The grand plan for Catzpaws ... can it be done?

Catzpaws

Just posted this on the insurance board:

I've been thinking more about the employment protection cover as getting more anxious about losing my job.

I got a quote online and it's £41.25 per month. This would give a monthly benefit of £1500 for maximum of 6 months - if I lose my job after 120 days (4 months) after the start date of the policy.

This would making further cutbacks in budget... but it might give me peace of mind. Especially as jobs appear to be pretty thin on the ground in my field at the moment.

Is this a good idea... or not? (would be just my luck if I lost my luck if I lost my job before 4 months or they decided simply not to pay out).

Hopefully will get a response soon. No idea how 'easy' it is to make a claim...? Oh, if only I was debt free! I wouldn't be so anxious this then.

Lemon_Tree

hi, you have made me pay off my library fine as well - i sent OH in with my card and £1, i expect to get change back from him.

re the employment insurance cover, just be carefull because they will invalidate it if they think that you know that redundancy is coming up. i guess if it's just a general worry that's fine but if you know something specific then i bet they would use it to not pay you your entitlement.

Catzpaws

Hi Lemon Tree :hello:

Well, your conscience must feel clearer now! I felt very guilty whilst I had the fine on my card... . Well, it's a good revenue generator for them, I guess!

Point on the insurance cover noted... it is more of a general worry at the moment, though in more heart, I just don't think the company can really sustain the business the way it is at the moment. But, obv I don't want to take out cover if they then refuse a claim later on down the line.

Hope you're having a good MSE day anyway... I had a NSD today - one positive!

CP x

Catzpaws

Still deliberating over this unemployment insurance.... not sure whether it'll be a waste of money or not .

In a whirl of thoughts this morning, I decided to update my budget spreadsheet with a new column to see how dire my finances would be if I lost my job. The columns of my spreadsheet now look like this:

Current | Target | Maternity | After maternity | If unemployed

Think I have most bases covered....? :rolleyes::o

Aside from that, apart from petrol, I'm hoping for a low-ish spend day today. Weds is usually poochie training night. Also need to pick up dog food and a small grocery shop (which goes on next month's grocery budget now) as there's no milk or bread. Dear husband would be MOST upset if he couldn't have his morning cereal, pint of milk, tea or bread for sandwiches... oh, and a drink at the pub!

CP x

p.s. £173.37 on its way to me this month as Quidco cashback. God, I *heart* Quidco
p.p.s OH has chased up strange payment protection cover on credit card and has been promised that he will be reimbursed

honeybear_2

Catzpaws wrote: »

p.p.s OH has chased up strange payment protection cover on credit card and has been promised that he will be reimbursed

:T:T:T

Lemon_Tree

glad OH is going to be refunded. I'm looking forward to my first Quidco payout, so far i've got over £200 tracking over 2 months but still doubt it will work for me.
You are very clever with your headings i'm feeling like i'll need to start thinking about either maternity or unemployment. I'm getting really worried where i am, i'm hoping i can get as debt free as possible before they make the big changes but you never know. It makes me even more determined to try and save to cover for the maternity shortfall before we are likely to have a baby otherwise we would just be in the deepest mire.

Catzpaws

After the pub last night, I went to our local Sainsbury's Local. Amongst 1 bottle of beer for OH and crisps for me, I picked up some fab bargains: 2 x bags carrots @ 9p each, 3 x bags pre-prepared brocolli and bean @ 15p each.... The girl on the checkout then tried to charge me £6-odd. To my embarassment, I only had £5 on me. Running out to the car, I added up the booty in my head and realised that this wasn't right... and I was right. It was only £3-odd. Half the veg is now in the freezer... fab.

^Sorry for the waffle :rolleyes:^

Off to the cinema tonight in true MSE style. Got two free cinema tickets (found via this site) to watch a classic film. We won't know what it is until we get there! How exciting!! I'm hoping it'll be Atonement or Sex and the City - tho doubt OH would want to watch either!

Continuing with the MSE theme, I'll be smuggling in snacks for my own enjoyment. I even have popping corn at home, but I think that would be a step too far...

Filled up with petrol this morning as didn't get chance last night - petrol prices have gone up and are going up again, I was told. Grrrr!

Apart from the cinema, today I need to:

- Apply for GREAT sounding job that I've seen online. It's great location-wise, I have all the skills and experience, etc. but my field is INCREDIBLY competitive at the mo. I've now decided to just start applying for jobs seriously...

- Carry out more research into business idea. I'm becoming more and more keen on setting up my own business at some stage. Been reading some great books from the library, and it's given lots of food for thought. Also been doing lots of research online.

In terms of ze 'grand plan', this is something that I'd love to get set out before I go on maternity leave, with the view to getting it up and running whilst on maternity leave. I'll update on this once I have anything new to say - if anyone's remotely interested!

CP x

Lemon_Tree

wish we had a supermarket close enough to not require a car drive, someone at work gets loads of clearance stuff under 10p etc but i never get there late enough as i try and tie it in with another drive.
good luck with the job you're applying for.

Catzpaws

A diary update on spending from this weekend...

Both OH and I got paid on Friday so have done the following:

- Paid off balance of £550 off OH's virgin credit card... woo hoo :T No more interest!!! Bye bye Virgin! (how satisfying is it to say that!)

- Changed money for going away - Phew, this was a big one. We'd saved £600 but needed another £600. Not MSE at all, but this dream destination for us will be the last proper holiday in a very long time. We'd booked this in the summer as we were at sheer breaking point... so, not going to feel guilty about it... (however... cattery and dog boarding costs going to cost a small fortune - family have decided that they can't look after poochie while we're away, but that's fine, we'll just have to sort it out).

With these mahooosive items out of the way, I have updated the budget for this month (yes, yet another column :rolleyes:) to see how things stack up. It looks reasonably do-able as long as we continue to be very, very sensible elsewhere... esp as I have Quidco payment coming into account next week...

Thankfully, I've avoided spending too much money this weekend. We spent £24 on Friday night out and food for the weekend. Bumped into OH's mate in the supermarket carpark who gave us a voucher for a free film rental @ Blockbuster so ended up watching a free film on Fri night too!

Then, on Saturday, we used another voucher for buying Halloween night drinks/sweets to take around to parents-in-law - ended up only spending £2.50 of own money. Result!

Today will be a low spend day. Only spending will be in ALDI, if I manage to get there... have written a list based on the meal plan.

Right, off to do my daily scratch cards now and then brave the rubbish weather with a long dog walk!

CP x

Lemon_Tree

sounds like you've had a really productive day. Well done for paying off the Virgin card and not having to pay interest any more.
I sat and tackled our money this morning as OH was paid on friday as well. I'm still not completely afloat if i pay everything to my savings against the loan that i'm planning on doing so. Fingers crossed on bingo money, if not i'll just pull a little bit back from savings.