My SOA

losingpatience

I'm not sure, no-one at the hospital has mentioned anything about reduced car parking charges whilst he has his treatment, and I didnt see any notices but he has to go on Tuesday for a scan so I might ask then. What's really annoyed me is the vast majority of times we've been for appointments they've been subject to delays, sometimes of more than 2 hours so instead of just paying for an hours parking we're having to pay for 3 or 4 through no fault of our own which I just don't think's right.

I don't really want to bring up money with OH at the mo, he's got alot on his plate at the moment, his grandmother has sadly passed away this week and with his treatment as well I think he has enough to deal with just now so I'm trying to do what I can without getting him too involved if possible

katsu

Do you understand why a meter would cost you more? I'm genuinely surprised about how a meter could cost you more, so not sure what I'm missing?

No idea about PPC costs, was just an idea that popped into my head.

If your OH needs hospital treatment can you get any help with the costs like increased parking/petrol costs? Perhaps from a benevolent fund or anything? I know macmillan do some financial help for people with cancer, not sure about what would be relevant for your OH.

If you struggle to track spends could you stop taking cashpoint money out and just use debit cards? Then you would have a wallet of slips from shops to write in your spending diary and could check the bank statements if you slipped up in keeping the diary?

Do you really both need £120pcm pocket money? You are spending £1420 pa each on something each month. What could you do with that, or half that, as a lump sum instead?

losingpatience

savingmummy wrote: »

I was a nurse for the nhs and if you go to car parking patrol and explain they will give you a notw for your windowscreen. Worth asking about this or it may be cheaper to use an offsite carpark x

It's one of those car parks with the barriers so you need a ticket to get in and out so I'm not sure whether they are able to do that? All of the surrounding area is permit parking only from what I have seen as its all residential and I don't know the area too well so wouldn't know where to begin to look for an offsite carpark. We have also been told that because the radiotherapy will be around the knee joint he is likely to experience difficulty in walking so I want to keep walking to a minimum for him

losingpatience

katsu wrote: »

Do you understand why a meter would cost you more? I'm genuinely surprised about how a meter could cost you more, so not sure what I'm missing?

No idea about PPC costs, was just an idea that popped into my head.

If your OH needs hospital treatment can you get any help with the costs like increased parking/petrol costs? Perhaps from a benevolent fund or anything? I know macmillan do some financial help for people with cancer, not sure about what would be relevant for your OH.

If you struggle to track spends could you stop taking cashpoint money out and just use debit cards? Then you would have a wallet of slips from shops to write in your spending diary and could check the bank statements if you slipped up in keeping the diary?

Do you really both need £120pcm pocket money? You are spending £1420 pa each on something each month. What could you do with that, or half that, as a lump sum instead?

It just asked how many baths you have, how many times you use the washing machine etc then came up with an estimation as to how much a water meter would cost in comparison and I think it was in the region of £45. It has been a while since I checked so I may look into this again.

It isn't cancer that my other half had, it was a destructive tumor so whilst not cancerous it had destroyed a large portion of his fibula bone. He needs the radiotherapy as it has a very high recurrence rate. As it's not cancer ( which I am extremely thankful of ) then I don't think he is entitled to any form of financial support from a cancer charity. To be honest it's not something I had even considered, and I think there are others who are probably less fortunate financially than us who will need there help.

I'm going to go through my bank statement from last month to try to see where all the money went. I know this is more difficult to do with cash withdrawls so I'm going to try to keep all my receipts from this month to see exactly where our money is going.

I'm not sure what the OH does with his £120 per month, I've never asked him. As for mine £30 I put in a savings account ( I can't afford to save for a pension at the mo so I'm doing this until I can then putting what I have in there in the pension ). The rest of the money goes on various things, birthday and christmas presents for my OH, clothes and haircuts for me, spending money if I want to go for lunch with a friend etc I certainly don't spend 120 a month, I think I have around £300 in my "pocket money" account just now, and thats after buying myself a few things in the January sale.

savingmummy

It sounds different to our hospitals then as most areas are permit there are 3 main carparks for patients.
It may be worth asking at the clinic or ward when you next go and see if they can help you out.
Could you both be dropped off and collected by a friend or relative? i don`t drive so have to take these options myself in these sort of circumstances x

Horace

A PPC costs about £94 per annum - it is particularly handy when you are on regular medication. It works out cheaper when you think about it as I think that each item you get on a prescription costs about £7.50 per item that you need to pay in the pharmacy so a PPC works out cheaper.

Certainly look into cheaper parking at the hospital especially as your OH is having cancer treatment. The thing is with these places is that they won't tell you, you have to ask.

Why not cut back on your 'pocket money' and have £50 a month instead of £120? You would still be able to have things and the money could be used for something else.

Keep a spending diary as it is surprising where the money goes.

firesidemaid

just a few thoughts....

it might be worth (whilst your OH is having his treatment one day) finding/asking the PALS or similar at your local hospital whether or not there is help or a scheme for reduced parking for patients who like yourselves are having to attend numerous appointments etc.

re. going out for meals - we too found the cost of taxis etc makes going out expensive. so now we drive, thereby still having/enjoying a meal out but without the cost of a) the taxis and b) the alcohol!

re. pocket money. we do this and i think it is a good idea IF you control all the other spending. every month, after all the money has been taken by/allocated to other pots/budgets i write down what is left - we call it the slush fund. every time we spend (or plan to spend) money we take it off the total or ask each other if it's a good idea to make 'that' purchase. when you are at zero, you know that is it for the month - it really makes you think a bit more x

wannabedebtfree_2

At the moment you are spending £570 per month on 'fun' (£180 holiday, £150 entertainment and £240 pocket money)......whilst I fully appreciate the fact that you're going through a lot with your OH's health if money is a problem then this needs (actually it HAS) to be cut back in some areas.

I actually think that the Cineworld passes would be best kept, £24 per month isn't too bad if you make the most of it, if you go a couple of times per week this could be your treat instead of pub lunches etc.........you would probably spend that much on one lunch with drinks so I think 8 visits to the cinema is much better value!

If you are running out of money mid-month and you should have £400+ left there is clearly an issue, perhaps the pub lunches, evenings out are more often than you think.....it's time to keep a spending diary!

We are a family of four and I don't budget for any entertainment or holidays because we can't afford it.....!!! The only 'treat' on my whole SOA is £20 per month on Sky........and thats for the 4 of us!!!

If I were you I would continue with the pocket money, but I would say that things like haircuts, mobiles, entertainment and presents should come out of that...........you would see a big change in your SOA without even cutting back on the holiday.

Good luck with it all x

firesidemaid

you have a cineworld pass AND sky movies! could you have either/or?

another alternative is to go for a dvd rental deal, which would be cheaper than either per month and you would be able to get quidco cashback/tesco points etc

losingpatience

As I said the cineworld passes are going, we haven't used them in months so its just not worth keeping them. The 12 month contract ends at the beginning of February so we will be able to cancel them then.

I had been driving nearly every time we went out, but it got to the point where I was sick of never being able to have a drink! I think we may have had more pub lunches then I realised in the past which can easily be £20 - 30. Recently though we haven't been out much, I think the only time we've been out since the end of November was for New Year and I can't see us going out this month.

Took the car to the garage today to get the windscreen wipers fixed which cost a whopping £337 :mad: I honestly felt like crying when they told us how much it was going to cost, but we had to get it done. So now I have to find the money to pay that, I had to put it on the credit card as we only have around £200 left in our current account. Also had to get petrol which cost £46 and only filled up 10 days ago