AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

Lazy day today - had to nip out to get some butter (been meaning to pick some up for days!) and ended up spending £3.25 in Lidl. Thankfully we had that in cash. Had to put £6 fuel in the car as well to cover the trips to/from school tomorrow. Roll on Thursday - it's been a long week this week and an expensive one too. Still, at least we're seeing the benefit of our efforts in getting everything sorted. I got an txt from the water company today asking for the bill to be paid...when I rang and spoke to them I said that I wouldn't be able to pay the whole £70 they're asking, but I can do £25 a week for the next few weeks....more than I've ever been able to give them, and they were happy with that The whole arrears on the water (circa £200) should be gone by the end of March/1st week of April all being well.

I'm unsure what to do with my Vanquis debt though. It's a big debt (£700+), on 0% interest repayment plan until it's gone. I pay £4 a week, and it will take me 3.5 years to pay it off at that rate....but £16 a month is really inexpensive and there's a part of me that thinks maybe I should just leave it....thus bringing the end of our family 'austerity' forward to the beginning of the summer holidays and will take our debt down to well below £1k also....but the whole point of this exercise is to be debt free and if I put everything towards it it will be the end of August at the latest, but wont leave much in the way of spends for the summer holidays. Maybe a middle ground of paying extra on some weeks over the summer and then making up the rest of the payments in September. I don't know....I just want it gone. I was toying with the idea of offering an F&F but I don't think I would be successful. I don't know what to do for the best, but lots of time to decide.

Time for some positivity - Things to look forward to (by month) so far:

March - Pancake day was lush!
April - 2 x Birthdays (both my parents), our 11th wedding anniversary, Easter, a friend's wedding
May - Middle Child's birthday (27th), Holiday in Scotland (4 nights away), Half term, bank holidays
June - Nothing in yet
July - Summer holidays start, trip to Somerset (Stonehenge and MIL visit, plus some friends too if we can squeeze them in).
August - Youngest's birthday (17th), 2 x camping trips
September - My Birthday, BEING DEBT FREE!!!!!

I've decided I'm just going to pay off everything I physically can by the summer holidays and see where we are by then. Fingers crossed I will have the debt almost gone by then, and I will them offer an F&F and see what the outcome is. I would love to be debt free by my birthday at the very latest...awesome present to myself and my family!

I need to plan the next couple of months day trips etc so I can budget them properly. One other thing to look forward to is we're dog sitting for Bracken (our favourite 4-legged person!) for the next 2 weeks from the weekend....I'm so excited it actually hurts!!! I love dogs and one of the reasons I'm so anxious to be debt free is we're never going to be able to get another dog (we lost our aged Fox Terrier a year ago to old-age) with our debts and financial instability. As soon as we're free from this outgoings, all my money after bills is being divided up and the 'dog savings' rate will be the monthly cost of a dog to make sure we can afford it comfortably...insurance, food, healthy pet cover etc all add up! I am desperate to get a 4-legged member back in our family and as much as I love the hamster, it's not the same! lol

Also forgot to add that I went over the 5k on my More card today so that's my first £5 towards Christmas. The machine also spat out 3 lots of points for the next 3 weeks. I have to spend £95 which is over my usual budget (by £10 a week) but I can probably adjust for a few weeks, to get £7 cashback on each shop towards Christmas.....A bit backwards I know but that would give me £25 in my More account within a month, and I could really do with an excuse to re-stock my store cupboards a bit. I know I can make it the next 3 weeks aswell.....I'll see how the next couple of paydays work out. Can't believe we're a quarter of the way through March already. Compared to february, this month is veritably flying by!

Plan for today -

- Breakfast
- sort the kids hair (last bit of de-nitting hoepfully!)
- Washing x 3 loads and put away dry
- Tidy and dog-proof downstairs (get kids to help!)

Homemade pizzas for tea - hubby has already started on the bases. Means I only have to worry about cleaning up the mess (hubby is a messy cook!) but thank goodness we have a dishwasher!
Tomorrow hubby is going fishing and we take delivery of pooch in the evening. Having friends over (she's their Mum's dog) for the evening and have plenty of snacks in for that

Right now though, breakfast is very much the top of my agenda! Happy weekend all

What a morning!

Another refusal to get on the bus from middle son....another set of bus tickets purchased (cost £5.10 total) and I did pop into the shop to buy myself a bar of chocolate and picked up a YS chocolate cake for 80p for the kids tea.....feel like we all need a pick-me-up.

When I got back I took the dog straight out (I know me, if I didn't just grab her lead and go I'd struggle to go back out lol) and we had a nice wander up the lane in the rain. Nice and peaceful though - helped my head after a stressful morning.

POA for this afternoon

• Washing - 2-3 loads, plus put away dry
• Kitchen sorted - make meatballs for tea.
• Tidy up generally - floors vacuum, rubbish etc
• Make all beds
• Swish and Swipe bathrooms and bleach toilets
• Meter Readings

And after that I really need to at least look at my blog etc for this month and maybe try to do some writing tonight. I've not done anything for about 4 weeks with illness and time off.....feeling withdrawals!!