Learning to Live on Less!

LianneH

oh WhiteIris, ive been offline for a few days n just read about your dog. so sad, sorry to hear that. thinking off you x x

White_Iris

Had to take the dog to vets again yesterday as the expensive problem she had a few weeks ago has re-occurred. Fortunately no expensive blood tests needed this time but she will need some on-going treatment although this should be seen as a continuation of our previous insurance claim so should all be covered. While we were there we paid the bill for our other dog which also wasn't as bad as expected, so even if insurance #2 doesn't cover the full balance it shouldn't leave us with too much.

Got a letter yesterday telling us (well DH) that we can have a 0% card to transfer all our balances to with a whopping credit limit of £8000!! I didn't think that banks were that generous anymore, especially to people owing the amount of money we do! I'm not complaining as we can transfer both cards to it and have everything interest free for 15 months but it is surprising.

LianneH

White_Iris wrote: »

Got a letter yesterday telling us (well DH) that we can have a 0% card to transfer all our balances to with a whopping credit limit of £8000!! I didn't think that banks were that generous anymore, especially to people owing the amount of money we do! I'm not complaining as we can transfer both cards to it and have everything interest free for 15 months but it is surprising.

wow! thats fantastic! you will see those balances coming down a lot quicker. Good old banks - yeah right!! they will be hoping that you forget when the 15 months are up and probably put the rates up to something ridiculous! but now as you are so focused you will def remember and switch just at the right time. ha ha to the banks !! x

Skint_but_Optimistic

Will really help not paying all that interest. Fabulous. x

White_Iris

Well the card with the larger balance was interest free already, just the smaller one we were paying interest on (about £10 a month) so it won't make a huge difference unfortunately but having it all together will make it a little easier to manage.

Skint_but_Optimistic

well a tenner is a tenner.x

debtfreewannabe321

great news on the credit card !! Are you anywhere near swindon? My sister is desperately trying to get a dog rehomed that is due to be put down tomorrow only 14 months old, staffie poor little thing. If i weren't allergic to them i'd have taken him!

White_Iris

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

great news on the credit card !! Are you anywhere near swindon? My sister is desperately trying to get a dog rehomed that is due to be put down tomorrow only 14 months old, staffie poor little thing. If i weren't allergic to them i'd have taken him!

Sadly not near Swindon I'm afraid (several hundred miles away in fact). Rescue centers around our way are full of staffies - no one wants them because of their reputation but in my experience they can be absolutely lovely dogs, very people oriented and surprisingly gentle with children. Fingers crossed he gets a new home.

I was thinking this morning about whether we should get another dog or not. While we'd both love to (and would probably end up with a house full if we didn't show some restraint!) I think we'll probably stick with one for now. Our plan is to move as soon as possible and rent for a while before we buy our forever home - I think it would be easier on us to just have one dog and also fairer than getting a new pooch, who is likely to be unsettled from being kenneled at a rescue center, and then moving them around from place to place.

debtfreewannabe321

:eek: ooh maybe a little too far then :rotfl:I guess it gets expensive too with dogs, we want one and i haven't even thought about the cost of it :eek: (perhaps i ought to do this now...hmm...)

White_Iris

We had a very busy weekend but ended up with some nice things to show for it. As our dog has recently been diagnosed with a dust mite allergy we're trying to remove all sources of mites from the areas she goes. First on the list was a new chair for the living room to replace a fabric tub chair. We managed to get a leather armchair from eBay for £37 which should do the job nicely (although the chair isn't in as good condition as I thought but I'm too much of a wimp to challenge the seller about it so I just paid for it like it was fine :mad:). We also wanted to replace an ancient footstool which was almost disintegrating and managed to get a really, really nice leather one, also from eBay, for £10 :j. We also decided to finally replace our ancient microwave, although this was more for aesthetic than functional reasons, and got a smaller prettier one from Argos using a 310 voucher I got from a survey site - still cost us £45 though . So the weekend was spent driving here, there and everywhere to collect furniture and spent just over £90:eek:.

I advertised our old tub chair on Freecycle on Friday, explaining that it's pretty grubby and by Sunday it had been collected. I'm hoping the old microwave will disappear as quickly.

Financially I'm completely be-fuddled this month, there has been so much spending on all sorts of things and lots of shuffling money and waiting for money coming in to cover things that have already been spent. I'm not going to worry about it now but at the end of the month (which is Friday I've just realised - where has September gone?!) sit down for an hour or so and assess the damage once everything has been paid.