I'm in the middle of making a meal plan and writing a shopping list. It's a weekly habit. I need to transfer money to hubby's account until I get my replacement card. Unfortunately, my bank is updating its systems right now so I can't do it yet.

I've enjoyed this pay period, actually having some money spare. But I don't want to get laxadasical. I want to get out of debt. I need to replace money I've used from savings this year. Lucky Robin's post reminded me that I need to have a moving fund if we do end up moving. Don't get me wrong I've enjoyed buying things that we needed. In fact, I still need to get armbands for the kids so we can go swimming - once j is better, that is. And hubby wants his friends to meet J soon so that will involve some spending no doubt.

Things are feeling pretty good right now. Life at home is good, I'm not stressing as much although we have a lot of decluttering to do if we are moving. I have a really great friend. All I need to do is come up with a plan to be debt free in ideally three years. Then this means we can travel more and do things.

Now, what will I blog about when I'm finally debt free? That is the million dollar question.

It's been a while again.

SG's birthday is soon. We used catalogue rewards (so zero out of pocket) and high street vouchers to get her gifts. My only actual spending has been on buying her card and ingredients for the cake, which I'll buy tomorrow.

I installed a budgeting app on my tablet. My only complaint is that I can't set it to four weekly payments.

I set an unrealistic grocery budget of 80 and unfortunately I'm over by 3.xx with over two weeks to go. I will of course use what we have first before buying anymore.

I had to decline a wedding invite from a friend from school. I'm surprised we got invited in the first place, I haven't seen him in years. He was at our wedding though. To go to his wedding it involves a lot of travel and staying in a hotel or something. I had to tell him about hubby quitting his job. I really would have loved to go. He was supportive of my decision and told me that I would be missed. He did say that hubby is invited to the stag do though.

Hubby is going to be quite busy soon I think. He recently got back in touch with a few of his close friends. They didn't seem to know about major life events that had been happening with each other, they do now though. They had a good catch up and seem to be checking in with each other daily. I like those kinds of catch ups. They have invited him out soon.

A few days later I had my own catch up with my friend so it worked out quite nicely.

Found out from my mum that her and her siblings are splitting the cost of my uncle's funeral.

One of my friends is in hospital right now. She has a chronic illness. I have been texting her,i think she would go stir crazy otherwise.

I downloaded Swagbucks TV onto my phone, anything to get more money to put towards debt.

I think that's all for now.

Met my friend for lunch yesterday. Spent 15.00 exactly. We went to a relatively new place, it was really good.

Found out at work that we're not getting a 20GBP gift card at Christmas. I've gotten it every single year since I've been there. I was going to count it as a snowflake as well. Oh well, I'll need to think outside of the box.

Dh and I always go Christmas shopping together, well, all of us go. We can't this year now that eldest is actually aware of everything. The plan is to divide and conquer.

For the past two months I haven't collected my payslip at work. I know what I've been paid anyway. However, it is a bit lackadaisacal of me to not collect it. Yesterday I got them. My rate of pay increased at the start of the month. Obviously, it increased so much I noticed. Nope. I had an inkling it might have increased, only because it happens every October.

I'm getting the impression at work that things are not going well. At all. I wonder if redundancies are in the future? This happened to lots of management years ago. I'm not exaggerating; a ton of them went. I remember coming back from maternity leave and noticing a lot of people were gone.

At work yesterday upper management kept getting my name wrong, or my nickname rather, so I assumed he must have been talking to my former supervisor who always uses my nickname. Before he used my full name. He only got one letter wrong but I think I missed my chance to correct him since when he first did it I was dealing with a customer and I didn't think he was talking to me - since it's not my name. Never mind.

My mum told me last week that she is saving up for her funeral. Told me she doesn't want to leave me with the burden of it. (She's fine, she was just talking to her friend about it)

The clocks went back. It didn't feel as bad as last year though when I was still doing night feeds so it's not been too bad.

It's official; Dh is sick of me talking about debt and how much I hate it. I told him I'd love to be debt free by the time J starts school - so four years from now - he think we'll still owe double figures to the catalogues. Ideally, I would personally love for all of my debt to be gone in two years.

I complained to my bank about not being able to use my card online. They passed me on to the card care department, who told me that they had noticed fradulent activity on my account (a charge to my mobile phone) I told them that I didn't carry out that transaction. They also told me that a new card was sent out to me on 21/4 but I never got it. I'm waiting on them sorting that out now.

I checked out prices for bowling. Dh and I have agreed that we'll go next Monday for their 50% off deal.

I'm still tracking spending. I forgot how eye-opening it is. It's clear that I don't budget for everything, so I need to fix that. I'm also still meal planning. Today I'm going to make up some soup using some not so pretty vegetables that are in the fridge.

Well, I haven't managed to have a proper conversation with dh yet about the catalogue. I will do it soon (I know, it needs to be done). The only thing I did mention is that any facebook sales should be split 50/50 between our catalogues, and dh agreed. I'd better get listing some items then.

I'm still working on decluttering and organising our flat. I feel like we're getting there, bit by bit. I sorted some of the shredding pile (mountain!) yesterday and found some of dh's statements. I think he might have about 6k debt, although the statements weren't recent. Add that to mine and we're looking at 14k. Ugh. The good news is that I found a cheque and a coupon.

SG starts nursery in August. We've got an induction to go to, actually on J's birthday. We were maybe going to have people over that day but they can come over the next day, if they want to.

I need to buy in some ingredients for J's cake, and a packet of balloons for J's birthday. I can't decide what cake to make, not that it'll be fancy. I did find a healthy recipe for a small cake using fruit puree.

My manager explained about the hours in the department. Her boss only wanted her to have three colleagues, but to get the job done you need four, so she is allowed to overspend by a certain amount each week. He let her have more colleagues under the condition that she doesn't go over the agreed amount. Therefore, some weeks we are asked to leave earlier than normal.

I need to decide what meals we're having next week.

I think that's all.

Dh declared that he wants us to go to England in September for his birthday. He wants his Grandpa to meet the kids. He sent me a link to check out hotels in the area. I don't see us being able to afford it, so I'm hoping we can compromise with days out when we're on holiday. But I will look into train fares and hotels.

I got J's birthday present from the catalogue. I used my rewards so I added zero on to my bill.

Both days after work this week I bought a few things I didn't really need. One of them was a sandwich and a bottle of juice because I was hungry and thirsty.

I still need to pay the deposit for J's cake smash next month. That's 40.00.

It's been about a week since I updated. I've been reading the blogs, I just haven't had the time to update mine. You guys have been busy. I'm really pleased that some other SA members have joined the Facebook group Organized Friends.

I'm getting by at work, still adjusting to my hours and in bed by 9 most nights. I got away an hour early yesterday because they had overspent on wages (not enough sales). Normally, I would have stayed but SG had an appointment with the speech therapist.

I think we're going to save up for a tv, I'm hoping dh will come round to my way of thinking. It'd be good to pay cash for it.

I ordered SG's mattress and a cot for J from my catalogue. SG is finally in her new bed, she loves it. Next to set up is the cot and move him into SG's room.

CC#2 updated, it's now 4052 I think. So close to being under 4k.

I think as of payday on 1/5 I will start to count my 10% colleague discount as a snowflake.

My mum almost has 200 in her savings. She still doesn't know.

Both of my rewards were credited to paypal the other day: 5.00 from swagbucks and 3.00 from my survey. I transferred them to my bank this morning, then immediately sent 70/30 to credit card #2 and my emergency fund.

I noticed that Suits is now on Netflix, and I found disc four from season 3 I think that I had from Love Film. I sent the discs back yesterday and officially cancelled it this morning. I use Netflix more these days anyway.

I've been better with shopping after work - I have only been buying essentials. Starting next month, I think I will do one online grocery shop to save myself some time.

I need to start putting money aside for J's cake smash/family photo shoot in June. I should have done it already. We also need to buy new outfits for us all.

I am so pleased with my emergency fund balance. As Decisive Paradox noted, it's the highest it has ever been. I just hope I don't need to use it anytime soon.

Dh is taking the kids to a birthday party out of town on Saturday. I never got the holiday so I can't go.

We got a cheque from our utility company for 4.96. I need to get it to the bank soon.

Thank you for all of the kind messages on my last post. It seems, however, that, what five weeks, maybe into this pregnancy and me and hubby are disagreeing about what we should do when baby number two is here. He wants me to give up work, whereas I think I should just reduce my hours a bit? I brought up our debt, but hubby seems to think we'd be ok. The main problem is that we don't think MIL can cope with two under three's and hubby doesn't want my mum to babysit (trust issues etc) We both work on a Sunday so if I could get my day changed then the problem would be solved but we would hardly see each other at the weekend. I don't know why I'm thinking about this now. I haven't even registered with the midwife yet.

I checked my email and my phone bill is going to be £33. Ten pounds more than normal, and more than I'd like. Hubby used my phone because his phone wasn't working so I guess that's why. I will be keeping track better this time around.

Made a homemade birthday card from SG today for MIL. We used some of my rewards from the catalogue to get a photo frame which will be from SG. Still need to order a gift from us, but hubby will use his rewards. I told him he has a budget, so look at gifts within the budget, not what you really want to get, We told our family the news and MIL wants to go out for a meal for a double celebration (her birthday is next week). Apparently BIL will pick up the tab as a birthday present. I hate the fact that he's paying but then it wasn't our idea.

The Christmas tree that I bought from the catalogue last year - yes I bought a tree and put it on Buy Now Pay Later, crazy - is due to be paid in two paydays. I will get that paid off. I refuse to pay interest on a tree.

I forgot to mention that this pregnancy has cost me 9.99 so far. I bought a Clearblue pregnancy test. I think I will try and keep track of my baby-related spending.

Found SG's library book that I thought I'd lost. It's funny, I wasn't even looking for it.

My leftover money is slowly disappearing. I'm choked with the cold so we went to Morrisons to pick up a few things. £23.80 later we were done. That leaves me with jus over twenty pounds left and I told hubby I'd give him £20 to help him pay back his mum so, effectively, it's gone.

My mum just got a new cable package and it includes broadband. She doesn't have a computer so she asked me to order a laptop for her from my catalogue. I done that yesterday. She's going to give me money each month towards it.

The other day I paid £2 extra towards CC1. Just a small £2 payment. I didn't know if it would let me make such a small payment, but it did.

It was the engagement party last night. Honestly, I wasn't looking forward to it cause I knew my dad* and half-brother would be there. I was right, they were both there. Half-brother did talk to us my dad didn't, which I am so pleased about. Before we got married last year my dad was at a party I was it and he tried to talk to me (although I found out later that it was cos my HB had told him to. I told him I wasn't interested. It was nice to know that he had actually gotten the message as he didn't try once, he did end up dancing near me a lot though. I found out later from his friend that he had said "my daughter's here tonight"

I ended up drinking more than I had planned, therefore spending more. It was a good night though.

I haven't even started to write anything for NaNoWriMo yet.

Bank balance is dwindling down. Think I'll have under £5 left by the time payday is here.

I bought breakfast at work this morning. One week in to November and I've failed a goal already.


* He fell out with me in 2006 after only talking to me for about six months. I blogged about it then.

Well not really, MIL is home. DH is working tonight, he's covering a shift. It's good because he hasn't done overtime in a while.

As soon as I stepped into our room today I noticed MIL had been in our room. DH hates when she does it. I do too but he has proper arguments with her. The last time he brought it up they had a huge argument and MIL used the phrase "it's my name on the house" It's times like that when I wish we had our own place. Hopefully tonight won't turn into an argument, although by every right it should, DH has told her that we deal with our room. It's silly how I know she's been in. She's tidied the room and put Farmfoods bags in the bin. A few weeks ago I bought bin liners for our room which I've been using. MIL doesn't know about them, I keep them in a bag (which, in fact is out in plain sight) DH does though, and he would have used them.

I went to my mum's for dinner last night and, impulsively today I went over. It was only for a few hours. I had lunch with her then we took the dog for a walk. She lives alone and doesn't see a lot of people. I wish she got out more though. Her friend, who she hasn't spoken to in a while, is going to phone her tonight. I just feel bad for her. She is having problems with her neighbours. She is thinking about moving to a hopefully better area. My mum spends a lot of time alone in the house so I think that makes it worse, I think if she got out more she would feel better.

It is day 6, isn't it?

I had a lazy day off, yet I got a few things done. I replied to DH's grandparents letter and I sent my auntie's present. They live in England so I'm hoping they get it soon. I know, these things cost money - under £3 in total so that wasn't too bad. I guess I made it to day 6 of the fast.

The weather here was lovely today, although nowhere near as nice as some of the weather you guys have been having. We were sitting out in the garden for most of the day, in fact I've only just come in now and it's after 8pm.

My MIL made cocktails earlier, we were sitting in the garden drinking them. Felt like I was on holiday.

Bank appointment tomorrow. DH is coming with me.

My mum took me to see the new X-Men movie and I'm going with my OH on Tuesday. I know it's a waste of money to see the same movie twice but it's a really good movie and my mum paid for me the first time.

Before we went to the cinema, we bought some stuff and saved 70p. I added that to my challenge.

I studied all day today so it was nice to get out. The cinema was really busy, but this is the first week of it's release. I want to see The Break Up next. And the new Superman movie. Honestly, I should try not to because I really need to save money.

My auntie had a little girl last week, she's 6lb something. She was five weeks early. I'm going to visit her tomorrow. I haven't seen her yet.

I bought baby clothes today. I saved 90p with my staff discount card so I added that to my challenge.

New total: £4.40

I can't wait to see her

My auntie's visiting from England for the week. We were really surprised when she showed up at our door an hour ago. She's staying for the week.

My uncle's ill, he thinks he might have cancer. She'll be here to visit him.

As soon as I got in the house, well a couple of minutes, me and my mum were arguing over money. A bill came and its due a couple of days after I get paid. My mum said she would get it but she wasn't happy because it takes some of the food money. Then she changed her mind and said that she always gets it, and when she was working she didn't ask me for a penny. She said it was up to me to go on holiday and take driving lessons. We always argue over stuff like that.

I'm an only child (well not if you include my two half-sisters and my half brother) so having people, or another person stay at my house is unusual. Firstly because it hardly ever happens and because it was really only my younger cousin who stayed over on the weekend when I was younger. Anyway on Saturday night - actually it was 2am on Sunday morning - my younger cousin (not the one that used to stay all the time) showed up at my house. My mum answered the door. As it turned out he said that he couldn't get into his house, and that all of his windows had been broken. He also said he was no longer talking to my uncle's ex-girlfriend (they split up years ago). By the time I woke up on Sunday he was gone, only for him to show up again on Sunday night. He left early this morning, about 7am and said he would be back this afternoon to let my mum know how is his dad is (he's in jail). The thing is that we already know how my uncle is because we've been writing to him since December, in fact we got a letter from him last week. So there's no need for him to come back. This morning he told my mum that he is now talking to my uncle's ex yet I heard him call her a b***h...sounds like he's lying to me.

Now my cousin is three years younger than me, he has a job - but he's claiming benefit too, he told my mum. He is capable of looking after himself he's just too lazy too. My mum washed the clothes that he had been wearing all week - yes the same clothes. He's been having showers at his friends houses so maybe he should stay there. He keeps on telling my mum different things - first he's not talking to my uncle's ex, then he is, then he's meeting up with her to see the housing officer today. I don't know what he's playing at but he's definetly lying to us. He better not try and stay here all week.

There's also something else that he told my mum: he wants to go to England to live beside my auntie like my other cousin done. I know that she won't want him there since it's just not practical for him to be there when my uncle gets out this year.

If he tries to stay any longer he can stop drinking all of his money away and give some to my mum - apparently he's been spending all of his wages on drink, which is probably the truth. I'll see what happens tonight.

Over the past few days I have been stressing about my dad and how I'll cope not talking to him, especially since I'm still in the process of getting to know my half-brother. I thought of a couple of dilemmas that might come up in the future: what will I do when it's brother's birthday? and should i introduce my half-brother to my mum? The second dilemma, as it turns out, isn't actually a problem since they met today (unplanned). He already knew her name and they chatted away fine. Now all I have to worry about is the first one.