From debt to freedom...

Honeysucklelou2 · 16 February 2018 at 2:27AM

Ahhh that's a good idea for the postage. I'll make a note of that, thank you MeandO.

Today (Thurs) has been much better weather wise. I've got a fair amount done for work which needed doing. I worked until 4 ish then got out for a walk with DD 3, 4 and 5. We did a circular walk and enjoyed the change in weather.

Tea was homemade wedges and omelettes. I had forgotten how good a simple omelette can be! DD5, to my surprise, loves omelettes and was asking everyone if she could help them to finish their portion!!! Dessert was a summer fruit crumble made with the remainder of a large bag of frozen fruit.

Today was a NSD finally! The first for February:eek:

Honeysucklelou2 · 17 February 2018 at 9:32AM

Yesterday was a lovely day, spent with my mum and grandmother. Spends yesterday included £50 on diesel ( should cover my trip to my mum's house and travel to work next week), £46 on groceries, £140 on nursery fees and £30 sent to DD1 for new sports boots needed for the sport she plays.

Today is set to be a busy day as I try to finish all the half term jobs on my list! Still have a few things to get done for Monday.

I have tried to get out for a decent walk every day over half term. I think I failed one day as it was constant horizontal drizzle, but I've definitely enjoyed getting outside more. Dec and Jan are more difficult to get out for walks when it's so dark. We live on the edge of a small village, so our walking routes are winding country lanes with few street lamps which limits winter walking to weekends. I'm looking forward to the lighter evenings.

Honeysucklelou2 · 18 February 2018 at 5:17AM

Saturday did prove to be very busy! DS2 had a birthday party to go to. Thankfully this time it was an activity on a nearby farm so we were able to walk to it:):). I took the toddler and my parents' dog ( who is staying with us for a couple of weeks ) and thoroughly enjoyed the walk to the party and back. On the journey to pick him up, I took my dog, so both dogs walked by lunchtime:):):). The dogs get on well together but walking them together with a pushchair is somewhat of nightmare as they are both big inquisitive dogs!

After the walks I took the youngest 5 swimming. I have had to spend a fair amount of time this week either doing job related work or catching up on housework so aside from walks, I didn't feel that I had done very much with them. The children all enjoyed the swim, especially the toddler, that I feel it was money well spent.

On our return, I got busy trying to fill the cake tins:D. Lemon & poppy seed muffins, meringue mincemeat tart, date slices and a coffee loaf cake were baked...let's see how long that lasts

. I had run out of vanilla essence ( as had our local shop) so I quite enjoyed looking through the cupboards and deciding what could be made with the ingredients we had. I've used up a half jar ( large) of mincemeat which was good. We appear to have quite a few dates so the date bars are likely to be repeated in the coming days.

Honeysucklelou2 · 18 February 2018 at 5:33AM

Spending on Sat

£16.20 swimming ( for 1 adult, 4 children...the toddler was free).
£10 gift for birthday child.
£7 corn for the poultry.
£4.50 meat from the local butchers

I have been thinking about the budget. I sat down on Friday and planned the budget for the next month ( I admire those who can do the whole year ahead, but find I have too many incidental expenses that come up so tend to do a month at a time.) At the moment when my salary comes in, I earmark money for mortgage and utility bills/ council tax and then for the monthly car expenses ( road tax, insurance and AA). I make sure that my dad receives a payment for the money lent to me and any other debt repayments are accounted for. After that some is saved into the emergency fund but I'm just a bit concerned that I don't have a specific car maintenance pot. Any money for repairs tend to come from the EF whereas it would probably make better sense to have a designated pot and make due provision.

The other area I need to address is entertainment. I don't have a pot for that either, not that we do much that requires money. The NT membership is worth doing and we get a lot out of days at NT places. It is also worthwhile for the free parking at coastal spots. My spending tracker shows only the odd coffee with friends, but any spends tend to come out of whatever is left in the current account. It was good to take the children swimming so am wondering whether I can wiggle things about to be able to get a swim in perhaps every other week.

Mumoffourkids · 18 February 2018 at 6:29AM

You are always posting at random times of the night/morning honeysuckle. I am taking inspiration from you and baking more, which was a little bit of a spend at first but was good yesterday as my eldest needed snacks for today for a packed lunch so we made choc chip brownies for her take and the rest will be taken on Monday in packed lunches.

With regard to your budget, this is something I thought about with all the incidental expenses with schools, kids etc and is why I have a £10 a day budget. I am lucky in that my budget allows this but it does help knowing that I have money to pay for things for the kids and has definitely been spent this last week with the kids being off for half term. Anything I don!!!8217;t spend at the end of each week, goes towards debts or savings for bits that we would like. Would your budget allow for something like this?

Honeysucklelou2 · 18 February 2018 at 11:51AM

That is a good idea to have an amount available to use and if not used to pay against a debt. I like that idea. My budget won't allow for £10 a day but if I plan carefully I think I could set aside £20 a week. I might need to curb the amount of journeys I'm doing in addition to work, which is usually to pick an older teenage child up from somewhere!

I have insomniac nights which is why my posts can range from 1am to 4am!

Honeysucklelou2 · 19 February 2018 at 1:01AM

Today was spent mainly getting ready for the coming week after half term last week.

Tonight we had kedgeree. It's been a very long time since I made kedgeree, so I looked up a recipe online. I was so pleased that at long last the random pots of spices bought for school cookery lessons, finally came in useful!!! I had cardamom pods, turmeric and cinnamon sticks lurking in the cupboard:j. I was amazed at how enthusiastically DD2 was tucking into a fish dish. Apparently she has to try everything before they cook it, so has tasted squid and mussels and the like. Will definitely have to make that again. I only made it because I'd found some smoked haddock in the reduced section of the supermarket!

Today was a NSD bringing the total for February to 2.

Honeysucklelou2 · 23 February 2018 at 1:24AM

A very busy week at work so am looking forward to a day off with the toddler tomorrow. The date bars have lasted well and just finished this evening, so will try to make those again. Since making omletters last week, DD5 has requested them twice for tea! Glad to have found a new favourite!

NSD #3 for February.

Honeysucklelou2 · 23 February 2018 at 1:25AM

Made a £70 payment off a debt yesterday so have adjusted my signature accordingly. At least it's coming down, albeit slowly.

MeandO · 23 February 2018 at 10:10AM

It all adds up HSL2.
The date bars sound lovely, no wonder they went quickly!

Hope you have a lovely weekend xx

From debt to freedom...

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