Taking back control

slowprogress

I'm a married mum of 3, I work full time, husband works part time with health condition and 3 children, 1 due to go to uni in september and 2 others at secondary school.

I've been a lurker on MSE for years and became debt free in 2018, however when Covid hit myself and my husband were both hit hard as relatively newly self employed so I ended up taking a bounce back loan and relying on credit cards. My business still hasn't recovered so once my current contracts end in August this year i'll be looking for a full time job.  We could have claimed Universal Credit but after hearing so many horror stories we have stuck to claiming our original working tax and child tax credits and just heads down and blindfolds on.

Husbands business is something he can do while contributing without aggravating his condition, him being in a positive space physically and mentally  outweighs the extra he would bring in if he works more hours.

The Bad

Current debt figure is

Virgin Credit Card = 6,140.77

Bounce back loan = 5,068.90

I do have 900.45 put to one side towards my tax bill at the end of the month (my head has been in the sand and I have no idea what I owe) and I havent been paid by my clients for December yet, so i'm confident i'll have enough put by for that. It is a short month for wages though as i only worked for 2 weeks due to having covid.

My car is due in for essential repairs next week, current estimate is £600.

Car insurance is also due for renewal at the end of January (must find quote).

The Good

All bills are current, i've never defaulted on any and a barclaycard that I havent used for years have just sent me a balance transfer offer 0% until February 2024.

The Plan

Realistically I want the credit card paid before my job ends, it'll be over half of the debt hopfully i'll be able to enjoy a couple of weeks with the children before my daughter goes to uni.

Meal plan - i do this anyway but i'm a sucker for getting extras that push the price up , (I don't need chicken pakora and onion bhaji just because theres a curry on the menu).

Kitchen garden - this got neglected last year, with my mental health dropping I was much less active than normal and I can tell, i've gained weight and am increasingly lethargic.

Track all spends in January - i'm losing money somewhere

Thanks for reading, i'm hoping this diary will hold me accountable.

slowprogress

I'm terrible for procrastinating but once I get going I'm usually quite productive, i'm trying to curb the craft shopping and stop wasting time and money browsing ebay and amazon as i'm aware this is where I spend small amounts frequently.

Plan for January

• Track spends
• My tax return
• Hubbies tax return
• Meal plan
  
• Join grocery challenge on old style
  
• Pay for car repairs without using credit
  
• Car insurance (pay in full)
  
• Plant chilli and pepper seeds
  
• Find recipe for pasta sauce suitable for water bath canning recipe  (have got jars for this somewhere) aim to grow everything for this with minimal layout.
•  Room for January - Passageway. My house is stressing me out at the moment so declutter a room a month, and spruce up with what i've got laying aorund, (have got leftover paint, fabric etc so should be doable)
• I was tempted to add weight loss to the list but the list is overwhelming at the minute, so for now I aim to eat five a day.
  

slowprogress

Good morning


Car insurance quote in 214, purchased through topcashback 25.00 cash back due (I paid cash out of the tax fund)
Leftovers from yesterday for lunches
Children lunches made
Savoury  mince and mashed potatoes for tea
Invoices sent out for december
No spends planned for today 

slowprogress

I almost failed today after barely getting started, a difficult day at work had me scrolling ebay and I almost spent 37.00 on craft supplies, it was in my basket and honestly if I hadn't already have deleted my credit card from paypal I would have purchased them. I had a look through my purchase history and I spent 93.00 on craft in December, and looking at it now, the only thing I actually  needed was hot glue sticks, they were £4 and I used them with the kids for christmas crafts. I've cut up the credit card and deleted the app from my phone.

RelievedSheff

Well done for cancelling the purchase. 😀

It's the small things that add up to make a big difference. 

slowprogress

Plan for January

• Track spends
• My tax return
• Hubbies tax return
• Meal plan  (i've meal planned evening meals, I need to extend this to include lunch and breakfast, it's lunches where I tend to lose control of the budget, 2 of my children are vegetarian and the rest of us are meat eaters, i'm going to hunt out some cheap snack recipes on old style to fill the hollow legs cheaply) Husband is making comments about a takeaway, not a chance.
• Join grocery challenge on old style (71.66/400) this will be my budget for a usual month but i'm hoping to pull this in at 245 for January to pay for my sons residential, luckily the freezer is looking healthy and i'm feeling highly motivated.
• Pay for car repairs without using credit
• Car insurance (pay in full)
• Plant chilli and pepper seeds (compost and seeds found, I need to fetch some small pots from the greenhouse)
• Find recipe for pasta sauce suitable for water bath canning recipe  (have got jars for this somewhere) aim to grow everything for this with minimal layout.
•  Room for January - Passageway. My house is stressing me out at the moment so declutter a room a month, and spruce up with what i've got laying around, (have got leftover paint, fabric etc so should be doable)
• I was tempted to add weight loss to the list but the list is overwhelming at the minute, so for now I aim to eat five a day.
• I've been sent a reminder for youngest child's school residential trip, (155.00 by the 31st) I had completely forgotten about this
• Work out how much sinking funds need to be to cover expected expense amounts (christmas/birthdays, car, days out, children, pets) will start paying into accounts in February
• I've just checked with the credit union and emergency fund is still in tact (embarassingly I couldnt remember if i'd used it since being debt free in 2018) so at least I don't have to worry about that, once I've survived hellish January, i'm going to be setting a budget and sticking to it.  Theres so many unusual expenses for January that I'm just going to tread water and spend minimum amounts.
  

I'm very proud of the fact that i've had 5/6 no spend days so far this month.  I will be spending £3 tonight on a craft group I attend twice a month, that is a planned expense.

slowprogress

2.50 today on food, 50p mushrooms and £2 for a pack of 6 stir fry sauces 
I went to craft group last night and just paid my entry fee, I managed to resist the stash table so no extra pennies spent 

74.16/400

On the passageway spruce up I’ve painted a shelving unit and attached hooks that will be ideal for hanging coats and above there’s some cubby holes that could be used for storing umbrellas gloves etc but really they need to be in baskets. I went into home bargains today and they were £2 each and I’d need 3. I’m listing some bits and pieces on Facebook tonight and if I manage to make a £30 payment off the debt out of the profits then I’m going to buy the baskets. 

Car is at the garage now so still waiting to hear the final amount for the repairs 🤞🏻 It’s less than the estimate.

While I was sorting out a cupboard last night I found a dslr camera my husband bought me for my 30th, I’m 40 next year and I have used it twice. I’m trying to talk myself into selling it, It could easily be 160-200 to knock off the credit card. A decision for another day maybe.

foxgloves

Decluttering always provides a mental boost, & if you are crafty, then sprucing up rooms can be a nice (& useful) creative outlet. Those of us who have been spenders (I have been very honest in my own diary about my past frittering) often have lots of stuff which can be repurposed or fetched out of retirement to provide a little bit of a free new look. I think of this as shopping from home. It can save a fair amount of cashola. I fished a cushion out of the depths of the linen cupboard this week which had been in there so long, it felt like I'd bought something new!
It sounds as though you have a plan though. Best of luck moving forward with it.
F

slowprogress

Thankyou @foxgloves I must admit having a project on the go and changing things around is keeping me from spending.

When I was sowing the chilli seeds yesterday I found some packets of sprouting seeds that I've never used. I bought some stir fry mixes  yesterday that were heavily reduced so have switched the meal plan around a little to add in a couple of chow mein/stir fry dishes as have everything in stores. I'm going through the freezer in a bid to organise and when  I find meals I'm starting to pencil them in now for February, a lot of it is processed stuff that I've picked up and we try not to eat that kind of thing more than once a week, I'm thinking that by using it up its going to make it easier to stick to the food budget and maybe I'll be able to save enough of the budget to get a big butchers stock up to help in subsequent months. Although I've  meal planned for a while I always skip the step of using up what I have first, I'm hoping to have an inventory eventually once we've used up all the little bits and the freezer surprises 🤣. The last disaster was when I thought it was chilli sauce and it turned out to be gravy, oh well it still tasted good 🤷‍♀️.

Right I'm off to figure out how to make tiny holes in the lid of a jar to sprout these seeds (I did look on eBay first to find a seed sprouting kit but resisted) I'm noticing a pattern that eBay is my goto for spending money, I think I always justify it as I usually buy used, it's still money I didn't have to spend.
Anyway enjoy your Saturday 

Pollie

You can use cheesecloth or similar drainable material secured with a rubber band as a sprouting lid.

Tiredbutdetermined

Hello,
Your level of detail in planning is very inspiring. I am much too overwhelmed for a clear plan at the moment but I would love to take inspiration from you once life has cleared a bit and I can see my next step forward