£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

warby68 wrote: »

Fair enough, my mistake I thought you only had one camping with friends holiday pre -lbm. And I do agree you're doing well, no modesty needed, especially the last couple of months - playing devil's advocate just shows how much your thinking has changed . I admire your ability to go away and not spend on top. I associate being away with treats so would struggle just to 'be away' - that's why I'm watching the rain at home :rotfl:

Going away definitely used to mean loads of extra treats - I've been amazed at how easy it's been not to spend on them actually, given our previous habits. I think I'm worse at doing things to 'treat' us if we're stuck at home - days out, cafe trips when we go into town for an errand, etc. Being aware of the spending this summer has definitely been a huge learning curve. Every day's a school day, as they say. :rotfl:

DH and the DCs dispatched on the last camping trip of the summer, and I am enjoying some peace and quiet.

Have made sugar plum jellies, plum flapjacks, plum and ginger cake, sourdough, leek and potato soup and leek and potato pasties alongside packing for camping and picking up DH from the station. Blimey. Completely ran out of energy for doing actual work once they'd finally left at 5:30pm though.

Have just realised I can use DH's extra salary (backdated payrise) this month to neutralise the credit card situation. It will mean a delay to saving for the extension as that was meant to be a good £300 starting sum, but the deal with myself (and DH) was that we would only save for the extension costs AFTER essentials had been paid, and paying off the CC from this month has to come first on the priority list.

to do today
1. bake more sourdough. Done, three loaves.
2. pack for DH and DC camping. Done.
3. batch cook biscuits. Done.
4, More plum and apple preserving. done.
5. make leek and potato soup. Done.
6. plan in when I might take the DCs uniform shopping - I don't think we need tons, but some bits have definitely been outgrown. Suspect new shoes required all round too. Not done.
7. make pasties for camping lunches. Done.

to do this week
1. Plan DS1's birthday with him.
2. Squeeze in work at any spare moment.
3. Reproof winter coats (needs a tumble dryer, which we don't have, so my parents get the joy of me doing it there ).
4. Reproof the tent and awning. I think this will get put back to a later date in favour of fruit preserving.
5. Start a list of camping supplies that need replacing/repairing for next year - will he much better to do that in stages over the winter than in one big spend next May.

to do this month
1. Pay some extra off the MBNA card - I'd like this card gone asap. More than the £15 I managed in July would be nice.
2. Find ourselves with more than £228 in the savings account on 31st August. Ha. Ha. Ha.
3. Keep that overall spend figure down below £3,900 (baby steps!)
4. business planning and scheduling, so that I am ready to start making some immediate profit in September when DC3 starts preschool.
5. think outside the box with the food budget and keep a close eye on anywhere it might be going wrong.
6. Try not to need the child benefit money to balance August’s money, so it can go towards Septmber’s (it is paid four weekly, which is currently falling towards the back end of the month, so I have balanced the budget to work without it, and will aim to put it towards September’s income rather than August’s. We’ll see). Again; Ha. Ha. Ha.

Week 28: Day 1

Enjoying my last few hours of peace before DH and the DC return from camping. I had a really good run of work yesterday - actually had the time to process a lot of ideas that had been whirling round my head. Hopefully it's all going to lead to a more productive business from September, but it's so hard to quantify, as I'm branching into a little bit of new territory.

More fruit preserving on the cards today. Maybe some more jam, definitely some more flapjacks, some plain stewed fruit fror breakfasts and desserts, and will pick a load of apples to take and store in the fridge. The variety my mum grows aren't amazing keepers, but I can get a few weeks worth by picking carefully and fridging them. Oh, and Cumbria Lass this is the plum flapjack recipe, and I also made some of these not-quite-flapjacks. Both are slightly 'wet' - I will be storing them in the freezer so they are available in the coming weeks, but I imagine they'd go mouldy within a week if not at least kept in the fridge. No idea how much I'll have saved with all of this effort, but it has to be a few quid here and there, between all the snacks, the dried apple rings, the fresh apples and the stewed fruit. Seems a shame not to take the opportunity.

Gosh, I do hope I earn some more money next month - this endless slogging with no extra income in sight is extraordinarily dull. I know I've said this before, but this month I really feel it's hit home how much I was relying on the random extra income from my business to balance the budget, rather than sticking to it properly and using the extra money for debt overpayments or savings. I really can't decide the best way forward. It would be most sensible to save up another cushion, but after the disaster of spending it all last time, I think I am going to stick with my plan of overpaying the debt each time, or at least making one of the CC payments early each month (barclaycard allows me to do this, and reduces the DD accordingly) before I think about spending anything extra.

to do today
1. as much preserving as I can fit in.
2. respond to the other work query I got yesterday - funny how it picks back up for September.
3. get even further ahead on regular contract work.
4. make green veg quiche for picnic dinner.
5. more website planning stuff.
6. take some photos for social media - have neglected this slightly over the summer.
7. order a cheap waterproof coat for walking holiday.

to do this week
1. plan DS1's birthday with him (this fell by the wayside last week).
2. tax return - I have a feeling this needs to be done to apply for the 30 hours funding for DC3. No idea how I'm going to fit it in!
3. dry out the tent if DH brings it home wet (although the weather is looking positive at the moment!).
4. uniform and shoe shopping for the DC (weep).
5. check any other supplies needed for walking holiday (I think we have everything we need though).
6. Start a list of camping supplies that need replacing/repairing for next year - will he much better to do that in stages over the winter than in one big spend next May.

to do this month
1. Pay some extra off the MBNA card - I'd like this card gone asap. More than the £15 I managed in July would be nice. Well that's not going to happen.
2. Find ourselves with more than £228 in the savings account on 31st August. Ha. Ha. Ha.
3. Keep that overall spend figure down below £3,900 (baby steps!)
4. business planning and scheduling, so that I am ready to start making some immediate profit in September when DC3 starts preschool. Ongoing.
5. think outside the box with the food budget and keep a close eye on anywhere it might be going wrong.
6. Try not to need the child benefit money to balance August’s money, so it can go towards Septmber’s (it is paid four weekly, which is currently falling towards the back end of the month, so I have balanced the budget to work without it, and will aim to put it towards September’s income rather than August’s. We’ll see). Again; Ha. Ha. Ha.

I also haven't done a debt roundup for several weeks, apart from putting in the debt figure on 1st August. Here's a quick round up of the last few weeks...

Week 24 Weekly round up
debt total on day 1 of week 24 £55,451.30
This week's debt total £55,331.13
Total paid off since day 1 of week 24 £120.17
Grand total paid off £3,227

The amount paid off looks pathetic as obviously I've added to it a bit with food shopping and diesel on the credit card, but at least it's (so far) still actually gone down this month.