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

PinotGrigio41

Hello Pooh,

Ive found your diary, actually I think Ive found it before and then lost it again !! Thats me all over !

I will settle down to read properly later when all is quiet here, but just wanted to say hellooooooo !!:)

Pinot x

poohbear59

I am thinking of spending. On a vacuum cleaner!

Last year we put our 3 month old Miele cat and dog in the holiday cottage which left us with DH's henry vacuum cleaner. When he used it last year to sweep someone's chimney it lost suction. A local repair man had a go at repairing it but it still doesn't pick up dog hairs. If I remember on Saturday I can borrow my Miele back but last Saturday I forgot. I am finding things difficult with unswept carpets. Hence the idea to buy another. I am toying with the idea to buy a Miele on ebay, but then I want another NSD....

ETA Hello Pinot


Last week DH and I decided to have a set amount of spending money. DH has £50 and I have £20. he goes out to work and smokes so have greater need than me. After 2 weeks I have £15 left and DH has coppers only
I am going to save up for something special... or maybe pay something off..

HappyNow

I just had to google Miele cat and dog because I'd never heard of them. It looks very efficient, and I agree that a good vac is essential if you have hairy animals in the house. We have a huuuuge dog, and even when she's not moulting I fill our Dyson every time I use it (maybe I should use it more often!!). When she IS moulting we are literally inhaling hair for weeks and no vac could cope with it. Last moult, Mr Happy took her outside and gave her a good brushing while I was out. When I came home and saw all the fluff in our yard I thought a fox had attacked one of the chickens.

And I bet you end up giving OH your £15! I'm quite lucky with Mr Happy. He doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, doesn't buy clothes, doesn't actually spend - apart from his motor sport hobby of course, which has a budget of £200 per month!! Ouch.

poohbear59

It was our wedding anniversary yesterday and our daughter's birthday next week so we all went out together last night. The arrangement was that we all pay for our own meal. Instead of somewhere fancy we went to a local pub and had a great time.
A few years ago we would have gone somewhere very expensive and paid for the whole family including their drinks.

Before we went DH asked if we had enough to pay for it and I said we were okay. I, being very MSE, had taken cash from the celebration pot but forgot to tell DH I had the cash. The rest of the family gave me their share.

At the end of the evening DH gesticulated towards the door and I said thanks, thinking he had gone for the car. He had gone to pay, for everyone. And did so with the debit card. I was horrified, poor DH, he didn't know what he had done wrong. One thing we learnt last night is that we both need to talk and listen to each other better. I have all the cash to put back in the bank tomorrow, lets hope nothing bounces.:o

On Friday I bought the Miele cat and dog on ebay and it should be here tomorrow so our house can go back to normal. It cost £72 instead of £300 so although we have had to spend it is a huge saving.

And I had a phone call from the people who left our cottage to go home yesterday, to say it is the best cottage they have ever stayed in. It makes all the scrimping and saving worthwhile

poohbear59

Happy I did end up giving DH £10 out of my savings from last week. Your DH has the same amount as mine for hobbies etc then at £200 per month, so not so bad.

When our pup was moulting I asked DS1 to clean the sofa for me as she had been on it. I went out and when I got home was not pleased to see the sofa covered in hair. Of course I presumed DS1 hadn't bothered to do it but all his witnesses told me he spent ages with the upholstery nozzle. The two dogs had been back on for a tumble together! They are not allowed on the sofas any more. It was DS1 who let them on

Pinot, thank you for reading my diary.

HappyNow

I don't allow our dog on the furniture at all. Then occasionally as I walk into a room I'll hear a bit of a muffled thud and the dog will be on the floor as expected, but the sofa is all warm and hairy!

I've even felt her clamber onto our bed in the middle of the night, but I push her STRAIGHT back off. I am NOT sharing with 30kg of German Shepherd that can't stop fidgetting .

poohbear59

Today I have been trying to reload my SOA so I can do the snowball calculation. Without success yet. I figured it was time to be much more serious about this.
DH and I have both cut back on our spending a lot more. We have just three adults at home at the moment and it makes a massive difference on spending on food, laundry and cleaning products.
I thought that as we were so frugal already we had nothing else to cut back but we have learnt to spend even less this month.

One major saving has been on oil. The decision not to buy a new oil boiler seems to have been a sensible one. To keep warm we have been wearing a lot more clothes in the house than we used to and have done cleaning jobs or had baths when we have hot water available from the wood burner rather than putting the immersion heater on. I make sure I go around the house and close all the curtains and blinds before dusk and if the sun is shining in the morning I have opened up doors to allow the warmth from the sun to spread further around the house.

I think that at the end of this month we should be able to pay an extra £500 off debts on top of the usual standing orders and direct debits.

poohbear59

DH had a brilliant idea to save money yesterday. He bought 2 x 25cl little bottles of wine. It made sure we drank less and cost less than 2 normal sized bottles. I know they cost more per litre. We have tried buying a box of wine but it just means we drink more than if we had a bottle. So that was about £5 saved last night.

Having our set spending money has made a massive difference to the amount we are spending. I can't really understand why I have never really talked to DH about our finances in detail and let him spend blindly as though we had lots of disposable income. I was doing it to protect him and also didn't feel it was right to restrict his spending when he was working so hard. I now know I was foolish to hide things from DH as every £1 I was managing to save he was spending not just on himself but on clients too.
We did pop into the pub for one drink last night and some people were trying to persuade us to stay longer, saying DH was a lightweight. But we held our heads high and left.

poohbear59

HappyNow wrote: »

I don't allow our dog on the furniture at all. Then occasionally as I walk into a room I'll hear a bit of a muffled thud and the dog will be on the floor as expected, but the sofa is all warm and hairy!

I've even felt her clamber onto our bed in the middle of the night, but I push her STRAIGHT back off. I am NOT sharing with 30kg of German Shepherd that can't stop fidgetting .

The picture you have just painted of your poor dog made me laugh. Ours aren't allowed upstairs and do sometimes sneak up but I hear them open the door and as soon as I speak they leg it down the stairs.

poohbear59

Today's plan.
1.Pay off garage bill, that will be a weight off my mind.
2.Talk to GSHP installer on how to save on electricity costs.
3.Research costs of heat logs to supplement softwood in the boiler. Then one I found has stopped selling.
4.Research pet plans for big dog. Need one that will cover existing medical condition. can anyone recommend a good one?
5.Contact bank re PPI payments
6.Contact benefits agency re claiming back NI

I am a bit disappointed in my NSDs this month as I forgot yesterday and spent £1 in the pub for a pot of tea and it means yesterday isn't a NSD. Maybe I am being a bit obsessive about it but I want to cut spending. Every penny counts.