AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

aimeemum

Good Morning all! We're officially into the holidays now which is great - I am so relieved that there's no school runs for 2 whole weeks!

Mum was supposed to be visiting today but she's not well enough to come across. She is taking her new house over on Wed/Thursday so we'll be popping by for a visit on Friday which is also her birthday. Dad will arrive on Sunday - it's been a long couple of months for them both but hopefully they'll be settled in quickly. All that means that we have a free day today - We haven't left the house over the weekend - kids have been playing in the garden and building lego and eldest has been watching the LOTR movies for the first time - just the ROTK to go and he's hooked. Very proud of him

Just seen the weather for this week and it's finally going to start warming up! I am going to swap our heating to summer times today in anticipation....hoping that the bill will drop significantly.

Other than that nothing planned for today - it's Monday which is Bedrooms day on my chores routine, so I may get the kids to help and get my housework done nice and quickly. It would be nice if I could spend this afternoon doing some reading/Writing/research but I think that may be wishful thinking.

Updated all my spreadsheets this morning already - wasn't able to send anything to H2S which I try to do on a Monday but never mind. I've already put over £1 in there this month and my target is £2 for this month so I'm happy to leave it - current balance is £8 which is impressive considering I'm only ever putting pennies in there! Plan is that from September £10 a week will go into it (only allowed to put £50 a month in) which will mean it will be a pretty good amount and at 50% bonus, I'm looking forward to that pay-day

aimeemum

Relief - DS2 got his place at the junior school! I wasn't worried as such but there's always that chance that he wouldn't get in. Anyway, worry over now....now I need to budget for a new set of jumpers!

Woken up feeling like death - full of cold and so tired! Going to crack on soon and get the housework done so I can maybe get a nap in before the excitement of the next few days.

Electricity bill came in - really high so need to make an effort to bring it down. It's not been helped by the fact that I've needed the heating on more this last 2 weeks than the whole of February I think. Thankfully the heating is now off - also need to tell hubby to stop putting the immersion heater on as it costs a fortune and I keep finding it switched on

Anyway, time to get a move on....going to watching the news a lot today catching up on the damage done at Notre Dame - it's so sad to see it on fire. I was only saying last week that NDP was on my bucket list....guess I'll have to wait a while to go and see it now

aimeemum

I'm having a bit of a wobble today - I don't know whether it's my cold I've come down with or the fact that I've just had bills come through on my emails that were higher than anticipated, but I just feel a bit useless. We'd been doing so well but this month we've made very little in the way of progress and I just can't see us being debt free ever! It's making me really mad - hubby keeps asking for money to spend on new cars, new guitars, and I'm here worrying about finding money for the kids school uniforms for next term and having enough in the accounts to cover all the bills for next month when they all come out on the 1st! Something has got to change and I felt that it was changing but this month (and next month too) are looking so expensive

I'm also struggling with other things at the moment, lacking in motivation and energy (again, it could just be illness talking here) but with the holidays and the weather being so cold constantly I feel just so frustrated all the time but still unable to actually knuckle down.

Hoping that getting it out of my system will help me to actually do something about it rather than throwing a pity party.....feeling hopeless is horrible!!

aimeemum

Pity party is officially over. I have re-done my budget for next month and I need to keep back £100 before the 27th of this month. We have 2 pay packets before then, so I'm hopeful that we can make that work. I've cut my snowball of the debts down to minimums (£7 for the CCJ, £5 for the Vanquis, £10 for the water and £55 for the electric which is a big payment actually and is double our usage but I've agreed this with the electricity company so at lease that will mean I keep making a little headway) for the next 2 weeks. This way I'll have the money to cover ALL the bills in May, and then I can sort out a new weekly structure. I'm so annoyed as I'd done so well but this month it looks like we'll be lucky to see £200 paid off the debts - I know this is still progress and it's more important to not go backwards etc, but it's still annoying!

A few little decisions made about May too -

May 11th/12th - Car boot sale (If weather bad I'll do it on the 25th instead.) so we have the money towards our holiday at the end of May.

26th May - Celebrating DS2's birthday. He has decided he would like a party but I think it's been left a little late so looking at swimming or soft play instead.

Decided to set myself a 'for me' task - I have albums of photo's in the loft and about 4 years of pictures that need sorting through on devices and printing off to put in albums.....have seen lots of offers online for free/cheap prints so I will try to get them all done for as little as possible.

abba1772

Time to be blunt with hubby start telling him no.......useless it's broke beyond repair then the answer is no be honest tell him your worries as it tends to take a while for a partner to have their lightbulb moment after we have had ours xx

aimeemum

abba1772 wrote: »

Time to be blunt with hubby start telling him no.......useless it's broke beyond repair then the answer is no be honest tell him your worries as it tends to take a while for a partner to have their lightbulb moment after we have had ours xx

I was blunt with him back in Jan/Feb but I think we're both growing weary (as is expected 4 months into this journey) and we're both guilty of spending to cheer ourselves up....I just keep saying 'this too shall pass' to myself and trying to make headway in small ways to keep up morale for us both. I don't think hubby sees the debt as as much of a burden as I do though - he sometimes says that before I started on this he felt 'richer' but I explain it's a false rich....I want us to feel 'real rich' lol :rotfl:

Thanks for the support - much appreciated. This cold is knocking me for six-and-a-half!

aimeemum

Long day ahead - woke the boys up at 5.30 to take hubby to work as we need to the car to go to dentist appointments this morning. That has come around quick! Thankfully it's Wednesday and somehow (not sure how) there's still nearly half a tank of petrol in the car, and I have enough change to pay for parking and possibly a sneaky portion of chips at the seaside for lunch after the dentists (would be rude to go to Whitby and not do something seaside-y )

Once we're home it'll be time to do a few jobs, let the boys chill out (probably playstation time for them all) and then back to pick hubby up for 7pm, calling in at ASDA on the way there for pick up some milk and bread and something for our tea - not sure what still).

Anyway, best get ready to be off....get the kids sorted out at least! I'm going to book myself an appointment for when they've all gone back to school and set that ball rolling....sick of my broken tooth kicking off so it's time to get it sorted out. Dentists worry me though - my Mum is terrified of them and as a result I've only ever been as an adult and it takes all my will-power to sit in that chair!

aimeemum

Well what a hellish kind of a day - but nice in a way too.

Dentist went well - 2 eldest have great teeth apparently (amazing considering my eldest didn't brush his teeth for the best part of a year when he was 3!) and eldest can go in once his front 8 have grown to get measured up and see if he needs braces. Youngest's back tooth is pretty bad so it's been dressed with a filling and he's got to go and have it removed under a general. They were really good with his even though it hurt as his nerve is badly exposed hence all the toothaches.

Only issues were that the appointment was at 10, but he needed to be seen by a senior practitioner to be referred and the only slot available was at 2.30. It's a 50 mile round trip but I figured that I could either pay for lunch, parking and probably a multitude of other stuff, or we could just go home, so that's what we did. We did use up the time in the car park though by going for a wander on the beach and the boys found some brilliant bits of sea-glass! With car parking today has cost me about £23 (fuel, snacks and parking charges) which really isn't bad - a day at the seaside could have been a lot worse!

Have to go and pick hubby up at 7, so leaving here about 6.20 so we're not waiting around. I think the boys have done well today - no trouble apart from a little strop from ds2 when he couldn't find any blue sea glass like his big brother had....apparently that was a reason to have a tantrum! Apart from that, no bother, all just got on at the dentist which I was amazed by, and have just said yes to everything I've asked of them. They're currently tucking into spaghetti hoops on toast as a quick tea because I'm fit to drop! Need to go and sort out hubby's suit and my dress for tomorrow now - looks like it's going to be a nice day for a wedding!

abba1772

It's great when the kids do as they're told it's half the battle xx

aimeemum

It's been a very busy, very expensive, very tiring 4 days in our house....but it was great fun so I'm not complaining. I've not managed to pay a penny off the debts this week as I knew that we would need every penny and I was right. I think we've got a couple of £'s left and it's CB payment tomorrow so we made it which is the main thing!!

Got the UC calculation and I mis-calculated. I thought that this month would be the first payment with the new work allowance (up from £198 to £280) but I was wrong. means we're about £75 down on where I thought we would be which is a big chunk especially with this month being a 5 week month....only plus side is that there should be enough to see us through and pay all the bills which is my main concern. Will have the remaining balance of our holiday to pay next week too. But next month the UC payment should be a lot healthier ....fingers crossed.