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So if I deduct all of that I need £378.97 to pay my bills.
However I have £75 for face lasering I need to pay for in two weeks and I also need to pay £30 for DS school photos. So thats £483.97.
I can't even remember where I came up with £486 needed but I'll keep going with that.
Current Ebay totals: £156.04 (unable to withdraw yet)
Sofa Bed sale: £75 (being collected at the weekend)
Balance to raise £254.96
Dinner tonight is pizza for LO and I still haven't cooked everything in the fridge as I was dragged out last night by the ex to collect a washing machine for his new flat.
I've got a load of mushrooms I need to decide what to do with. I like roasted mushrooms, garlic mushrooms etc. I can't make soup as I have no cream. I've got rice so might see if I can find something mushroomy ricey.
I adore mushroom soup so I'm going to make a big batch tonight, just need to find a tasty recipe. I also have carrots to use up so I could make carrot and red lentil soup. My only issue is I'm running out of room in the freezer...however I have at least a drawer of food I could throw away. Stuff neither me nor DS will eat. Two massive steak pies that I definitely froze out of date. And a few other things I might just defrost and see if I can be bothered cooking something with them.
I also need to work out how to use my thermostat, there are no instructions so I've just been setting it to 17 degrees, which means its either on all the time or.....on all the time. I need to find the covers to the hot water bottles, and then perhaps turn the heating on from 5pm to 7pm, then turn it off and stick a hot water bottle in each bed. My lodger likes to sleep in the cold so he won't care if the heating is off. And I have blankets to use downstairs when it gets cold. Only issue is my SO likes to be warm when he is here, then again if we huddle under a blanket I am sure we will warm up!
Also changed to Bulb's tarrif where its cheaper to use energy after 7pm at night so have dilgently been making sure that the washing machine and dishwasher don't go on til after 7pm. I've also got smart plugs on my bedroom lights,DS's lamp and the living room lamp. Means instead of leaving the living room light on all afternoon, I can look out of the window at work and when it starts to get dark turn the lamp on remotely for the dogs. Same thing would work with an automatic timer but these were gifted so might as well make use of them. I've got one left which I'm going to plug the dyson charger into, so it only charges between 7pm and midnight or something like that/
I don't have to worry about food for the next few days luckily. DS has got lunchbox cake that SO made him (I love this guy so much!), pizza tonight and then tomorrow night he'll be having a MacDonalds once his grandmothers picked him up for the weekend. If I actually make that mushroom soup I'm going to live on that all weekend.
Just listed a book on ebay for £40, usually sells for £50 so I might be lucky.
Need to start planning our trip to London
ExDH is picking DS up tonight the funny thing being that I am going to his town for the cinema, I just forgot to tell him as I could have taken DS with me but if I'm honest - I want a child free night without having to worry about dropping him off. He wants him to stay, he can come get him! I am being awkward but its the first weekend DS is going to ExDH's flat and I want him to get used to the routine.
Still haven't worked out how to reset the thermostat, but I also haven't bothered googling it and I'm pretty sure its been on constantly. I've just checked my Bulb account and I've been using £3.50 gas and elec combined a day! Going to have to sort that out....blimmin eck.
Haven't listed much on ebay this week, will get on to that tomorrow morning. Have sold things here and there. Thought I was going to have to throw DS's Skylander figures in the bin, didnt think they'd be worth it but we're up to £6.50 on ebay after a couple of days. So even a tenner would be worth it. I think I'm just going to list EVERYTHING and see what happens!
In the fridge I've got some carrots to use up, also have lentils so if carrots are okay tomorrow I'll make soup. Then.....my best friend and her husband are coming to my house for dinner tomorrow. Its the first time they've visited and it will be the first time me and DP have entertained people as a couple. Its funny because its my house but he treats it like its his (in a positive way) so I'm really looking forward to it. I think my best friend is going to laugh her !!! off at how much my dogs love him,
Not sure who's going to buy the food for dinner but hoping he offers....no idea what we're cooking though. I do need to go get a Terry's Chocolate Orange, double cream and chocolate to bake a cake.
Sunday, DS is still away so think its a lazy morning, DP will help me cook healthy food for the week because I'm so unmotivated and then we will take the dogs out.
I've been invited to a friends event, I need £20 for both me and DP as well as a babysitter. ExDH isn't available, no idea what the going rate is but its an important one as its my best friends last night out before she gives birth. Also, I'd like to introduce DP to more of my friends. Better list some more things on eBay!
I've accepted this week that I just need to get to the end of the month. Then on 1st December I'm going to properly allocate my money out. If I think that I won't have enough money without using the child maintenance I get at the end of December, well I will have to just cut back on something!
I actually don't think I can afford Christmas, but.....DS wants a bike so I am going to tell him he can have it but we're waiting for January sales. That way, I can use my December wages.
Universal Credit might have kicked in by then, but goodness knows how much I'm going to get back. My childcare is £280 a month, but I also have a yearly salary in the 30ks. But I think I might get £160 a month? No idea to be honest! Every little helps.
In other news my lodger is driving me mad. Left both doors unlocked when he left for work (I had already left). His room is disgusting, I only noticed as he left the door open. I need him there whilst I am still paying for my car lease, and I am going to ask him to leave in June. My mother and sister are coming to stay in the summer, I'll enjoy the summer inb my house by myself and then I will think about maybe getting a short term student lodger on and off from September 2020 until me and DP think about moving in. The financial consequences of DP moving in would be a loss of around £600 a month to me. Or rather a loss of about £100 because I think rent and bills would come to about £520 a month. I obviously wouldn't expect him to contribute towards the cost of my two dogs, my son's childcare etc. He earns a lot less than me anyway so probably would work out even.
I know this sounds silly as really, its at least a year before we think about this...but if I want it to happen I've really got to drill down on this debt!
£186 Child maintenance coming in
£400 lodger (next week)
£1973 salary 29th November
£82.20 CHild Benefit weekly up to 16th December
£198 UC (Possibly)
Total £2839.80
November And December I need to pay
£150 to credit cards (I haven't defaulted on two cards, I'm considering it though)
£50 DMP
£360 Car Lease (Ends February, I have a lodger basically to see me through until car is gone)
£300 Family Loan (Usually £200, I have £100 owed in backpay)
£280 Childcare for November
£196 Childcare for December
£18 Vaping (yep I need to cut this out, I owe it to the shop)
£74 Pet Healthcare and Insurance
£16 Home Insurance
£10 Spotify
£16 Netflix
£0 TV Licence (quarterly so not due)
£163 Mobile phones (Don't want to default on these. One contract ends August 2020, the others are fairly recent...bad Jbkmum)
£800 Rent
£80 Bulb
£45 Water
£25 Internet
£200 Groceries (2 dogs, 1 adult (gastric sleeve I barely eat) and 1 child. Wonder what the least we could spend is? Dog food is £33. I have lots of stuff in freezer. I think I need to do some planning)
£100 Petrol (I don't drive much but at the end of December I will need to do a few hundred miles over Christmas)
£15 Overdraft fees
£87 Council Tax
£10.40 NHS
£0 Clothing
Nothing budgeted for Christmas, DS knows Christmas will happen AFTER christmas.
So thats £155.60 short
I will postpone the £196 childcare bill and pay that at the end of December, its robbing P to pay P but I'll live.
If I can stick to the above I will be in the black excluding the childcare bill I am postponing. Also no money for Christmas but my SO will understand and DS knows I'm getting something for him in the January sales.
Now all I need is to get £300 back from my £700 rental deposit from a house I moved out in August and we will be fine! Would love the old letting agent to get a move on....Going to submit a dispute tonight via MyDeposits to get it moving.
Still haven't written to HMRC re £150 cheque I need reissuing. So its all my fault reaaaaally.
Have you got anything you could sell?
I actually think we're going to be okay this month. I've had confirmation that I should get £420 back from the landlord for my old rent deposit from August. Just waiting for that. Also submitted my childcare proof for universal credit maybe this month I'll actually receive something. By this month I mean December 10th. If I'm right....I'll have £127 surplus after bills and expenses. But I'm not counting my chickens. I was going to pay my car lease bill today £360 but I'm going to wait for my UC statement on the 6th December, and to wait for confirmation from letting agenct re deposit.
I have made some purchases.....but....
Beeswax wraps - I have just run out of sandwich bags, these are reusable for DS sandwiches
Reusable ziploc bags for snacks - as above
More fabric sanitary pads, I had 5 but they don't see me through a cycle so needed some more and last time I think I broke even after 5 months in terms of cost
Incense sticks - run out of air freshners, these are an easier less waste way of keeping the house smelling nice (have dogs)
Bed sheet - have torn a bed sheet, needed to replace it
Toothbrush heads - we have totally run out - I got nonbranded so I hope they fit
Produce bags - we're going to start shopping at the greengrocers and buy loose fruit
They're all things that have been on my list for a month or two but kept putting off. I kept putting off the beeswax wraps until I was sure every bit of foil/clingfilm/sandwich bags were gone.
I have 3 ebay parcels to post tonight.
I'm not doing any listing this weekend, I want to tidy my front room, go get our Christmas tree and relax whilst I get over this cold. I then need to sort out DS's bedroom on Sunday morning as my ex needs to take some of his toys and furniture as we just don't have the room for it and so it needs to go to his new flat.
I also need to plan food for December. SO doesn't really eat with us, he tends to turn up after dinner or bring stuff and cook for me so I can just plan for 1.5 humans and two dogs. I think we'll need another bag of dog food.
I've transfered £300 to my starling account which is food, fuel, christmas tree and decorations and dog food.
Dog Food is £32.99 for 15kg - will need one toward the end of December but I'm not sure how long this bag currently lasts - opened it Tuesday. Might be lucky, might last till January!
Fuel I'll probably use £100
Christmas Tree is £35 I think (real)? We're going to make some salt dough decorations at the weekend and paper snowflakes, need some string for those. I'm hoping SO contributes to the tree, he doesn't live with us but he's been here enough and I do feel like its "our" tree.
Having had a quick look through the freezer and cupboards last night, I can see the potential for a lot of risottos (I mean I have like 10kg of risotto rice), I've got cooking bacon, frozen peas, frozen parmesan etc.
December shopping list looks like:
Toilet Roll
Washing up liquid
2 x Chickens (for DS and to make chicken stock)
Potatoes
Carrots
Courgettes
5kg red lentils
Bag of onions
Jar of lazy garlic
2 x 500g Lean Mince
4 x Butternut squashes
2x Cauliflowers
1 jar of thai curry paste
4 x cans of tinned tomatoes
3 x tubes of tomato puree
1 x pizza flour
1 x jar of bolognese sauce for pizza topping
3 x loaves of bread, 4 loaves of banana soreen (depending on if I make cake)
1 x block of cheese
Yoghurt and Milk
Numerous bottles of smoothie as SO drinks it by the gallon (not convinced its cheaper to make it myself)
Apples, Bananas, Sweet Clems
Giant Cous Cous
Butter
Eggs
Chorizo
Peppers
Yet, surely not having money is more stressful?? I don't know whats wrong with me. Even thinking about the mere two ebay parcels is filling me with anxiety.
4 days in and we have £106.04 left for food and fuel for the month. I've stopped driving DS to school in the morning, we're scootering and cycling so the only time I need to use a car is at the weekend if we're going shopping. But given that I've got no money - no driving for me!
Last night we had risotto for tea, using risotto rice I've had for a while, two balls of mozz (only needed one in the end) some freezer parmesan, leftover butternut squash and a fresh onion. We've got leftovers of that for tea tonight and SO brought me some bananas and wholemeal flour thats been sat in his cupboard so I need to make banana cake tonight. I can freeze the muffins.
I also need to strip the chicken carcass, freeze the meat and then make chicken stock for our next risotto. Our next risotto will be bacon peas and brie, if I can persuade SO to get me some Brie. We had a bit of a fall out the other week as I refuse to accept financial help from him but often the only thing I need to actually buy is bread or milk, so I'm going to start asking him to pick that up when he comes over once a week.
We've got a cinema trip in two and a half weeks, we were going out for dinner first but can't afford it. HOWEVER I paid for the tickets, so maybe he will pay for a cheap lunch?
Wednesday night: Leftover Risotto. Make Banana Cake and Flapjack, Strip Chicken Carcass, Make Chicken Stock, Dispatch TWO parcels. Make DS lunch box for Thursday and Friday
Use Cauliflower, Red Lentils, Butternut squash,red thai curry paste from fridge to make curry in the Instant Pot (freeze)
Thursday Night: Pasta, using leftover chicken, half a jar of Pesto from fridge, cream cheese, peas
Friday Night: ^^
Saturday: Fuel Car £30 - Take Dogs out by River (have to drive to get there)
Buy Apples, Bread
I looked through the shopping list I had made, ie lean mince and stuff and I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to pull something out of the freezer and see what I can do with it. I've got loads of fish, sea bass, sea bream, other fish and salmon. I might need potatos but I could definitely do a balanced meal with what I have at the moment - Salmon, green beans, a bag of new potatoes at 75p from Tesco? Actually no, I've got three huge tubs of Aisnley Harriot Cous Cous to use up, no idea if DS will like it but we're going to find out!!!
From last post, I've gone back over and really thought about what I actually need.
December shopping list looks like:
Toilet Roll
[STRIKE]Washing up liquid [/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]2 x Chickens (for DS and to make chicken stock)[/STRIKE] Got one reduced, going to wring as much chicken stock out of the bones as I can
Potatoes
Carrots
[STRIKE]Courgettes[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]5kg red lentils[/STRIKE]Will get a small bag this month
[STRIKE]Bag of onions [/STRIKE]Buying them as I need them, plus have frozen onions
[STRIKE]Jar of lazy garlic[/STRIKE] have a couple of garlic bulbs left and tons of garlic powder
[STRIKE]2 x 500g Lean Mince[/STRIKE] Will make something else
[STRIKE]4 x Butternut squashes[/STRIKE] Got some frozen in the freezer, and have a whole one I need to roast
[STRIKE]2x Cauliflowers[/STRIKE]Got 1, making a curry
[STRIKE]1 jar of thai curry paste[/STRIKE] The one jar I have is lasting ages
[STRIKE]4 x cans of tinned tomatoes[/STRIKE] Got a fair few left
3 x tubes of tomato puree [STRIKE]Going to buy one tube[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]1 x pizza flour[/STRIKE]Got plenty of plain flour
[STRIKE]1 x jar of bolognese sauce for pizza topping[/STRIKE] Will make do with what we have
[STRIKE]3 x loaves of bread, 4 loaves of banana soreen (depending on if I make cake)[/STRIKE] Going to get SO to bring me bread, I've got enough bananas to make flapjack and cake for the month
[STRIKE]1 x block of cheese[/STRIKE] I have two blocks, as long as I don't make any cheese sauces this should last till DS goes to his grandmas in 20 days
[STRIKE]Yoghurt and Milk[/STRIKE]Do need these
[STRIKE]Numerous bottles of smoothie as SO drinks it by the gallon (not convinced its cheaper to make it myself)[/STRIKE] NOPE!
Apples, Bananas, Sweet Clems
[STRIKE]Giant Cous Cous[/STRIKE] Using up the three tubs of ainsley harriot cous cous
Butter
Eggs
[STRIKE]Chorizo[/STRIKE]Can do with out this, I use a lot but we will live
Peppers
Revised December shopping list looks like:
Toilet Roll
Potatoes
Carrots
Apples, Bananas, Sweet Clems
Butter
Eggs
Peppers
I don't think I have any mince in the freezer, I know I've got two packs of turkey meatballs, and lots of waitrose sausages (Which are RANK)