The final countdown... and a newbie in the DFSD house!

debtfreesomeday

Thanks SmlSave, trying desperately hard not to panic! Will look at it more tonight and see what else we can shave off the budget.

Congrats on the bump too!

yukkibear

Don't forget any tax credits that you may be due after the baby is born.

wantabetterlife

You will get about £70 every four weeks in tax credits for a child under one. Child benefit is also paid every four weeks so once a year you get two payments in one month. Make sure to join boots and tescos parenting club as you get good vouchers for money off nappies etc. XO

debtfreesomeday

Thanks for your suggestions folks, it's much appreciated. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be entitled to much in the way of tax credits as our employers offer childcare vouchers which work out to be a better deal for us and I believe (although I may be wrong) that you can't use both.

Chocforever

Blimey, what a day . I am not sure what to say. I suppose I am thinking, try not to stress too much about it now. I wouldn't make any hasty decisions on curtailing your maternity leave.

It may be that one or both of you gets a significant pay rise over the next few years which would obviously help. Perhaps doing some of your work from home will be a realistic option so you could cover some hours on an evening when your OH could look after the baby.

At some point, you may need to let the debt rise, either with a loan, CC or increase in mortgage. It's easy for me to say when I haven't put the effort you have into clearing debt, but it could be an answer. Either way, you are some way off the problem crystallising so don't spoil the time you have now worrying about what may or may not happen if the ML savings run out.

Best wishes x

debtfreesomeday

Well there's nothing like a mini financial crisis to get the motivation going...

I've searched the house for the old mobiles I knew we had and have found that we will get paid for 3 of them - only a total of £13 ish but it's better than nothing. £1 CB through Quidco too.

I've also made a big batch of chilli - some for tonight, some for packed lunches, and I've sorted out some meat and veg to bung in the slow cooker for tomorrow's dinner. It was 'bottom of the fridge veg' which was nearly going over so glad not to have wasted it. Some tomatoes and a courgette have also been thrown into the chilli to bulk it out a bit and use them up. I've decluttered the food cupboards and thrown away a few packets etc that were WAY out of date . Two loads of washing have been done and are now drying -in the tumble dryer unfortunately, but don't have any other option for now.

Another £49.99 has been validated through Quidco (should've been £50 but hey, I'm not going to argue over the penny!). Hopefully that gets paid out soon as it will be going straight off the CC - which - incidentally - is being cut into bits tonight. We just can't afford to keep it with things how they are, even for so-called emergencies which always tend not to be.

Will look at the finances again later, but now for food and finishing tonight's jobs.

DFSD

Chocforever

You have done how much tonight ? You never cease to amaze me. 8 months pregnant and you still have far more energy than me. I'm still sat on the sofa in my coat trying to summon up the will to make dinner !

debtfreesomeday

Think our posts must have crossed over Chocs as I've just seen your penultimate post - sorry!

Unfortunately/fortunately we're employed by local government so I think a payrise is out of the question at the moment, but we have to be thankful that we have a job and they are both reasonably paid I guess. (I'm trying to look on the bright side and be thankful - can you tell?! )

Yes, unfortunately I think you're right Chocs. The debt may get worse before it gets better, but I guess we're in a much better position that we were a couple of years ago when we were in a LOT more debt. At least this tunnel is only 3 years long (until the loan is paid off) and there will be light at the end of it. Hopefully!

For now, like you said, we're going to do what we can and try not to let it ruin the present. We can only do what we can do, right?

debtfreesomeday

Surprisingly, I had the best night's sleep in weeks last night!

Not much to report this morning - odd change transferred to ML account so now at £2312.46.

debtfreesomeday

Work is scarily quiet at the moment so I have had nothing to do all morning - again - so have been sticking close to MSE and reading a few diaries to keep the inspiration and motivation up.

I checked the credit card account this morning and realised our 0% rate has now expired as it's been a year, so have applied for a new CC this morning - not a 0% one but it's low life of balance which will be better for us considering it may take us a bit longer to pay the balance off now. We've been charged £16 interest this month on the CC. Once we get paid and the Quidco money comes through I shall pay some more off of it.

The slow cooker is on today with a beef casserole in it for tonight. We also have some greens to use up in the fridge so I'll cook those tonight to go with it - hopefully a nice hearty comfort food dinner for us. There's loads of it as I added a few handfuls of pearl barley and lots of veg to bulk it out so any leftovers can be taken for lunches or frozen for later consumption.
Hubby has gone off to work with a big tub of last night's chilli and rice for his lunch and I have some homemade soup which I defrosted overnight. Hopefully next week I can look at making some meals for the freezer to help us through the first few weeks with baby. I need to sort through what's actually in the freezer - we have a big chest freezer so it's a bit of a case of rummaging in there until you find what you were looking for! There's lots in there at the moment but I'm not sure exactly what, so a stock take may be a good idea.

I found one thing I can sell on ebay last night, not of high value but should make a few pounds or so. This has spurred me onto looking for more bits and bobs to list and maybe even selling books on Amazon again - another job for next week when I am off on maternity leave. We still have 3 drawers full of cds and some dvds which I would like to get rid of as we tend to listen to music online now, but they are hubby's and he has already culled his collection enormously over the years to make a little bit of money here and there. I'll ask him if there's any others he'd like to get rid of but I doubt there will be many, which is fair enough.

I attempted to use the budget planner tool on this site this morning, but as our income is going to change so dramatically over the next year, I found it impossible, and pretty pointless, to continue. I shall try again once our monthly income is not so variable.
From reading a few diaries, I see a lot of people have had great success with keeping a spending diary. I have tried, and failed, in the past but I shall have another crack at it I think. I carry a filofax with me in my bag anyway in which I record our monthly budgets etc., so it'll be no extra hassle to log spends in there. I'm going to need to do this soon anyway once our monthly 'leftover' budget diminishes by so much.

Off to read some more diaries I guess...