AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

aimeemum

Thursday pay-day

- Paid Minimums on the bills (updated signature)
- Tesco order arriving before 12
- Hubby will put fuel in the car for me today
- Put money in savings so now have the entire fees for camping plus £25 into the spending money kitty too (will ask hubby to take the cash out next week)
- Money put aside for kids school stuff - bought some trainers for DS2 on ebay as I was worried I wouldn't be able to find any velcro ones on our shopping trip. £8 and free delivery!! Will be going shopping on Wednesday.
- Car insurance money ready to go out on the 18th.

All in all, we're good to go for another week and we're ready for youngest's party on Saturday. Visit from parents went ok and they brought youngest a card and some cash for him to spend on holiday as a gift. He'll be happy with that Looking forward to a trip to the NRM on Sunday as his birthday trip out....nice and cheap although the cakes there are great so we may succumb!

Anyway, plan for today is bath for me this morning, take delivery of shopping, cook the rhubarb I got on YS on Tuesday before it goes south (not sure what to make with it to be honest so may just cook it up and freeze it in little pots to go with my breakfast yoghurt/weetabix. I also need to clean the en-suite bathroom and tidy the MB a little after it became a dumping ground yesterday. Shouldn't take too much effort to sort the house a little today.

aimeemum

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted an update. This week has been so busy and a lot of fun!!

Last week -

The Party was a success. Youngest had a great birthday and there was very little mess to clear up afterwards which was a bonus. We're still eating the crisps I bought for the party - I think I went a bit over-board!
Sunday we went to the NRM for the day - we had a great time at the museum but had a bit of an experience at the cafe. We complained as it was just so sub-standard (both the food and the service) and despite the fact that we ate it all - it was lunchtime, we were hungry and we'd already paid for it all! - they gave us a full refund!!!! We spent some cash in the shop and we then took the kids round the shops in York and got them some sweets....all in cost less than the meal had!
Monday I spent trying to get the house back to scratch and finalising my lists for camping, uniforms etc. Tuesday more of the same.
Wednesday we went to town to get what was needed for school uniforms. Had budgetted £60 and only spent £44!

This week -

-Paid minimums towards debts
- Gathered up all the savings for the holiday. I have £290 which was £40 short of my target but £90 over the fees and I'll be able to put another £180 towards the pot next Tuesday! That's nearly £40 a day in spends! I have a list of places, their costs and a 'budget' to follow but obvs we're not going to be too prescriptive.
- Tesco order arrived...have food for the next 3 days plus a lot of stuff to take away. All the kids favourites. Only cost me about £30 for it all too! I reckon that we have about 2.5 days of food if we do nothing but eat in the tent but I've budgetted for 1 meal out per day (either lunch or dinner) so it should mean that we're not going to struggle for something to eat. I've got:
Pot Noodles x 6
Porridge pots x 6
Cereal minis x 6
Beans and Sausages x 2
Tomato Soup x 2
Jar of hot dogs
Ingredients for Corned Beef Hash (just need eggs)
Plus a lot of snacks like crisps, biscuits and cereal bars.
Also got some painkillers, plasters etc as we were completely out!
- Ordered tent pegs. Yesterday we went to every shop I could think of to get tent pegs and nowhere had any! I have ordered them and paid for 'express' delivery so hopefully they will be here by Saturday otherwise it will mean a trip to Go Outdoors and I really hate that place!!

This afternoon I need to get the packing started. I've got 3 days to make sure everything we're taking is packed, and ready to go. I hope there will be no panic, and we remember pillows this time!!

aimeemum

Almost ready to go. Clothes more or less all packed bar some PJs that eldest wore last night by mistake! They're currently on the line baking in the hot sun.

The tent pegs I ordered arrived. It was a close call - only just delivered now so 1pm on Saturday and we leave at 5am on Monday! Getting close now....very exciting! I've even managed to track down all the wires for the portable DVD Player. I have to go up in the loft tomorrow to get the crabbing stuff down....I think that's the only thing that's not now in place.

aimeemum

Hi all....so it's finally September!

We had a great time on holiday. 99% sure we'll be going back to the same site next Summer too...it was fabulous!

Now we're back, the kids are back at school (well, one of them is off sick today - back to school germs strike again!) and it's back to some semblance of normality. Today was payday so I've sent all my regular payments, paid the rent and the other bits that I have to do manually, and have updated all my spreadsheets.

Current situation:

Debts
Vanquis - £655 @£5 a week, this is going down slowly but at 0% and no fees it's fine ticking along.
CCJ - £170 (This is my next target....it WILL be gone by the end of the month!)
Ovo - £1,050 - Aim to have this halved by beginning of October.

I have done a big shop today (tesco man delivered at 9am! lol) and the cupboards are full to bursting. I have £70 left this week for fuel and a treat on Saturday as it's my birthday. I would like to take the kids to a castle but the weather looks a bit changeable. We wil see. We also need to pick up Bracken on Saturday. On Tuesday the CB gets paid and after paying the council tax as normal, the extra will go to the CCJ.

I have £7.50 in my purse and £35 in my savings accounts.

Expected expenses this month - not a lot going on. The car needs a service and MOT in October so I need to put some of that aside this month.

Anyway, that's all the boring stuff. Got lots to do today, including using up the pears from our tree making chutney and mincemeat for Christmas! I can't believe I've thinking about that already!

aimeemum

Had a great birthday yesterday. Got a nice box of choccies from hubby and the kids and a voucher from MIL as expected. Ended up picking Bracken up early and taking her with us to an Abbey for a walk around the grounds. Had a cake in the tea shop too! Then home after more walking around and then a take-away pizza for tea (my Mum sent me £20 so that paid for tea) - we were all shattered! lol

Looking at my expenses for the next few weeks and it seems under a reasonable amount of control. Hubby is making me a little bit crazy as I think, because he doesn't deal with the every-day finances I think he's getting a little bit ahead of himself. I've told him 3 more weeks of paydays and we'll be able to 'move forward'. We're going to have a sit down and go through the finances in their entirity before the 27th (that's the start of a new month for us) - looking at the 25th/26th as that's his days off, but I may do it before that as he's making me a bit frantic and I think him knowing will help. Aside from that, all good.

Anyway, plan for this afternoon is to take the dog out, and then baths and movie for the evening. Hubby is back at work today after 2 weeks off so it's a bit of a strange day.

aimeemum

Good things happening today -

I have got my housework done, including cleaning and tidying the master bedroom so we can actually use it how it's supposed to be used.:j

Financially I have spent today looking at the budget for the next 12 months. I have made some decisions about our fiancnes and I'm looking forward to thursday when we can sit down and make it official. :T Post debts, we are £100 a week 'better off' than we were that's massive. We'll be able to put that money into pots to cover all manner of expenses, and that's not inclduing the money I've allocated to go to the bills account which, in less than 10 months, will have 1 month's outgoing in it :money: and thus our EF will be fully funded! I've decided that we will need to work in 12 month stints and it seems like October is our 'new year' point.

I checked my credit scores today and both have gone up! Clearscore was 273, due to go up to 313 on the 20th (for some reason it's started to do it in advance of my new report?!) and totally money up from 520 to 536! Not massive hikes but still, both of them are edging close to a more respectable bracket!

NIce day today - I've been able to put washing on the line and have all the windows open. I think we have very few days like this left so I'm making the most! :rotfl: Nice little surprise too....some friends and given me a voucher for afternoon tea for 2 at Patisserie Valerie!! I couldn't believe it when I opened it. I love a good afternoon tea and I think hubby and I are going on Friday to partake and to pick up some bits and bobs (a mop and bucket and a feather duster! lol) I can't get via the Tesco man! :rotfl:

aimeemum

More good stuff to report - all very rocka nd roll of course.

1. Hubby applied for a standard Barclaycard (to replace his AQUA now it's paid off...we want to be able to use it for purchase protection, plus it's better to have 'some' credit - plan is to keep it locked in the filing cabinet lol) and he's been accepted! I will be putting the signed agreement into the post box this afternoon.

2. I have ordered some vac bags and filters for the vacuum. My life is so exciting!

3. Housework all done before 10am, bath had and now sat catching up with the virtual world before lunch and then an afternoon spent working on my writing! I'm so happy right now.

4. Tomorrow is pay-day. I'm very excited to be able to make some more headway on the debts before we start on our new path on the 27th. I want to see just how much progress I can make. Hopefully hubby will be up for a sit-down conversation about it all tomorrow and we can make the whole lot official.

Anyway, I'm off to make some cheese on toast and to start at my new 'job'.

aimeemum

Payday has arrived:

Paid £75 towards debts. Remaining amount to be paid is £1,796!
Tesco delivery arrived.
Put £90 into the bills account to cover the car insurance and my 'bills' contribution for next month.

Kept £80 back for fuel and spends for hubby for this weekend (he's off to a BBQ at a friends house, I'm at home with the kids/dog). Tomorrow we're going into town to go have Afternoon tea and will need to pick up a couple of bits including ingredients for eldest's cooking lesson next week.

aimeemum

Just spent some time sorting out a couple of things. I called the energy company and sorted our DD to come out at the new amount from 1st october. That means that there will be no more weekly payments going across to debts.....provided I can get the £155 remaining paid of my CCJ, but now that the energy company are happy to take my DD I may just pay this month's bill and then focus on the CCJ being gone.

Current figures stand at:
Remaining debt - £1,796
Paid to date (since 1/10/18) - £3,537
Loan repaid - £2,440
TOTAL REPAID - £5,977!!! :beer:

Next week we will have repaid over £6k since last October!! That's some going!

My budget is all ready for hubby and I to go through.

Whatlifeis

£6K in a year is amazing. Well done you! That's a fantastic achievement