My Not So Secret Diary...

brizzledfw · 24 July 2016 at 4:15PM

Good luck with the selling and yay to no more nappies!!

Xx

joeyjimbles · 25 July 2016 at 2:11PM

Well done on the progress so far, its so easy to spend a fortune just popping into a shop for a couple of items. Meal planning and lists certainly help keep me straight - also a list of what is in the freezer.

As you are already doing Receipt Hog then its even easier to do Shopprize - it essentially the same but you get 100 points for each receipt you upload, and some points for logging onto the app each day - after a couple of weeks I'm getting 125 points just for the log in each day - plus any receipts that I have. At 7500 points you can cash out for £5 Amazon voucher and get an e-code within minutes. I know its not cash but a stash on Amazon would be useful for presents and replacing electrical items etc.
Also if you have a few more minutes to spare look at Populus Live, Prolific Academic for some better paying surveys (though Populus does require you to get up to £50 before paying out).
Good luck.

brizzledfw · 27 July 2016 at 9:14PM

Hope you're doing Ok AH

X

AnxiousHomemaker · 27 July 2016 at 10:04PM

Thanks for the tips joeyjimbles, I will have a look into those,

So it was pay day on Monday - hooray!

I've made an over payment on one of the credit cards tonight, a 0% offer ends this month and the minimum payment was just £10 short of the balance so paid that off - the outstanding balance on the card is 0% till May 2018 so I will let that run in the background while I focus on other debts.

My total debt balance is £9261.07 - my husband also has 2 credit cards but I need to check the balances on these, unfortunately the balances have gone up in the last month due to the problems he is having with insurance and being off work etc however we are trying not to dwell too much as he will be receiving money to cover his loss of earnings... eventually and this will go straight to paying off what we have borrowed!!

We've done a big shop at Aldi tonight, £38 spent including pet food! So pretty pleased with that.

Summer holidays are upon us, currently looking at free / low cost things to do.

Hope you're all well

xxx

AnxiousHomemaker · 29 July 2016 at 7:25PM

Not feeling very good today, payday has been and gone, most of the big bills have been paid with a couple more due over the next few days and now I already feel like I am looking forward to next pay day. My husband's sick pay was less then previous months and my childcare costs more than I expected so that's not helping. Just feeling so fed and like we are in survival mode, wish the insurance company would pay out for loss of earnings and wish my husband could return to work but it still feels such a way off! Sorry for the moan, just needed to get it off my chest.

Thanks for reading x

AnxiousHomemaker · 31 July 2016 at 9:01AM

Happy Sunday everyone

Had a look for the app that was suggested above and couldn't find it on my phone, I then realised it was for android phones only (which I don't have!) but my hubs does, so he's going to be using shopprize and I will carry on with receipt hog.

I've also decided to list my debts within this thread, so I can follow them. Now generally my husband and I consider our debts to be both our responsibility but while we're in this awkward place with his injury and him being off sick I am going to focus on just the accounts in my name as he is using his cards to help him through, not ideal at all I know but with no savings and an insurance company dragging their feet then needs must unfortunately

So here we go... *takes deep breath*

CC1 - £4418.76
CC2 - £1125.11
CC3 - £2913.32
VERY - £809.66

Total: £9266.85

All of the above is currently 0% however end dates are fast approaching, CC3 is 0% till May 2018 so I am happy for that to run on in the background for now, and also VERY is made up of smaller buy now pay later offers which I feel we can tackle one by one. CC1 and 2 are ending soon and being honest its terrifying. I have looked on a credit card comparison site to see if I am eligible for a new card to transfer the balance on and it shows 9.5 out of 10 chance for one lender, however that is who I already have CC1 with so not sure that it would actually happen, as I was under the impression you could only have one card with each lender (unless I am wrong?) also I worry I wouldn't be able to move the whole balance across and I would then have ANOTHER card, which I don't really want, as to be honest I feel sick at the thought of having 3! So it looks like I might have to just suck it up and accept the increase in APR and over pay as much as I can.

I just feel so down about the whole situation - when I look at our life together since buying our home (9 years ago) we have just battled and struggled with debt, our highest amount of joint debt being around £25,000 and our lowest in the last couple of years being around £9000 - it felt so good to be on the 'home straight' but now its slowly increasing again, if I had to hazard a guess I would my husband has around £6000 on 2 cards? In the past 5 years we have both been redundant, and unemployed at some point, I have had 2 maternity leaves and now more recently he is on long term sick, it just highlights the need for savings!! but how do people go about starting them? I joined a challenge on here to save and i'm yet to save anything because to me this is my emergency so every penny counts?

What are peoples thoughts on debts v savings?

Sorry for the long post today, I guess I have had a lot of stuff festering for a few days!

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend xxx

AnxiousHomemaker · 31 July 2016 at 9:14AM

I've just noticed that I had put my total debt balance in a previous thread, can't remember doing that - I think I must have guessed the exact amount as its more today and I have definitely not used any of my cards so I will stick with the break down and balance above as I have taken all the numbers straight from my online summaries today x

kazwookie · 31 July 2016 at 11:45AM

Hello

With your OH off sick, and you are expecting a payout from the insurance, (if I have understood it correctly) why do you not ring up the ins company and ask for an advance, telling them of the hardship etc etc you are currently all under. I am not sure how much you may be getting, but I would ask for some where between a 1/4 to 1/2.

Debt v savings = I would personally pay off as much debt asap as I could but keep a small amount each month as an emergency pot, ie boiler / cooker etc

Eager_Elephant · 31 July 2016 at 12:29PM

Hi AH (hope it's ok to call you that?)

Just had a flick through new diaries and saw yours so have had a quick read.

I have to agree that now is your emergency time so now all you can do is hunker down and try and get through this time which actual does have a light at the end of tunnel.

If you are using credit to get through the month then now is not the time to be paying off debts or saving, now is the time to use credit as little as possible.

Once your DH is back at work then you can look at savings and paying down the debt.

I am all for having savings while paying down debt - I have different pots for car repair, car replacement, medical, animals etc - these are just my pots. DH has his own pots as well.
We are both paying down debt (DH is on token payments as he has been ill) and the idea of the savings is so that we can use savings instead of credit when something happens.

Also remember an emergency fund is for something you can't predict (the car accident?) like the roof blowing off, relatives abroad getting ill etc.

Things like the washing machine going wrong and the boiler not working are not emergencies, they are foreseeable problems that will arise at some point hence you start saving towards these.
I replaced my car last year (second hand) but did not have enough savings to cover it so since I got my car I have been saving £30pm towards my next one - hopefully in about 5 years or so but at least I will have something towards it.

Just wanted to wish you good luck on your journey!!

AnxiousHomemaker · 31 July 2016 at 2:44PM

Thank you for the replies.

Kazwookie initially the insurance company said they would cover his loss of earnings which they did for one month and then when he rang up the month after to organise it again the woman wouldn't speak to him and said they would only talk to his solicitor (we didn't have a solicitor to start with but got one to help us get ongoing treatment and alternative treatments for him as they told us he could only have 10 physio sessions) so the solicitor called and requested an interim payment like you suggested but they said he needed a medical report. Despite seeing their physio and having sick notes from the doctors etc... so that is where we are at the moment, waiting for him to see a specialist and get the report and then hopefully we can move forward. It all just seems very slow paced.

Eager_Elephant (AH is fine by the way

) thanks for the advice, its reassuring to hear you agree in terms of my emergency fund, I just don't know what to do for the best some days. Guess all we can keep doing is taking it one day at a time! x

My Not So Secret Diary...

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