AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

aimeemum

Saturdays like this one are my favourite kind of day. I know we could be out and about having adventures, but to be honest just being home with my boys is a pleasure! So far today I have:

- washed and hung 2 loads of washing
- put away all the dry washing
- stripped eldest's and youngest's beds (and taught eldest how to re-make his own bed!)
- helped younger 2 tidy their room up so I could vacuum
- Vacuumed the entire top floor
- Cleaned en-suite and family bathroom
- Bleached the downstairs toilet
- put a chicken curry into the slow cooker to be frozen in batches
- helped eldest pack for his residential (he goes Tuesday)

We've also had lunch and the boys are now playing pool in the kitchen or taking their time on the wii/playstation before I put a movie on this afternoon. I'm thinking 'The Slipper and the Rose' as I haven't watched it in years and it is about time the kids experienced it!!

Tomorrow I need to put some stuff on ebay (although I may hold off until we get back from holiday thinking about it) and do some tidying up in the living room and kitchen so it's all spick and span...then this week I can just maintain while I get packed up and prepped for middle child's birthday too.

As for money - not a lot to report. I haven't got any to spend so I suppose that stops any further spending! :rotfl: Going to spend some time this coming week working out the spending money we actually have (rough guess-timate of £150 for the 5 days...which is a lot compared to previous trips!) and then on Friday take it all out in cash. I'm supposed to be taking the car to get 2 new tyres on Thursday but hubby says it'll be ok to wait until after the holiday. Brakes do need doing before we go though - I'd rather we did both! Expensive but so much more safe!

Anyway, I'm off to go and sort the curry out and make myself a cuppa. Have a good weekend all! :beer:

aimeemum

Hubby and I have been talking a lot about 'after' the debts are gone and I am worried that we're going to splurge and end up in debt again and so the cycle will never be broken so i've said maybe we need a 'target' to focus our spending on/saving on each year. We know we're never going to be able to buy a house in our situation so we've talked a lot about experiences that we'd like to have so we have made a shortlist of things we'd like to do/save for.

2020 - Legoland weekend with the kids (£500) - Ages 10, 8 and 6
2021 - Disneyland Paris (£1500) - Ages 11, 9 and 7
2024 - Orlando (£12,000) - Ages 14, 12 and 10

We've given ourselves 2 years to save for Paris, then 3 years after that to save for Orlando. I have priced all of them up today and then we can, from September when the vast majority of the debt is gone, really start to see our savings grow and once we have enough to book the holiday, we will, in full (using the CC probably so we have the security) and then and only then do we tell the kids! It's going to be a fun game! Also, 3 years between Paris and Orlando should mean only 1 set of passports needed for the kids!

Anyway, enough ramblings about my daydreams (I really hope we do them, usually when I start looking at stuff like this something comes up and we're back to square -1!). I'm ready for it to be Tuesday already - I'm always the same at this point in the month with the UC calc coming out, I'm always petrified something is going to go wrong with it or I've made a mistake. Good news is hubby has been granted his days off he requested for the early part of June which means when he finishes on Wednesday he's got 2 whole weeks off!! :T Kids are outside playing in the sunshine and I need to go and put a HOT chilli in the slow cooker for hubby's lunches at work this week....also having it for tea with either jackets or rice...haven't decided which.

aimeemum

Morning all! Lovely sunny Monday morning so I'm enjoying a cup of coffee and then i'm going to crack on until 12 getting all my household stuff done. After that the plan is to have some lunch and then do some writing to get the scene that's been floating around my head for the past week down on paper. My Mantra at the moment is FINISH THE BOOK!

Money stuff to report - my ClearScore updated and it's gone up 12 pts to 218. The highest it's ever been is 252 so that's my first aim. I've said to hubby I would like to have it above 300 so I wont drag him down when we go for our next house. Having said that, it was this bad when we applied for this house and we managed it....just lol. Hubby's score updated yesterday too and his has gone up massively...he's now in the 400s! I know they don't actually mean anything, but I'm using them like a thermometer....it's a good gauge to know if we're doing things right

abba1772

It's great to have holiday goals, we did Disney world in Florida last year so your budget for that trip is bang on. We will be going back to Florida in 4 years so we can save and plan as we plan on doing two weeks in Florida/Miami then hubby wants to spend a week in Texas so that will take some planning and serious cash xx

aimeemum

abba1772 wrote: »

It's great to have holiday goals, we did Disney world in Florida last year so your budget for that trip is bang on. We will be going back to Florida in 4 years so we can save and plan as we plan on doing two weeks in Florida/Miami then hubby wants to spend a week in Texas so that will take some planning and serious cash xx

Thanks - that's good to know I'm on the right lines. I am hopeful we'll be able to do it! Texas would be amazing.....'proper' America so to speak. I would come back so fat with all the food! :rotfl:

Eldest was up early this morning, full of excitement. I'm going to miss him terribly but I know he's going to have a fab time...residential trips are always the most fun!

UC calc has come in....£6 lower than I had calculated so that's close enough for me! That should come in on Friday as it's due on the BH Monday.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the week now - it's supposed to be nice weather next week too. Tomorrow I will have the car so I'm off to the supermarket to get food to last until Sunday, and a few more supplies for next week. Will also take out the cash to put in our spending money jar. Thursday will be a day for packing and sorting the house and garden ready for the weekend and the week away, and then Friday we need to go shopping for birthday presents and a new inflatable mattress otherwise hubby and I will have nothing to sleep on!

Anyway, best be off...I got a lot of jobs done yesterday so not a lot on the agenda today which is nice with so many busy days coming up. I think I may go and read a book for a little while before lunch.

aimeemum

I just plumped and paid for express delivery on DS2s birthday present - his much anticipated Kidizoom action cam! I wouldn't normally pay for next day but the normal delivery wasn't guaranteed to be here by Friday and the camera itself was a bargain. It is £50 in Argos, £40 on Amazon, but I just paid £30 in Smyths!!! I couldn't not get it...only £4 for the delivery too so even with that I've still saved £6 on what I had budgeted and not had to give any money to the Amazon-monster! Going to have one very happy little 7 year-old. Now I just need some more hot wheels things and a cake!

aimeemum

Good afternoon peeps! What a sunny day! I've had washing on the line since 9am, and I feel like I want to go outside and stay there....it's glorious, if a little windy

Anyway, things to report today:
This morning we were up early to take hubby to work so I could use the car - eldest isn't getting back from his trip until 4pm, which is after the bus so it made sense. I will go and pick younger 2 up as well this afternoon...they'll like that.
Got back from dropping hubby off then normal school run routine for younger 2. Everyone off to school...middle DS is starting to play silly beggars again generally about school but I'm hoping it's just end of year fatigue kicking in, so a week off will cure it for a little while at least.
After school run I put my washing out, did a few jobs, checked the banks, and took delivery of the present I ordered yesterday. Once that arrived I went straight out and did my grocery shop for the week, including a few bits to take camping. Spent £61 which means I have £20 to add to the spending money 'pot' for next week.

To take with us we have a large bag of stuff containing cereals, porridge sachets, cereal bars, biscuits, pot noodles, hot dogs and tins of spaghetti and sausages. There is at least 1 full days worth of meals there, plus breakfasts for the kids for the whole time we're there. I like to take some stuff with me so we have a 'lazy option' if we need it. I've also got a pint of UHT milk....must have the post setup cuppa!

Plan for the rest of the day is to go get the boys at 3ish, come back and give them their dinner once eldest has arrived back at school, and then go and get hubby at about 7.30. We are having a supermarket curry tonight to celebrate his having 2 weeks off...that £61 included beers for him and a curry pack.....I'm rather proud of that spend. Also got a 7,000 point voucher if I spend £70 and it's valid until after we get back so I may have to make use of that.

Time for lunch now and maybe some work or I have a few jobs to do so may put a FlyLady video on while I fold washing and do my chores

aimeemum

Paid £54 off the debts today - now at 47% of those figures! So close - I should go over 50% next week

Honeysucklelou2

What a good idea to make a list of experiences/ trips away that you would like to do.

aimeemum

What a 2 weeks it's been! I'm sorry I've not been on, it's been so busy and today is the first time I've got the day on a 'normal' schedule!

The camping trip was brilliant - expensive but great! I overspent a little but not so much that we'll struggle which is a better situation that I have expected. Got back last Friday and we're still clearing up - but we're getting there.

Money wise it's been a funny couple of weeks. Like I say we're not struggling but we have very little 'spare'. I've managed to accumulate £21 in an 'emergency pot' for milk, bread and petrol just in case though - so I'm very happy! I've not managed much in the way of repayments lately as the half term was so expensive. Today is payday and I have the Tesco man coming and I have a massive list of things to do.....the house is a right state as we've barely done anything outside of the absolute basics in ages! Hoping to make some headway but I'm quite enjoying the peace!

One thing I have done today though is to call PlusNet to sort out our broadband and phone contract. They're sending us a new router as ours is ancient, and they've taken £4 a month off my monthly cost for the broadband. It wasn't expensive to begin with (max £60 a month including phone when our old BT bills were £80+) so I'm happy with that.