Mumof3.12kindebt .. dfw again ! - 15 dec 2020

apple_muncher

Yep, you truly are one awesome cookie! Look after yourself x

missymoo81

You are so wise and wonderful! I love your outlook on life and your attitude.
really loving your planning. I need to sit down with OH and do this, thank you for the inspiration.

mumof3.12kindebt

Thankyou @apple_muncher & @missymoo81

Hope you are all well. Back to school today after a lovely weekend. 

Car tax is paid for another year. 
Insurance will go out next week too. The money is already in the account. 
I'm keeping an eye out to see if we get the gov £150 council tax payment. 

I should get the £1000 welsh gov covid payment for health and social care workers next month hopefully. Which I'm extremely greatful for, although I would of much preferred to have good health with my respitory system which I haven't had since having covid. Swings and roundabouts I knew the risk of continuing in my line of work when It all started. And I've been really careful the whole way through even now. It's just what is it. 

Later in the year I will have a month where I hav 2 pay days as I'm paid 4 weekly. 

Today will be a no spend day. Will have to do a food shop at some point as we need stuff for lunch boxes more than anything. I can't believe how much the price of food has shot up. I might have to adjust the budget a little to allow for the increases. 

I'll need to put diseal in the car tomorrow as ds2 has a hopstial appointment an hour drive away. 

I'm going to try and fill up my monzo pots to the goal amounts by the end of the year. 


I'm trying to plan and ahead. Originally the money we will save by not having debt payments I was going to send as an extra payment to the mortgage. But now the tax credits have dropped so much I will have to put into into sinking funds for things like school trips and school uniforms and unexpected expenses. I do however plan to still live as frugally as possible and make every penny count. For example I pay £5.40 a month for my mobile. As I have a sim only plan. DP and ds1 have the same plan. We do need to go through all our direct debits and see what we can cut ✂️ . 
We will keep amazon prime as I use the subscribe and save for the dog food. Which saves me about £20 per bag completed to buying the same amount in smaller bags from tesco so even with the £8 a month deducted I'm still saving about £4 every 2 months. And we use the TV, kindle prime offers and music I Need to see what else we can get out of it to get our moneys worth. 

Looking back on my diary I wish I'd mentioned more, things we have done to save money.  For example using the libary ebook service and the libary for books. Using the clothes airers and washing line to dry clothes. Comparing prices at the supermarket and meal planning. Selling stuff to make a bit of extra cash. Doing surveys etc. Taking stuff to the tip ourselves instead of hiring a skip (although i have hired a skip in the past).washing  and cleaning the inside and outside of the car ourselves (I normally get ds1 to do it for some pocket money) doing home repairs ourselves as much as we can. 

There are so many things we do to save us money that naturally I wouldn't pay for that others do pay for (because otherwise the services wouldn't be available) 

So I'll try to be more aware of posting how we didn't spend money as well as when we did spend money. 

Hope you all have a lovely day xx

Hugs love positivity and prayers to you all 

mumof3.12kindebt

As I've already mentioned we have our camping holiday at the end of the month. 
We were supposed to be going with my grandma and aunt and cousins but they had to cancel. So we are going on our own. 

I've just had a proper look on the website. We can use the activities and facilities on their 2 sister sites which are each 5 min drive away. And I have to say I'm really impressed with the amount of activities available especially they amount of free ones. I hoping that this will mean we will have a fab time without spending as much as I thought we might. I've got to say I'm really excited now. 

Originally my grandma and aunt picked the park after they were recommended it and from what I've seen on the website I really am impressed and I think we will definitely be visiting again if it meets the expectations I now have. 

Overall I'm just looking for a week away with the kids having fun and making memories. The fact that there are some free activities aside from going to the beach is an added bonus ! 


Ill let you all know how it goes I think we will be exhausted when we get back . 


Bring on half term ! 

mumof3.12kindebt

ETA 

Next month is 3 years since we moved in ❤️


It's gone so fast. I feel so blessed that each of my children have a bedroom each. And that ds2 has been getting the education and support he deserves since we moved. ❤️

mumtoomany

wow, 3 years already! Where has that gone? Dog food, have you looked at home bargains? We buy a huge bag (25kg?) of weebok food from there for ours. I think it's about £8. It's working dog food, she is a working dog, so therefore has no VAT. might be worth looking at. mumtoomany.xx

mumof3.12kindebt

Hello my beautiful diary friends 
How are you all ? I hope you are all well. 

@mumtoomany we have put the pup on harringtons it's not the cheapest. But I do try and get it for the best price I can. 

I need to start being more open to people. There is no shame in asking if someone has something you need that you could borrow or buy off them. I need to remember this. 


Ds2 has a hospital appointment today. And ds1 . I'm taking ds2 as its an hour drive away. DP is taking ds1 as its at the local hopsital. Both appointments are at the same time. 


Ds1 also has a football match tonight. 

I'm hoping I'll have time to take ds1 to a park after his appointment but I'll see what time I have as I need to be home for 4.45 to take ds1 to football. 


Early night for me tonight. I shift swapped with another staff so i worked yesterday so I had this afternoon  off for kids appointments. 

Thinking ahead the kids have 51 days off for the summer holidays this year. From the day after they finish school to the day they go back so I'll have to get my thinking hat on of ways to keep them busy. Local things or stuff at home on work days. Day trips possible on my days off
 I've booked 1 week off in August. 


We still have our national Trust passes so we will make good use of those. We have the beach an hour drive away so we will do some days to there. Locally they normally have a few things on, but I'll need to do some research. I'm hoping to keep the summer holidays low spend but with plenty of memories made. If anyone has any ideas let me know. Happy to travel across Wales. Have family in the west Midlands too. 😀


ETA I seem to remember last year our tax credits were dropped by half when we put the renewal in. And then once they had finished it about a month later the payments went up slightly. Although not the amount we were getting previously. It just seems to drop further every year. Anyway on my app it says its complete but on the gateway website it says 

Tax credits renewal ready for processing

Does anyone know if this could be why our payments have dropped so much? I'm not sure but for now I've adjusted our budget for the amount it's saying currently 

mumof3.12kindebt

Hello my beautiful diary friends 

spends today was milk, £20 for tickets to a interactive show we are going to on Sunday. (Kids tickets were funded through a club we take the kids too) and first deposit for ds1 France trip as he's been given a place. 😍 that was £50. 

Took the kids to school this morning and then while the kids were at school I got some sleep and chilled out. I've had quite a few unsettled nights recently so my choice was rest or do a few bits around the house. I chose the rest. My mood has been quite stable recently and I'm determined to keep it that way. I'm sure if it wasn't for my kids my last depressive episode that lasted about 18 months really would of been the end for me. The only thing that kept me from acting on the suicidal thoughts were my children. Thank the lord I didn't loose my irrational thinking as I don't think I'd of been here 🙏  the lack of support for mental health services is shocking. After my depression came a manic episode in January and the gp I spoke to was brilliant we adjusted my medication and after 3 weeks I came back down to a 'stable level' and fortunately apart from a few low days I've managed to stay there. I was talking to DP the other week. We don't think I have ever had a 'stable' period since we have been together. So it's been a long time. I don't think I have ever been stable in my adult life actually. Thinking back to before my diagnosis I was always either hypo manic or depressed. So I'm really relieved to finally get to a point where I feel 'normal' . But now I've experienced it it's made me realise how much the bipolar in me effects My life. Going forward I now have a support worker with the charity mind. And she's really lovely and advised us on support available to us which we didnt know existed due to my disability and ds2 additional needs. One thing I've realised through it all is it's okay to not be okay, it's okay to talk about it, and it's okay to ask for help. 

I'd advise anyone struggling with mental health to contact the charity mind. They really are amazing at what they do. 


No change in the tax credit amount being paid. But as I've said I've adjusted the budget. As long as we carry on being frugal we should be okay. I hope 🙏 

Bluegreen143

@mumof3.12kindebt Thanks so much for sharing your story over the last few days. I’m in awe of all you’ve achieved! And I love your 10yr plan. You’ve inspired me to think about longer term financial milestones.

mumof3.12kindebt

Evening my beautiful diary friends. 

@Bluegreen143 thankyou! I think it's good to have short term and long term goals especially where money is concerned that way you are in control 99% of the time and can make the most of every penny. 

Since I've started this diary ive always done, a what I know now as, a zero based budget. Meaning even if some money is going to savings every penny is accounted for and so it eliminates the likelyhood of wasting money and not knowing where our money is going. It works for us. I budget each month for money for our annual bills and car fund. School uniforms and school trips etc. 


Today I took a day annual leave as we went to see dinomania, kids had a fab time we went to the park after. The tickets were partially covered by a local charity that the kids do a weekly group with so in total it cost us £20. 

That was our only spend this weekend. So I'm chuffed about that. 

I hope you are all well. 

Oh I've also updated tax credits they had my estimated income for this coming year based on last year's tax year, and I don't plan to do anywhere near as much overtime so I've worked out my before deductions income and just allowed a few hundred extra for when we are paid to attend training etc. I don't know if it will change how much we are entitled to but I've kept it at the amount they forecast for now and will adjust it if I Need to once its updated. 


Have a lovely evening everyone 

Hugs love positivity and prayers to all that Need or want them 💗