Jo_R's debt-free diary, slow and steady progress!

Jo_R_2

Yep I have sworn there is no way on this earth I am taking out any kind of finance for the wedding, don't think I've ever been so adamant about NOT getting credit LOL!

Just a quick one as want to get some housework done before baby wakes up. I hereby resolve today to do at least one of the following things from this weeks "To Do" list:

• phone loan company about taking PPI off monthly repayments
• phone Tesco about life of balance 5.9% offer
• cancel phone from old house:o - realised I've forgotten

Jo_R_2

phone loan company about taking PPI off monthly repayments - need to get paper to write a letter for this
phone Tesco about life of balance 5.9% offer - need to get new card before I can do this, and before they can send one they need my change of address in writing, so another letter!
cancel phone from old house:o - realised I've forgotten - emailed the ex whose name it's in with request, and instructions to let me know when it's done please

So part of the way there!

Jo_R_2

The ex has cancelled phone from old house, so that's sorted. I plugged in the printer yesterday with a stack of fresh paper only to find the black ink cartridge had run out dammit!:mad: I don't want to buy an overpriced one so I'm going to handwrite my letters and order bargainous ink cartridges online.

One thing I do need to do is to find out what the remaining amounts to pay are on my housing benefit, council tax and tax credits overpayments are. When I did my SOA I put what the original amounts were but they will have gone down now.

Trying to get stuff done whilst baby is sleeping - he's been a little terror this last week, gone from sleeping through to waking up, twice last night wanting to be fed, I suspect he is starting to need solids (he's going on six months now, where di that go?!?!?) So that's planned for Saturday as OH is going to do it at lunchtime - very excited!

Jo_R_2

Alternately great and RUBBISh day yesterday. I'll outline it or else I'll be here forever LOL...

• went into town, and upon parking up realised had lost the ticket. Couldn't find it anywhere, had a right stress as a lost ticket costs £14:eek:, but found out when we were done that car parky man was only charging us for the time we'd taken :j
• went to Ikea to buy a new chest of drawers, bit more pricier than we'd have liked, but upon getting to checkout found there was £20 off :j
• driving back we broke down - without breakdown cover - on the M1:eek: I won't go into details but suffice to say the breakdown cost us over £100:eek: lesson learned - do take out the breakdown cover when you think about it rather than not doing so, forgetting then breaking down:mad:

Keeping_Positive

Ouch at the breakdown cost - try quidco for rac/aa usually good cash back deals or use good old tesco vouchers.

Jo_R_2

Pretty quiet day today, just me and baby. DDs still at my parents as not able to pick them up with car not working. Done some housework (note to self - control urges to wash anything and everything so can use fabulous new tumble dryer bought as present by OH's mum:o) so couple of things I really need to do - write letter to loan company for reclaiming PPI and find out about getting car to garage - would have done it sooner but baby been grizzly a lot this morning poor little man

He's asleep on me now though so will prob put him down then dash round like a madhead trying to get loads of stuff done before he wakes up!

Also ebay items end tonight - must check on them.

[Deleted User]

Hi Jo,

Sorry to hear about the car, hope that you can fix it relatively cheaply.

Poor DS, how old is he? Invest in Calpol and Bongela, wonderful stuff

Hope you managed to get some bits done.

Catch you later,

Tea
x

Jo_R_2

I forgot to post last week: I phoned up to check my Housing Benefit, Council Tax and Tax Credits overpayment outstanding balances and they are as thus:

• Housing Benefit: £110 outstanding, repaying £15 per month
• Council Tax: £50.36 outstanding, repaying £36 per month
• Tax Credits: £268 outstanding, repaying £20 per month

Completely flummoxed by the Council Tax one as I was thinking there was at least £200 to pay - although since moving they've sent me two adjustment notices so maybe I either didn't owe as much as they first thought or having adjusted it it was knocked some off the total. Either way after next month's payment comes out I'll pay the amount leftover (£50.36 - monthly payment of £36 = £14.36 outstanding) then that's another one wiped off the books - wahey!:j

It also means I can increase one of my repayments - I did initially think one of those above but as they're all interest-free I'm inclined to put my logical head on and think the freed up £36 would be better going towards either my loan or credit card. I'm in the midst of dealing with all the paperwork and starting to reclaim the PPI on my loan so I don't want to confuse things even more with that, and also the CC has the higher interest rate so I plan to call up at the start of next month and increase my monthly repayment and set it at a fixed amount, probably this month's minimum that I paid plus the £36.

I've got all my loan paperwork winging it's way to me as we speak. Whilst I was going through it all I realised my papers were years old and I had no idea how much I owed right now, how many payments I had left or when my last payment is due. In the interim I'm going to write my initial PPI reclaiming letter - hopefully tonight - and send that off as I got the address from the woman I spoke to today.

I only sold one of my ebay items - I've been gradually selling all my maternity clothes and admittedly I only put a handful of things on, but the only thing that sold was a pair of maternity trousers, no one wanted the baby stuff. Ah well, it's all a bit more towards paying off my CC!

Jo_R_2

Oooh well it's Friday evening, I'm sat here in the living room on the laptop. OH is getting ready to meet his bezzie mate for a couple o' drinkies, baby is fast asleep (woohoo I believe we have a decent bedtime developing at last - he was in bed by 8pm!!!:j) and DDs went after teatime to spend the weekend with their dad - it ALWAYS feels so quiet when they go

I am armed with choccy and my current favourite evening "tipple" - a can of lemonade! NCIS on the telly and some nice time to spend with OH and baby this weekend.

What has happened since my last posting? Well a mechanic came to look at the car. It. Is. Broke. No one's totally sure what exactly is the matter but whatever it is (it's been narrowed down to a couple of things) because of the age and mileage it's looking like any of the possible solutions will mean if we take it to a garage, spending about the same as what it was bought for to make it go again.

OH's stepdad has offered to try and work on it as apparently he used to do up cars for a living (which I never knew until yesterday) but as of right now, we haven't decided what to do. If we do decide to work on it ourselves (or accept any of the generous offers we have had from others of their help) it's gonna be off the road for a while. I suppose in a way it's actually quite 'convenient' - if I can call it that! - that it's happened in the summer hols - at least I'm not having to stick three kids on the bus to get DD1 to school and back as well as DD2 getting to nursery and back as she starts preschool in September.

OH has decided (he told me earlier) he is going to MAKE bunkbeds for DDs. Now this is something I mentioned a while back about wanting bunk beds to free up some floorspace in their room but I didn't know he planned on making them! He actually did joinery at college so it's not that crazy practically, I'm just worried, because, well I worry about everything and don't want the top bunk to collapse on the bottom bunk I suppose:eek: We realised though we can just use the mattresses from their current single beds, save DD2's bedframe and save it for baby when he's old enough to have a single bed. I suppose we could keep DD1's but I think he wouldn't appreciate a purple cabin bed with white flowers Shame because it was bought new and is still in fairly good condition.

Took DDs and baby to the local children's centre this afternoon. They have some great free summer activities and today it was "People who help us." They had a great time - I do have trouble at times with depression and getting us all out of the house but I swear, those centres are my lifeline - and the most I've ever paid for a play session at one is £1.50!

They couldn't stop talking about meeting the firemen and having a go spraying some water, plus it was a lovely walk there and back - we'd usually go in the car because it's a good walk away and not on a bus route, and we had nice chats as we wandered.

Despite the car scenario, I'm still feeling quite optimistic about things financially. Having taken things into my own hands with getting the loan paperwork I feel a lot more in control, and I realised the other day that if I remember rightly, the last time I paid out for a bank charge was (I think) at the end of May. A great feeling when I realised!

Jo_R_2

Lots to do this week - I'm typing this now before I hit the sack so I don't worry about things that need doing in the middle of the night!

To do this week (I'll probably remember other things in the morning):

• OH short on rent as paid out for car being towed last week so need to transfer some money over tomorrow (Monday);
• buy printer cartridge to type out letter regarding reclaiming PPI and post off;
• weekly shop online - storecupboard challenge is looking imminent given OH's finances!
• sort out V5 for car (LOL) - seems last owner left it rather than doing it himself
• decide what to do with car - looking like OH/dad/OH's stepdad (not sure yet) going to have a go and see if it's possible we can sort it without taking it to a garage... decided it's worth a go, nothing to lose and see how that pans out before making a major decision
• need to phone BT to check billing as appears two DDs have been taken out of my account this month for different amounts - possible one may be last bill for old house but need to clarify

Good night LOL!