From debt to freedom...

Honeysucklelou2 · 19 July 2017 at 1:17PM

Day off today. I've done two loads of washing which are out on the line. Yesterday I paid £260 of nursery fees leaving £260 to pay next week which will be the end of term for us. Had to get diesal today and a few bits like shampoo, but hopefully enough in the house to be going on with. I was given a bag of rhubarb at work, so will make into crumble for tonight.

Next week I have DD4's birthday so am dipping into the present savings account to get her birthday present. She wants a party so am hoping the weather will be good enough to do a party on the beach. It will only be half a dozen friends plus her older sisters to help.

I feel I need to list expenses coming up over the next few months in order to keep an eye on what's coming to ensure I've put enough aside or even have enough to meet costs. Some things will be unknown such as mot costs if the car needs anything doing to it to pass the MOT.

Honeysucklelou2 · 19 July 2017 at 10:47PM

Took out £60 from the present account. (It's with a different bank to my current account and I have no card for it so have to go in branch to take mney out. The bank's reduced opening hours means that I can only visit on my day off, which does mean it is a considered transaction!) I went to a local toy shop and found an ideal present reduced from £50 to £35. I ended up spending the rest on getting ingredients for packed lunches ( youngest DDs have a school trip tomorrow and need packed lunches, whereas normally they would have school dinners) and buying leggings as part of a costume needed for their trip out. I did also buy a small flask as my old one had broken. This flask was £3 which I thought would be saved quite quickly as I take flasks of coffee from home when I go on long walks or bike rides etc.

Most of my income is from my salary but some comes from CTC. I had the renewal pack come yesterday, just 2 weeks before the deadline. I'm hoping it will be ok. My earnings are already listed, I guess from my P60 information that HMRC hold. When the ex and I separated I didn't tell them, simply because at the time I wasn't sure what was gong to happen or whether it would be temporary or permanent. Several months later, I know I don't want to go back to living as I was, constantly on egg shells. My problem is I don't know where the ex lives as he won't tell me, so I can say we have separated but I can't give his address as I don't know. He won't tell the children either and when he sees them, he comes here, as not knowing where they would be in case of emergency is very worrying. Because I don't know his address neither can I forward his post.

Honeysucklelou2 · 20 July 2017 at 1:22AM

So thinking through the next couple of months, I need to consider:
4 birthdays (my children)
2 birthdays ( family)
Car MOT
Purchase of oil for winter heating
Equipment costs for DD2's course (£200)
Transport for DD2 to get to college (£195)
Setting aside money to help DD1 with uni stuff (300-500)
Vet (tablets for one dog to prevent recurrence of FAD)
School uniform/ shoes - new uniform at one school and shoes for most.

Honeysucklelou2 · 21 July 2017 at 6:43PM

The secondary age children have finished for the summer holidays today. The younger ones have 3 days to go. Have topped up at Tescos just to get milk, tea bags and bread and butter. Back to baking to fill the tins tonight and tomorrow! I always find the food budget goes awol in the holidays as the children are home and graze more.

Honeysucklelou2 · 22 July 2017 at 10:13PM

I spent a few minutes today ringing the bank and checked balances. The home improvement loans ( for windows) are now at £3258. So much of the monthly payment goes on interest, it's frustrating but at least it's going down. The loan has one last payment to come out on the 1st August. The bank sent a letter to tell me that the last payment will be £40 less than usual. Debating whether to save the extra £40 or knock it off the home improvement loans to get that balance moving downwards, faster.

I've been trying to dry washing between showers! Made chocolate muffins and fruit scones for the snack tins today. The batch of flapjack vanished quickly yesterday!

Spendless · 23 July 2017 at 8:54AM

Hi Honeysuckle,

Just caught up on your thread. Re- college fares, how many months of travel will £195 give you? My son has just completed his first year at college and we could apply to our local transport provider and get a card that gives him the same reduced fare that a child pays. In addition colleges may offer a bursary for travel expenses, depending on household income. You can check what's in your area here.

https://www.gov.uk/subsidised-college-transport-16-19

Apologies if I'm teaching you to suck eggs as I see you already have an older one leaving for Uni, so may have looked into this already, but just thought I'd mention it in case this child is costing more in travel expenses than the older one did.

Honeysucklelou2 · 23 July 2017 at 10:53AM

My DD2 is hoping to go to the same FE college that DD1 attended. £195 is the amount I've paid for the last couple of years for DD1. It's for 1 term's transport ( the college is an hour's journey away). That does remind me though to check. I've paid that amount based on a joint household income, despite the ex not contributing to household or child costs. Now that we're separated and it's based on just my wage, perhaps it will go down. I know friends who had a child in the same year, who were on a single income paid about £60 a term. Thanks for that Spendless, I hadn't thought that through.

Honeysucklelou2 · 23 July 2017 at 11:12AM

Just checked the transport page on the college site. I was wrong, it's £205 for the first term! But my income from salary falls below the threshold for help, so definitely worth a phone call this week.

Honeysucklelou2 · 27 July 2017 at 12:49AM

At last, the end of term! Feeling absolutely shattered, so looking forward to time to rest, spend time with the children and catch up with the garden and allotment! DD4 has her birthday tomorrow. Her present is ready to go. We went to the beach this afternoon for a small party. I was pleased to be able to get the BBQ working. New territory for me! We toasted marshmallows and hopefully all had a good time. I was so relieved it wasn't raining that I wasn't bothered about the wind! I had to raid the present account to buy the food for the party, but it was definitely a cheaper option than trying to do a party at a theme park or swimming pool etc.

I have bought ingredients for breakfast pancakes in the morning and will make a birthday cake for DD4 tomorrow. I finished paying the this term's nursery fees on Tuesday - another £260 but al least all is paid for this academic year and don't have to pay anymore until September. The list of things that do need to be paid in the next couple of months does mean that I still do have to watch every penny throughout the holidays. It will have to be lots of free activities as much as possible.

Honeysucklelou2 · 28 July 2017 at 11:34AM

DD4 had her birthday yesterday. Birthday breakfast pancakes went down a treat! DD1 had to work, so we spent time on the beach waiting for her to come back on the ferry. It was lovely and sunny and the youngest children were happy building sand castles and moats and trying to contain the incoming tide. I remember my brother and I playing the same game years ago! I made a simple birthday cake for which I didn't have any icing sugar. I didn't really want to spend any money as I'm having (to borrow Meando's phrase) a money lean time until payday on Monday. So I put some caster sugar into the liquidiser and blitzed it. It worked! Icing was quickly made and applied! DD4 was happy, that's all that mattered!

Have taken DD1 to work this morning and returned. Since it is wet today we are having a good tidy up to catch up on household jobs that get pushed aside in the busyness of term time.

From debt to freedom...

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