£70 a day's what the panda will pay!

Prudent

Pandapaws you are 'down south' to me too - but as you are welcoming southerners I will do the same

I was very impressed with your work set up. I love my job too, but its lots of stress for less money.

I don't think you should beat yourself up about house work. You are working full time with two young children. I love chocolate too

p.s would you like some pandas? I am struggling a wee bit with 400 of them

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1086707

OliveOyl_2

Morning Cuthbert.

can I just ask how you budget for Christmas/birthdays and holidays?

Although I think you should know that some of us Southerners pay good money to visit you lot oop North, so you're already in a holiday destination, so no travelling required?

I've just read the bit after the numbers stuff on your SOA - just ignore me Rapunzel.

tyllwyd

Hi! It's great to see you back on the board, and lovely to hear that the kids are doing well.

What's the situation with your self-employed business? Have you still got money tied up in stock?

You mentioned (on the other thread) that you were doing up your bathroom - is that money in your budget somewhere, or is it paid already? (I know you said that you pay for home improvements as and when you can, but I assume this is a definite cost?)

Burlesque_Babe

Northerner (Grimsby!) who escaped to be an adopted Southener here!

I remember your battle with the mortgage last year - you worked so hard to get it all sorted, even though your debt hasn't shifted downwards, I'm guessing you're in a much better position than a year ago to tackle it

pandapaws

:rotfl: to most of you above! For the record I'm actually a Scot who's lived all over. I used to think of up north as down south until I lived in Southampton, when everything was up north. Now I think of Northampton as down south.

I'm surprised that nobody has completely slated the SOA, and I'm really grateful that nobody is shouting at me about the fact I'm back where I started last year. If it was through frivolous spending I'd have been mad myself, but just about all of it has been house related, thanks to the HSBC mortgage fiasco which cost us 8k, so it's not as bad as it initially looks.

Chev, good point about the deals that end in Dec - I think the companies deliberately do that as it's the month you're least likely to be able to pay things off and most likely to be busy doing other things. There isn't a plan as such, we're just hoping to get rid of as much of that as possible by making those the priority, the rest will get transferred onto the next 'good' deal. Anyone know how the Egg anniversary offer works?

Still looking for a diary name - I'm sure I'll get fed up with Cuthbert soon, I was just too tired last night to think of anything better and didn't want to use that as an excuse for not posting at all. I assume I can change it - I haven't tried!

pandapaws

tyllwyd wrote: »

Hi! It's great to see you back on the board, and lovely to hear that the kids are doing well.

What's the situation with your self-employed business? Have you still got money tied up in stock?

You mentioned (on the other thread) that you were doing up your bathroom - is that money in your budget somewhere, or is it paid already? (I know you said that you pay for home improvements as and when you can, but I assume this is a definite cost?)

Hiya! Yes, still got an absolute mountain of stuff to sell. With the move/baby I haven't done anything on Ebay for ages, I just haven't had the time. I'm still selling bits & bobs here and there but really need to get the finger out. I also need to do last year's tax return as there'll probably be a hefty rebate there which I'd hope to put towards the Dec balances Chev was talking about.

The majority of bathroom stuff has all been bought and is all sitting in the garage. I've got £1300 in a savings account not mentioned above as that's to pay the plumber, plasterer, and buy all other bits that'll be required. We're actually doing both bathrooms as both leaked through the ceilings downstairs, and the thermostat on the shower didn't work so we were always getting scalded. So partly essential repairs, partly doing it properly so it looks nice - I didn't see the point in half-fixing things. We've been showering at work which is very MSE, I might keep doing that even when we have lovely bathrooms!

pandapaws

Burlesque_Babe wrote: »

Northerner (Grimsby!) who escaped to be an adopted Southener here!

I remember your battle with the mortgage last year - you worked so hard to get it all sorted, even though your debt hasn't shifted downwards, I'm guessing you're in a much better position than a year ago to tackle it

MUCH better! If we'd still been living where we were (half way to Grimsby incidentally!) then the £500 we were spending on fuel would have been more like £800 and rising now:eek: .

We've still got that darned storage unit at £120 a month as well, which is entirely due to lack of time to get the garage cleared out to move all the stored stuff home. It's not a case of hoarding (there aren't 400 cuddly pandas in it!), it's just a case of finding the time to get it all sorted/moved/ebayed/freecycled/incinerated.

pandapaws

So a-la-Hypno, KC & co, here's today's list:

Feed, dress and entertain kids (so that'll be most of the day taken up!)
Do a mountain of washing AND NOT leave it lying in the machine to rot
Clean up the kitchen
Hoover downstairs
Send a thank-you card to an auntie for a belated baby gift
Ebay: car, moses basket, crib, a bathroom cupboard & a kitchen trolley
Lay a floor in the bathroom
Eat properly (including chocolate, of course)

These are between myself and DH when he gets up from nightshift, so quite do-able, No 1 above permitting. Better get my skates on while Greg's being quiet!

chocaholic110

Blimey, best get cracking then - that lot would take me about a week to do!

Karmacat

:hello: Hello!!! Cuthbert? Is that you, Cuthbert? Are you there?

Sorry, my brain went off somewhere else.... thats an *interesting* name for a diary!

Your soa.... well, considering what you've done over the last year, its absolutey brilliant. You've got plans in to reduce what utilities you can, your credit card repayments are over the minimums, the only query I would have is the lottery, but on your scale of debt AND income, £9 a month isn't a lot, and if its OH's grand plan, won't really make that much difference compared to the arguments that might follow.

Glad to see there's someone else who can't do a short post - I'm completely with you on this one!

As you say, the debt is huge, but manageable. And you *are* actively managing, making contingencies, all that kind of stuff - you're doing brilliantly!