Ok so in preparation for the upcoming New Year festivities I have been thinking about my new year resolution and my goals I'd like to achieve in 2011.

I have come up with the following list of goals

1. Tone up

I'd like to accomplish this this year because since 2009 I have been losing weight - I joined a slimming club in February 2009 and weighed in at 14st 3lbs. August 2009 I discovered I was pregnant with twins, September I sadly miscarried. My weight levelled through to overeating/depression/grieving etc and slowly started to come off until I hit my 2st target on Christmas eve 2009. It was boxing day that I discovered I was pregnant. I had my daughter in July 2010 and the weight has been dropping off since- its hard work watching a 6 year old, 5 month old, walking a dog and running a house with school runs in between! I'm now 5'5.5 (yes the .5 makes a difference!) and I currently weigh 11st 9lbs. So this year since the weight is done all the access.....well.......me needs toning and the mummy tummy needs attention! Although I despise sit ups so this could get interesting and needing a great amount of will power to keep it up!

2. Sort out Life Insurance. and 3. make a will.

i think these two are pretty self explanatory. I have two small children and in the event that something happens to me I want to know my babies are looked after. Simple really.

4. Learn to drive

I tried when I was 16 but was more interested in hanging out with my friends, listening to music and chasing boys so it never really took and none of the information stuck. Plus I had a lousy instructor who insisted on talking to his girlfriend fro half my lesson and never paid attention to what I did.

5. Get some savings together.

Again - explains itself I think. Now I'm debt free and have the money there its nice to know that it is there for something and I would be able to enjoy it if I could get it saved up. I'm hoping to take my children on their first holiday this year and after some discussion on MSE http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2809174&page=32 I think I will be using the Sun vouchers way of doing it and saving up some spending money for us all to enjoy ourselves with. I will also be taking Ceridwen's advice and making myself a right now list, a want in the future list and my wish list to track my process so I'll post those later.

6. Continue entering competitions.

I managed successfully to get myself and my partner debt free this year with a win before Christmas- look back over recent posts - its there somewhere! - so I have decided to keep up the competitions and see if I cant keep winning my way to my dream home and small holding.

So that's my aims for 2011 ~ what's everyone else hope to accomplish?

x

NADOLIG LLAWEN

Just popping in to wish a very Merry Christmas to all my on-line friends and may the coming year be happy and prosperous for all

I am now off to attempt to get Benjamin to bed, holly is no problem as she's currently asleep on her changing mat, but Ben may be another story. I have all of his stuff to wrap and all of Hollys - it may be a very long night!

Now to find a mince pie, some milk and a carrot...............

Enjoy!

I have today been enjoying my new financial situation

I now only have 8 things a month to pay out including food

Before my luck, I had 13. The last 5 being debts!

Its also nice as it means when I do get my pay every month I am now £175 better off (minimum!) which sounds lovely to say! and the first time I have ever been able to say it in my 11 years of working life! (yes my first job was at 15 - at Hurran's Garden Centre! - I remember the canary yellow polo shirt and the blue jumper well!)

It has been nice to know its there and think once Christmas is out of the way I will set about my financial planning properly so I will be able to start saving accordingly etc for things I would like.

Do really need to sit down and plan for some New Years Changes (I don't do resolutions!) that I would like to do.

Im hoping 2011 will be a good year for us!

Apologies firstly for the slight lapse in posting - obviously Christmas is getting somewhat in the way and have just had the horrid realisation that I have in fact got A LOT of wrapping still to do in the way of

All of Holly's

All of Ben's

All of Owen's

Owen's mum

Owen's dad

Owen's sister

Owen's niece

Owen's nephew

Owen's nephew

Whatever my mum has brought for Ben

Whatever my mum has brought for Holly

All of J's

Simply - Owen cant wrap for toffee but has taken on Christmas shopping by himself this year - god help and god only knows what will be unwrapped and by who under the tree this year although when he has a plan he does very well as my best ever past present was a mini moto that he had specially dismantled and sprayed baby pink for me. It looked fantastic and if I can find a photo I will put it up for you to see.

However , I get a feeling it may be a long next two nights for me - as hoping I can get his families wrapped to give out tomorrow - he's only buying them today! and he wants to drop of J's main present tomorrow to to him.

Still need also to get Christmas vegetables.

I suffer horribly from panic attacks when I'm stuck in a crowd so the vegetable aisle of Tesco today was a huge challenge! I managed to grab carrots. That was it. So so far Christmas dinner consists of carrots, chicken and gravy. Hoping I can get over to the coop tomorrow or tonight and grab a few bits and pieces. Also did manage to get a strawberry Swiss roll from Tesco for £1.10 which will be our pudding with custard. None of us like fruit cake so a proper Christmas cake or pudding is out of the question but will pop over tomorrow to grab a few more nibble bits. Its the only year so far too that we haven't had a big tin of chocolates as Owen has been and is getting in shape this year with daily visits to the gym and I'm finally fro the first time in 6 years under 12st so the temptation has been removed now although we will still have our fair share of treats.

Oh well had better make a start on Ben's dinner and start getting him ready for bed so I can get a start on present wrapping!

I don't know whether to laugh, cry, be angry..................stumped!

Heard from my sister today.

To catch anyone up who doesnt know my situation - my sister met a US soldier about 6 months ago through a mutual friend that she 'got together' with on-line - they talked on Skype etc for the last few months and when he returned home to his home in Gerogia she decided to go and visit him on December 4th.

She was meant to fly back on the 19th but her flight was cancelled.

So she swapped airlines to fly through chicago instead for this morning

Her flight got cancelled this morning and she now cant get home until the 27th December. :( Effectively missing Christmas with her 5 year old daughter T.

Spoke to my mum this morning who has my niece - she had no idea about what was going on.

She said my sister has not brought one present for my niece for Christmas and my mum is skint until Christmas Eve which she is working and then she has T after work so cant shop! :eek:.

So I spoke to my niece and asked her what was the best present she could get from Father Christmas - her answer was a doggy on a lead.

So I went off in search, my local town was sold out of everything bar one

which cost £59.99. I went to Argos, put it in the price checker thing in the hope someone would have returned one of the others as a doubled up gift etc, put in the number for the expensive one and it came up with the price of £49.99 - ok so £10 off.

Rang my boyfriend to talk me out of it and explained the situation and that I would use my money not the winnings and his reply was 'she's near enough your baby, so buy for her like you would Benji and your sister can shove it. So I got her her doggy as her main present from us, we already had a stocking made up for her as her present. She now has a selection box, tube sweets, coins etc. We also got her a glittery jewellery box which was £1.50 in Home Bargains and 3 princess and the unicorns books from Poundland. Plus Ow has just walked in with 'the princess and the frog' on DVD for her and a pair of pink pyjamas with white snowflakes on for her. :T He may be a grumpy old man but he is a softy at heart.

He did ask if she has everything she needs to go back to school too but I've no idea about that so will ask my mum later.

Am seriously considering asking my sister if she'd rather sign T's care over to me and she can just carry on as she is. Although my boyfriends view on this is "why should I raise her baby when she should be doing it, or if not my mother can do it" - so if it came down to me taking my niece full time or keeping my family together I may face the prospect as a single mummy to three come the new year!

I mean my sister apparently is abroad with no money to her name, and no working phone so effectively stranded in the USA.

Sorting T out today for Christmas though has made me realise I haven't heard anything about my other niece since March! so I made a start to get in touch with my other nieces father L - he took custody of her in Christmas 2009 after suspecting my sister wasn't caring for her properly and she is coming along lovely. He replied within about an hour saying me and my family could have full access to S, left his mobile number, promised me a school photo when she starts school. Said he's happy to meet up so me, Ben and holly can spend time with her as she's really shy and doubt I could prize her off her daddy.

Either way I now know T is ok for Christmas and I dare say I'll be picking her up a few more bits between now and her getting her presents! Even if it is just some stickers and little bits etc.

Stressed............................

Well I have eventually managed to tackle the subject that is my food shop.

I didnt realise I brought so much junk though as I was putting it into Tesco's site to see what the total was and even more shocking to think that on top of that I havent included bread/milk or any household items into that equation nor baby milk/ nappies either!

Very scary indeed - not even sure I realise how I did it but have obviously been really overspending on things I shouldnt be.

I most definitely need to get back on the OS wagon asap and get my shopping together to match.

Here is what I was buying -

tesco value bananas

tesco braeburn apples

tesco grapes

tesco 3pk onions

tesco value 2kg carrots

tesco value swede

tesco value 350g mushrooms

Bernard Matthews turkey ham 340g

1 x tesco brand chicken thighs (8)

2pks x 2 tesco value chicken breasts

ICBINB - 500g

wildlife pots x (4)

wildlife choobs (6)

2 x 6 vitality drinks for owen

2 x 6 health drinks for ben

tesco value cheese - cheddar mild - medium

3 x tesco brand small pizza - ben

2pk x 6 bakery soft white rolls

1 x homepride curry sauce

tesco brand frosted flakes - 750g

tesco brand rice krispies - 600g

tesco brand malt wheats - 750g

2 x tesco value wheat biscuits 550g each

tesco brand hot oat cereal - 500g

tesco value beans x 4

tesco value spaghetti x 4

1kg bag of tesco brand pasta

2 x 500g homepride pasta sauces

4 x 400g heinz lentil soup

2 x cheap brand hotdogs

1 x 1KG value rice

2 x tesco brand tomato ketchup - glass bottle

6 frosties cereal bar x 2

8 nutrigrain bars x 2

12pk mini cheddars

24 tesco value jaffa cakes

900g tesco value biscuit barrel

tesco brand jam - 454g

2 x 396 tesco value ready to eat value custard

300g tesco value treacle sponge pudding

sugar - 1kg parcel x 2

2 x 1.5ltr tesco brand orange juices

2 x 1.5ltr tesco brand blackcurrant

80 tesco value tea bags

2 x malt loaf

12 brand name potato waffles

1ltr tesco fizzy flavoured water - 3 for £1.10 x 2 (effectively 6 bottles)

907g tesco value mixed frozen veg (sweetcorn, peas, cauliflower and carrot)

the total of which came to £80.61 alone!

and that didn't include the iceland shop that I do that comes to about £10 which is 7 frozen ready meals for Owen to take to work and microwave for his lunch and bits like frozen dinosaurs/ fish fingers/ frozen drummers/chicken burgers for Ben and a pizza or 2 for Owen!!

Plus you'll also notice there is no 'baking' stuff on this list so that needs rectifying asap!

I dont think any of us are getting our 5 a day either and I think for health reasons that should be addressed too. I think a vitmain supplement wouldnt do us all any harm either so will need to look into that so Mr Fussy Knickers that is Benjamin will take them.

He does like the vitamin C Haliborange stuff so will google that in a minute to find the cheapest stockist.

Right ~ the job for tonight is to attack my cook books and see what I can make at home cheaper than I can buy!

Ok, so I have spent the day planning my financial future.

I now think I have an adequate food shopping list drawn up and have decided to go for every two weeks rather than every week or monthly as once I return to work I'll be paid every month and my benefits - ie child benefit and tax credits are paid monthly.

I will have to get back into the habit of not having the mid week income there that my maternity benefit currently brings.

I do remember us being a routine though of benefits one week, my wage the next and owens wage the week after so we shouldn't be too bad if it still works out that way ~ must look into that though!

I will be planning, into my weekly shopping list, store cupboard items and might arrange to have say £10 aside a week in case I see deals that are worth having on cleaning items, special offers etc.

Ideally to help the food shop I would like to buy a new fridge freezer but we have resigned ourselves to keeping this smaller one for the time being until we have been rehoused into a house instead of our flat as we simply do not have the space.

Our fridge freezer currently lives in our living room behind the kitchen door as our councils planning is useless and we cant actually fit it in our kitchen.

I have also decided to put the envelope system back into place with putting envelopes aside come pay day for bills that need paying and filling them with the amount that is required.

Also I know its slightly premature but I would like to have savings aside for birthdays and next Christmas so will be taking them into account and saving where I can.

Myself and Ow have a credit union account which is in my name which we will be used for our joint savings but I would like a spare account to use for savings such as birthdays, Christmas etc and have decided that a food stamp card is probably going to beneficial with christmas shopping next year and that way its one less expense I will have to worry about come December 2011.

Plus if need be I can use them also to buy some of the smaller gifts ie CD's, DVDs etc that are in our branch.

Another savings card which I have recently discovered is with Gamestation in which you can go in, purchase a gift card and top it up monthly with money whether its £5 or £50 is completely up to you and it just accumulates the more you add.

I think between Myself, Owen, Our two boys and his two nephews, it will be a worthy investment as someone will always want a game and between the 6 of us we have collectively the Xbox 360, the PS3, the kinect, the wii, DS's each and PSPs so we pretty much have every console covered too!

So I think that will cover me ~ savings, saving card, food card, and bill money.

I think that about covers it.

x

I am officially enjoying my first debt free day.

I was very fortunate back in October to win a competition with the ITV show 'Family Fortunes'.

I was the lucky winner of their main prize which saw my winnings in total as

£5,000 cash

A 37" inch sansung LCD TV

An XBOX 360, Kinect and 2 games

A new DSi and a game

So the first idea we had with our winnings was to get debt free, In total since our cheque cleared we have paid off ~

Nationwide £170.00

Halifax £763.63

DFS £890.28

Lowell £120.00

CAB £1,270.00

Capital One CC £290.00

Swinton £116.00

Credit Union Loan £400.00

so we have about £900 left over. Ow wants £300 for Xmas shopping as hes not paid until Christmas Eve but will be putting it back once he's paid, and I want £250 to get us a month ahead with our rent.

So I think that justifies the money as well spent and leaves us with £350 to put into savings with the credit union account.

So officially we are both debt free and able to start the new year with a clean slate and that's something I haven't said in about 5 years and something I wasn't expecting until 2016!

Love,

Sammy

x

Well this is the beautiful winter wonderland I woke up to this morning despite there not being a flake of snow last night. There presently is a good 8 inches plus of snow on the ground outside my door at the minute and its still snowing. This photo was taken at 7.30am and now here I sit at 9.47 still watching the big flakes fall.

As you can just about see from the photo I am on a main road where the gritters have helpfully decided not to visit which is obviously exactly what you need when you live in the bottom of a welsh valley! Therefore there are no buses either or deliveries to our local shop which is just out of view behind the flat opposite me (ie the bricked patch on the left of the photo) which I am thankful for plus its where I work and I still get employee benefits to a degree so when weather like this hits I can phone and ask for basics to be put aside for me to run over to collect which is particularly helpful with a small baby . Also just out of view to the right of that picture is a chip shop, a small off license, a pharmacy, a hairdressers and an opticians plus the doctors surgery is close enough I can see it from my living room window. So I've pretty much got all the basics covered in my little square acre.

Ben is obviously gutted not to be in school, he brought Christmas presents for his teacher and two helpers and spent last night wrapping them nicely only for the snow to close his school.

It has however made me realise that I am some-what unprepared for such an event like a snowfall. With the present location, I am in a welsh valley with 3 accessible roads. One of which is prone to landslides, one of which is a very steep hill into the village so rather lethal where ice and snow come and helpfully leads to a church and graveyard! and the third is a mountain road with no safety barriers! We also ~ transport wise ~ have one bus that runs to our village, and in the event that it is stopped then everything stops. Plus delivery trucks cant get through either leaving us totally separated from the outside world and basically rationed by the local shop.

The brave/fitter of us can walk to the nearest town which is a 45 minute walk away, luckily on the flat, but then you have the matter of getting your goods home which can be interesting. Luckily I own a dog and a sleigh. = )

I do think however that the rest of my day is going to be figuring out a stock cupboard, ie what I need to get, what would we use, what would be useful, where could I store it and then find prices to match. I may also need to take into account storage containers for dry items too as I don't seem to have any of them. How very un MSE of me!

Plus I think other household items that will need to be accounted are such things as nappies and milk for Holly, vitamins for all of us, and a stocked medical cabinet for each and every common ailment that we may have and possible repeat prescriptions ready as my partner Ow had a retinal transplant earlier this year so is on special medication and if he misses or runs out of drops the lens could reject and we are already on his third transplant!

Right that has given me something to think about today ~ thank you to Ceridwen on the MSE forums for the suggestions.

Looks lovely and festive though ~ oh wouldn't a White Christmas be nice.

Love,

Sammy

x

"Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us." -- Thomas L. Holdcroft

This quote and the Old Style Money Saving Forum on the www.moneysavingexpert.com site were the inspiration for this new blog.

I'm Sam, also known to my fellow MSErs as Sammy_Kaye18. I'm 26 but have an old soul.

I live in a run down, mouldy council flat in a beautiful welsh valley just outside Swansea.

Most importantly, I am a mummy.

To 6 year old Benjie and 5 month old Holly Dolly.

I am a step mummy to 9 year old J, loving girlfriend to Ow, adoptive mummy to Randy and Toby the terrapins and Rescue Mummy to my fur baby Bruno who is our 8 year old Jack Russell Terrier.

I also work part time as a Sales Assistant, although I'm currently on Maternity leave, and whilst I love my co workers, I do wish I had something with better prospects and more hours but my children take priority in my life and this current job works around them so I don't need to place them under the care of a babysitter.

I am a keen believer in Karma. I also believe strongly in the Native American idea of spirit animals of which I am blessed with the Deer as my guide.

I am a keen money saver, I love to enter competitions, I cook, I bake, I make do and mend, I'm mad about Moto GP, I don't spoil myself at all and prefer to give my family everything I can.

I decided to start this blog to see how my life progresses and hopefully improves over the coming year.

I didn't want to make it a 'New Years Resolution' blog because ~ in fairness ~ I never keep them.

I start with the best intentions but get bored 2 weeks in and then I never look at it or revisit again for the next few months! So instead I've decided to start early. This is and will be my blog for the coming year and beyond and I hope you will enjoy reading it and sharing my world.

Love

Sammy

x