Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

CarolynCh wrote: »

Could you make everything add up to 100 (each wall which needs painting and each hole which needs filling etc.) and then join the 1% thread? https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4016713
Might make it easier to manage?

Thanks for the link - I haven't spotted the 1% thread before but I'll definitely have a good through it.

White_Iris

White_Iris wrote: »

September Mini Resolutions

1 - take advantage of the free listing days to start making some money on eBay again DONE
2 - add to the savings pot and say goodbye to another month of loan payments DONE
3 - get the credit card balance on to a 0% card (once we've paid for the new oil tank) NOT YET BUT SOON
4 - start doing surveys again NO
5 - finish Christmas cards NO
6 - buy at least one Christmas present DONE

We're still waiting on the invoice for the oil tank but once that's paid then the balance will be transferred to a 0% card and I'll add it to my signature. Ebay did really well for us last month, with combined sales of over £200. Unfortunately that has had to go towards car tax and insurance rather than saved towards the loan or paid off the credit card but at least it means we're not getting further in to debt. I have really got to get back in to surveys from OnePoll and My Survey, I haven't been trying at all with them

White_Iris

Something has gone badly wrong with our money this month :-( Although all the bills are covered our spending money has almost disappeared, in fact DH was £20 overdrawn this morning and he only got paid on Friday!! I think it's due to the fact he's lost some extra duties at work (someone else was allocated them this year as part of their normal job, whereas last year DH did it as an extra and was paid a bit more for it), which we knew about but I didn't realise it would hit us so badly. This month is going to be very tight - we have about £50 spending money for all four of us. I'd better get listing some more things on eBay as I also need to find another £50 for car tax at the end of the month :-(

White_Iris

Even more bad money news yesterday afternoon. It turns out the company who replaced our oil tank don't accept card payments so we've had to use our entire savings to pay for it. This means no emergency pot, no Christmas savings and no money to pay the loan of early. Yesterday I could have cried but today I'm more accepting of it - at least we're not another £2k in debt.

So the short term plan is to build up the emergency savings as quickly as possible, live with the fact that we're going to be paying off our loan until the bitter end and divert our energy to paying down the credit card.

The worse news is that we aren't going to be able to rent the house out after all - the third party lender only gives consent to let in extreme situations and then it's only for a year, by the end of which the house must be sold or we must move back in. So we're going to put the house back on the market after Christmas and hope for a better housing market.

All of this has made me realise I need to take some time off from thinking about our debts and our housing situation and just concentrate on living for a bit. I've set up direct debits to pay the minimums on the credit cards, simplified our savings pots and hopefully, as of next month, we should have a little bit more money in the budget to save or spend as we choose.

I'm also going to take a break from this diary for a while too. Failing to meet targets and constantly having to change the goal posts and justify our decisions (to myself more than anyone reading this) is too much to deal with right now. I may come back after Christmas or maybe I'll start a whole new diary but for now I'm going to stop posting.

If anyone else is reading this, then good luck with everything you're trying to achieve.

Iris .x.

jwil

Hey Iris,

I don't post very often but I do always read. Sorry to hear about the tank, it's a shame when things don't go as planned. At least you were able to pay for it though. It's a shame that you weren't able to rent the house either.

Sometimes a break is as good as anything and can revive you. Fingers crossed that things pick up so you can get a sale in the Spring.

Good luck with everything and do pop in and let us know how things are going when you feel like it. Also if you start a new diary.

Take care xx

lucielle

Good luck.
L

White_Iris

Hello again everyone!

This is just a quick update post in case anyone is still linked to this diary and has the slightest interest in what's been going on After reading the fine print it seems our third party mortgage lender will give extensions to the permission to let once the initial 12 month period has expired, so we've put our house on the rental market and are hoping to move in January. As luck would have it, a property that is managed by DH's fathers letting agency is going to be vacant at about the time we're hoping to move. This should save us about £250 in admin fees and the landlord is a friend of the family so we should have a smooth ride as tenants (hopefully being landlords will be just as easy!).

We've had a few more money ups and downs - two nice tax rebates totaling about £600 closely followed by an electricity bill of around £400. We've still got to get the electrical work done (booked in for just after Christmas) and get our boiler serviced, so that's going to cost us about £500 but overall we're doing ok

Merry Christmas everyone, with a bit of luck the next time you hear from me, we'll be living in a new house in a new town!

Iris .x.

Jaspersmum

Lovely to hear from you, all sounds very positive.

Merry Christmas and good luck with the move in the new year!

JM

jwil

That's great news, have a lovely Christmas!

mel48rose

Watch this space eh!
Merry Xmas and a happy 2013 x