I’m taking control of my life, now.

Dear diary and lovely readers,

I am unable to post properly at the moment. Still debt busting, current total £33500. Be back in a few months. In the meantime, hope everyone is well.

Peace
Paws x

I think I am back. I am so sorry for going AWOL, I couldn't bring myself to post.

In late April we got some bad news at work and my husband's job was in consultation. 1 in 5 people being made redundant. For some reason I can't explain, I just couldn't post about it.


I didn't want my posts to be doom and gloom which is depressing the write about (although I know you would have all been lovely)
I tried to block out that it was happening.
I somehow didnt want to jinx him into redundancy.


Anyway, last night we got the news that there will be no compulsary redundancies (no more details but I guess they have enough volunteers) and even looks like perhaps there will be fewer redundancies overall. His hours might change and his money might be cut, and while this was something i was worried about at the start of the year, faced with the alternative, I am now ok about the reduced wages. We can cope with that.


On the plus side, through these last few weeks, we have cut down even more, and the debt busting is going well. I will post more about that later.


Its a sombre post, less cheery than normal but I am in a reflective mood.


It feels good to be back.

Good things since I last posted (sorry its long) :j

• Have been really MSE in the last couple of months, tying to protect ourselves from changes to husband’s job.
• Went on holiday and although we blew the budget, we spent about £1300 in total for the week which I was happy about
• Have now applied for a credit transfer MBNA to Tesco card
• Credit score has improved a bit more, in fact, the last time I went on the MSE credit club website there were a lot more CC deal matches than there were in January.
• So have now got a Tesco CC with £7k limit to transfer the MBNA to.
• Have cancelled the window cleaner, the lawn man, and Apple Music.
• Friend added me to his family premier spotify for free. Not as good as Apple but, well, its free
• Haven’t had a takeaway in yonks.
  Haven’t spent money on plants and other garden stuff - normally a weakness of mine.
• My Dad uses our netflix account so kindly gave me £40 towards it (he knew I was worried about redundancy etc).
• Car insurances have now been paid for upfront to save on interest. This has never happened.
• I am really good at doing my expenses straightaway these days so I am never out of pocket.
• My job is still full-on but my new(ish) boss is ace and i am enjoying it more, and I think I am doing ok at it.
• The fun things I get to do through work really make it worthwhile. In May i went to Vienna. Last week, I went to Wimbledon, corporate entertainment which pretty much blew my mind. I kep whispering "when are they going to notice I'm not posh enough?".
• Have made a bit of profit this month in expenses.
• Husband has got 4 overtime shifts this month. Thats about £500. Overtime was banned for a while so this is doubly excellent.
• Moving to Scottish Power seems to have slashed our energy bills. They want to put it down to £76 per month. We were paying £113 with Npower! I have kept it at £87 though so we can have the heating on more in winter.
• Got a massive £2.30 in share dividends.
• Finally arranged for the £13.55 balance from closed Halifax account CC to be transferred so it will disappear from online banking eventually.
• Sky extended our half price deal WITHOUT US EVEN ASKING. Maybe they are so used to us doing the ‘we’ll cancel’ dance we do every year and thought this would save them having to talk to us.
• All the step children seem to be doing well. All working and happy. The one who is living abroad is coming home to stay in December.
• Husband has inherited a classic bike.
• The 'simple' payment plan is working! We are paying £900 per month towards the credit card plus loan payment of £493 and we are surviving. In fact, not really noticing. That might be because we have adjusted and got used to the cutback, I'm not sure yet.
• I’m sure there are more but I can’t think of them right now, will add them as I go along

Bad Things:(

• MBNA deal came to an end and paid 2 months interest on it. Around £250. Stupid woman.
• Have forked out ona new tyre due to puncture in last few weeks. (although the cars are doing well apart from that)
• The last few weeks have been stressful

To do
Take £2.30 cheque to bank along with old £5 found in drawers.