AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

aimeemum

Whatlifeis said:

Well done on both the weight loss and the debt-busting. That’s awesome

Thanks.  

aimeemum

Glorious sunny day here and I'm feeling great which is a welcome change from last week! Done lots of housework (caught up on everything that had been forgotten last week) and done a workout too. I listed all of hubby's bike parts (20 of them altogether!!!) so they're all on now and hopefully some of them will sell. 

Off to spend the rest of the day at the park/having fun with the boys. 

aimeemum

Feeling a bit tired today so taking a little bit easier. Have put a bid on a pair of jeans on ebay (desperately need new clothes!) and have also bought a bundle of new tops for a bargain price. Summer wardrobe is coming together - more incentive to keep up with the weight loss. 
Put a lot of stuff into the food bank collection box at the village hall, cleaned out the guinea pigs, fed the snake and sorted my filing pile/corner in the kitchen as it was attempting to take over the world. Rest of the day, I need to do a workout/activity, plan my week ahead for home-school and personal, and get all the boys in the bath! 

aimeemum

It's been a good few days so here I am with an update - 

- I won the jeans, and I also bought a new journal (went a bit crazy and spent money - so unlike me! lol) I now only need a pair of summer sandals and a pair of trainers and I'm ready for summer Will try to get those towards the end of April when I can get to the shops and try them on. 
- The UC etc has all come through (well, the calculations, I'll get paid tomorrow) and the payments are just about what I thought, maybe even a little higher which is a nice surprise. Going to sit down tomorrow and do my April budget and close out March. 
- Debt payments took a bit of a back seat as hubby splurged a little this week too - whoops - so we ended up paying a whole £1.50 off the cards. 
- His motorbike parts are going well - sold 3 so far so he's got £55 towards his bike service (said he needs a minimum of £60 so not much lft to go). I'm getting 10% as my 'cut' so that's paying off my splurging on ebay lol. 
- I have the last of the jerseys up to finish on Friday evening, so whatever that goes for will go to pay some more towards the CCs. 
- Another £20 sent to savings too.  
- Need to make sure I have some surplus to go and get the kids their summer clothes once the shops open. I did a stock take and they don't need much which is good. Eldest needs new everything as he's growing like a  weed though! 

I have done a workout every day and plan on going a fit test on the 31st March to see where I am and to give myself a baseline (will then do one every month to track my progress). I'm back on track with the housework - and I'm down another 1lb (I think.....we really need new scales as they never give me the same result twice!!) I feel great at the moment so I'm just waiting for something to come out of the blue to knock that out of me. 

aimeemum

More for today - just rung the council to double check my bill and that's all sorted and has meant I haven't had to make an extra payment to them this week like I had anticipated. Taken that money and re-filled the pots I took money from to buy on ebay etc, so now they're full again (my £50 buffer was looking a bit empty!) and the rest will go towards the boys clothes.....I think there was about £11 to go into that fund. 

aimeemum

All my new tops have arrived and I'm so pleased with them. There was 1 that I don't like, but that's 11 out of the 12 that I do, and at least 8 that I can wear from today (there's 1 that has a mark on the back so wont be able to wear that out of the house, and there's 2 that are a bit 'office-wear' but I will put them in the drawer for any eventualities.) Just got to give them a wash and then I can wear them  

aimeemum

Pay day today and I have enough in my bills account to cover EVRY SINGLE BILL this month, plus I've transferred the correct amount to cover the little niggly bits in the spending account too (the Tesco delivery subscription, the Apple care £5 a month for hubby's phone etc). Even with that there was £71 left in that account so that's gone to finish the savings goal for the holiday balance, and the remainder has gone to the clothes pot. Feels great to have met another goal I just wish I didn't have to hand all of it over in various forms at the end of April to pay for things!! It's nice seeing 100s of pounds sat in accounts that I have managed to pull together. 

aimeemum

Weird day so far. 
I did a workout (a fit test actually to get myself a baseline) and it wore me out completely. Made the mistake of sitting down and woke up an hour later. I've gotten back on track with my morning routine and I just have a couple of admin tasks (need to pack and arrange postage for one of hubby's parts and post a birthday card) and then I'm all up to date so no harm done. WHB will wait until tomorrow as hubby is doing a training course from home again so I wont have any excuse to sit down and procrastinate! lol He's sold 10 things so far and after fees (and my cut) he's got £150 sat waiting to be spent on his bike. He's pleased as that's well over the minimum, and he's now managed to find another 8 or so things for me to list....joy! At least I'm making a little out of the deal - my cut has paid for my Dad's birthday present of a box of brownies to be posted to him. Next week I need to sort Mum's present out too....getting her a membership to a country park close to their house. They're getting a puppy in a couple of weeks and the park is dog friendly so will give them lots of walks for free. 

I'm going to be honest, I'm not feeling good. I think it's a 'time of the month' type thing as I've had a really good couple of weeks and now I feel like I've hit the deck full force. Good thing is I know it's only temporary so i'll keep going, rest and eat and I'll come good again. The workouts are really helping actually and while this morning was killer, I did manage to do more than I thought I would I just feel a might over-whelmed and lacking in any energy at all. The weather isn't helping....I get very badly affected by wind (I think it's the noise in my ears tires me out) and I worry about the garden, the roof.....it generally just sets me off and I've not slept right the last 2 nights because of it. I do feel 'off' generally though so I don't think it's just disturbed sleep. 

Money wise - no change really. Waiting for payday, which is also the 1st so that will be 'bills day' too....although a lot of them come out of the 28th so they've gone out this morning. Nice to see them all just go without any stress though - the money is there and waiting and we're all good for another month. The £5 into the HTB account went out as normal this morning, so that's growing tiny bit by tiny bit......The HTB's are supposed to be closing in the next 5 years so I'm not sure what will happen to that but for now, it gets £5 a month as our 'invest in your future' payment.

We also got eldest's welcome pack from his new school this morning. All very official that it's happening now. Hubby and I were talking and I think we've made a decision. We're staying here for the next 10 years. that's how long it will be until youngest is 18 (he's 8 in August), so we're going to stay in this house (and even if things change we'll stay in the area) to allow the kids' schooling to be uninterrupted and because we like it here. It's really odd for me (I swear I'm part nomad!) to say we're here for a decade, especially seeing as we've been here for 6 years in August already.......and we're unlikely to move until youngest is 21 with them all doing Uni, college etc.....so really we're likely to have been in this house for 19 years by the time we eventually go! That's a lot of rent!!! I am saving for a house deposit (the HTB)  but we're not planning on buying anything until the kids have all left home (i.e. when youngest hits 21 and can make his own way in the world!) so we wont need to buy a £300k 4 bed mansion! Anyway, next job on that front is to get the younger two their school places sorted for September so I'll be cracking on with that after the Easter holidays. 

Anyway, I'd best crack on otherwise I'll never get anything done today......


ETA: Just worked out that 19 years of rent (with no rises taken into account - we haven't had a rent rise the whole time we've been here so we're due one) will be £158,465. 

aimeemum

Hi everyone and happy Good Friday. 

It's been a good week mostly, so I am feeling good. I had a dip in the middle of the week but that seems to have passed now. I've done well with money this week, been out in the sunshine walking the dog and playing with the boys. I've also not missed a workout and today was the first day doing 15 minutes (been doing odds and sods since I did the fit test on monday as that broke me!!) and I did it. I'm shattered but I did it. Looking at keeping up with 15 minutes a day for the next month - but taking every 7th day off so today is day 1......having said that when I miss a day I feel like Ive chopped off a limb so we'll see lol. 

Money wise - well, where to start. I have paid an additional £54 off this week, even with hubby deciding he needed more fishing stuff for his match at the weekend. I've also put £30 into SF's and £20 into H2S as normal. I'm seriously considering taking all the H2S money and paying the CC's off when they meet at the end of this month.......It would mean we miss out on about £50 in bonus but we would pay more than that in interest if we kept the cards open and full. We're down to a little over £1400 in the CC's at the moment, but I think it's 6 weeks until they're due to go below the amount in the H2S accounts. Wouldn't take much effort to tip it over a week or two early. Would be great to say we're debt free before we go away on holiday!! It would also mean that the money that is in the savings/Sinking Funds wouldn't need to be touched and we'd have a payment free budget to go away with......very tempting!!

Anyway, plan for the rest of the day. Drink coffee, watch Easter movies, plan an egg hunt, list another batch of bike parts for hubby, and decide what's for tea. 

ETA: Added 18 parts to my Ebay account. Not as many high value parts this time, but still a far amount of value if they sell. 

aimeemum

Bargain found on Amazon for middle child's birthday in May. Playmobil Space station - selling for £60ish most places, bought for £48.73. Had the money stashed in the Birthday SF so was able to take advantage. That's his big birthday present bought and we still have over half of the budget left