Time to banish the debt.

flamingo22

LzzyIsGod said:

Schools and their trips are like vacuums for money.

I have taken to checking the school calendar and FB parents group to make a mental note of what the year above has done this year as they are often quite similar year after year. Forewarned is forearmed and budgeted for!!

That's a good idea. She's about to go into year 11 so no more expensive trips for her and my son can't bare to be away from home so unlikely that I'll have these to pay for with him, and it's years before my littlest will go going on trips and by then the debt definitely would be long gone. 

flamingo22

wishus said:

Following your journey, @flamingo22. 
You've done so well already!

Thank goodness I only have one daughter, think I would actually be bankrupt by now with anymore. 

Bless her! She sounds so excited by life! I remember being the older middle child and growing up my parents were either going through boom or bust. It could be a nice holiday one month, then begging the neighbours for a bit of cash to buy food the next. My younger sister found this very hard to understand for a while. She has a great relationship with money now though but it's a hard time when friends all seem to be able to do this, that and the other and you can't. Peer pressure, eh?

She is definitely excited by life 😊 and I'm so glad that she has not been to affected by me getting in such a mess. 

Peer pressure is the worst, and sorry you and your sister went through that. My dad told me a few years that he and my mum nearly went bankrupt when we were kids due to my mums spending, I never knew any of this so they hid it pretty well. 

LzzyIsGod

flamingo22 said:

LzzyIsGod said:

Schools and their trips are like vacuums for money.

I have taken to checking the school calendar and FB parents group to make a mental note of what the year above has done this year as they are often quite similar year after year. Forewarned is forearmed and budgeted for!!

That's a good idea. She's about to go into year 11 so no more expensive trips for her and my son can't bare to be away from home so unlikely that I'll have these to pay for with him, and it's years before my littlest will go going on trips and by then the debt definitely would be long gone. 

Ah just Prom to budget for? That seems a really big thing these days!!

flamingo22

LzzyIsGod said:

flamingo22 said:

LzzyIsGod said:

Schools and their trips are like vacuums for money.

I have taken to checking the school calendar and FB parents group to make a mental note of what the year above has done this year as they are often quite similar year after year. Forewarned is forearmed and budgeted for!!

That's a good idea. She's about to go into year 11 so no more expensive trips for her and my son can't bare to be away from home so unlikely that I'll have these to pay for with him, and it's years before my littlest will go going on trips and by then the debt definitely would be long gone. 

Ah just Prom to budget for? That seems a really big thing these days!!

Forget about that 🤨

flamingo22

Just completed my first bank switch, for the free money of course. Switched two direct debits from my dummy account but then the website said that they would tell my employer to pay my wage into the new bank account, I didn't want that to happen but I can always transfer it over to cover the rest of my bills I suppose. And I'll get an Amazon voucher which will go towards the kids Xmas pressies. 

Another KIT day today and I couldn't help myself buying goodies to get me through (rough morning) but I limited the amount I spent, so I'm learning I guess. 

My fridge is bare so it's big shop day tomorrow (I hate the big shop) and I hate trying to plan meals that will appeal to us all. I'm a veggie, the rest of the house eat meat, husband and baby will eat anything, daughter isn't too bad but my son, he is a pain to feed, he thinks vegetables are the devils work and won't dare to eat cortage pie, chilli etc. if I'd let him, he would live on hot dogs, pizza and super noodles. Suppose he's not as bad as my nephew though, he only eats potato waffles for breakfast, dinner and tea with the occasional chocolate wrap 🙄

flamingo22

This week on Vinted I have made £85 😳 one item is £80, i feel nervous. I'm a Vinted group and the amount of people saying they are getting scammed on there etc is worrying. My buyer seems lovely (she's messaged me a couple of times) so fingers crossed it all goes well. Over the past 5 weeks I have made £75 on surveys, I know I complain about these but maybe I shouldn't 🤣.
Got my confirmation for the research study next week, quite looking forward to this actually.
And I've also made an effort to reconnect with my friends, which I've neglected this past year, so looking forward to the catch up. This week has been a positive week, long may it continue. 

honeybee1234

I'm in the same position as you @flamingo22 with being a vegetarian and everyone else being meat eaters. My youngest was quite fussy but as he's getting into his teenage years, he's getting more open to trying new things, and eating more vegetables.

I used to do sneaky things like blend vegetables into the homemade sauce with a pasta bake. I also started putting an approachable amount of veggies on his plate, ones I knew he'd maybe tackle, and encourage him but not push him to eat them. If he did, it was a bonus, and I wanted to cement the normality of having vegetables with a meal.

He's chilled out a lot with it now, and I can easily add a vegetable to a dish without worrying he'll refuse to eat any of it. He also enjoys spicy food so I do things like cook broccoli as a side dish with a bit of chilli and oil, or add cauliflower or spinach to a curry.

For meal planning, I sympathise! What I've always done is pick a meal that's easy to cook and adapt it. So for example, fajitas with rice or wedges is an easy one as nearly all the prep is the same, everyone can add what they want to theirs, you can have tofu/soya chunks/chickpeas and the others chicken, and there's sides that everyone can eat and your son can eat if he doesn't fancy the veggies.

Jacket potatoes with a selection of easy fillings (beans/cheese/chilli/tuna/houmous) and salad is a good one. Sausages/veggie sausages and mash with veggies, or along similar lines, a sausage casserole with mash. Mine currently like a chicken breast, flavoured however you want, with rice cooked in veggie stock, then with steamed broccoli and sweetcorn. Would any of those work? 

flamingo22

@honeybee1234 thank you for your suggestions 😊 he's okay with chicken and jacket potato, he'll eat cucumber with this 🤣, he's started to refuse sauce in his pasta so I've no chance with that one 🙄. Sausage and mash he will eat with a sprig of broccoli, he's a pest. Make sure he has vitamins though, well I do when my daughter hasn't scoffed them all thinking they're sweets, you'd think at nearly 15 she'd know better.

i keep thinking its pay day next week and it's not 🥴 these past 6 weeks have been so expensive with my daughters holidays, my sons birthday and my daughters birthday coming up. But in other news I've cashed out £10 today in surveys, sent my expensive item off for Vinted and earned nearly £15 on the jam doughnut app, which will all go towards Xmas. I'm loving this doughnut app apart from when it asks me to click on all the fire hydrants when I'm at the till before giving me my voucher, my husband says I'm making him cringe when I get my 'voucher app' out and he's started to walk away when I'm at the till as it's such a faff 🤣🤣. 

This is my last week doing kit days before I officially start back to work in September 😢, hurray to a normal wage again but going to miss my little one so much, but I know he will absolutely love going to nursery 😊

flamingo22

Not much to update from today, NSD, withdrew £5 from the surveys, £1.75 from Vinted and awaiting on another Vinted item being delivered. I've also received my card from a new bank account that I have recently opened to complete the switch service to get the £175, must remember to do this switch soon. 

Kit day tomorrow and have made my own lunch so should be a NSD too. 

It was also my last day at baby group today before they shut down for the summer 😭 time is going way too fast but not quick enough to be rid of this debt. 

flamingo22

NSD day and I was meant to be taking part in the face to face session today (well yesterday) (£60 vouchers) but I had to cancel due to spending all day on Tuesday in A&E with my baby 😭 and I had to cancel my kit day on Tuesday too, but he's on the mend so that's all that matters. 

Received £80 from my Vinted item today and the money went straight onto one of my credit cards but now I'm regretting this as it's 0% for another 31 months and really I should've put the money towards one of my loans, never mind lesson learnt. And it's also got me thinking of changing which debts to deal with first. I have been doing the snowball method but my two credit cards are 0% for 31 and 32 months so I've decided to just pay the minimum on those and tackle my loans first, so hopefully I will have my first three loans paid off next year, Abound, Zopa and Admiral and the rest of the debts paid off in 2027, its actually brought forward my debt free date to November 2027a month earlier 🙃 so if everything goes to plan my December 2027 wage will be all mine, well after all the household bills have gone out. Fingers crossed it all works out.