“Debt is normal. Be weird.”

browneyed_girl

Oh dear.  We've completed our budget for next month and it's not as promising as I'd hoped    Reduced maternity pay kicked in part way through August, the backpay wasn't as much as expected because they also took pension arrears from it and with the start of term and DD1's birthday in September, it's all starting to look a bit miserable (much like the weather where we are this morning).  I had hoped to clear most of the remaining Barclaycard balance, but I can only put £300 towards it from my pay - the rest is going to have to come from surveys methinks.  Not an impossible task, but I'd hoped that September's survey earnings would be going towards the Virgin CC instead.  As it stands, I've earned £447.95 from surveys so far this month which has been put straight onto CCs, with £78 pending.  This is so far beyond what I expected I could earn when I set myself a challenge of £150 a month, but I'm still not happy with my progress!!  I've been pouring over my spreadsheets yet again and have come up with a potential debt-free date of March 2027 if we really work on just smashing it.  My more conservative estimation is August 2027, which sits more comfortably with DH but I'm just so motivated to finally be rid of all this debt that I get all itchy and fidgety just thinking about it!  

We've got shopping being delivered today, but nothing else really exciting happening (unless you find laundry thrilling).  We have been very lucky in sourcing a large number of brand-new reusable nappies for free, but this does mean that I have a wash on almost every day.  Not sure if you account for increased energy costs that using reusables saves us anything, but the environmental benefit is enough to keep me on board for now.  We used reusable nappies for all the other children (not exclusively) so we're used to to the slight inconvenience, but I'm now trying to weigh up how they will work for us financially when the weather turns and I'm going to need to run the tumble dryer every day instead of being able to hang nappies out to dry.  I'm not sure all this mental arithmetic is suited to early Sunday morning because I'm now feeling the need to sit down with a cup of tea and a biscuit whilst I focus on something less taxing (the bird feeders are providing a nice distraction for the time being).

Oh, just remembered that we need to pop to MIL's today to check in on the garden whilst she's away for 3 weeks.  For our troubles, she's offered us any tomatoes, green beans, courgettes, raspberries etc that might be ready during that time.  She's also been on jam-making duties this month so we've been gifted half a dozen jars that are proving popular with the kids.  Our next-door neighbours popped over with a basket of apples from their trees earlier in the week, so we're actually doing quite well on the homegrown food front despite not yet having our own garden in any sort of usable state!   

Humdinger1

@browneyed_girl just read your diary and subscribed.   Congratulations on everything you've achieved! It's difficult when the OH isn't on board but you seem to have fixed that, at least part of the time. Keep going, you're doing brilliantly.   How long is your maternity leave? Love Humdinger xx 

browneyed_girl

Hi @Humdinger1 - thanks for the kind words!  My maternity leave is six months in total (plus a couple of weeks of annual leave tagged onto the end).  I would love to have longer, but after six months I would just receive SMP and as I'm the main breadwinner for the family this really isn't an option.  

Payday for me is tomorrow, but for the first time I won't be making lots of payments to debt right away which makes me feel like crying in the corner whilst simultaneously banging my head against the wall.  Payments will be made possible after DH's payday on the 10th - this is just because all the bills, mortgage and direct debits come out of my account before this and I need to leave my pay alone to cover this.  I'm still dutifully cracking on with surveys to keep making almost daily payments against the CCs - the amount earned for August now stands at £490.24 with £97 pending.  I genuinely think that this extra income is what is keeping me sane(r) for the time being.

I also think I'm getting a bit of cabin fever being at home with baby and all the kids.  It's not as though I'm not getting out and about, visiting family etc, but it does feel like such a jarring change after working 50-60 hour weeks!  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore my kids, am completely baby obsessed and love the time I have with the family, but when I find myself getting tearful over having to throw away half a jar of mouldy pesto, I have to question what my brain is doing!  Don't worry - I can confidently say this is not PND, I just think that these little things are getting magnified because I no longer have outside-of-the-home worries to serve as perspective in these matters.  Clearly I need to be getting back to making life or death decisions, which is not something I thought I would be saying! 

The best news we've had today has been DD2 getting the results back from her first LAMDA drama exam which she took at the end of the summer term - she only went and got a distinction!   Although, this does mean that she's definitely wanting to continue these lessons which cost us nearly £200 a term  She has very sweetly offered to put her pocket money towards the cost, which of course we've declined.  I know we're paying off debt and all these lessons for the children seem like a luxury we can't afford, but I think I'm still bitter about my parents refusing to pay for saxophone lessons (rightly so - they had very little disposable income and six kids to raise) and therefore am biased when it comes to making decisions on giving my kids the things I didn't have (within reason of course!).

I'm trying to get a lot of organising done this week before the kids go back to school.  DD1 has made some requests for her birthday next week, which are fairly conservative (going shopping with her best friend and getting pizza) but estimated cost for birthday money for shopping and four of us eating out is still around £200.  I've already found some vouchers for the restaurant we're going to and have looked at their menu to determine the cheapest options for myself (hopefully DH follows suit) which sounds a bit Scrooge-like but it'll still be enjoyable since we rarely eat out.  We've also discussed with DD1 about giving her less for her birthday this year and she has been very mature about the whole thing, deciding to top up her birthday money with her pocket money instead of getting grumpy about it all in true teenager fashion (which we half expected).  We have been trying to talk to our eldest two more about how to manage money and all things financial since we got them each debit cards linked to our Monzo account.  We move over money from their pocket money savings pot when they make a reasonable request and they have both proven to be very sensible about how much they choose to spend vs how much they choose to save.  I think having the Ramsey Show on in the background when I'm doing housework is having a positive impact on the whole household!!
   

browneyed_girl

Three cups of tea down and still struggling to keep my eyes open.  Wonder why this is and then remember for the fifth time this week that I switched to decaf.  I'm really sensitive to caffeine so the caffeinated tea is usually enough, but I have a box of 400 decaf tea bags to get through before I even think about buying any in.  DH suggested coffee, but I've only ever had one cup in my life and it gave me palpitations - not something I particularly want to repeat 

DH has taken DD1 and DD2 to their tennis lessons and tied it in with some work that he has to do so he can claim the mileage on his expenses.  They're then heading off to DD1's volunteer job at the second-hand shop with instructions from me to look out for a nice photo frame.  Having done the budget, completely forgot about DH's granny's birthday in a few weeks so plan on getting a nice photo that I took of her when meeting DD4 framed.  I was planning on getting a bunch of photos printed via Freeprints anyway to fill some frames that I already have, so there won't be any additional cost there.  I have allocated £100 in the budget to unforeseen expenses (translation: things my tired brain completely forgot when I did the budget in the first place), so the photo frame will come out of this.   

We're only three days in to our month's budget, but it seems to be going well.  I've nagged DH about the importance of actually sticking to it over the next few months because of maternity pay and I think it's sunk in.  Survey earnings for August are also over £550 now, which has been essential for paying down my Barclaycard.  The current balance on it is £1065.75, down from over £2000 at the start of the month, and the 0% ends on October 6th so I want it paid off before then.  I could only allocate £300 to it in the budget, so the rest will have to come from extra earnings or being under budget in other categories. Not sure I really want to think about not staying on track with this goal, so I'm off to see what surveys I can find...

dawnybabes

You’re doing amazing ! 

Have you looked at selling on vinted at all ? You could do bundles to make it easier ?