AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

Thanks nomorecredit - we had a fab time as we always do. It may have rained for 4 days out of the 5 but we still made the most of it and came away with so many memories like you say. We've been camping for 3 years now and it's not getting old at all....hoping to upgrade our tent in 2020 to an airbeam (still have another year or 2 in our poled one provided we keep looking after it!) to make pitching a little bit less tiresome.

Some bits I forgot to add to my last post but I feel are relevant to the debt-free cause. I re-jigged all my on-line banking ready for 'post-debt' so that I basically can keep running everything as I am. I'm hoping that having lived on this budget for nearly 8 months, it wont feel like a chore to keep it going with a few little tweaks. My food budget will be able to go up by £15 a week which is a massive amount and will allow for the occasional chippy or pizza tea for example. I've set up a car, gifts, holidays and emergency fund savings account (all seperate ones so they act as pots) and at the minute I am skimming into each so they're not really amassing anything....but they're not really supposed to at the moment as I'm still a long way off being debt free - eventually they'll get their allocated amount sent in every week by SO. I have also got 3 pots on my window-sill for change/payments to go into. I have one that I am putting at least £3 a week into which is for school expenses and will be used towards uniforms and shoes after the summer hols. I have paid into it for the last 2 weeks so have £8 in there at the moment so should the children come home with a letter about a trip (as happens in the summer term) I should have the cash to cover at least part of it! Plus if someone puts a hole in their shoes/loses their last jumper I have that to fall back on. Another is for 'special occasions' - nothing in there at the moment as I emptied the little that was in there to take on holiday and for use on middle's birthday tea - aiming to put at least £2 a week in there. Then I have the 'ice cream fund' which is for coppers and small change. When it gets full I'll send it into work with hubby who will change it into 'real money' to go towards days out over the summer. I have about £2 in there so far, but if we make good use of the EH membership, £2 will more than cover some sweets or treats and I'm hoping to add to it over the next few weeks too.

Today I went through my money and sent an extra payment to the CCJ - it's now below the £300 so that's a great effort. I really really hope that I can keep this momentum up for the next 6 weeks and make some real headway as it's been slow and painful going the last couple of months and I don't feel like we're ever going to get there, let alone by August like I'm hoping!

Thanks for the reply. I'm trying to keep focussed but not be obsessed as I have other things that really I should be taking care of too - like the house and my writing and the boys.

Speaking of which I've just had a scare when I realised I have 6 weeks left of school before the onslaught of the holidays when I know I will get very little done in the way of 'work' so will need to be prepared for it.....enter the 6-week Summer Challenge. 1 room per week getting gutted and de-cluttered. All rubbish out of the house, every pair of curtains washed, all cobwebs blown away. Starting today! I've given myself a clean slate today, washing 3 loads of clothes, cleaning the hobs and the kitchen tops, getting the boys to tidy their rooms etc....but the real work will start Monday...with the terror that is my Kitchen. I'm going to reward myself with a new item of clothing each week off ebay. I know I can get the bits I need for pretty cheap on there and free delivery (I only need tops so pretty easy size wise) so it's an incentive Today is officially Day #1.

Money wise I made the mistake of asking hubby to pick up some cheese on his way home (I left it off the Tesco order by accident) and he spent £22! That has blown my budget for this week, but thankfully we didn't need a lot of fuel this week so I think I only need to bring £5 out of my tiny EF!

Saturday so far is pretty slow going otherwise...I've done lots of odd jobs around the house and the kids are all pretty tired from being at school all week. The weather is dreary to say the least so we're staying home.

Pasta for tea for the kids, and a nice Pizza for us once hubby is home from work.

Another busy weekend gone by....it seems like time is flying at the moment. Even my middle DS commented on how quickly the term is going.

I have made a decision to make myself healthier. I keep trying to lose the weight but I never manage it...it's literally 6lb I need to lose but it just wont shift. I know why...I like my food too much, so logically I need to move more which is difficult with my thyroid being the way it is. So, today I did my first ever Yoga session (thanks to YouTube) which was the first of a 30 days of beginners yoga. It was easy yet difficult and while I enjoyed it, I know I've done it I am determined to do it every day.....who knows maybe hubby and the kids will want to join in?

I've done myself a new checklist/schedule for my housework - I was getting so fed up with being 'behind' so I've gone back to basics and spent the weekend getting to grips with my 6 weeks challenge I set myself. My kitchen is back to about 80% square...just a bit of clutter that I need to take to the tip/put into storage in the garage so will get hubby to help with that on Thursday when he's off work. I got the boys to help me completely empty their room and they only put back about half of what was in there. It's so much better and I hope it will allow them to be able to keep it tidier. I also got the boys to take all the toys out of the LR so that feels better than it did too. Just the Master bedroom to set-to (a little bit each day) and that will be the worst of the house done.....:j

Money wise - a pretty standard week. Meal plan is holding up (apart from hubby coming home with pizza from his own money) and we've still got lots of food in. Just need milk at some point today/tomorrow so we don't run out. I'm waiting (still) for my electric bill to be published for this month. I put the readings in on the 13th, cut off is the 14th, but because of the weekend it's delayed from it's normal publication on the 15th. I'm keeping an eye on it.

Anyway, I've been so busy this morning that I'm already hankering after my lunch....and then this afternoon because I've already cleared my desk and the rubbish out of the MB, and I've put the washing away already too, I should be able to sit down and do some writing after I've eaten.......:T I'm really optimistic that I can keep this up as I'm feeling a lot better since I swapped my medication. Lots of rest time and self care built in and enjoying the results I'm getting too. Fingers crossed.

Day 3 and I'm feeling very tired today. I over-did it a little in the garden yesterday (looks so much better now though!) and woke up today feeling like I needed to go straight back to bed. I have however set to when I got home and aside from hanging out a load of laundry once the washer has finished, I managed to get all my jobs for today done before 9am! I'm going to get changed in a minute and do my yoga and then I'm not sure what to do with the rest of my day....I've been enjoying Gentleman Jack on iplayer so I may watch another episode of that when it's lunch time.

My Clearscore updated - it's gone up 25 points to 243! I'm excited by that as it's the highest it's been in 2 years and only 7 points off my all-time highest since I signed up on CS. I know it's still nothing to write home about, but I am happy to be making progress with it. My Totally Money didn't go up this month but it should next month when the BT account updates. If it doesn't I will chase up.

Nothing much else to report.....going to be a busy weekend as we're off out on Friday night to see some friends (not been out in about 2 months!) and then Saturday we're going to see my parents. We're also then supposed to be seeing another set of friends on Sunday but I feel tired just thinking about all of this, and selfishly they wont feed us or anything so it's going to cost a fortune to go and visit as we will need to take lunch/dinner with us for us PLUS them (that's 7 people!) ...at least my parents will feed us all! All of this is expense I could have done without but I will just have to work the budget hard and see how we get on. Still optimistic that I'll be able to make a good payment to the debts this week.....certainly a bigger one than I have been making recently.

Pay day and it's week 25 in our quest to be debt free.

Today I have put the money aside for the tyres for the car (will be getting them fitted this week!) and paid £62 off the debts. Another £50 will have come off hubby's loan so officially it's paid off today but it will take about a week for the payment to be lodged and then he'll need to call up and get the balance paid from his savings pot.

I'm a little confused by my phone bill...normally it gets produced on the 27th of the month but this month's isn't there....and it's showing as next bill July, last bill May? I'm so confused. I'll keep the £60 that it's supposed to be (that's phone and internet combined) back as I think because I called them a couple of weeks ago, it's pushed everything around so i'll probably get a massive bill next month. Nothing is ever simple is it!! If it doesn't come out I may use the money for paying off the remainder on hubby's CC. Just need to not get carried away.