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Archive for December, 2012

2012: What a Year

December 31st, 2012 at 09:21 am

I cannot believe that today is the last day of 2012. It has been a quick year with a lot of changes for us. We moved from my mum's to temporary accommodation, then finally to our home now. We also became a family of three when SG was born in March.

Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish the goals I had made for this year. I had to find my entry stating what my goals were, and this was them:

[] Reduce CC2 by half
[] Reduce CC1 by half
[] Car fund to £100
[] EF to £100
[] Savings to £700

Highly unattainable goals since I spent ten months of the year on maternity leave. While on maternity leave I added to my credit cards for things such as car repairs, utility bills that we had to pay from our old flat, petrol and food when we were really struggling. I hate that it's come to this when I was doing so well before maternity leave at the beginning of the year. Oh well, I can't do anything about it now other than not adding to the debt I already have.

This year's goals are slightly more realistic I think. Ideally I would love to achieve them all but the whole point of them was to make them realistic so I can achieve them. At the very least I should achieve my four basic goals.

I need to write down my budget for 2013, and adapt it towards achieving these goals. I'm also going to start trying to find snowflakes to put towards debt.

Uh-oh

December 21st, 2012 at 04:49 pm

I started back at work on Sunday. Anyway now that I'm back DH has been asking me to pick up shopping after work. Well I just looked at my receipts and I must have spent close to £70 since we got paid a week today. This includes baby food so it might not be as bad as I am thinking. I'm stressing now since we still have three weeks to go until we're paid, and I've overspent. Yesterday I bought things for Christmas Day e.g. mayonnaise for prawn cocktail, parsnips, desert. I spent £18. I still need to pay my credit cards.

The only good thing I can say is that all of this money came out of my pay, credit cards haven't been touched.

Hubby hasn't seen my receipts, he obviously knows I went shopping though. I just wanted to vent here first.

I thought I was doing so well when I got paid last week aswell cos it was more than I was expecting.

Payday..and getting ready to go back to work

December 14th, 2012 at 06:48 pm

Today was payday. My pay was better than my normal maternity pay due to the fact that I have some holiday pay included.

I'm home alone tonight.. Hubby suggested I get a takeaway since my pay was better than we thought. Well I checked a few menus and decided that I definetly wasn't going to pay £7 for a portion of curry! So, I bought a rogan josh sauce, two chicken breasts and microwave rice. Sauce and rice were £1 each, chicken was £3.

My extra money will be going towards CC debt. I was thnking this morning that it's going to be difficult to reach my basic goals next year... but I will give it my best shot.

I go back to work in a few days after nine months of maternity leave. I was meant to be going to a friend's for lunch today but I cancelled because I have a lot to get ready for going back. It's little things like making sure SG's meals are ready for hubby that are taking up a lot of time. I'm not looking forward to going back but I know I have to.

I need to think about meals next week. Hubby will be at home while I'm at work, and I don't finish until 5pm. All hubby can make is baked potatoes. I guess I could have something prepared for the slow cooker the night before?

Busy week

December 11th, 2012 at 04:39 pm

It's only Tuesday but I feel as though I have had a busy week. On Sunday I met up with my friends from school, and yesterday me and SG went to M&D's theme park to see Santa. (I only spent £1.80 on a portion of chips) It was a good day. I had packed my own lunch but bought chips because I wanted something hot to eat.

It's been a bad week. Next month I will be charged £15 for an unpaid direct debit fee cause I was a few pounds short. This is the second time this has happened. Well it will be the last.

I didn't phone my CC company to ask them to reduce my interest rate since there's not a lot going in my favour just now: CC is almost maxed out. When I'm in a better position I will get in touch. I am up-to-date on my payments though, I don't think I've EVER missed a payment.

Next year I will focus on CC debt. I just want to find extra money to throw at it.

I go back to work on Sunday. I will be working three days a week. When I get paid in January I will know how much money I will be getting every month since this pay will include the last of my maternity pay.

DH asked MIL to borrow some money this week (£10) just to tide us over. We are giving her a high street voucher of the same value so she's not losing anything.

I didn't do my usual meal plan post this week. Yesterday I made up pasta with leftover bacon, mixed beans in tomato sauce, peppers and onion. It was ok, would have been better if we had more meat in it. I'm cooking beef casserole again tonight, it's in the oven just now. Going to try making homemade dumplings for the first time. Tomorrow we are having chicken tikka masala. We've ran out of rice though so will probably just have bread with it.



2013 Goals - Rough Draft

December 7th, 2012 at 04:33 pm

Basic Goals:

[] Pay off fridge freezer by September 2013 (£259)
[] CC1 min. payment to £60
[] CC2 min. payment to £60
[] Snowflake towards debt - and track snowflakes

Would-love-to-achieve:

[] Savings to (at least) £200
[] CC1 min. payment to £30
[] CC2 min. payment to £30

Right now, both CC min. payments are close to £90.

If I don't pay off fridge freezer by September I will be charged interest.

I need to think of ways in which I can get "snowflakes" to put towards debt.

My dream world would be to cut my CC debt in half but that isn't realistic - not in one year anyway.




Recipe ideas?

December 5th, 2012 at 03:43 pm

This year will be SG's first Christmas, and also our first Christmas in our own place, so we told our families that we are having it here, just the three of us. (We'll visit them in the morning though so they can see SG) Hubby wanted a turkey so I bought the smallest one I could find: 3.6kg. We will be eating leftovers for days.

Does anyone have any recipe ideas? I've looked online and found a few but I'm not sure which one I will use. I've never cooked a turkey before so I'm hoping to find an easy recipe.

Meal Planning

December 2nd, 2012 at 12:53 pm

This week I will make:

-spaghetti bolognaise
-soup
-bbq chicken with rice and veg
-baked potatoes
-leftovers

Thinking about 2013 Goals

December 2nd, 2012 at 12:23 pm

I can't remember what goals I made for this year - and then had to abandon - but I've been thinking about next year's goals. They have to be realistic. Yes I want to get rid of my credit card debt but it's unrealistic for me to think that I can get rid of half of my CC debt in a year. Especially since I have used it more than I would have liked since we moved into our own place. I spoke to DH and he suggested that I just aim to get my minimum payments down, instead of focusing on the entire balance. Obviously I won't pay the new lower payment when I (hopefully) achieve the goal, I'll pay as much as I can. Actually I think I will find a notebook to keep track of extra money towards debt repayments in 2013. It would be nice to total it up at the end of the year.

This year I was on maternity leave for ten months, in fact I go back to work in two weeks. Next year I will not be on maternity leave so money should be better.

My car has to go next year. It's making a noise, I know it will fail its MOT in February since it hasn't passed yet. I don't have savings to pay for it, or enough on my CCs so it has to go. Me and DH can share a monthly bus pass until I get a new car. We should have at least £150 extra each month when it goes. I know it will be a pain getting public transport, but it makes the most sense to me. I think I will have to scrap it since there has been so much wrong with it, it's not right to try and sell it to someone.