Happier Nat's debt free diary

Parkyp

Hi Nat
Also make sure you are putting in enough for kids clothing, school lunches, clubs and pocket money. You are allowed all of these on your budget form. Maybe over estimated just so you have something spare to put away to cover birthdays/Christmas etc. 

Also there is sundries/emergencies do you have an amount budgeted for that. 

I remember reading the dmp forum and readers had put that they smoked or had pets, wore glasses etc  (When they didn’t) just so  that could be added into their budget and meant they had some money spare each month should an emergency arise. 

(They were only bending the truth, only means you pay less each month over a longer period) 
Also google who much average food/grocery bill is for the number of people in your family. 

natlie

Morning, 

I did my review and it reduced my payment by £100 thanks for the advice everyone. 

I do use prolific Winter Warrior but I can't withdraw the money as they only use PayPal and my account is locked due to the DMP

We've been isolating for the last 12 days and we are finally free tomorrow, my daughter tested positive for COVID after coming home from Uni, the night before she left she had tested negative. 

I renewed my car insurance today and instead of my renewal price of £345 I got it for £217 elsewhere - big saving! I also got the Meerkat movies/meals which we probably won't use but nice to have in case. 

I've made a good bit of money this month on eB*y/Vinted which will pay for my daughters 21st Birthday meal and present. 

I am going to post a box of books to Zapper tomorrow too. I have to pull the printer out so I can sort out the parcel label.

on the 26th July we are being consulted with about a restructure in our team I have my fingers crossed for a pay rise as I am managing more people now. 

Today:
Line dry washing, rain is supposed to stop at 11am
sort out printer
Eb*y at least 3 items
sort out bag of clothes for cash4clothes
sort out charity bag donation
clean out bunnies

Nat

Parkyp

That’s good about dmp, hopefully make life a bit easier each month.
I think I’ve heard of more people isolating these past few weeks than I did the whole of last year. Did your daughter have symptoms ?
I used to use meerkat movies a lot but o kept for getting to check what restaurants took it when going out for dinner. 

Hopefully you will get a payrise 🤞

natlie

Hi,

wow, it’s so super hot here! 

I’ve been trying to get the house clean and tidy but have to sit down after 10 mins as it’s exhausting trying to do stuff in this heat it was 30 degrees at 9.30pm
last night

not much debt news since last update

still selling items, I managed to cover all of my daughters birthday present and paid and extra £32 off one of my accounts. I am still selling so I’m hoping to make enough to cover birthday meal and cake and then it’s my sons birthday in 3 weeks

I have been prepping salads today for later as we are popping out this afternoon, so we will have breads and salad and falafels and nice things for dinner.

I burnt my back in Friday lunchtime cycling so I’m staying out of the sun 

have a good Sunday everyone 
Nat

natlie

Hello, 

Well July was a mess in terms of spending and I'm going to struggle this month too. 

I had to update my details with moorcroft because they wouldn't accept my reduced payment, though they accepted when I increased the payment. 

I have had a lovely 2 weeks off and managed a week on a £20 food budget last week, this week cost £77 though

off to find more eb*y items to sell 

Nat 

WinterWarrior

I wasn’t great in July either 😖
a week on £20 food budget is amazing…something to be proud of! Well done ⭐️

natlie

Morning, 

August is a very busy month for us with school holidays but it’s been ok so far and though I’m not doing as well on my budget as I had planned I’m catering a friends birthday party next week for a good bit or cash.

My selling has been ticking over and that’s helped I’ve started putting some of that towards paying off one of my accounts

I’ve also been meal planning and picking up free food from Olio and the community fridge to help with our budgeting 

I’m hoping next month will be more normal budget wise for us with no big birthdays but starting to save for Christmas 

I was due to have a review of my team and work and my salary but it’s been put on hold until early next year, really disappointed ☹️ about that 

a day of chores and family visits for me today 

Nat

natlie

Hi,

August has flown by, I’ve managed my budget much better than I thought this month. I’ve just got to be careful now with grocery and school uniform shopping. 

I had an oddbox of wonky fruit and veg delivered this week, had £10 off with a code from a referral and I made a potato and aubergine curry on Friday and a veg lasagne yesterday (the lasagne will last a couple more portions) I also made a lovely plum crumble.

My daughter is back staying with us, we are not sure how long for yet so this will increase our grocery bill for a while 

I paid an extra £7 off debt this week it was from an eBay sale I have a couple of payments due from Vint*d and eb*y. 

Speaking of Vint*d I managed to get my sons school trousers and polo shirts for under £10 new with tags need to get uniform for my 15 year old too but they are much more fussy 

My jobs for today are:

sorting out the fridge and freezer and doing a food audit
grocery shopping - just a few bits
updating spreadsheet for UC payment
picking up trays from buffet yesterday
Putting laundry out to dry
have a good day

Nat

Parkyp

Brilliant price for the school uniform. 

We’ve had rain all yesterday and looks like it’ll be the same today. 

natlie

It rained terrible here yesterday @Parkyp but the weather forecast says it’s good weather for the next week and a half ☺️ Will be trying to do more exercise while it’s nice