the maccas Debt Free Diary - 20K to pay in 18 months

Verbatim

Hi there,

Great to hear you're nearly there.

Hope you enjoy xmas. It can be so hard to keep to good intentions at this tiome of year!

I tell myself every year that the shops are only closed for a day and I don't have to stock up for a siege. and that's only the food!

Spendless

Hi themaccas - just thinking you must be coming up to the 2nd anniversary of your lightbulb moment and just wondering how you are doing?

Snaggles

How have you coped with all your extra shifts over Christmas themaccas? Did you manage to get any time to relax and spend with your family? My hubby has hardly had any time off and we've found it quite hard going.

At least you can now say 'I will be debt free this year'! :T

themaccas

Hi I started a new diary to motivate me to the final countdown!:rotfl: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=712253&highlight=themaccas

Hope the link works!

I worked night shifts over xmas but they weren't too bad and it was excellent fun though we did eat quite a bit on night shift!!:rolleyes:

tesuhoha

themaccas wrote: »

Thanks impomdasp, I feel I've been treading water a bit over the last couple of months since we moved house and I feel a bit dispondant at times when I know we would be debt free by now if we hadn't moved. However the money I received has been the kickstart I really needed and reducing the debt by a fair chunk has meant we are well on the way now to getting this all gone.

We are coming up to a couple of expensive months -
DS1 continuing driving lessons and tests £230 + £28.50 + £48
My car service - £250ish
DH car tax - £205

And we are having a problem with our plumber who fitted our bathrooms a few months ago. We have had umpteen problems with leaks, poor pressure to the taps caused by bodged fittings and he has kept promising to sort it out. Thankfully we have British Gas homecare insurance that covers gas/eletrics/plumbing and we have been able to get them to come and fix most of the problems (althought they shouldn't have had to) However on one occasion the problem wasn't covered and the plumber promised to come and sort it. We waited 3 weeks calling him every day and every day he said he would come 'tomorrow'. Eventually we told him we would get another plumber to fix it and he agreed and said he would pay the bill. The problem was fixed and cost us £76.80, we told him this and he promised to send a cheque, it never arrived so we phoned him everyday and guess what...everyday he said he drop payment round. ABout a month later he DID drop by with a cheque for the full amount. Great! However the cheque bounced, he said his card had been cloned and so all his cheques had been stopped. We don't believe it for one minute. I feel ground down by all of this and part of me just wants to leave it and let it go. We have tried to talk to trading standards about him but they said they are not interested and at other times I just want him to suffer for the crappy workmanship he did. We got his name and number from one of the trade/card boards that supermarkets have, I don't think we'll use anyone from them again. We have kept all the texts he has sent us and we have sent him, OH doesn't want to leave it but for the sake of £76 I have had enough.

Is the plumber Corgi registered? If so you could try reporting him to Corgi. They take a dim view of such complaints and he might be struck off/reprimanded/fined I dont know but its worth a shot..

tesuhoha

If he's not Corgi registered find out if he's working on gas and report him if he is as its against the law

tesuhoha

Sorry just noticed that post is really old.

themaccas

Do you know, I checked that a couple of months ago and couldn't find him registered at all. I'll never get a plumber to do work again without checking his registration and ask for references. He did eventually pay up and stuffed the money through the letterbox!!