Learning to Live on Less!

sweetpea26

Hi WhiteIris

Sit down and relax. The floor will be there later when you really feel like it. You sound very positive and organised so enjoy your cake and tv.

That is so lovely of your mam to do that for you. I was just thinking earlier of making out a list and buying the 'keepable' ingredients a few a week. I get an online delivery from Asad so will do this later.

Keep going you are doing really well. Take care of yourself.

debtfreewannabe321

Hi WI

Fantastic news that you've paid off a huge chunk from the CC :j:j You'll be debt free before you know it

The emergency fund is there for a reason so don't feel too disheartened in using it for the car. Now that I am DF I put aside money for servicing as well as tax & insurance as the car is old so we are expecting problems at some point! I used to put money aside anyway but I would always always end up dipping into it for whatever reason

Leaky radiators? Did you get it fixed cheaply? Mine leak here every year but it's usually just because they need bleeding after being off all summer, which i've learned how to do myself now (very easy and quick) so hoping it isn't anything more serious than that??

Hope everything else is well with you and I agree what a lovely thing for your mum to do with the Mr M vouchers :T

White_Iris

sweetpea26 wrote: »

Hi WhiteIris

Sit down and relax. The floor will be there later when you really feel like it. You sound very positive and organised so enjoy your cake and tv.

That is so lovely of your mam to do that for you. I was just thinking earlier of making out a list and buying the 'keepable' ingredients a few a week. I get an online delivery from Asad so will do this later.

Keep going you are doing really well. Take care of yourself.

It was lovely of her but to be honest I feel a bit guilty about it. I'm an adult and we have a reasonable level of income (certainly more than her and my dad), so she really has no need to spend so much money on us but she feels she needs to, to make sure our cupboards are never bare, (more for the children now, rather than us - she thinks I'm a bit mean and never buy them treats! :rotfl:) and it offends her if we refuse so I've learnt just to smile and be grateful.

I've been thinking of a way to convince DH to get rid of the credit card once and for all. He thinks we need it as a safety net "just in case of emergencies" but I think it's a bit like an alcoholic having a bottle of wine in the house "just in case someone calls round for a drink". We've come close to clearing cards in the past (in fact we've actually been credit card free at various points) but we've always kept one open and ALWAYS spent on it again. We need to get rid of temptation completely.

I was a bit stumped as to how to convince him we don't need it, as at the moment we really don't have any other way for covering financial emergencies…or do we? I was reading another diary and they were discussing children's savings, and then I remembered that our children also have savings! Quite a lot of them (over £2000 in fact!). Now we would never dream of spending this money because we don't actually contribute towards the accounts - it's all come from family members, mainly my mum and dad who have set up a standing order to their accounts each month. However, if we were in dire financial straights and needed to come up with a large amount of cash, then I am sure we would be "allowed" to borrow from them. So we do have a financial cushion after all. Now to convince DH of the merits of living credit card free!

White_Iris

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Hi WI

Fantastic news that you've paid off a huge chunk from the CC :j:j You'll be debt free before you know it

The emergency fund is there for a reason so don't feel too disheartened in using it for the car. Now that I am DF I put aside money for servicing as well as tax & insurance as the car is old so we are expecting problems at some point! I used to put money aside anyway but I would always always end up dipping into it for whatever reason

Leaky radiators? Did you get it fixed cheaply? Mine leak here every year but it's usually just because they need bleeding after being off all summer, which i've learned how to do myself now (very easy and quick) so hoping it isn't anything more serious than that??

Hope everything else is well with you and I agree what a lovely thing for your mum to do with the Mr M vouchers :T

It does feel nice to be close to getting rid of the credit card, but it'll be a long time before we're debt free. We still have two large loans to clear!

Haven't heard about the radiators yet - our management company were arranging a plumber to go round, but as our old house is 40 miles away I am expecting it to take a while before anything get fixed. Hopefully it's not too serious, I expect it was to do with having the heating on for the first time (it's been quite mild here) and fingers crossed something just needs tightening.

Hope everything is going ok with your rental property. I've been lurking on your diary and the problems you've been having with your tenant make me so relieved that ours are well behaved. Fingers crossed you get someone nice and trustworthy next time.

debtfreewannabe321

My fingers are crossed for someone nice next time too, would make a nice change huh! If i've learnt anything from it it's to let someone who is close by, knows what they are doing and can be impartial do all the work! I fell out with the last management company, they just didn't care at all and didn't give me any advice and totally put me off. However I'm chancing my luck with a different one after recent and ongoing problems there !

Good idea having the kids savings as 'emergency' because there is no way you'd use it for an emergency 'take away' 'form of paying for entertainment' etcetc that we've all succumbed to on the CC's before ! I've got emergency funds thank god, but i've a feeling they are about to be wiped clean again. They really don't seem to last long in our house!

White_Iris

Just been playing with the snowball calculator and if we want to get loan No.1 paid off by January 2017, we'll need to overpay by £150 a month starting now!

Not going to happen unfortunately but I might be able to up the overpayments by £25 in the new year (we already overpay by nearly £30 a month, rounding our payments up to an even £200).

White_Iris

Shocking day today. Just finished a 180 miles round trip to get the dog to a specialist vet and I just find the whole thing so stressful, I end up with a thumping headache and generally feel like poop. Naturally the children pick up on this and turn in to little demons, demanding constant attention when all I want to do is quietly sob in to my coffee.

To put it bluntly (and without going in to too many identity-revealing details), our dog is dying and we never know whether or not each visit will be good news (the treatment is working and her life has been prolonged by a few more weeks) or bad news (time to call it a day). Todays visit was verging on bad, in that she was given antibiotics and I need to go back next week for further tests, instead of her having the treatment and not having to visit again for three weeks.

Fortunately the pet insurance covers the cost of the treatment but obviously such a long journey means increased fuel costs, not to mention wear and tear on the car. Speaking of which, I arrived back home to find a large bit of plastic hanging down from the underside of my car. :mad: Not sure whether it was loosened by the work I had done at the garage yesterday or whether it was the long journey that shook it loose, but either way I've managed to remove it without damaging it (I think) and hopefully DH can reattach it tomorrow.

Hopefully DH will be home fairly early - I might send him for takeaway for tea, as I don't think I can drag myself in to the kitchen at the moment - and as Scarlett O'Hara said, after all, tomorrow is another day.

debtfreewannabe321

Oh WI i'm so sorry (((hugs))) I am far too truthful on my diary and probably have given away who I am a million times to people who live near me so I know what you mean. I really hope you have a lovely weekend with DH and the kids. And I hope that if doggie is going to pass away it is peacefully and when you have some support to call upon xxx big hugs xxx

chevalier

Hi there
I have read through your thread from start to finish. The thing that stands out for me it that even though you have had some problems with cars etc, you have had the funds one pot or another to pay back to the card in a relatively short amount of time. Just imagine how much WORSE your debt would be if you hadnt had those pots.

Keep on keeping on. Have you thought about finding some sort of evening work that you could do around you hubby being home. That way you boos your income, but there are no child care costs to outlay.

Good luck with the last part
chev

White_Iris

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Oh WI i'm so sorry (((hugs))) I am far too truthful on my diary and probably have given away who I am a million times to people who live near me so I know what you mean. I really hope you have a lovely weekend with DH and the kids. And I hope that if doggie is going to pass away it is peacefully and when you have some support to call upon xxx big hugs xxx

Thank you - she was diagnosed back in July, so we've had plenty of time to come to terms with it but it's still going to be tough when she goes. Once the treatment stops it's likely she will deteriorate quite quickly, so we'll have to make the decision to euthanise at some point, rather than wait for her to pass away naturally.