AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

aimeemum

abba1772 wrote: »

My hubby had one of those pin machines they were a pain in the butt xx

I've given up looking and ordered a new one. I'll do the payments manually until it arrives. I could get it through the app but my phone is too old to accept the app.....:mad: Even more annoying, until he used it the other day to set up his Barclaycard, it was filed safely in the cabinet and I knew exactly where it was!!

Anyway, I'm moving on lol - you watch I'll find it now! :rotfl:

aimeemum

Welcoem to the weekend folks. I'm having a bit of a mixed bag as I'm glad it's the weekend but my washing machine is on the blink (hubby is going to look at it tomorrow on his day off). It looks like the drain is blocked - i've cleaned the flters out but it's still not working so it's obviously something further up the system - could do without having to buy a new washer to be honest especially as hubby refuses to buy 2nd-hand or cheap for these things.:( We'll see how we get on with fixing it....on top of the car I am not loving our October finiances right now.

One little positive in all this...I've re-jigged my savings and now have a pot to rouns my pennies into off each bank account. I plan on using one of them as my 'me' pot as I don't actually allocate myself any personal spending money which I know is an oversight but as I don't 'earn' anything I still can't quite bring myself to waste cash unless absolutely necessary. The other I plan on using to send extra payments to the vanquis....this one already has £2.08 in it as I rounded all of the accounts into it, savings included. I can't decide whether to send it over when I hit a milestone....£5, £10, £25 for example....or to hold off and try to make it to £500 by which time the balance will probably have come down to meet it and it would then be cleared. I'm leaning more towards little and often as i'm less likely to dip into it if I know I'm only a couple of pence away from another payment over, whereas a large amount of money will probably get used for something else and I'll be stuck with the vanquis forever. Once the vanquis is gone I plan on snowballing the £5 a week plus pennies onto the elec to bring that down quicker.....small steps for big progress as they say

I also got another letter from the council and I'm going to need to put my CT SO up a little bit as apparently they have mis-calculated the amount of support we were due and the bill is now £500 more than I had on my original list. I'm not happy about this, but I'd rather not have to roll over a massive sum, espeically if we're planning on moving in the spring.

Right, off to go and start my day - todays tasks:
Sort winter wardrobes for the boys.
Write a list of 'furniture' I need to get for the guineas when I get their new cage. Hopefully by the end of October but if the washer is kaput it may have to wait a little longer.
Clean bathrooms
Boys need to do their jobs for the day and middle DS has homework.

Wish me luck

aimeemum

Good weekend had by all - sooooo busy though and barely had time to breathe!

Saturday we got most of our to-do list finished and then had a relatively chilled out afternoon. Sunday youngest had parties in the morning AND the afternoon so that was my day lol. Hubby did work his magic and fixed my washer :j There was a 5p coin in the pipe so that can't have been healthy for it, and a lego piece in the sump too! All working fine now so for the time being, panic over and time to move 'buy a new washer' up the list of priorities! I'm so happy he fixed it - I was certain it was not going to work ever again!

Today I've spent the morning getting the house up to some sort of scratch. Cleaned bathrooms, hoovered, clean the living room and kitchen, lots of washing to catch up for the washer being out of action - already made my list for tomorrow to try to make some more headway. Mum and Dad are visiting on Wednesday so that's giving me a bit of a kick to get it all clean and tidy. Sorted the guineas and they even had some time in the garden in the sunshine. Watched Strictly this afternoon and did my Tesco order. All in all, a nice day

aimeemum

I'm not loving life today. Logged on to banks and my carefully planned out plan has gone to pot because I'd not written down the date for my SO for the CT correctly...and it came out this morning. Leaves me that much short of the rent payment :mad: but hey, at least the CT has been paid lol. I have enough to clear the rest of my bills by the 8th so it's not as if I can't pay them....I know this was going to be a tight couple of weeks as it was a smaller UC payment (5 week month last month) and I hadn't got a lot of surplus in the bills account. It'll all come out in the wash...not worried, just a little annoyed as I had it all so carefully worked out. Still, I know the same wont happen next month as I'll have a much bigger surplus and UC payment next month all being well. I'm counting the minutes until Thursday's payday already though... :rotfl:

In other news, I have gotten a few more cleaning jobs done this morning and the house is pretty much ready for my parents to visit tomorrow. I really need a bath today at some point but other than that not a lot on the agenda.

Bad news from hubby's work - he's going to have to be paid through for his training rather than getting a day off in lieu. Annoying as that will put the UC calcs off and I'm going to have to be really on-the-ball about the whole thing for the next couple of months. Judging by this morning it's going to be tricky...

Anyway, I'm feeling like I need to give myself a bit of a positivity injection so I'm off to watch last night's 'It Takes Two' and an early lunch before I set piggy playtime up. Have a good day all and Happy October.....that really does make me smile. I love this time of year!!

aimeemum

Busy day for me. Eldest forgot his trombone so I had to get the bus in to take it to him (otherwise he'd get a verbal warning and seeing as he had reminded me twice to remind him to take his trombone, I took pity lol...he's only 9 bless him, it's alot to remember all his kit!). Killed off the time by having a wander into town and bought myself some coffee sachets as I'd run out....much cheaper than a coffee in town

Home, did jobs, put the shopping away (Tesco delivery from this morning - had to dash and put all the frozen/chilled away before running for the bus lol) and did the dishes and then sat down to do some work on here re: finances. Worked out that we've paid £77 off our total this week! Not bad lol And I have £7 something in my rounding account for vanquis. I'm unsiure about when/how often to pay things off as I'm a bit curious to see just how much I can skim lol. I was going to do £5/£10 at a time but I'm now thinking maybe I'll do it on a specific date? I'll figure it out lol.

Also got my first Christmas things in my Tesco order - 2 boxes of Quality Street and 3 nets of coins. Cost less than £5 for all of that so it's gone in the 'stash'.

A little bit of drama yesterday. Visit went ok, but in the morning when we got up the guineas had had a bit of a falling out (we think it's a combination of better care and a too-small cage making them a bit grumpy with one another) so I had no choice but to order a new cage for them. I'd been looking at them for a while and had planned to invest after the car had had it's MOT but them getting upset means we had to jsut go for it and, much to my upset, had to put in the credit card :mad:....but when I went to order the one I had chosen it was a full £10 cheaper than it had been the day before!! I also ordered a little hide for the snake and a toy for the GPs and it's still come in less than what the cage alone should have cost me....and free delivery. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow so the boys and I are going to go to PAH/Wilko's to get them some new bits to go in it at the weekend. Exciting!! :j Plus Mum gave me £10 to treat the boys so that's their softplay fees covered forSunday while eldest is at his party

Anyway, off to go and do some more Christmas planning and Guinea Pig care

aimeemum

What a week it's been!

The car decided that it needed a new part NOW! so I had to spend the little bit of savings I'd built up buying that part...thankfully we had just about enough. Hubby also bought the brakes parts but they went on the CC as planned. Only cost £120 which was lower than expected.

Paid all the bills for this month....rent all went out on the 8th as planned. Annoyed at myself for my mistake earlier in the month.

Piggy palace arrived...it's flippin' huge! We're going to have to have a full-one move around of all the furniture to fit it into the living room....although they may end up living in the kitchen temporarily. I need to get the carpets cleaned (hiring a rug doctor after the kids party) so ALL of it is going to go into the kitchen! Not looking forward to that! lol

At the moment we have Bracken for 2 weeks as well. We took her to Pets at home yesterday and she was actually very good....her owners sent her with NO treats whatsoever and we couldn't have that! lol

Today's plan...lots of washing, kill time until it's tomorrow, and try not to eat too much. I've managed to stick to Sub-1200 calories for the last 6 days......I weighted myself on Monday and I was 1.5lbs lower. I'm hoping to be well below 11st when I weigh myself on Saturday Once I get to 10st 7 I'll stop.....ready to put in all back on over winter

Tesco order put in.....Christmas additions of some biccies, a jar of seafood sauce and a jar of redcurrant jelly.....my must have condiment

Anyway, I'm off to catch up on strictly as I still haven't watched it.

aimeemum

Pay day! Whoop!

Tesco delivery has arrived and stash has been put away in the cupboard. I also put some halloween sweets on there, so they've gone into the box upstairs too.

Savings paid into for Christmas and birthdays, I've used the 'pets' and 'car maintenance' sinking fund money straight to the CC and plan on doing so every week until the cage/car parts and eventually the MOT are paid off. Hubby is going to sort out the servicing another time as it turns out it needs a new cam belt and having looked at the service history the dealership services it's had, they've literally done nothing! Not even a new air filter or spark plugs.....and it's done 100k miles!!! We're not happy, but it does mean that this time we need to make sure it's all done properly.

Plan for today - I'm not really sure to be honest. I have some washing to do, and it's sunny so if it's still sunny at about 2pm I may go out and cut the grass nice and short so hopefully it wont need to be done again before the winter kicks in. I also have a few bits to put on selling sites....hoping to put some cash aside ready for half term. I have a Dr's appointment tomorrow morning so really I should have a bath today too. I also need to weigh myself today - it's been 1 week and I have stuck to my calories....In fact I only had 900 yesterday :eek: I can't do that too often but I am hoping that it will mean I'm losing weight. Other planned thing for today is to put up the meal plan for the week.....only problem is that makes me hungry. I will probably need lunch once that's done lol.

abba1772

I wouldn't go less than 1200 calories a day as you'll put your body into starvation mode and more like to put weight back on fairly quickly when you stop eating so little, plus you need your energy as your a busy lady xx

aimeemum

abba1772 wrote: »

I wouldn't go less than 1200 calories a day as you'll put your body into starvation mode and more like to put weight back on fairly quickly when you stop eating so little, plus you need your energy as your a busy lady xx

No you're absolutely right, I'm aware of that.....I have a thyroid condition so have to really be careful when it comes to eating generally. I checked my diary this morning for yesterday and realised I'd undercut by a lot. Doesn't mean I can 'make up for it' today though, as much as I could go for a chocolate biscuit! lol

aimeemum

Weighed myself this morning and I've lost 4lb!! I'm now 10st 12lb which leaves me with 5lb to lose by the 25th........I have never managed to lose 4lb in a week before but I have been super strict and also making sure I drink plenty of water which I think has helped....as well as walking Bracken etc. 2 more weeks to make it to target weight although I'm tempted to just keep going until the date rather than the weight....it'll give me more 'splurge' room for Christmas :rotfl:

Off to the Dr's today to get my ear sorted - sick of being deaf but I'm unsure what they can actually do for me. Appointment at 12.30 so will be getting the 11.30 bus and I'm going to get very wet if this rain doesn't slow down - I also need to pick up a small tray I saw last week....it's for the guineas as a hay box/tray and will hopefully stop them spreading their hay all over the cage and generally making a mess lol.

Car has struck again....hubby said it was chugging on his way to work yesterday so he picked up some spark plugs. They have NEVER been changed.....I need to dig out the receipts from the services we've had done and I'm going to write a letter to vauxhall and find out exactly what we've been paying for. One service we paid £300 and it looks like they literally did an oil change and washed it! :mad: Anyway, he's not called me today so I'm going to assume that the car is ok now. Means that some of the savings I had put aside for this week have been eaten up but at least we didn't have to put it on the CC.