A family of five

A question about : A family of five

Hi! I am Lynneee and I have been a member on here for a long time. This site has helped me in so many ways over the last 6 or 7 years but after 8 years of being a stay at home mummy to 3 children it is now time to sort our finances out and get back to financial security.

A little bit about us - my husband and I are parents to 3 kids, daughter (8), eldest son (6) and youngest son (3). My husband is manager of a supermarket and works very hard. I used to work in food retail too, that's how we met. Since having children I have stayed at home to raise them. In this time we have also got married and I have been studying for an English lit degree with the Open University. Also this year I am doing level 3 NVQ Teaching assistant. Both courses finish this year, so its kind of the end of one journey and the start of another.

Hence this diary.

After 8 years of one salary we have worked really hard, lived frugally and survived on not too much to try and stay happy and live within our means. This has taken its toll now and we are now in a bit of debt so I need to clear it. Here I will write all the things I am doing to get us sorted and keep me inspired.

Hubby and I will be sitting down together tonight to sort out our finances to see exactly where we are at (I have a very good idea but need exact figures!) and put a plan in place to get sorted.

Best answers:

• Good to hear from you lynneee. I wish you the best of luck with getting your finances sorted - as a long time member, I don't need to tell you that you've come to the right place for no-nonsense, good advice!
  I too aim to be debt free by the end of 2015. This forum has helped immensely.
  I look forward to hearing about your plans and progress
• A lot of the things I have done over the last few days have not generated any money as such, but will ensure that my spending will be kept at a minimum.
  Over christmas I made sure that food wastage was at a minimum, and I have frozen all sorts of things to keep us fed during January and keep my food spend to hopefully Ј100 for the 5 of us for the month. (a big challenge!) I have made soup with anything that I could, some of which I have frozen, some I have eaten! We are also getting back to having cereal for breakfast (already have 3 boxes in the cupboard) and this means that we are not constantly spending on bread for toast. Also had crackers and cheese for lunch, again saving the need to go to the shop and buy bread. (if I'm not in a shop i cant spend!) Also giving everyone just slightly less food at each meal will also save us ЈЈ and lbs! So far no one as noticed yet so its all good!!
  I have turned the heating down by 1 degree to save on bills in the future. And also managed to turn it off for a couple of hours during the day as the sun has been shining and warmed the lounge up. (we have a huge bay window and it makes such a difference opening the blinds completely!)
  I have also sorted out the children's wardrobes, found out what they have grown out of, moved some clothes from eldest son's to youngest son's and now have a pile of clothes to sell on my local facebook site.
  So a useful start to the new year so far!
• Good luck with your journey lynneee.
• Thanks NHS Worker bee, to be debt free by the end of the year will be amazing and I hope with both achieve our aims!
• thanks Mrs R68
• Just been uploading pics of the childrens clothes to sell to my facebook page, so fingers crossed someone will want some cheap clothes! Also had a look on greenmetropolis and found that I had Ј16 sitting there so cashed that out! Should be in my account next week Going to have a look on any of the survey sites I am a member of to see if I am close to cashing out on any of them!
  A productive afternoon
• good luck lynneee
• thanks cazzyd
• Good luck with your selling. I did hope to put some stuff on Ebay this afternoon but the universe had other plans for me,a flooded kitchen. Maybe tomorrow.
• Oh no, flooded kitchen does not sound good, hope it's nothing too drastic and doesn't take much clearing up. Not what you need to be doing though...
• so went through all our finances last night, its not too pretty but at least my guess of Ј13,000 was about right (meaning that I am aware of our debt!) The actual figure is Ј13,342.62
  This breaks down as:
  Ј708 uni fees (0%)
  Ј2776.26 n/w cc (18%)
  Ј3578.36 b cc (0%)
  Ј150 to SIL (0%)
  Ј5400 to dad for car loan (0%)
  Ј330 o/d (me) (20%)
  Ј400 o/d DH (18%)
  When DH gets paid in 3 weeks time his O/D should be down to Ј260, I have made one payment for my uni course (Ј236) so only 2 payments left (I have to pay this off as its course fees, rather than student loan) and we have paid Ј100 off each cc. Going to look at moving Ј500 off one credit card onto the 0% one so this should help. (Ј33 lost in interest last month!)
  So with the payments made I am down to Ј12.766.62.
  A bit better!
• Gosh what a busy week! Managed to get 4 hours work this week, not many but they all help! I work in my children's school if any teaching assistants are off sick.and hopefully when I complete my uni courses it will lead to a more permanent position. I have managed to sort out some paperwork and paid off some debt, and have spent very little money. I'm due some money back from my health care plan (about Ј60) which will go towards paying off my overdraft.
  Still avoiding eating too much bread so it keeps me out of the shops, and the mountain of cereal and crackers have now almost been eaten instead of toast. Also started to use a teabag for two cups of tea instead of one and watering the milk down slightly to make it go just a little further! Not much but it will all help a little! The freezer is looking much emptier, but we should keep going a bit longer.
  Done lots of studying this week so not had time for much else.
  And nothing has sold on Facebook, although I have had a few queries, so hopefully today someone will commit to buying!
  Haven't managed to be very good on my diet though, but I have hardly smoked all week (bad habit that I am going to kick, now smoking about a third of what I was so that's one New year's resolution that I am sticking to!) This has save me about 20 quid this week so pleased with this.
• Time to do some competitions I think this afternoon, see if I can win something nice for us!
• Another busy week, have finally got much more organised with my uni courses. Been using up the food in the cupboards and freezer so still haven't really spent any money on food apart from bread milk and fruit. Sadly we are at the end of the home grown potatoes now, but we still have a few carrots and beetroot.
  We have had a few random meals to eat stuff up, but I'm trying to keep our meals healthy, especially for the kids.
  Still not managed to sell anything on Facebook, everyone must be tight for cash!!
  Might have a look to see if I have any more bits I can get rid of, maybe some books on green metropolis.
  Not really spent any money this week, but not paid anything off either! Have been using up the money in the change jar so I can leave my account alone, I'm hoping this will help clear the overdraft.
  Done another few hours at school again this week, not much but at least they still want me.
• So still not gone shopping properly yet, and down to the last few bits in the cupboard and freezer. So still under Ј100 for the month for the 5 of us to eat! So proud of this! Determined to get to Thursday before shopping, so I have the breadmaker on and going to make some jam tarts with the last of the jam, and some mince pies as I have a jar of mincemeat left from Christmas, so the children have something to take for snack time tomorrow. Also found some jelly in the cupboard so that will be pudding for tonight, or the fruit loaf I am making too. Mince and mash tonight (yellow sticker mince!) With carrots (last few from the garden) and frozen sweet corn. I have to say, growing our own veg last year saved us a fortune.
  So we have saved about Ј150 - Ј200 on food this month, and I am so proud of that! It's amazing how far food can go when it has to! So the saved money will be used to pay dad a bit more towards the money I owe him.
• Still not managed to sell anything on fb, but will keep trying. There's a car boot coming up in a few weeks so will try my luck there.
• Good luck Lynne. Have subscribed and am looking forward to reading more updates xx
• gosh, cant believe it has been so long since I last checked in! So I have been busy with uni assignments and have also managed to get a contract at school fort 10 hours a week which I am so pleased about!! I know 10 hours doesnt sound much, but at least it is a start!
  So have paid off Ј590 so far this month towards the debt (signature is up to date!) and with no council tax to pay this month or next month I hope to clear a bit more off the credit card! Next month also sees the final payment for my uni course fees so then I can get rid of even more of the CC!!
  Also just realised that hubby's CC has PPI on it! Had no idea and neither did he (yes we are a bit late noticing given all the info about it for the last few years!!) So cancelled the PPI as we dont really need it, and filled in a form for the ombudsman to see what happens. We have had the card for about 10 years!!
  So things are looking quite positive at the moment!
  Saved lots of money on food last month which helped, and still not smoking many cigs so its all good.
  Managed to have a few outings to the beach with the kids, despite the cold so that has kept costs down, and they love going, and its great exercise running around on the sand!
  Just need to keep plodding with the uni work, then end is now in sight finally, only one more month of my NVQ3 Teaching assistant, and June 3rd is the final day of my degree. 6 years hard slog are coming to an end! trying to adjust to working and studying and keeping up with 3 kids is proving hard work though, so still trying to sort out a routine for us all.
• Hi
  Our kiddly winks are pretty much the same age, my teeny will be 4 in a couple of weeks *sniff sniff* time flies!
  I took 3 years off to be a mummy and went back to work almost 2 years ago. Still don't really know what I want to be when I grow up but hoping I get some divine inspiration soon!
  Good luck with the debt busting, have subscribed to see how your journey goes