Our £20,000 Life

clearmydebts

How are things Cinny?

Cinny91

Hey CMD! Things are on the up thank you Hope you and yours are well.

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I just felt like I didn't have much positive to report and everything was such a long list of issues that we've been treading water. Had boiler problems that we cash flowed the repairs of, DH had some unexpected work trips, LO's health is always a little shaky in winter so we had a hospital stay last month that meant DH was buying food from the shops which are massively overpriced, I wasn't eating so I guess that's a saving (thanks, stress!) and when we got LO home we were just so chuffed his health was back on track we had a couple expensive weekends. Well, not that expensive but when it's an unplanned day out that costs £50 (fuel, parking mostly - we're good at picnics) it hits the budget pretty hard. Should say LO is a healthy happy lad, but he's asthmatic which means colds that hit during a season change can knock him massively. Nothing a bit of oxygen on tap doesn't cure, and he'll happily tell you about his ambulance rides!

Some positives..
Swapped utilities saving £30 pm, due a refund of £139.16 from our old supplier within the next few weeks. Will also get £50 cashback at some stage. I'll be rounding this up to £140, taking it out of the bank and putting it to one side for Christmas food/treats. We also got a free xbox we'll be trading in, and have £20 worth of more points.
Christmas gifts are pretty much done. Just have quilts to back and a couple boxes of chocolates to buy. Budgeted £50 for this from next payday.
We managed to get LO his dream red bike for free using amazon vouchers, only spend was £5.90 on a basket for the front.
Online food shop last week came to £45. This included a couple things for some science projects for LO, so not too shabby. Used the £18 off code too

Phew!

Will get updated debt totals from DH when he's working at home next, so I can update my signature and get back on track. I'm very excited for 2020 as we've decided to home educate LO starting Sept 2020 so budgets are going to be very important. From what I've read, and from common sense alone, I think reception year can be tackled with a library card and a good set of outdoor clothes.

Tonights tea is pork chops with coleslaw and veggies. My favourite frugal tea at the moment is chopping up some veggies, alongside some diced potatoes, making up some kind of seasoning (cajun, mostly) then roasting them with some kind of meat - last night it was chorizo style sausages. Blob of soured cream and you've got a good warming meal with minimal wash up. Tonights pork chops are a journey into USA frugal meals. Sounds a bit grim on paper but if it's as tasty as I expect I'll report back :rotfl:

Cinny91

Merry Boxing Day!

Being sensible in the sales this year. Bought LO a new pair of shoes, and put a reserve on 2 bookcases and storage baskets for LO's school room. Going to put the left over Christmas money we were given into savings as we have a new plan for 2020.

Due to come personal issues, we're going to be saving money instead of paying directly off the loan. Once our savings reach 20k we'll settle the loan and still, of course, have some savings left over. I wont go far into the reasons why as I dont want to bore anyone reading this at Christmas but it will give us some financial security as every year we do risk DH being made redundant at the year end.

Today I sent £105 to HMRC to pay the tax that was due. This year my hours are slashed, I'm way under the taxable threshold and DH has some of my allowance so this wont happen again.

Also saved £12 and £9 by printing off and laminating the free TOMM cleaning rotas, avoiding buying the book or wipeable chart. Can and will happily clean all day, with home schooling LO I really want to streamline and prioritise. Hoping this will help!

Cancelled Now TV movie pass. Only paid for it this month, more access to festive films etc. Glad I've remembered to record it over letting it roll over. Have it until the 15th.

Cinny91

Just paid my credit card balance - £72.86, so that is clear.

Cancelled a subscription box for LO, £11.95pm saved. It's a lovely idea but hes so quick to catch a cold, and it's a nature box. Better to keep the lad indoors!

Cinny91

Good Morning!

Moved £655 to one side for the rest of this months
. well, January's bills.

Removed a subscription for an educational box for LO. Who I think I might just start referring to as O 😅 Anyhow, I only really wanted the last box as it was dinosaur themed. That's £20pm saved.

Also going to call up about my NT membership today and see if I can cancel that too. If not it's no big deal as we can use it locally with O to do some home ed things, as I'm sure theres a group that meets at a local stately home. But we dont finish nursery until the summer holidays so it's a bit to wait.

Just waiting to get my wages so we can decide what to move into savings. Should be £200 at the least. But I'd like for us to have saved this money up to do the big pay off around my 30th birthday, and DH's 33rd. Which gives us 15 months, £1060 to save a month. Which is verging on impossible it's short term really, 15 months isnt that long at all in the grand scheme.

Cinny91

£900 into savings :beer: Which brings us to £5000 to start the new decade with. £160 to save to stay on track by January 25th.

Bubble and squeak for dinner, be the same tomorrow I think, then that's all the christmas veggies eaten up. Have what feels like a small farms worth of turkey and beef to work through still. Worse problems to have really 😅

Currently eating Turkish delight, watching Short Circuit trying to decide if I want to commit to building the book shelves today or make them up tomorow. Going to the cinema later to see Little Women, cant remember when I last went to see something that wasnt a kids movie at the cinema. I did, however, describe a 5pm showing as "late" 😂

Cinny91

Should add our debt total is currently £18790.82. I think it was around 21k in September?

Drawingaline

Hey, just read through your diary. You sound a bit like me. Big plans and them it all goes off at a tangent.

My oldest son is asthmatic and we had a few scary hospital visits and one memorable week stay on two drips when he was six. Since then we have been so careful, and while he has still needed the nebuliser a few times, at age 14, he is so much better. His is viral induced so really only come on with a cold, so I sympathise with the sept/oct panics!

Good luck with the homeschooling, I wish I could have done this with my smallest who doesn't suit traditional school at all, but unfortunately it wouldn't suit our family and would mean far too many sacrifices for the other kids as well.

Cinny91

I'm incredibly talented at forgetting my own plans �� I think my biggest issue is I'm very go big or go home, so I go big, get disheartened and stay home ��

Glad to hear your son is getting better with it. I'm hoping, as my DH and siblings all grew out of their asthma that O will too. Never dealt with it on my side of the family so it's all been a bit of a shock to me.

And thank you! I'm hoping it all works well for us, the change in him in himself since nursery broke up for Christmas gives me hope we are doing the best thing. Only a few terms left now!

Cinny91

Morning!

Today is the day of the great build! I'm pretty chuffed with our buys, no matter which way I cut it before Christmas I was expecting to need to spend around £150 on new bits of furniture for the school room. £60.98 :T

TT of £6.67. We're saving the money in our PB account as it isnt instant access, no temptation to dip in. Minimum bond is, of course, £25 so I'll be adding to the account every time I hit £25.

We were also given an amazon gift card for Christmas, that I've told DH to spend as he wishes as one of my NYR is to stop spending money online 😬 my one exception is booking tickets, but as we're planning on a close-to-the-bone year to get this loan gone I dont expect we'll do much of that! Our "summer holiday" this year is us spending a week at a local history festival at a grand total of £6 a day :rotfl: