 69p through next time I log on! I like to have everything just where I want it!

Trying to budget for the summer holidays and it's giving me headaches. The boys all want/need swimming lessons (will cost around £80 for them all to do a week's intensive classes) plus eldest wants to do a climbing camp day - £23 - and I think they'll all need new ice skates and gear for going back on the ice in the summer too! Really need to get these debts gone asap!!

aimeemum

Tuesday is going well so far (cue something going disastrously wrong! ) and I'm happy to report that youngest is back at school today - albeit reluctantly. He was happy enough though so I think the rest of the week could go either way really.

He and I walked down yesterday to get our passes finalised for FL. They should be ready late this week to collect. That is £575 worth of passes which is a very nice addition to my money total for this year :T I will add it on once we've picked them up.

Plan for this afternoon is to get this weekend's trip written up and put onto my blog, and then I'm hoping to sit down and read a bit of my current 'read and review' book, which I haven't even started yet! So little work done lately so I'm doing a slow and steady approach to break myself back in. I always work better when it's sunny outside too - although I think I'm coming down with a cold

Money situation today - I took my 'extra' £20 that didn't get spent at the weekend, out in cash to put towards the shopping trip that will be required over the hols. I didn't get middle DS his shoes, and eldest needs lots of stuff, so it will go towards that. Need milk and a couple of other things to top us up. Sausages for tea tonight, with chips and yorkies . Planning my meals for next week this evening...and hubby is off tomorrow and thursday so hoping for an NSD tomorrow before shopping day on Thursday.

aimeemum

Another £48 paid today - Had to keep a lot of money back so only paid minimum payments on most things. Have a busy week/weekend/Easter holidays coming up plus need to put tyres on the car! Really wish I could make more payments and get it gone quicker.....would like to pay the extra £24 to see it go over the £2k paid....I think that's going to feel good!

aimeemum

Good things to report -

Picked up our free passes for FL - added £575 to my money target on my signature so it now looks a lot more healthy!

Paid £1.69 to Vanquis so as to make it to a number divisible by £5 as that's what I'm paying weekly - silly but it felt good! I have therefore paid £49.69 this week, and put 45p into my H2S account too!

Tagine in the slow cooker for tea - smells delish!

Last day of term for the kids - I think they're excited to be off. I ordered eldest his DS game he's been saving up for which should arrive today. I need to get him the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, and a new backpack for school, but I will have to wait until after the holidays for one of them.

Other than that, I'm planning an easy day as I'm not going to get another one for a couple of weeks. Will spend this afternoon doing some writing/research. Going to watch the new episode of Discovery too.... Hubby and I have been watching the new series of Sabrina and it's brilliant. We've been waiting for it since October and it was worth the wait!

aimeemum

Plans for the Easter Holidays:

Sat/Sun - At home, relaxing, LSD/NSDs. Trips to the park/FL and generally catching up on being at home. Maybe get some gardening done (We were going to go to the local stately home as it's residents weekend but it'll cost a lot in fuel and I'm not feeling great so opted for a no on that.
Mon- Mum is visiting. Will do a nice lunch, hopefully the weather will be nice so we can eat outdoors. NSD
Tuesday - At home NSD
Wednesday - Dentists so will need to take hubby to work early. May go out for the afternoon as we'll have the car. LSD hopefully.
Thursday - Wedding, Kids are going to family for the day. HSD!!
Friday - Visiting Mum as it's her birthday (in their new house!! ) and then going to a Speedway meet in the evening. HSD!!!!
Saturday - Day off at home as we'll have had a mad couple of days. Grocery shopping.
Sunday - Easter Sunday and the Cinema has HTTYD3 on the Mini-Morning so we'll be going to that! MSD - the cinema will cost about £25 total including sweets.
Monday - Hubby has plans to go fishing - he may be taking eldest? We're going to a friend's housewarming after that.
Tuesday - Hubby has a guitar lesson, and catch up day at home. LSD
Wed, Thurs and Fri - at home, hubby at work. NSDs x 3 hopefully - apart from grocery delivery that will arrive Thursday. FL has it's Easter event on these days so we may go and have a go at the egg hunt (£2pp so not bad)
Saturday - Taking hubby to work, Eldest has a birthday party, taking the kids to get their school stuff. HSD!
Sunday, Mon - Home, Prepping to go back. NSDs

nomorecredit

Hi

Just wanted to stop by and say Hi, loving your Easter plans very impressed with your organisation and plans, bet it feels good to have it all down and planned. Have read your diary and subscribed you are on it and I am too thinking of a long term plan and want to have at least 3 months worth of expenses saved.

Enjoy the Easter break with your boys, my girls go back to school on Monday we had an early Easter break this year.

Take care
NMC x

aimeemum

nomorecredit wrote: »

Hi

Just wanted to stop by and say Hi, loving your Easter plans very impressed with your organisation and plans, bet it feels good to have it all down and planned. Have read your diary and subscribed you are on it and I am too thinking of a long term plan and want to have at least 3 months worth of expenses saved.

Enjoy the Easter break with your boys, my girls go back to school on Monday we had an early Easter break this year.

Take care
NMC x

Hi, and thanks for commenting!

Yes, 3 months is my long term goal. I've NEVER had savings, and my parents always lived hand to mouth. It's hard keeping us on track (there's always something, on varying levels of importance to spend money on!) but I keep telling husband that we just need to get on with it and then we'll be able to pay for things outright/afford them AS WELL as bills, which is a bit of a revelation for us both!

Having a bit of a bad week money wise though to be honest and next week isn't going to be much better with all we've got on, and I'm feeling a bit deflated - don't feel like I'm making ANY progress (I know I am, but it's slowed massively compared to previous months and I don't know why really) and May's budget is looking tight as it's a 5 week pay-month in April, which means that we'll get less UC.......still 'enough' but means I have to work the rest of the money harder and there's less 'extra' to put towards debt.

Anyway, enough of the pity party - on with the holidays!

Plan for today -
I've already updated my spreadsheeets and signature
Dressed, clean bathrooms (so they're done and I don't put them off any more! lol).
Breakfast with the boys
Boys dressed and chores done
Playstation time for boys, chores time for me:
- Ironing
- clean fireplace
- washing out on the line
- quick 'room rescue' in LR
- Dishes, surfaces and clear kitchen table.
- Go up in the loft and bring down middle DS's toy kitchen that for some unknown reason he really wants to play with after 2 years of being ignored!

Lunch at 12noon ish

After lunch going to sort the gardens out a bit, let the boys out to play on their bikes/scooters, and maybe taken them up to the park if it's not too windy/cold.

Tea tonight is Beef Stroganoff for me and Hubby, hot dogs for the kids

Money-wise - Hubby used the 5p/L voucher at Morrisons and got £3.10 of free fuel Added to signature. I have re-jigged my figures to reflect the fact that we're leaving my Vanquis to tick over and my new target figure is £3,830 of which I have £2,043 left!!!! I'll leave my signatures as they are and update them as I have been doing though as ideally I WILL pay the vanquis off before Christmas so that target still stands. My current Vanquis balance is £760. I can see the figures are going down but it's not quick enough for my liking .....spoiled brat alert!! :mad:

Have a good Saturday everyone I'm off to go get on with my list so we can have an afternoon of fun (and I may also try to find some stuff to put on ebay to top me up and make me feel better about money.....always better if you've got some more money coming in!