AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

aimeemum

Thursday pay-day - all the bills paid, Tesco delivery has arrived, all the monies have gone to savings etc and I'm happy. I've also ordered eldest some shoes as I am not sure when we're going to get to the shops. Managed to get some delivered for a good price....just have to hope they fit.

Yesterday I spent the day sorting the Guineas....they've decided that they don't like one another and now we have 2 cages in our living room. Derek has covered in bites from Domino, and Domino has lost weight and fur as Derek was hogging all the food Hopefully they'll be a bit more settled now and I need to try to find/build a unit for the 2 cages.

I also cleaned the fridge and defrosted the freezer yesterday, so that's another thing off my to-do list. Today I need to spend some time up in the bedroom, I need to declutter, have a move around and take some things out. I want a proper bedroom with nothing stuffed in there out of sight. I have had a few goes at it over the past few days so it's slowly taking shape. After that I'm going to do soem Christmas planning and finalise my lists, checking off what I already have and taking off anything unecessary.

Right, best get on. Already had my lunch so no excuses! :rotfl:

aimeemum

A new week for me and lots going on.

I'm making headway on my to-do list for November. Master bedroom and Living room are gutted and decluttered.

Spent Saturday sorting the garden and the boy's room, then Sunday we had a lazy day with movies, board games and food!

Today I've gotten my morning routine done, spent some time planning meal plans and writing shopping lists, and now I'm watching 'The Holiday' as a treat

Morrisons sent me their Christmas voucher offer and it's actually worth doing - £22.50 of vouchers for 5 weeks of shopping. I already have £25 on my card, plus the Halifax account are offering 5% cashback.......I have to do a little bit of juggling with dates/shopping trips but I have it sorted now

Hubby is off to Ireland on Friday for 3 nights....have to drop him off at the airport at some silly hour in the morning, and the boys are going to love me as obviously they will need to come too. I'll treat them to a breakfast treat in return. He's getting the bus back home on Monday though, so I wont have to do a collection run on top of it all.

I am planning on taking the kids to the Christmas event at the local stately home this weekend too - I still have the free tickets I was given back in the spring and they run out on the 1st December. Their event starts on the 16th so I think we'll go on the Sunday. Looking forward to that

Anyway, I'm off to go and make a fresh cuppa.....so cold today. Contemplating getting a blanket, or maybe 3!

aimeemum

Yesterday I was laid up with a massive headache/earache combination. It seems to have gone for the most part today so i'm back on the band-wagon

Anyway, this morning I have gone through the finances to make sure I know how much my budget is for Christmas etc, and to plan out this week's budget. Hubby is off to Ireland and needs spending money - he will be taking the CC but with strict instructions it's for emergencies only. There's £400+ available balance on there but I really don't want him using it if at all possible. Anyway, all sorted I think I can give him £170 to take with him which is a good amount for 3 nights away....he's staying with his Dad so shouldn't have massive outlays for food or anything like that, but enough that he can pay his way if they go out, buy a round of drinks etc.

After that I've planned out the money for the next 6 weeks up to Christmas so I know what my budget is. I have about £300 total to spend on the kids and gifts generally....that's a lot for us!! The kids will be writing their lists in a couple of weeks and I'm planning on going shopping around the 16th to get everything all in one go (allowing time to order anything I can't get).

Next on the list was to check the amounts of debts etc I have left, what payments I need to make/have made and what the amount remaining will be in January. I plan on hitting the CC hard, as well as paying extra towards the CT as I would dearly love to not have to carry any over and currently I'm about £300 off clearning the entire lot. Also, with moving it would be nice to go with a clear account too. I think they entire lot will come to less than £2,400 even with the new CC and the CT extra added......very happy with that considering that this time last year we were nudging £8k!!! I would like to have it ALL gone by my birthday in early September which is £300 a month......I've surrently got £100 a week 'savings' in my budget so it's very doable I reckon , especially if I get hubby on board and sell a few things I feel are surplus to requirements at the moment but up until now I haven't wanted to part wit ....my desk, the old baby stuff, about 4 hamster cages for example.

Anyway, I'm off to do my morning jobs and then have a nice brunch after that. It's so cold I may migrate upstairs and stay up there the remainder of the day. It's usually about 3-4 degrees warmer up there!

aimeemum

Busy couple of days here and I'm shattered! lol

Yesterday I sorted my kitchen - cleared the floor of all the stuff I'd shoved in there to be sorted later, and moved the furniture around. Today I've been the supermarket this morning and after a 2.30am alarm to take hubby to the airport, I'm done. I have quickly run around and done a few jobs (made beds etc) but I still need to do dishes and things. So tired!_pale_

I picked up some bits for Christmas - 3 selection boxes for the kids, a shark-shaped sponge for youngest, and some treats for Bracken 3 things to check off my list and I also collected my Morrisons vouchers I've accrued so far. £25 of vouchers now in my purse, dhecked off week 1 of the offer (if I do 5 weeks at £60 a week I'll get £22 of points.....I usually spend well over £60 so I'll have no problem doing that, and with Tesco no longer being good value I'm happy with that), plus I got a 1500 point voucher to use next week which will take me over the next £5 boundary too. All in all, successful trip :rudolf: I may still get my meat delivered through tesco as I still have my delivery saver in place so I need to use it once a month. Their Turkeys and things are a bit better value than the M's ones.

This afternoon I'm going to put my feet up and maybe have a nap....kids will be home on the bus as normal, and I'v bought frozen pizzas and smiley faces for tea.

aimeemum

Hubby's trip to Ireland is thus far proving expensive.

He's been offered a motorbike that he rode a few years ago and loved. The guy is willing to give it to him for nothing (mates rates lol) but it's currently not on the road so we would need to hire a van and book a ferry.....£500 plus fuel and expenses, which for a bike isn't bad, but the bike would then need fixing and who knows how much that would cost! :eek::eek:

And then...his Dad and his GF has suggested we all have a family holiday somewhere, they've suggested portugal but having priced it up I know we can't do it this year. £1000+ for flights, £300 for a hire car plus £300 for new passports for all 5 of us (hubby is the only one with a current one at the moment but that'll need doing before travelling as it's only got 14m on it).....£1600 before we talk about spending money!! They've offered to pay for the villa which is a big outlay but I know we can't get £1600, plus another £700 of spends for a week abroad within 6-7 months. That's just not going to work. I may suggest we book for 2021 instead. In the meantime I've found some nice deals on cottages and things in this country....we would pay accommodation (same deal just the other way around)......travelling with 3 kids is just so expensive!! This is why we camp! :rotfl:

So all in, we've got over £3k to find to fulfill all these plans lol. Best get writing this book lol. :shocked:

aimeemum

What an eventful few days - The boys and I had a lovely day out on Sunday...such a lovely place to visit and definitely got us in the festive mood!

Hubby got home Monday, all good. Nipped and bought the ingredients for eldest's school cookery lesson, and some logs as it is freezing cold here! Yesterday hubby and I spent the day doing a few jobs and catching up on the TV we missed over the weekend. A much needed day 'off' really.

Now I need to really crack on with preparations for next month but I'm still very tired from the weeknd. At least I got some good amounts of writing done and if I had my way I'd be sitting doing that all day instead of housework First though I have 2 days of 'It Takes Two to catch up on.

aimeemum

An even more eventful week and a half - barely had time to check in anywhere with everything that has been going on!

So big news is we're getting a puppy!! He is coming home on Tuesday and it genuinely doesn't feel real at the moment. We went out to get him some new things on Wednesday morning and they are currently stashes as we're keeping him a surprise from the kids! Or trying to anyway - I'm just so giddy!

Other stuff - I'm making progress with the Christmas prep. The house is looking good and I have one more push to do tomorrow and Monday with the added little extra of puppy proofing the downstairs! I'm used to doing it for Bracken but a 9week old pup is a whole different kettle of fish!

Money wise we're doing ok. I've had to use some of my budget for Christmas on puppy things but the cost of the actual pup is covered by hubby's expenses (so technically it's my Christmas present!!) - It's put a slight scupper on the whole 'save up to move house by Easter' thing, but hubby has another training course in Jan-March which will earn him the same amount of expenses again more or less, and I'm determined that we'll have moved by the summer......I love living here but we can't have eldest going to the secondary school here (it's rubbish!) so we need to move as he's in yr5 and we would both like him to have at least a year in primary to build up some friendship groups. I know he wouldn't struggle no matter what (I never did and I moved schools more that most people change their pants!) but it's what we'd like for him. Only slight issue is youngest in Yr2 having the upset of moving when it's a SATS year but to be honest if he misses them it wont make me lose sleep!

Other than that we're all good. Going to spend some time today writing cards, wrapping presents (we're going to spend a Christmassy day with my parents on Sunday so need to have all of their stuff ready to go ) and I may even break out my reindeer mug I really do love Christmas!

abba1772

Congrats on the puppy.....what kind of breed is it.....we are still smitten with our wee puppy xx

aimeemum

abba1772 wrote: »

Congrats on the puppy.....what kind of breed is it.....we are still smitten with our wee puppy xx

He's a Sprocker (Springer x Cocker) x Sprollie (Springer x Collie) - so a bit of all sorts!

aimeemum

HI all, Sorry I've not been on much but it's been a bit of a whirlwind. I think I'm pretty much there though, which is a relief. The puppy is going well with his house-training and my present buying is almost done...will be by the end of tomorrow

I'm very pleased to get my new badge - I'm officially a Xmas Saver!!

In other news I always like to start looking at my goals for the coming year...I also think as it's a new decade I would like to have some loose aims for the coming 10 years. Things like places I'd like to visit, things to do with the kids etc. I'm starting to think about but unsure what I want t focus on....there's so much I want to do