I'm going to do a diary too :)

gerbiljo

thanks guys! I was very very happy as it was a rather large pay rise (12k although I do move into the higher tax bracket plus 10 hours less a week) plus as its a mix of days and nights I will be able to plan quality time with my daughter like I might get us enrolled on a swimming class and our mf date looks more likely again. the weekends are not as good but we have lots of building etc and so I'm sure my husband can occupy himself. he gets lots of holiday so we can work it around his shifts rather than it always being him at home and me at work. i know it will be a lot more work but i feel like its a second shot at my career, I hope I can do the opportunity justice.
On the downside my cat is having weeing problems again, i am taking him to the specialist again tomorrow and hoping things can be resolved with non invasive surgery for him or even better that i am over reacting

I have a 4 day weekend coming, we are taking my daughter to a grotto tomorrow then preschool then out for dinner as it is our 4 year anniversary, we might go to the cinema friday. Fingers crossed for my boy

gerbiljo

How comes time suddenly seems to be flying? Perhaps to do without every minute thinking about the mortgage and paying off every little scrap we have I guess.

We are hopefully picking up my little cat today, he has had a second surgery to direct his urethra now between his legs. They say it went well, but I am preparing myself for the worst- i think I have to, he will likely be getting another month of cage rest, luckily he is a good patient. The bill estimate was £1.5k so this is obviously reduced I think, he's totalling about £4k now...10% of our mortgage:eek:, this has been quite stressful obviously my husband has been really good about it all, he isn't especially happy about spending the money, I have said I will do as many extra shifts as I need to to pay for it and I compare it to the amounts we'd of spent on say a car or building and I'd rather have my cat. He doesn't want me doing extra shifts (I already have about £1k worth booked over xmas which was going to be time off- which to be honest i need), obviously it is piling up on the interest free credit cards but ultimately these are FREE LOANS providing I manage to pay them all in time for our targets, which I WILL!!! In effect we will pay our mortgage off quicker but still have to pay these off after, so mentally we quickly achieve mortgage freedom but in reality the period of time we are paying back our debts will not change much- I guess I'll be a DFW rather than MFW! Anyway I hope he is ok as it will all be worth it. We have generally spent a lot lately. We have a couple of grotto visits and we went out for dinner for our anniversary, we went to the cinema last night for the first time with our daughter. She really cried at first and I thought we would have to go but in the end it was fine, best to definitely go when the films been out for a while tho!! We spend £65 on food shop including a couple of presents...I think its worth starting deliveries as its cutting into our family time so much at the weekends unless I manage to fit it into my new rota. I feel we really need to have some money spent on enjoying our time seeing as the vet bill is so high especially so the rest of the family aren't feeling hard-done by! Yesterday my husband got a bike and he is excited by that so hopefully he will enjoy it. I'd like to start swimming lessons with my daughter in the new year so i need to look into that as well... i need to try and make the best of my new hours or I won't feel the benefit of staying up all night and losing some weekends!

On a different subject the sainsburys credit card is £2000 and we have another £100 to go off it. It will be cleared this month before our monthly payment!!! Other cards expire oct 2012, jan 2013 and feb 2013. Hopefully we will be mortgage free and easily able to tackle these!

josemagdalo

Hope your cat recovers well. I've been reading your diary a couple of days now. Finding good insights on spending. Keep it up.

gerbiljo

Ah thank you, glad its helping, perhaps I need to read it back and take some of my own advice, I've spent rather a lot lately!!

Well my special boy is home and fine he developed a temperature after the op and had to stay a bit longer. I spoke to the surgeons about other options and they said it could be redone once more or after that he would need to have a tube fitted which would require high maintanance care which I would be happy to give, tho I might have to recruit a special person to take care of him if we ever get a holiday again. I was worried this last option was just to give him a bit longer prior to euthanasia but I have been reassured that it is quite possibly a long term option and he could live a long life this way so I feel a bit better that the prognosis long term is much better. They were so lovely there and he was even referred to by someone as their favourite cat ever so I feel like a proud mum. He has been so brave, eating drinking, seeing and when ever u stroke him he purs and rolls on his back like theres nothing wrong, that makes it easier to carry on. If he's was depressed and being sick or acting in pain I may have had to reconsider, but he's not, I'm so proud of him. The stay was £1770, so he's totalling about £4.3k now 'bargain' hehehe. My husband seems to have calmed down about it all now!

Well I have just battered down my car insurance quote from £405 to £340, hoping hubby will do the same when he gets in. We are paying this off this month to avoid credit card charges.

This month we aim to have a £37..... at the front of out mortgage balance, tho the other figures may well be 999!! Plus clear the sainsburys credit card. After this the aim is to clear the mortgage prior to having to deal with the other credit cards as their interest free periods still have ages to go.

I am scared and excited about the possibilities for a chunk off the mortgage next month... we will be £500 up courtesy of my new salary (providing all goes well) plus I am working extra shifts which I think will be bringing us close to an extra £1000 (which I hastily booked in anticipation of being unemployed, in hindsight i think I would like my xmas break back now!!) anyway so about £4.5k off so maybe £33k something....so dare I say come end of feb I think we might go into the twenties!!!!!! this is amazingly fantastic.

Anyway thats about it for now, apparently we have just acquired some free cat food too, all comes in handy

right thats me for today, pleased were still in the green

gerbiljo

quick message to say I just got another £10 amazon voucher form tns and hubby got £30 off insurance , so saved £95 on quote, from same company!

gerbiljo

woohoo £10 ipsos voucher, they seem to be coming quick at the mo, I got some early reading books for our daughter

CathT

Well done on the new job, fantastic news. Hope your cat is much better soon aswell. he's having a rough old time.

gerbiljo

Thanks Cath, he's doing ok, hope he stays that way
Well this weeks food shop, albeit involving some xmas presents came to £100 eeeeeeek, we are mostly set for xmas tho. I have a million jobs that will never get done (!) so I'll make it quick! Only 4 days left at work woohoo last week was rubbish so its feeling good, plus I got a welcome pack for my new job which was a bit scary but it looks like a good company!
I went through all pour disney dvds and blu rays today and typed in these reward codes and now we have a blu ray coming our way from the points! plus I don't think del be far from another one soon!
Early start as horse riding in the morning!
Hubby has been paid... so we now only have £120 left on the sainsbury card which I will clear at the end of the month (for some reason our old tradition of getting paid before xmas is now changed to end of december) after that no credit cards until october. hopefully at the end of the month our mortgage will start in £37...k

thats it!

[Deleted User]

yay to a 37 starting mortgage!!
and yay to new job and kitty being on the mend

gerbiljo

Thanks YO my boy had his check up today and I think all is going well SO FAR fingers crossed poor baby