AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

abba1772

sounds like our household with the cheese.........everyone loves it and it never lasts long enough for my liking xx

aimeemum

Very relaxed day and I think it was needed. Took the dog as soon as boys were on the bus. Came home, cleared kitchen and had breakfast and promptly fell asleep for an hour....not like me at all. I have therefore listened to my body and not pushed hard today.....just done a few things, had lunch and watched a few episodes of Star Trek: Discovery. Loving it!! Feeling a bit sluggish generally today - I desperately want to make progress at something but don't know what to do first so procrastination has set in!! Eurgh.....not a great frame of mind. Hoping that I will feel better tomorrow so I can spend my time productively.

As for the debts....I did spend some time this afternoon setting up my new 'post-debt' budgets. I have a plan to stick to the budget loosely that I'm already using as it's working pretty well, and send extra money free'd up from no longer repaying debts into various savings pots for Christmas, Birthdays, Holidays, Car maintenance and a miscellaneous 'future' account that will act as as pension pot for me...only a couple of £s a week, but it's better than having nothing!

aimeemum

Good day so far - I swear the sunshine makes me want to get up and sort/clean/work. Decided to try an alternative routine with the doggy today and have swapped her walk from first thing to after lunch. I'm at my least productive after lunch anyway, so I figure I'd be better spending my time out in the fresh air than not really getting anything done at home.

Achievements for today -
- vacuumed the entire house!
- tidied the whole house apart from bathrooms that got done Monday so were not needed
- put away ALL the laundry (did 1 load that is currently drying, but everything else is put away!)
- Dusted the MB and LR (these two areas are constantly in need of TLC) also decluttered LR
- Dishes all done, surfaces wiped, floor swept and sink shiny in the kitchen

All this only took me 90 minutes. I've also had breakfast and watched a TV programme for an hour. My lunch is currently in the oven so taking the opportunity to check in on here, check my banks and my credit score has updated today and it's stayed the same - first time since November it's not gone down!

Payday tomorrow - I'm literally so excited I could burst! I want to make progress so badly (again I think the nice weather gets me thinking about days out etc and I can't wait!) and I am excited that this week marks week 11 in our journey, and that means that we have 17 weeks until the summer holidays and that's where we will re-evaluate where we are. 17 weeks sounds like a lot, but when I think we've done 11 already, this year is really flying!

aimeemum

£63 paid towards debts today - takes me to 38% paid

Went to the supermarket and spent a fortune re-stocking the cupboards - only good thing is that I used a voucher to get 7k More points and 5% cashback through my bank too....so will get £12 back from that shop

Hubby has taken the dog out with him so I've got the house to myself. I love having her but she is quite unpredictable (steals from bins and things) so you can't leave her alone. It's like having a toddler again! lol

aimeemum

Friday today and I'm living the dream. All housework done ready for the weekend. Hubby took dog for her walk so I could vacuum without her attacking it!

Now I'm sat at my desk wondering how I'm going to get myself back into a 'work' frame of mind. I haven't written anything since before half term and I'm really struggling to find the words (which is ironic considering how much I write on here.) I think I'm a bit distracted by the house, money, plans etc and just need to think of my writing as my job - I need to carve out my 'work' hours and take myself to my desk for them, rather than finding excuses. First step though - plan out my next few Blog posts.....that's always fun

Also need to plan the next few weeks properly. We have ideas for the next 3 weeks - zoo this weekend to help youngest with his 'African Animals' project, then Mother's Day next weekend, then weekend after we're going to a Roman site for eldest's romans project for school.

Money-front......I am now looking forward to next week (wishing my life away slightly!) but then it's April and we're going to be into Month 4 and that's when we hit 50%!!

aimeemum

Lovely chilled Sunday. Woke up late, had a bath and then middle son was sick all over the bathroom floor. We then had a day indoors as a result but everyone seemed relaxed. I did some batch cooking - made a pie for tea, plus a big batch of beef+veg bolognese to make lasagne/pasta dishes with tomorrow or later in the week. Everyone has been bathed, and eldest has had a haircut courtesy of hubby who is nifty with the scissors!

Anyway, time for bed now. Spent £8.50 on sweets and treats for the kids yesterday (and a chocolate bar for me! lol) so it's been a Low-Spend Weekend which is nice.

Hubby has checked his credit file and there's a debt on there I didn't know about for £114 - instead of paying off a chunk of his credit card I will pay this off this week so it's gone from his file and our lives! It's not due to drop off his file for another 2 years so it's worth paying off as is and not fighting it. Going to make my letters up about our 2 that are almost 6 years old. I would like to be debt free properly, and those debts are only £180 at full value so I'm hoping to get at least 50% F&F's for them both.

abba1772

Good luck with the f&f offers xx

aimeemum

Happy Wednesday. I've not been on much as I've been busy - poorly children and a husband at home means not a lot of time for work/organisation. But today, everyone is back to work/school (despite my middle son trying to get off the bus I talked him round. Very proud of him actually as he did it with very little convincing!) and I've already tidied my house up mostly - still need to do my kitchen/dishes but there's very little to do. Tesco delivery coming this afternoon - CB was paid yesterday, UC paid today and hubby's wages paid tomorrow. Bank accounts are looking very healthy!! Going to leave everything where it is, and then tomorrow when everything is paid in, I'll do my Thursday payments and set up all my SOs for the 1st.

Jobs to do today -
- Ironing
- Empty my filing cabinet of anything old/not useful. Archive what needs to be kept and re-organise my files so I can do my masses of paper-sorting over the next few days. 1 box at a time!

Mum and Dad are coming over to visit tomorrow. I've not seen Mum in a year, and Dad in nearly 2 years, so it'll be nice to see them. They're over house-hunting, so hopefully they'll have some news when I see them

aimeemum

Strange day - Mum rang and they came over today instead. It was a pleasant afternoon. I fed them as they hadn't eaten ...makes me sad to see them so desperate. They're relocating back from Ireland after 2.5 years and have no income except my Dad's pensions. My Mum is a WASPI - she should have retired 4 years ago, but still has 2 years left before she can. They were house-hunting this morning and have found a nice house just over an hour from us which is perfect for me....I love my parents but they can be a bit full on. Hopefully they can secure it and get back on their feet.

Got my filing done - well, some of it. I emptied the cabinet, re-organised all the files and then emptied the drawer I've been using to keep the most recent paperwork in. I figured that was the important stuff to keep organised. I'll got through the rest slowly over the next few days/weeks.

Looking forward to tomorrow - I can have a day 'off'

aimeemum

Payday-proper today. Have setup SO's for the Rent, the Council tax and my CC regular payments every week. All my bills are sat in my bills account, so they can just be taken without me worrying about them bouncing. I did mis-calculate and didn't realise that hubby's CC was included so I have already paid that, so that's a good mistake to make. I'm currently trying to log on to Hubby's old debt (an old payday loan from 2015) to pay it off but the website isn't loading

EDIT: I have now paid it. £113 so it was worth doing it in one go....all gone and showing as paid up on their website. Hopefully that will show up on his next credit check.

Another strange thing - Hubby's CC that I have been paying off in chunks since October...it is now down below £150 which is a quarter of his credit limit of £600. I've just logged on and his credit limit is due to rise to £1,800 in May! I cannot believe it - he's been in 'persistent debt' for 2 years, barely making minimums and going over his limits regularly, but within 6 months of me making regular payments he is having his credit limit tripled!! Should he accept the rise though - would that help to repair his credit history?

Everyone off to school as normal, all happy and healthy....the sun is shining too. A good day hopefully!