Debt free in ten years-my new, more realistic challenge.

brizzledfw

Hey this is great. Am SO glad she is out of SCBU and doing well. Congratulations to you all!

Brill re the work for OH too...sorry its all been a bit hand to mouth but looks like everyone is being really positive about spending etc which is great.

Have a good week pooh

Brizzle

grannyx2

Hello Poohbear, :hello: the title of your diary caught my eye as I too aim to be debt free in 10 years. I hope you don't mind if I join you on your journey?

Haven't read much so far but have read about your new DGD, so wanted to say Congratulations from one Granny to another.

Is she your first? I have to say, there is nothing quite like the joy of being a grandmother, it was my true calling in life.

BFN Gx2 x

HappyNow

Yay, congratulations on becoming a grandma :)!! That's lovely news and I hope you get to see lots of her, 50 miles isn't that far nowadays .

That's quite a list you've set yourself for this week, hope it's going OK - and good luck with the snowball!

poohbear59

Thank you granny brizzled and Happy,
Please join me granny. Sometimes I fear I have set myself an impossible task but then things improve and I think I can see that tiny glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel. Babe is my first grandchild and I just can't stop looking at her.

brizzled, DH lost a big contract which would have given work for around a year. But he has at least got some smaller jobs. The cottage is doing very well ATM so we have that too. It does make sleeping at night a bit easier.

Happy, I may planned too much for this week as middle son has come home to do my accounts and needs my laptop to do them.

I also have youngest son here with a broken mains lead on his laptop. I have to go and retreive mine out of his bedroom when I wake up. It means I have fewer opportunities to catch up on here too.

The 50 miles I mentioned was to the hospital. Somedays we travelled 100 mile round trip for just 10 minutes with her but it was still worth it

Now they are home it is just 3 miles. But in Winter it is about 10 miles as we have to go the long way round instead of over the fell.

DSs all want to be here so they can see their new niece as much as possible. I have rewritten my menu plan to make it stretch a bit further.

brizzledfw

Hi pooh...how's tricks? Hope DGD and family are doing well. Thanks for popping in to my diary.

Hope the MSE stuff is going well, know how hard it is when RL is all consuming!! :-)

poohbear59

Hi Brizzled
I have been very busy and have also had almost no access to my laptop for a while. babe and mum are doing well. I have been over there every day to help out. Her in laws are thhere now so I am giving them some time with their new DGD.

It is just two days since I decided to talk to DH and make him aware of our financial situation. He goes to the pub to pick up work but it was becoming a futile attempt which costs us money. Two or three years ago he had clients waiting for him and they all called into the pub to catch up with him. Now they are few and far between.

We still need the front and back doors replaced and a joiner has at last agreed to come and do the work. DH is going to do without his pub visits so we can pay for the joiner I felt mean telling him he had to do without but it was the only cutback left to take. He has no work while it is wet so he is sorting out the doors we received through Freegle in preparation of the joiner coming to hang them.

Today's money saving has been ordering a pre payment prescription card for DH as he now has more than two items a month. I have to wait until it comes through before I can claim back the three prescriptions he paid for this morning.

beanielou

Keep plodding!

poohbear59

We are concentrating on preparing the house for Winter.

Anything we need other than food and loo rolls will have to wait until we have sorted out our damaged doors and wall. We have lots of toiletries in stock and for anything else we may need to be creative.

DH took a door I acquired on freegle to have it reglazed with safety glass. They wanted £250 so he brought it home and has spent the morning removing decades old putty. It isn't even a particularly nice door.

I am going to have a go at cleaning an armchair using a car upholstery cleaner I found in the cupboard. In the past I would have called in a cleaning company.

poohbear59

I have managed 2NSDs.
I cleaned the arm chair and it is looking lovely again. Another saving made.
We have had two sick dogs and couldn't work out what was wrong with them. Both had the same symptoms and we had accidents from both ends (sorry if TMI:o)in the dining room and lounge. Not on a hard floor like the hall. That would have been too easy.
On Mr Pooh's recommendation I held off going to the vet, gave them a chicken and rice meal rather than the normal dog food. They were a lot better last night, no more accidents. I then discovered a foil dish which had been full of fat waiting to go in the bin had been completely emptied. Yuk.
I feel bad for the dogs but I managed to save £50 consultation fee.

Today's plan is to;
price up insulation for the hall roof. It is vaulted and has minimal insulation in it.
price up rolls of insulation for the main roof.

We have been offered an oil aga type cooker and central heating stove and a second hand wood burner that will heat 12 radiators. Neither is free but are much cheaper than new.

The cooker sounds lovely but will cost far too much to run. The wood burner sounds good but it will mean twice as much wood will need to be cut if we put it in the kitchen. The other option is to replace our wood burner which has a water jacket for the second hand one.

My first thought is to ask our plumber/heating engineer to come and have a look at our heating system to see if it can be tweeked to improve the radiator heating. It gets the water boiling hot.

Second thought is that I would love to have a heating system where it comes on at the touch of a button. Maybe that is a pipe dream.
I am trying to pay off debt.:o

Our bank has written to say they are reducing our overdraft. After a bit of negotiation they have agreed to allow us to reduce it by £100 per month.

I bought some plums, strawberries and mangos very cheaply at the weekend. The plan was to make mango chutney and jam. As I am short of sugar and cooking apples and onions for the chutney I am going to freeze them. I hope it works. But anything is better than them going off and being wasted.

poohbear59

I have just transferred £590 from Mr Pooh's credit card to mine for 9 months at 0% and 3% fee £17.50. He has a low limit (out of choice) but forgets what he has spent and has gone over by a couple of pounds for 2 months in a row. It costs £12 per month in fees.