Debt free by 30!?

wannabedebtfreemum95

We managed a no-spend day yesterday, yay! I had planned for today to be a NSD but I had to buy Doritos and tomatoes to make fajita chicken nachos for dinner. £2.80 is still much less than I would’ve spent on a takeaway! I lost freezer roulette yesterday and ended up having rice bolognese for lunch. Today I was luckier and had a Mexican feast of chilli for lunch and fajita nachos for dinner with homemade salsa. Back on the WW train so hopefully eating out the freezer helps the purse and the waist. 

I’m feeling quite stressed about money but I think I’m being silly. I’ve got £200 left to cover this month, as well as £50 in the food pot and £75 in days out pot. We’ve not got too many plans over the next few weekends and all of big boy’s clubs are back so that gets us out and about both mornings. It’s hard finding free activities but I’ve got some new reusable sandwich bags for picnics and snacks, that will help with the budget. I’ve got birthday/Christmas money too, as do the kids, but it feels like a long way until payday. 

My plan is to go through the freezer and work out what we’ve got left. From memory, we’ve got 4 protein portions for my lunch plus frozen Birds Eye chicken. We’ve not got any beige buffet foods left but I’m trying to expand the kids horizons and it’s working, so aiming to rely less on those. We should have been paid the fruit money (£20ish) so that’ll go towards fruit and veg for snacks. The cupboards are full of pasta, popcorn kernels and rice so we’ll be able to make things to eat without spending loads of money, but it might feel like a long month. 

wannabedebtfreemum95

Checked my bank this morning (Saturday) and after taking £100 out on Tuesday, I had £9 left… I panicked slightly! Money seems to disappear far too quickly these days. I had a scan through:

£20 Lidl top up shop (chicken thighs, squeezy yogurts, Greek yogurt, raspberries, grapes, happy hippos)

£33 comedy gig tickets (for me and a friend but don’t mind if she doesn’t pay me back) 

£11 monthly coffee subscription (comes from an amazing coffee roaster in the southside) 

£20 PayPal debt payoff

£5 RSPB donation 

£6 Greggs with nursery mums 

£6 two buses - one on each non-working day

Having a look through, I have moved money from my Christmas gift money to pay for the gig. I buy cheap coffee half the month so I’m not bothered about that. I only got 1 dinners worth of chicken so I’ll need to go back to the shops today but with a strict list and budget. 

We’ve still got 1 portion pulled pork, 1 portion bolognese, 1 portion fajita chicken and 1 portion chilli in the freezer. We’ve also got random amounts of lentil soup but I’ll defrost them today to have with leftover crusty bread. There’s some Birds Eye chicken too which would use up random potatoes. The freezer food will be used for my lunches during the week. 

To buy:

• soap powder 
• Butter
• Toilet rolls 
• Tortilla chips
• Diced onions 
• Chicken 
• Bread

I’ll also need to plan meals for the week. We’ve got loads of pasta so I’ll make a veggie tomato pasta on Monday. 

In exciting news, we are off to view a house today! The house is close by and the location is perfect. The mortgage cost would be £850-900 compared to £500 rent and £1000 house deposit savings. The council tax would be £20 more per month. I’ve still to add on home insurance but we’re still looking at being able to pay off debt, save for holidays/birthdays/Christmas so I’m happy with that. Fingers crossed we love it and our offer is accepted!

Ive stopped doing PAD too as I’m doing this Monzo 1p challenge. Will see how long it lasts but I’ve saved 15p woohoo!

~FlowerPot~

Hi, 
I have really enjoyed reading your diary, it sounds like you are getting a good grip with the budgeting.
Good luck with your house viewing today.

Flowers x

wannabedebtfreemum95

Thanks Flowers! Quick update - we went to view the house and it was TINY. I don’t know the sq footage of our rented house but think this 3 bed was smaller than our 2 bed. I couldn’t even lie flat in the 3rd “bedroom” and there’s nowhere our kids bunk beds could fit in the other room. The master bedroom… would only fit a double bed and no more. Needless to say I won’t be making an offer and I won’t have to pay the solicitor!!! 

I did a quick Morrisons shop to come this evening, £47. This has enough meat for 4 meals and we’ve still got some frozen quorn. Mr WDF bought some toilet roll, bread, butter and potentially something else from the wee shop so that’s that sorted too. My dad is off to Costco on Monday and usually he picks up toilet roll for us so fingers crossed he does. 

We got some Next vouchers from Mr WDF’s auntie and uncle for Xmas (£40) so they’ve gone on my next account to pay off some of that. On payday I’ll pay off the rest. 

We are having a lovely chill day today! The baby is napping in our bed, the big boy is chilling watching his tv show and I’m toying between doing the ironing and doing some knitting… 

Flick85

I wish advertising sq footage for houses was standard in the UK, would save so much time! I went to see so many houses that were vastly overpriced because they claim that they were 4 bedrooms but 2 of them were absolutely tiny. And don’t get me started on the photos taken to make the rooms look bigger than they actually are! Sigh.

Hopefully something more suitable comes up for you soon!

wannabedebtfreemum95

Flick85 said:

I wish advertising sq footage for houses was standard in the UK, would save so much time! I went to see so many houses that were vastly overpriced because they claim that they were 4 bedrooms but 2 of them were absolutely tiny. And don’t get me started on the photos taken to make the rooms look bigger than they actually are! Sigh.

Hopefully something more suitable comes up for you soon!

Hahah that’s exactly what had happened! They must have some mad camera skills that I don’t have. The floor plan was also wildly inaccurate - there was a room sized square on the floor plan but no pictures… it was a 40cm wide space for a shelf!! I tried to look at the sq ft of the house we’re in currently but we didn’t go through an agency so don’t have the old advert. Ah well, we can use the emergency fund for a new hoover now! 🤣 the perks of adulthood. 

wannabedebtfreemum95

Another win this evening - I finally made my sundried tomato bread! It turned out so nice - I bought a silicon loaf tin from Lidl reduced a few weeks ago and it was definitely needed for this dough. I added in half a jar of sundried tomatoes and used the oil from jar in place of olive oil so the dough was a lot wetter and I think it would’ve flopped like a pancake if I’d tried to shape it on a tray. I’m never gonna save megabucks by making my own bread because we end up eating the fresh loaves so much quicker but it kept me busy today! Mr WDF is off to a party tonight, I’ve got two bathed and exhausted kids asleep, and I’ve got a crème egg and my knitting. Life is good! And a NSD for me 🥳

wannabedebtfreemum95

It’s been a long Sunday and we’re all ready for an early night but I’m feeling good! The emergency fund took another hit today (£90) as did the holidays pot (£56) as we had quite a spendy day. The hoover needed replaced because the dust flying about was making me go mad. I’m like a child with a new toy, I’m so impressed with it! It’s much more lightweight (no doubt the baby will want a shot) and it’s so quiet so perfect for family life. Happy happy me today! 

We were back to swimming and football for the big boy today so up and out early then we visited my brother’s new house. It is lovely and tidy and much bigger than I expected! We went to see the show homes on site too - I have major house envy. We saw the house that I’d had my eye on but it is so expensive. Not being built until 2026 in the site near us though. Afterwards we went to our favourite wee restaurant that had 50% off the bill if you signed up for their rewards. I couldn’t sign up quick enough!!!! We won’t need dinner either so that’s a bonus. 

This week I’ve got quite a lot on at work, a crafting day wirh my friend on Saturday and a celebration for my grandparents anniversary on Sunday. I’m looking forward to payday but it still seems ages away!!! 

wannabedebtfreemum95

Back to work today after an early start (6am) because big boy had a nose bleed which woke the baby. Happy days! We were organised and ready for nursery so early that we had loads of time to play which was lovely. I need to do that more often! 

I didn’t make it out for my walk today as it was pouring and windy so stayed home and marinated chicken for dinner. I defrosted pulled pork for lunch so it’s been a day of lovely food, warm and cosy work and I won £10 on Lidl spin to win. Couldn’t be better!! Now just to hope the baby sleeps well tonight so I can enjoy my dinner, do some knitting and get the washing put away. 

Meal plan for the week:
Monday: Gyros with leftovers for baby’s lunch tomorrow 
Tuesday: salmon 
Wednesday: potentially a play date so sausages, mash and veg
Thursday: chicken enchiladas 
Friday:

I’ve realised I haven’t got an enchilada kit so I’ll pick this up at Lidl with my £10 off. I’m also getting a free vegetable so I’ll get something exciting! We’ve got £10 left on the fruit card too so that’ll restock the fridge. We get our last Scottish child payment this week (1 weeks worth at £53.40) which will go towards the Lloyds direct debit. I forgot January was such a long payday month and I set the direct debits to £75 for this month. Full of regret but worse things! We are also entitled to the Scottish heating payment because we were on UC in November but not sure when that will pay out. 

wannabedebtfreemum95

Since we’re not moving any time soon, I’m starting to think about how we can live in this house better. We’ve got a lot of stuff! Mr WDF is very much in the mindset that we shouldn’t buy anything new because we’ll be moving soon. I think we should buy more storage for the kids room as right now it’s a bit of a riot. There is space for a 4x2 Kallax unit in here and it would stop there being so much crap lying about the floor. I might just order it and we’d use it in another house or sell it… it’s one of those things where I just need to make the decision! 

I need to go through my crafting supplies too. I’ve decided that I’m not going to buy any more craft supplies until I’ve only got 2-3 projects left. So far, knitting wise, I’ve got enough to make:
- 1 jumper for baby (all same colour)
- 1 or 2 stripy jumpers for baby 
- 1 big scarf for me
- 1 mini scarf
- 1 jumper for me 

I’ve got enough wool to make about 6 pairs of socks as well! I’m also working on a blanket for my friends wee baby due next month. I love knitting the kids clothes but there’s only so many woolly jumpers they need. Right now, big boy has 3 jumpers that fit and the baby has 3 too. I’ve got 3 hand me down jumpers for the baby and he’ll get the ones that fit the big boy now, so I don’t need to make any more. I don’t really love gifting knits because I like to knit with wool and if it can’t go in washing machine, I don’t want to gift someone hand washing admin. I really don’t need more wool, so I need to commit now that I won’t buy any until April at least. Got to knit down my stash! I’ve got a half-finished quilt top to sew up too which is for another friend’s baby. Hopefully all this crafting will keep me busy and stop me from eating everything in the house and spending money on !!!!!! I don’t need. We can only hope!