To remind myself how far I've come - my debt diary. - SOA added

pandapaws

Hiya!

Been really busy past week or so and just caught up!

That's really lousy news about your house buyer. Maybe she'll have better luck with another mortgage company, but hopefully you'll find another buyer if not. Given that we're doing so cr*p at selling our house, I can fully sympathise, especially when your January deadline is looming!

Glad the holiday was good, bet the kids loved it! And also glad that your hubby didn't get suckered into drivinghis family half way across the country. Grrr!! Cut all ties, that what I say (although I know it's not realistic, but I'm sure its a nice thought?!)

Hope the first proper day at school goes well!
Bye for now!

chocaholic110

The_Dragon wrote: »

Oh bother Choc! I thought this was all sorted and you would be moving soon :mad: - does this mean you will have to drop out of the house you are buying?:cool:

Well, luckily we haven't committed ourselves to buying anywhere else, though we had started to tentatively look. (The estate we had wanted to buy on is not going to be built for at least another 18 months). I'm sort of looking on the bright side, each month that passes is a month further out of debt...though it does concern me that I may be on maternity leave when we do finally need a new mortgage - and can you get a mortgage while on maternity leave?

If January comes and we are still here, well then baby would be sleeping in our bedroom anyway.

I do sort of think that most things happen for a reason. I'm sure that something will come up and there are lots of lovely houses available that woud suit our needs. We'll find somewhere - sooner or later!

The_Dragon

I hope so Choc! Hmm not sure about the mortgage on maternity leave (my midgy income wasn't included in ours - mine comes from Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance, we decided that the £7,000 could be used for extras)

chocaholic110

Home early tonight as DD had a dentist appointment. She needed a tooth out but she was fairly brave, bless her!

Well, four days back at school now and I'm shattered! My new class are not too bad but there are two or three that I would pay someone to take away (even if I am trying to save money!!). The kids have been back three days and I have had times of thinking "Well, this is going fairly well" and times of thinking "OMG, how will I ever cope?"

The Headteacher pinned me down to when I am starting maternity leave and we've decided on December 3rd (with November 30th being the last day I am in school). It is fairly early as I will only be 32 weeks but it means I get to miss all the Christmas stress and can relax and enjoy Christmas. Not that she's desperate to get rid of me but she's been out to look at the local teaching pool applications today to cover my leave! Also my classroom assistant announced today that she's pregnant too, so that will be good to have someone to talk to in the same situation. I'm fairly suprised that none of the kids have noticed yet...obviously they just think I'm fat!!

hypno06

Just caught up on the trials of house selling/back to school/etc. Hope that you manage to get a bit of rest this coming weekend. It sounds as though you will need it!

chocaholic110

Lol...you sound like my OH. Every day this week he has said "Did you get a chance to rest at school today?" Not sure where exactly he thinks I work or what exactly he thinks I do but there is definitely no rest time built in! (Is there in any job?)

Some good news though. A colleague that really loves PE is going to teach my PE lessons and I will teach his History/Geography - as I'm not the most sporty of people at the best of times that sounds like a good deal to me!

chocaholic110

Well, first week at school completely over! Only 6 more until half term, lol! Was completely shattered last night. Took DD to gymnastics and dropped her off at my Dad's for the night. Only problem was we had left behind her carefully packed bag of clothes. Popped to Asda to get her something to wear and bless her, she carefully looked all along the sales and smart price clothes! Don't know whether i'm teaching her money saving or giving her a complex! She ended up buying SP jeans and knickers, reasonably priced socks and a quite nice Daisy Duck T-shirt. Even so, by the time I added some sweets for her to take, a couple of magazines and a Tickle Pink T-shirt for me it all added up to £27! Argh! Definitely unplanned spending

Also, much to my surprise my pregnancy was announced in assembly today. Cue 90 pairs of huge eyes turned on me! Then they applauded but I'm not really sure why. It was all rather surreal and embarrassing - I'm quite sure that similar would not happen to someone who worked in an office or suchlike.

Also we were given a never been used baby carrier that you can wear on your front or back yesterday. We used one loads with DD and DS so should come in handy. I'm amazed at how much stuff we have already without actually having spent anything yet.

Oh, and I'm 20 weeks tomorrow - baby is nearly half-cooked!

chocaholic110

Blimey, OH just did a Lightspeed survey that gave 745 points! They've never sent me one with reward like that! He's just cashed in 1100 points for a £10 Amazon voucher which means we only need £8 more to get DD's Baby Born Boy that she wants for Christmas without spending any real money.

Also she's really happy as the Free Maths activity book advertised on the freebies website arriver today - top quality freebie I think!

Started keeping a spending diary on spendingdiary.com (or suchlike). Never really bothered before as too much trouble but I like the way it itemises everything. Scarily we have spent £2500 already this month! Luckily the vast majority of major bills are paid. Will be interesting to see where the money goes over this and future months...hope I can keep it up!

Been to the dentist (again). Feel like I am never away from there at the moment due to myself, DD and DS but broke a bit of tooth off at the weekend (my own fault - eating toffee!). At least I'm making the most of my free dental treatment!

chocaholic110

Yay! Just checked Egg banking and my £50 for recommending OH for an account and OH's £50 for opening an account have gone in.

Paid OH's straight off his Egg card (might save a few pence interest!) and paid mine off my Egg card (which gets paid off each month, but means there will be less to pay at end of month).

We could possibly have paid more off but need to keep money in the bank as we still don't know how much OH's MOT cost (3 weeks later!), my car is due to be serviced and OH's car needs taxing at the end of the month. Has been an expensive time for cars. Looking frward to being debt free and properly putting money away each month to cover such expenses.

Oh, well, better get myself in the shower and off to work...only 53 more working days until maternity leave (I hope!)

hypno06

Blimey, Egg giving YOU money - now there is something that doesn't happen every day!!

I hope that the children are all settling down at school now - good news about not having to do PE lessons!

I am off to investigate spendingdiary.com - have never been good at the paper version so will be interesting to see if I can do an online one!!