Single mum to 5, striving for debt free life

Jill12

Thanks you @savingholmes, @joedenise, @lucielle, your positives vibes are helping on this journey x

Today was another 8.30 to 5 work day. I adore my job and think how lucky I am to be doing something I love. It makes having to get up each morning for work slightly easier. I popped home at lunchtime for a sandwich only to discover the absolute devastation 3 unsupervised teenagers had unleashed on my kitchen. After a bit of ranting I made it clear it was to be tidy for when I came home at 5 and surprisingly it was! Good children and happy mum. Dinner tonight was a buffet of leftovers from the weekend, tasted yummy and nil food waste to the bin. No spend day today also. Youngest child, myself and the dog walked tonight for about 30 mins, such a calm, crisp night and a bit of exercise did us the world of good. Tomorrow will be an expensive day as diesel and food shopping needed to get us through until the New Year. I feel my bed calling me now and my legs are hurting already, goodnight x

savingholmes

Glad the rant worked and the kids cleared up. I got mine to unload the dishwasher today for the second day on the run and even that felt like a minor miracle.

Jill12

Stressful day at work yesterday, lots of people off with Covid or isolating so work load doubled and 13 house calls made!! Came home to one very crabby teenager. Family fave of egg fried rice made for dinner and nightly walk with youngest complete. In bed for 9pm as exhausted but awake at 4am. Made a token payment of £6 odds to Tesco loan. Started debt repayment journey on 5 December and so far paid off £1490.61, this includes regular and overpayments. Looking forward to some Hogmanay celebrations tonight and have steak pie and mushy peas ready for dinner. Marshmallows and chocolate are ready for roasting over the fire pit. Would love sparklers for tonight so might try my luck at lunchtime to find them. 

Jill12

Cheers @savingholmes, teenagers are complicated to navigate! Small miracles do sometimes happen lol x

lucielle

Tea tonight sounds good, lusting after homemade mushy peas
L

Honeysucklelou2

The marshmallows and chocolate sound good. Hope work is less stressful today. Well done on the £6 overpayment. Every little helps.

mark55man

Hey @Jill12

What great progress and a solid basis to achieve your goal next year.  My OH and I have 4 - gotta love a big family - we stopped at 4 as we wanted to be able to grab one hand each when they were littler - youngest is now 20+.  Total respect for doing it on your own with 5!.

I'm just in the final throes of getting rid of my CC balances - cleared them all but have a bit of christmas spending overhang to clear in Jan. We went the other way with our kids and were (unnecessarily) generous - as in different ways they all had things they really wanted and years that had been quite up and down.  2 of them are NHS, so they've been super busy as well

Enjoy Hogmanay whichever side of the border you celebrate it, although I understand most of southern Scotland is coming over to England to party. Its your diary so I will leave it there, but looking forward to your story unfolding over 2022

savingholmes

Well done on the debt clearance. 

Happy New Year!

Jill12

Happy New Year everyone, hoping 2022 will be the best yet x

@lucielle, the mushy peas were lush with copious amounts of vinegar!

@Honeysucklelou2, the marshmallow idea was awesome and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope 2022 it a successful year for you and you are able to move forward. You sound like a wonderful person through your writing x

@mark55man. Well done on successfully raising your kids to adulthood without killing any of them!! And nearly clearing all your debt.... big well done.  The fact I have got this far without any major disaster is in itself a miracle! Maybe if I achieve my goal of becoming debt free this year I may relax slightly for Xmas 2022?

@savingholmes, all the best for 2022, your diary is bookmarked for a read and thank you for your contributions x

Wonderful new year celebrations last night and perfect way to welcome in 2022 celebrating with my kids. This will be my first new year without my mum but I feel her strength in me so I ll be more than alright. My only resolution this year is to say goodbye to debt and stay debt free for the rest of my, no negotiating on this. Yesterday was a normal work day but now off for a few days. I have soup to make and will take a visit and dinner over to my ex husbands gran with a few children. At 3pm I am going for a swim in the sea with a group of friends- New Years dip, live 5 mins from the beach so should be home in time before becoming hyperthermic!!!!! 

First payment of the year to leave my account was £60 for a parking ticket that I probably did deserve, still sucks to have to pay it. Payment of £6.50p to tesco loan, balance now £383..............so close.

mark55man

Lol - yes having them all survive was my prime and sometimes only objective!. 

A swim in the sea sounds bracing!  I regard parking fines and interest as "stupid tax" - although contributors to my diary also referred to that type of thing as lazy tax

you got to do what you got to do in 2022, but if you get to the end of it on top of your debts then maybe a little loosening of the budget next Christmas could be a very feel good thing (but within reason obvs!)