Immoral_angel's Debt Diary

tesuhoha

Aah those pictures are lovely.

Bunnyinthelights

I-A
Just a couple of thoughts as I was going thru your thread, I hope you don't mind me butting in:
Have you ever considered child minding? With your background in childcare, it wouldn't be that hard to get registered (PM me if you want-I am registered and I have a friend who does it in Staffs too)
It would save on childcare costs, possibly petrol (not driving to work daily)
You're doing SO incredibly well, I wish I had been as switched on as you when I your age...
Bunny x

jackie_w

Hi There,

ive just read your diary, you have done so well. Well Done.

You have a beautiful family, you must be so proud.

Jackie xxx

beanielou

Great pics
Take care

immoral_angeluk

Had our new tax credits award through today with Kaitlyn added onto it and we're going to be getting £82 a week til April which is better than I thought! Woohoo! That's extra money that can go towards debts!

Also in our february debt challenge this week we managed to save £23.39 and we're hardly spending anything at all most days, especially if we don't go anywhere so we should be able to save a fair bit this month as Steve's been allowed the extra annual holiday week off at the end of his paternity so isn't due back until the 19th! So who knows, all being well we may be able to pay the bt bill :mad: and citi off this month!

So far we've got £107 saved.. £99 which would've normally gone on council tax (but only actually saving £34 of this as my car tax is due end of feb.), £50 in cheques we've recieved from relatives in new baby cards, and £23.39 from week 1 of the feb challenge. Tomorrow the higher tax credits start so will be saving £83.35 from them tomorrow, then £82.55 every weds. So by the end of this month we will have £554 even if we don't save any more from the weekly budget, meaning we'll only have to find about £60 to be able to pay citi off unless we get any more unexpected suprises or bills... fingers crossed!

Also, Kaitlyn's all official now! We had her birth registered today and have the certificates to prove it! lol! We all survived our first trip in to town without any major scars thankfully! lol! We're all fine and K's settling in really well. Can't believe she's over a week old already though!

Spendless

Well done :T . Have you also remembered to add Kaitlyn to your child benefit claim?

immoral_angeluk

Spendless wrote:

Well done :T . Have you also remembered to add Kaitlyn to your child benefit claim?

Have filled in the form online.. just need to send off her birth certificate!

immoral_angeluk

I'm not even due back at work yet but I'm stressed already!
The original plan was for me to go back to work in May and I'd booked the girls in at my nursery so I could take them with me to do the same hours I did. It was all sorted and booked but now my boss has turned around and said that she needs to reduce my hours because she has too many staff and that the days I need childcare wise are no longer available!!! Argh!! We already know that our boss is in a bit of financial difficulty since buying another nursery and she's already said she's worried about paying us next month as she's 10k into her business overdraft so it all seems a bit convinient as everything was sorted with the days booked before I went on my leave. But anyway that's another story.

After looking over it and making some calls to try sort something out I basically have 3 options.

1. Find another nursery/childminder for the girls while I'm at work
2. Leave work altogether and be a stay at home mum.
3. Steve leaves work to be a stay at home dad and I get a full time job.

Moneywise we probably wouldn't be better or worse off with only one of us working because fo the childcare costs if we were both working but I'd only just gotten back on the first steps of the career ladder having gotten my nvq 2 childcare qualification. I know if I left it'd be only temporary until next yr when our eldest will get government funding for a nursery place but I just don't know what to do!!! Ste earns about 13k a year gross and according to tax credits we'd get about £108 a week if I left work. But we would get 80% help towards childcare if I was at work!

Just don't know what to do! Here's how it look financially anyway.

Scenario 1 - both working + childcare
Ste wages - 850 basic
My wages - 330 basic
Tax credits - approx £162 a week inc childcare element (based on my working out.) so £648 based on an average 4 weds month.
child benefit - £116

Total incomings - £1944

Bills - £1608.63 (inc food, petrol and childcare)

Spare for everything else 335.37

Scenario 2 - Just Steve working, me at home with kids.

Ste wages - 850 basic
Tax credits - £108 a week (according to tc office) so £432 a month based on 4 weds month.
Child benefit - £116

Total incoming - £1398

Bills - £1078 (based on using less petrol and no childcare)

Spare for everything else - £320



I forgot to mention I've already checked and we wouldn't be entitled to any housing or ct benefit. Am going to look into childminding for the long term though and see if that's a feasible option but for now I'm fairly limited to the above!

I'm fairly sure now that I'm just going to leave work and be a SAHM. I've already told them to take the girls off the list for the nursery places. Going to keep looking for jobs and might ring round a few nurseries to see if there is actually anything available but I'd be very suprised as 3 months isn't very very short notice in the childcare world! Everything that isn't nailed down is going on ebay and we're going to work seriously hard to pay off as much debt as possible and cut down our outgoings as much as possible before we drop down to one wage. We've got 3 months. The challenge starts here!!!!

Gemmzie

That's alot of thinking for one day :eek:

Seems like financially there isn't a huge amount of difference between the two scenarios so I would go with your gut on this one.

You can always go back to work later with the Childcare qualification, once the girls are at nursery/school.

GirlRacer_2

Hi IA, if your a registered childminder, put a little note up in the local school advertising. When my children were in nursery/infants would have loved to have someone to 'fall back on' to pick them up and look after them after school. Its only a thought but it may help you out a bit.

Best of luck x