Missy’s family of 4, paying off debts, saving for a house and just trying to survive!

missymoo81 · 4 February 2021 at 3:09PM

Ok, have just spoken to child maintenance and they would like me to try and talk to ex, they have given me some things to look at. I know he will just refuse so I will see what he says then take it further if needs be. It’s very difficult with furlough and his pay etc at present and how often he has had the children. So it’s very difficult. I just need the furlough to end to be back to normal! Hate this stress, it really effects me in so many ways.

missymoo81 · 4 February 2021 at 5:04PM

Ok so feel a little better as went for a walk with the children. And finally posted the trainers etc! So that will be £86 back in my bank at some point in the next few weeks. I got some sugar and popcorn with change from my pocket and paid for the postage that way too.

I’m just about to go through my books and see who’s due to pay. I’m hoping I’ll have enough to pay my rent and bills with any payments for classes and anything left over from the grants I’ll get in the middle of Feb I will move over to loan payments and house deposits, the grant doesn’t make up my normal pay but not too far out, so hopefully I’ll be ok! OH can’t afford to put anything in the house deposit at the moment as the grant doesn’t even cover half of his earnings. So grateful for the government help though. We would literally be in a right old state without it!

Have decided on hot dogs for dinner as have loads of sausages in the freezer.

jwil · 4 February 2021 at 7:36PM

Well done on your premium bond win!

Sounds like you've had a really productive day and well done for speaking to CMS. Good luck with speaking to ex and hope he's reasonable!

missymoo81 · 4 February 2021 at 8:32PM

Ok so I’ve done everything apart from put the children’s clothes away.

I’ve emailed for payments that are due and one has paid already which is great.
I’ve done lots of calculations and if I’m super frugal with things and don’t have any unnecessary spending I can get the house deposit back on track a little bit. Still 2 months behind where I wanted to be. But it’s not bad in the circumstances. I’ve included the premium bond win and the trainers in there already and I just need to make another £270 from somewhere to make the deposit a round number. Sooooo thinking caps on, will try and save on groceries. Hardest thing will be not buying coffee and spending money on random things, as on a zero spend budget to get this month off to the start I need! I’ve not included any cash in this budget so I’m hoping that will make up for any shortfalls.

I’ve put food budget at £60 a week, hoping I can reign that in. I don’t have any birthdays and we don’t really do Valentine’s Day, I’ve got 2 photos I’m going to print at home and make into a card for OH.
Need to FB sell and Ebay over the month I think!!!

I have £6 coming to me from a FB sale tomorrow so that’s good! I’ll do a running total over the month and see what I can do.

I was going to get a sofa bed but I’m going to put it on hold for now.

missymoo81 · 4 February 2021 at 11:47PM

Actually have recalculated a few things and will get CHB before the end of feb too. The current balance I need to find by the end of Feb is £200. So watch this space!

missymoo81 · 5 February 2021 at 12:11AM

Ahhh ok, so I’ve just ordered a sofa bed 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️I know !!!!!! But in my defence. I do actually need one to make the room more habitable it’s on camera all of the time for zoom and at least Ill have a spare bed to sleep on if OH is poorly (this happens quite often) and the bed was exactly what I was looking for and half price, the right colour and in stock! I’ve been looking for one for 6 months, and the original one I nearly got but Was fortunately out of stock, was £420!!!!

Sooooo, I’ve added another £165 to the £200 to find!!!! But £70 of the £200 I can leave til March..... so making £365 would be great. But £295 would do nicely. Argh have no idea how I’ll manage but I’ll see what I can do. I’ll put everything I can on FB selling pages tomorrow and see what I can get for them. It will be small bits and pieces. I just hope they all add up. I can drastically reduce the shopping as have some cash to pay for it and some club card points. Also have enough meat in the freezer for at least a weeks worth of dinners and porridge for a weeks worth of breakfasts. Going to bulk stuff out a lot too. Need to buy some lentils! Going to cut the banana bread a bit thinner too. But that won’t be a huge saving. Will just have to see what I can magic up!

missymoo81 · 5 February 2021 at 12:44AM

Ok so have found £22 in notes and £1 coins in my drawer so that’s a Start! I will spend that on shopping and keep the money in my account so that’s £22/£295 already! I’m just looking at what I need for food next week to see if I can just spend the £22 + nectar/ Clubcard points which are both at £3.50.

missymoo81 · 5 February 2021 at 8:18AM

Up early for work, only my second session for this person so it’s always a bit nerve wracking. My super early cancelled and has asked to reschedule, not overly happy about having to work another class on a Saturday as already do one! But I’ve tried to fit it in so that it won’t impact too much.

Very, very tired today, May had me up in the night and I just kept waking up. Could do with a snooze later if I can with the children’s home schooling.
so today I need to make the banana bread. Didn’t do this yesterday, I need to put the clean washing away from yesterday, also do more washing! Cook something for dinner, curry maybe? Children will have left over sausages with pasta and sauce. I need to list some things on FB. Think that’s it!

Bluegreen143 · 5 February 2021 at 9:46AM

One thing I wonder if it would help with planning is something I’m trying (with mixed success as I find it SO hard) - having a 30 day list for purchases. So if you decide you need something like your new sofa bed you wait 30 days for buying it from when you wrote it on the list... it means you can budget at least from next pay instead of playing catch up but I often also find that I don’t want it in 30 days! As I say I find this super hard but when I stick to it it helps the budget so much x

Kakiste · 5 February 2021 at 10:03AM

If you want to combine two of the jobs, you could blitz the bananas (intended for the bread) down and use it as a base to make a kashmiri curry from. You basically start that curry with essentially a fruit smoothie that you add spices and cooked meat to. It's delicious- especially when done with mushroom rice.